Draft

It was some time ago, that I noticed topic at vekn.net about other formats of competitive vtes games. Firstly I must say, that I love constructed tournament. In its pure form with five-player table and when all of them are really good, game just becomes really great. Of course at table of seven people, where every other player does stupid things, which do not make sense, it just sucks. Lately we have started league, so my needs of constructed competitive play are mostly satisfied. But there are other formats, which we have played and enjoyed them very much. So next few posts will be about that. I will start with draft tournament. I am sure that this format won't be anything new for almost anyone, but it will be good start.

So my first draft was special. Each player was allowed to bring 4 vampires (only 2 copies of same vampire could be used - I remember bringing 2* Menele and 2* Hektor) and 20 cards as foundation for his deck(only one copy of each card could be used - so no 20* Freak Drives). Rest of the deck was built from cards, that were drafted in classic way. You can se, that this type of draft makes much stronger decks, because everyone can add very strong vampires to his crypt, or cards to library. Games tend to be a lot faster too, because usual toolboxy draft strategies tend to be more focused and smooth. Faster games are one of the reasons to choose this type of draft. Main reason is to save money. Because of cards you have prepared, you can lower the number of drafted boosters. And saving money is a huge selling point.

Classic draft on the other hand very much adds to variety of play and can display trully great gaming skills. Sixteen boosters had proven to be a number, which is enough to provide variety for building decks as much as enough cards for playing. We have tried few combinations of V:tes sets and they work almost in any combination. But you will always need one core big set - for example 3rd edition(nowadays that is pretty much your only choice). Sometimes you will need to remove crypt restrictions. Sets that provide cards with draft effects are even better for the game. Four sets are ideal for card diversity. If you are not able to use four different sets, you should be able to replace missing sets with core set. Too much of small edition boosters (SoC for example) would make the cards very monotonic. After my last draft (with LoB, EK, HttB and LotN) I am fairly confident that almost every set may be combined with others with optional crypt restriction removal. Ok i know that EK is not entirely usefull without LoB, but some of the cards still can be used and I believe that Even NoR could provide interesting game developments.

There is nothing much I could say without boring you, because like I said, this format is pretty well known. One thing, which can give you the edge is to study possible cards and combinations, which you can make before starting and try to prepare some strategies, but last time I thought I will try to build solid Dominate based deck, with some support and ended up with magaji wall, so that is preparation for you. But still - to know, what you may find and to be aware of draft effects will give you a great edge.

Pros: Fun format, which can improve your skills of combination, make you play a very different strategies, than you usually do and bring you a lot of fun.

Cons: Cost and secondly time heftiness.

See you next time with other format...