The products on offer for Magic the Gathering can be daunting these days. From commander decks to booster packs, to scene packs, secret lairs, collector boosters, etc etc. Draft Night is one of the products on offer. They stand out from the rest though as they aren’t simply ways to expand your collection or add to your deck count, they offer an experience. An experience that you can share with your friends. But is it for you?
What IS Draft Night?
Draft is a timeless way to play MTG and has been around essentially as long as the game itself has. I have seen different variations of the format but the overall idea of it is that each player shares a handful of boosters from a set and need to create a deck. In the Strixhaven Draft Night box you will get 12 booster packs, 90 basic lands, 10 double sided token cards and 1 collector booster pack. The intended use for the booster pack is that it can be offered up as a reward for whoever wins the draft night. Or you can be greedy like me and keep it for yourself. Don’t look at me like that, I bought the thing, I keep the thing.
To play draft (or at least, this version of draft) you will need 4 payers. Players pair up, everyone takes 3 booster packs and opens 1 of them. They then choose 2 of the cards in the pack and then exchanges the remaining cards with the remaining cards from the player they are paired with. This action gets repeated until all cards are taken, and all 3 packs are drafted. Each player then has a stack of cards in which to build a 40-card deck with (including lands). Each pair then plays a game (or a best of 3), then the 2 winners and 2 losers face off against each other to decide the final rankings of players.
The products on offer for Magic the Gathering can be daunting these days. From commander decks to booster packs, to scene packs, secret lairs, collector boosters, etc etc. Draft Night is one of the products on offer. They stand out from the rest though as they aren’t simply ways to expand your collection or add to your deck count, they offer an experience. An experience that you can share with your friends. But is it for you?
What IS Draft Night?
Draft is a timeless way to play MTG and has been around essentially as long as the game itself has. I have seen different variations of the format but the overall idea of it is that each player shares a handful of boosters from a set and need to create a deck. In the Strixhaven Draft Night box you will get 12 booster packs, 90 basic lands, 10 double sided token cards and 1 collector booster pack. The intended use for the booster pack is that it can be offered up as a reward for whoever wins the draft night. Or you can be greedy like me and keep it for yourself. Don’t look at me like that, I bought the thing, I keep the thing.
To play draft (or at least, this version of draft) you will need 4 payers. Players pair up, everyone takes 3 booster packs and opens 1 of them. They then choose 2 of the cards in the pack and then exchanges the remaining cards with the remaining cards from the player they are paired with. This action gets repeated until all cards are taken, and all 3 packs are drafted. Each player then has a stack of cards in which to build a 40-card deck with (including lands). Each pair then plays a game (or a best of 3), then the 2 winners and 2 losers face off against each other to decide the final rankings of players.
Is it Worth it?
MTG is a fun game. But if you play with the same group of players all the time, then you will all get familiar with each other’s decks. A Draft Night box offers the chance to mix up game night and collectively build new decks. This is especially fun when using a Draft Night box from the newest set. This is because all the cards will be new and offer new mechanics and styles of play to delve into. It can also be a fun way to try out colour combinations you don’t usually gravitate towards. So as an experience for a game night, it can definitely be worth it. It can evoke that feeling of pre-release night, but at home.
It is also purely worth it in a fiscal sense. The Secrets of Strixhaven Draft Night Box comes with 12 boosters, and 1 collector booster and is currently selling for around £70-90. Buying all the boosters individually will cost around £80-90. So, at the worst-case scenario, you are breaking even with the booster costs, plus you get the lands and tokens for free.
My Experience with Draft Night
I didn’t play the Draft Night with 4 players. I personally played it with just another friend. And instead of using 3 booster packs, we used 6. And instead of creating a 40-card deck, we made a standard 60 card deck instead. And honestly, it worked just as well as 4-way drafts. In the boosters I managed to pull some of my chase cards. Such as one of the big legendary dragons (I got the one I wanted: Witherbloom, the Balancer). And in the collector booster, I got incredibly lucky. I pulled the Japanese, silver border, mythic rare Jeska’s Will. Which is selling (at time of writing) for £250. This was my biggest card pull of all time and was absolutely ecstatic when I realised I had used up all my luck for the next decade. There will be more on these on my Secrets of Strixhaven set review. But as a small teaser, this set has some super interesting cards. Which of course makes the Draft Night all that more appealing.
Final Thoughts
There isn’t a lot one can say about the Draft Night box. This is because it is essentially a few boosters in a box. But if you have the right friends and a good atmosphere then that is really all you need. Secrets of Strixhaven Draft Night is a fantastic product, and I hope Wizards of the Coast releases equivalent products for each set. Draft Night helps put the ‘gathering’ back into Magic the Gathering.
