Introduction
The Booster Draft format is a great way for experienced and new players to get together and compete on a more even playing field. In a Booster Draft, players play with a deck that they put together on the spot, rather than one that they had pre-constructed prior to the event. These rules in this document are best for the J2 set (Jaelara Second Edition) and newer.
Core Rule Changes
The rule book that should be followed is the most recent edition, with the following additions:
Timeline
The rules for building a Timeline are very similar with a few modifications:
The Timeline is 35 cards instead of the usual 50 cards.
The total Chi of the Timeline is 175 points.
Restriction rules for how many copies of a card (eg. Epiphany) are not implemented as a part of the Booster Draft format.
Forethoughts
In a Booster Draft, all cards in your card pool that are not in your Timeline, count as being a part of your Forethoughts. You must still abide by the normal affiliation rules in order to play any cards from your card pool. Otherwise, follow all “lock and show” procedures for your Forethoughts. Players may choose to not use their Forethoughts during a Booster Draft if they so wish.
It is up to the event organizer whether or not to allow players to swap champions between matches in a best of three or between games.
Format-Specific Rules
In order to allow players to construct their Timeline, the event should allow for 45 mins of time spent selecting cards and building a Timeline.
Champions selection may occur in secret or be open knowledge to all participants. The event organizer must declare which of these rules are being used prior to Timeline construction.
The tournament structure for a draft is the same as a constructed tournament:
Swiss Structure
Each match should be limited to 45 minutes.
Once the 45 minutes is up, there will be 3 full round rotations allowed to attempt to declare a winner. If no winner is clearly declared, it is a tie for that match.
Each game consists of a best 2 out of 3 matches
The loser of each game can pick if they want to be the starting player for the next game.
The Drafting Process
When you are starting a draft, you should be creating tables of about 6-8 players who are seated in a random order, then each player gets 4 booster packs.
Once everyone is ready, they can all open their first pack. Do not allow players to open more than one pack at this time.
Each pack has 14 cards and 1 champion/tip card. The champion, token or tip card can be ignored and put into the center of the table from each pack and does not count towards a selection. Of the remaining 14 cards there should be 8 commons, 4 uncommons, and 2 rares.
From the 14 cards, each player will pick 1 card to keep and pass the remaining 13 cards to the person seated to their right. Once they receive their pile of 13 cards, they pick 1 card and pass the remaining 12 cards to the right. This process continues until all packs have been diminished. Each player should now have 14 cards that they’ve picked from different piles. Repeat this process with the other packs, but for each pack opening, change which direction the remaining cards are passed. The second pack is passed to the left, the third pack is passed to the right and the final pack is passed to the left. After drafting all 4 packs, each player should have 56 (14*4) cards to start constructing their Timeline.
Drafting and building a Timeline should have a time cap of 45 minutes. At the end of this time, champions are selected. It is encouraged that extra champion cards should be kept on hand in order to allow players to choose whichever champion they wish, without depleting the champions that were pulled from the packs.
Prizes
The prize support is completely determined by the local game store or event organizer. All players should be allowed to keep the Timeline they created, as well as any other cards they drafted, once it is over.