General Gift Shop Draft

[Jason Waddell]

I had an idea for a modified draft format I'd like to call the "gift shop" draft format. It takes inspiration from the Utility Everything Draft and the mtgcube blog's crazy format.

Format: the following cards will be seeded into packs.


These cards are worth gift shop coins (1 for Mox Ruby, 2 for Sol Ring, 3 for Black Lotus, 4 for Blacker Lotus). Additionally, players may exchange a number of drafted cards (let's say 3?) for a coin. There will be a catalogue of cards and card packages players can select from, ranging from the utility lands we all know and love, tri-color cards, odd build-arounds, exotic effects, enablers. Cards are in limited supply, and are given to players on a first-come, first serve basis.

General idea would be for the gift shop to be a place where players can go deep.

some (hypothetical) examples.
5 coins


Bargain Bin (2 cards for 1 coin)


6 coins


3 coins, minimum deck size increased by 2


St. James' Place - 4 coins, minimum deck size increased by 1


Faerie Baerie - 7 coins


2 coins each (or whatever)

etc.

Lots of additional techy, narrow cards for all the stupid archetypes people always want to play but can't because of poisony stuf.

 

[James Stevenson]

I think this sounds fun. When you buy a pack, is it gone for other players?

Still think stronghold and isle should be main cube.

 

[Jason Waddell]

I think this sounds fun. When you buy a pack, is it gone for other players?

Still think stronghold and isle should be main cube.

Yup. Gone gone. First come, first serve.

 

[James Stevenson]

every time I think about this, this is in my head.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I cut the utility land draft because it added too much overhead to the draft, I can't even imagine how much overhead this concept would add. Cool if you can streamline it though. I would definitely start with a simple execution to test it, not the hodge-podge of payment methods you thought of above.

 

[Jason Waddell]

I cut the utility land draft because it added too much overhead to the draft, I can't even imagine how much overhead this concept would add. Cool if you can streamline it though. I would definitely start with a simple execution to test it, not the hodge-podge of payment methods you thought of above.

Suggestions for streamlining? My plan would be only to run this format online for forum drafts, where there is more time to ponder and brew between picks.

 

[Jason Waddell]

 

[Jason Waddell]

I mean, probably it's a dumb idea. Maybe.

 

[James Stevenson]

I like the feel of it. But I think the simpler way to do it has already been done by somebody on this forum (don't remember who): Have token cards in the main draft that you can trade in at the utility everything draft, once the draft is over. In a UED you can run all this crazy junk, no need to complicate it with prices. Prices are a nice way to balance the power of cards in the UED though.
Thinking about a physical cube, I think whenever I rebuild my cube I'll have a UED set up like this. Just have a small binder for the cards. Then, when the draft is over, I can whip out my phone and play the zelda song and we can do the picks.

Maybe it depends on who you play with. The people I play with are quite high level players, and they would have no problem incorporating a gift shop into the draft: variable prices on cards, and variable values of the tokens. I think it could be a fun thing to try.

It would be even easier in the real world, too, because you can just get a blank card and write "2 TICKETS" on it or whatever, no need for moxes and lotuses and blackers and whatnot.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Suggestions for streamlining? My plan would be only to run this format online for forum drafts, where there is more time to ponder and brew between picks.

Start with the basics. For example, add 20 basic lands to the draft pool, and have them all be worth 2 credits. I picked basic lands because they're worthless, so players will instinctively be reminded something is up. Also, if you use 20 different basic lands, you can use the collector's number to determine the order in which players can pick from the Magic Shoppe.

Keep the shop simple, and keep the best stuff in the main draft. The shop can consist of slightly subpar building bricks or self-contained packages that add a theme to a deck that you would not mind seeing every time. Limit the number of different costs. If every credit card is worth 2 credits, having single cards cost 1, 2, or 4 credits (i.e. half a credit card, a single credit card, or two credit cards) is a good start and mathematically pleasing. Packages should be a bit more expensive, say double that, so 2, 4, or 8 credits? The 8 credits package can be fairly substantial, whereas the cheaper two introduce a minor theme or something that more easily slots into a main draft deck.

 

[James Stevenson]

Start with the basics. For example, add 20 basic lands to the draft pool, and have the, all be worth 2 credits. I picked basic lands because they're worthless, so players will instinctively be reminded something is up. Also, if you use 20 different basic lands, you can use the collector's number to determine the order in which players can pick from the Magic Shoppe.

