General Alternate Draft Idea - Playset Draft

[desperado]

An idea I've been kicking around but haven't gotten a chance to try yet.

You draft as normal, but (once per draft) when you draft a card you may place that card face up in front of you and declare that card your "playset card". After that draft is complete each player will be given four generic "playset card tokens" for deck building. For simplicity I would use cards sleeved face-down. The playset card tokens are, in all cases, treated as copies of your playset card.

The playset card itself always remains in the command zone, and you can not change your playset card.

For example, I'm drafting a burn deck. It's pack 2 pick 3 and I see a Lightning Bolt in the current pack. I draft it, as I do I place it face up in front of me and announce that Lightning Bolt will be my playset card. I continue drafting as normal until the packs are exhuasted. I'm given four sleeved facedown cards to represent four Lightning Bolts. I can use any number of these facedown cards in my deck. The actual Lightning Bolt remains in the command zone to prevent cheating and to serve as a reference for both players.

I think it'd enable a lot of strategies without demanding so much support from the cube builder. It also adds a sort of meta-game where a player must decide between taking a playset card early and exposing himself to hate drafting, or waiting for something better (or to stay under the radar) and risking getting a much worse playset card. Furthermore, a cube builder could include certain cards that are only playable in duplicates without dedicating a chunk of their cube to them.

I'd love to hear your thoughts or experiences if you've done anything similar.

 

[Brad]

It sounds really cool if your playgroup is open to extra rules. Don't see why adding a decision and some consistency would be a bad thing.

 

[TekLazar]

My current in progress cube uses something similar to this to keep durdly decks from happening, but I've found that 4 of a card is way too much for a 40 card deck (especially if the card you chose is something super efficient like ponder or lightning bolt). That's just due to math when compared to 4 duplicates in a 60 card deck.
I think 3 of one card drafted is probably a good spot for 40 card decks in keeping them efficient, but that was just my experience from my drafts, I didn't do a rule where you choose the card during drafts, so it may end up differently for you.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Or you could extend this rule to the whole draft and require your drafters to build 60-card decks

 

[Kirblinx]

There is already a power hierarchy in everyones cube. Some cards will always be more first pickable than others. I think you are running a fine line here on breaking your cube if you give someone a playset of any card they want.
They (well at least I) would probably burn it pretty early, but getting 3 extra 'bomb' picks seems a little too strong.

There was someone here who had a list of cards that you could get 3 of at the end of the draft just to save multiples of build arounds going around where only one person would be wanting them anyway. But each player could only redeem one of these playsets. It was choice cards like Birthing Pod, Drake Haven, Young Pyromancer etc.

I wouldn't want someone having a playset of bolts, I feel it is a strong enough pick as it is.

I like the idea, but it does require a little bit of tweaking.