What is a draft in collectible card games?

In recent years, various kinds of board games are experiencing a real boom. One of the most popular varieties are collectible card games. Typically, in each of these games you can play in two formats: Draft and Constructed. Understand what draft is, and how it differs from the construction, is very simple. Let's pay attention to the main points.

Draft and Constructed. What is the difference?

The process of playing in any collectible card game involves the use of a deck that has been collected in a certain way. To play in konstrakted-tournaments, you use a deck, collected in advance, for which cards can be bought separately or exchanged for other players. But to understand what a draft is, let us turn directly to the meaning of this word. If we translate into Russian the English word "draft", then we get nothing but a draft or a sketch. That is, the composition of the deck you do not think in advance at home, but collect directly during the tournament.

The general principle of the draft tournament

In most games, the draft tournaments run roughly the same pattern. First of all, we note that such a tournament consists of two stages: collecting a deck and directly playing the game. In order to start collecting cards in the deck, players are usually placed at the same table in the number of 6-8 people. Each of them has purchased packs of cards. The number of these packs and their composition depend directly on the game. For example, in the most popular card game Magic: the Gathering, each player needs three packs of cards of 15 pieces each. After seating, players open one pack, choose the best card from it, and the rest pass in a circle to the neighbor. Accordingly, further it is necessary to choose a card from that the neighbor has transferred, and so until all cards will be disassembled.

After all the packs are opened and disassembled, the draft in card games does not end. It is necessary to collect from the received set of cards for playing the deck in the most effective way. As a rule, after the process of "irritation" of cards, the player will have more than necessary for making a deck, so you need to choose the best ones and use them for the game.

Advantages and Challenges of Draft

Many players are very conditional in knowing what a draft is. Of course, the vast majority know the rules, but it's different. The format of the draft requires a different skill from the player than the construction. First of all, it is necessary to learn how to properly assess the strength of cards, as well as their interaction with each other. It's not always enough to just take the strongest card and put it in the deck. Sometimes a weaker map can be extremely strong in a particular deck "in a vacuum". In addition, it is necessary to notice what cards you pass to neighbors in order to be ready for subsequent matches and to have in the deck answers to possible threats.

Beginners and Draft

From the point of view of the beginner, it is difficult to say which format is more effective for studying all the subtleties of the game. Perhaps, to begin studying the rules and the basic mechanics of the game more appropriately with the construction, and then move on to studying what the draft is. A sufficient number of played games in the constrcted will make it possible to compose at least an initial idea of the strength of the cards, so that in the future the player could make a correct and reasonable choice from the opened set. In addition, for the drafting of a draft it is necessary to have at least 6-8 people, and just play a ready deck with at least a friend in the kitchen.

Now you have a general idea of what a draft is. In cards, as is known, the influence of luck is great, and collectible card games are no exception. However, experience and work on the quality of the game will allow you to win over the most sophisticated rivals in any kind of tournaments.