Cube Draft for 2-player
A few people have asked me what I meant when I said "Cube" drafting at the Alive Festival.
We expect to be teaching new players, and dealing with people who may not have come prepared to pay for an extra event like a traditional draft/sealed. So, the idea about a "Cube" Draft seemed to fit the bill.
We have a "cube" of 480 cards. Those cards will be shuffled and separated into 15 card piles. Each (of up to eight) player receives 4 piles and a core (cores contain 7 vanilla lost souls and basic dominants). Players will draft the 4 piles, construct a T1-2P decks, and play a three round single elimination tournament. After the three rounds are finished or after a player is eliminated, the players return all drafted cards back to the tournament host, so another Cube event can be started with same pool of cards.
The major advantage is you dont have to open product but still get the experience of Drafting. (Side note: it's a lot of fun designing a cube. You get to choose the theme of the cube and mechanics, like maybe you want to tell the story of Moses and Joshua leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. So, all your cards help tell the story.)
Draft round 1: each player drafts a card from their pile and passes their pile to the player to their right. When you receive the (now) 14 card pile from the player to your left, you draft a card and pass the pile to the right. Players continue to do so, until all players have drafted 15 cards from pile 1
Draft round 2-4: continue as above but "wheel" the packs opposite from the previous round (so it should go Right, Left, Right, Left).
Once all players have drafted 60 cards, they have 20m to construct a T1-2p deck + up to 10 card Reserve deck using only the core + the cards they specifically drafted. Pairings will be "X" style with single elimination.
X Style pairings diagram (basically add "4" to your table seat number)
Table Seat Position:
1_____8
2_____7
3_____6
4_____5
Round 1 Pairings:
Table 1 - 1 vs 5
Table 2 - 2 vs 6
Table 3 - 3 vs 7
Table 4 - 4 vs 8
Round 2 Pairings:
Table 1 - Winner of Round 1 Table 1 vs Winner of Round 1 Table 2
Table 2 - Winner of Round 1 Table 3 vs Winner of Round 1 Table 4
Round 3 Pairings
Table 1 - Winner of Round 2 Table 1 vs Winner of Round 2 Table 2