6-9:30 pm Fridays in August
You all asked for a more affordable way to draft Commander – and we found it with your help! Starting with the release of Commander Masters on Friday, August 4, Just Games will offer ‘Commander Draft’ Fridays in August (and longer if you’d like!).
How does it work?
Each player will get 1 pack of Commander Masters, and 2 packs of Commander Baldur’s Gate, and draft a Commander deck following the rules for drafting Commander Masters (see below). The time is limited to 2.5 hours for game play, 1 hour for draft. Afterward, the last player standing gets 2 Standard Set boosters, and everyone else get 1 Standard-legal set booster.
Cost is $27.78 ($30 after tax), just a wee bit more than a regular draft, but with all the power you expect from Commander Masters!
Help us plan ahead by preregistering for this Friday
How to play Commander draft
Let’s turn to Gavin Verhey for our answers
For a quick recap of what a normal draft is, you build your deck by a process called drafting.
In that normal draft, you sit down at a table with seven other people, and each starts with three booster packs of a set. You open a pack, select a card, put it face down in front of you, then pass the rest of the cards in the pack to your left. You then pick up what was passed to you, choose a card, and repeat the same process until all the cards have been taken. Then do this again for the second booster pack, passing to the right, and finally back to the left for the third booster pack. At the end, you’ll build a deck using those cards.
Commander Draft is very similar but with a couple differences to know about.
You are, of course, going to be drafting a Commander deck and playing four-player multiplayer afterward. So, you’ll want to keep that very different way of drafting in mind.
You start with three packs, but keep in mind that Commander Masters packs each contain 20 cards! The big difference though is this: you draft two cards at a time! Ever seen a pack with two cards you can’t pick between? Well, problem solved! This helps you get all the synergistic pieces you need for Commander. Open a spellslinger legendary creature and a splashy sorcery? Take them both!
At the end of the draft, you’re going to be building a 60-card deck. You can take as many basic lands as you want to add to your deck as well.
Now, it is a Commander deck, so your deck is going to have a commander (or, in the case of partner, commanders). Those count towards your 60 cards. Your deck has to follow color identity rules, so everything in your deck must match the colors of your commander(s).
One unexpected thing might be how many copies of a card you can play in your deck. Card limits don’t apply in draft: in a normal draft you can play five Lightning Bolts if you draft them, and in Commander Draft you can play three Ash Barrens if you draft them. You usually won’t have many duplicates, but it can happen, and it’s good to know.
Once you’ve built your deck, you’re just playing regular Commander! 40 life, commander tax, free mulligan and all.
Special notes:
Because our format uses Commander Masters and Baldur’s Gate, you may choose either a background for a monocolored legendary creature OR a partner, but not both, to keep the format balanced and avoid… unintended shenanigans.