Keep the shop simple, and keep the best stuff in the main draft. The shop can consist of slightly subpar building bricks or self-contained packages that add a theme to a deck that you would not mind seeing every time. Limit the number of different costs. If every credit card is worth 2 credits, having single cards cost 1, 2, or 4 credits (i.e. half a credit card, a single credit card, or two credit cards) is a good start and mathematically pleasing. Packages should be a bit more expensive, say double that, so 2, 4, or 8 credits? The 8 credits package can be fairly substantial, whereas the cheaper two introduce a minor theme or something that more easily slots into a main draft deck.

This sounds very sensible

 

[sigh]

Yes it does. Don't think it needs to be basic lands though. I like the idea of blank cards with numerical values and "ordering numbers" written on them.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Problem is we'll be using card-image tags, so we can't really create our own "blank cards" here.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Start with the basics. For example, add 20 basic lands to the draft pool, and have the, all be worth 2 credits. I picked basic lands because they're worthless, so players will instinctively be reminded something is up. Also, if you use 20 different basic lands, you can use the collector's number to determine the order in which players can pick from the Magic Shoppe.

Keep the shop simple, and keep the best stuff in the main draft. The shop can consist of slightly subpar building bricks or self-contained packages that add a theme to a deck that you would not mind seeing every time. Limit the number of different costs. If every credit card is worth 2 credits, having single cards cost 1, 2, or 4 credits (i.e. half a credit card, a single credit card, or two credit cards) is a good start and mathematically pleasing. Packages should be a bit more expensive, say double that, so 2, 4, or 8 credits? The 8 credits package can be fairly substantial, whereas the cheaper two introduce a minor theme or something that more easily slots into a main draft deck.

My issue with ordering is that the forum is already very slow when it comes to taking picks in "order". Pack passing is already a bottleneck, I don't want the gift shop to be another bottleneck. Much rather have it be first-come, first-serve, regardless of what that brings.

Would you still allow players to exchange unwanted cards for coins?

 

[Jason Waddell]

The thing I like about the varying value idea is that it brings an interesting draft dynamic. Or maybe it doesn't? I agree that it is added complexity, and not necessarily needed for the initial proof of concept.

 

[sigh]

I'd stick strongly to Onderzeeboot's suggestion of focusing on simplicity. One point value on coin cards, one step for cashing points in, etc. Wastes might be a good card to use. That's like two layers of "this card doesn't belong, oh yeah its a coin". Especially if you don't use any ordering system.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

This is a pretty sweet idea! It sounds like it'd be good for allowing multiple cards in draft w/o breaking singleton. There's the Hawks, obviously, but there are also a bunch of other cool archetypes. Burning vengeance, etc.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Good call with the Burning Vengeance. In addition to format suggestions I'm up for card / package suggestions too. Probably going to include every 2-color and 3-color charm, some mono-color incentives. Maybe even some sideboard cards? As long as they're not too hateful, I could see it being interesting.

 

[GiftsForgiven]

Let's see... in terms of multiples, gravecrawler is the fairly obvious one.

There are also cards that care about copies in the graveyard, such as rune snag. I'd probably stick to archetype-defining cards at first though, so as not to confuse people.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

You could use the life gain matters package, it's fun to play with Ajani's Pridemate, but a hassle to draft the theme. Much easier to spend some credits on it when you already drafted a few lifegain cards! Trilands (2 credits) and Terramorphic Expanses (1 credit) are also a good add I think, as a way to smooth out mana bases without including (slightly) suboptimal cards in the main cube. Powerful three-color cards (4 credits) regularly end up a wasted 15th pick in regular cubes, even though people would love to play with them if they do happen to be running the right deck type in those three colors, those are good options as well.

 

[sigh]

I think the cards should be focused around more niche things and useful filler roles, and then also neat packages like '3 squadron hawks' or something. Having something like a pack of 4 accumulated knowledge makes me want to make that my draw package, thus focusing on other things during drafting. But then if someone else takes it???? I'm screwed! What I'm getting at is that core components to deck styles might be less good gift shop offerings. Those should be gotten while drafting. All null and void if the same things can be taken by multiple people.

 

[Eric Chan]

i misread the title as "Thrift Shop Draft" and thought it was about buying other players' draft picks off them second hand, trying to score the best deal with whatever coins you had in your pocket

all non-profit of course

 

[James Stevenson]

Maybe a mill package?

 

[Jason Waddell]

An Arcane package?

 

[Jason Waddell]

Rough, unorganized, stream of consciousness card collection.