Drafting (CUBE)

[Peachtacular]

Hey guys,

I'm a veteran magic and lotr player. I've been spending a lot of time drafting magic cards out of a 'cube', which is simply put a box of incredibly good cards (no repeats).

I was wondering if anyone has had an experience drafting lotr cards? And whether or not anyone has tried to put together a cube for lotr cards?

Peach

[SomeRandomDude]

You mean like type 4 magic? Or Beta Draft? Well...LotR plays a lot different from Magic, but in answer to your question, yeah, there was booster draft, block drafting, and actually, EME DDB is a great pack to get if you want to draft. You get one of those, you start with your draft pack, Elladan + Elrohir, the Gondor dudes or Grimmy and Dain, then you've got 4 booster packs. You supply your own RB and Ring + Sitepath, you get your starter pack of...I think it was like 10 cards or something and you all booster draft the booster packs booster draft style. 40 card deck, and you can shuffle your discard pile to form a draw deck the first time you deck out.

Good luck finding any of those around anywhere, though.

Towers Draft was big to, it followed the Draft Pack + boosters format, only I think it started with 20 cards in the draft pack with a concentration of cards in a particular style. Up through Bloodlines Starter decks were cool too, but that was more of a limited card pool format, and not a draft deck.

[TheJord]

In our most recent 'tournament' in Manchester we drafted Ages End with Shadows block. It was an interesting game, as Ages End has some nice minions (Balrog, Nazgul) and some sweet companions (Greenleaf-wannabe Legolas) along with funky conditions (Stern Words anyone?).

Other than that though, I have had limited experience drafting LOTR. I would love to draft with EDD. I only just now found a box though

[HawkeyeSPF]

Hey Peach, these guys are unfamiliar with the concept of Cube Drafting. I have spoken with a couple guys about constructing a LotR Cube, but it was ultimately decided that LotR just wouldn't work well in that format. As with most (if not all) LotR drafts, it would always come down to who can get the most cheap minions drafted and in their deck so they can drop the bomb first.

For those of you who don't know what a Cube is:

A predetermined set of cards is put in an anthology box to be drafted out of. Every cube is always the same: 20x Aragorn HtE, 20x Legolas PoM, 20x Goblin Runner, 20x Enquea LoM, etc. Before drafting is done, the cards are shuffled and completely randomized, then divided into 11-15 card "packs" to be drafted.

So, sure, a LotR Cube could be done and all, but really, what is the point? It's all about who can drop the bomb first, and seriously, where is the fun in that?

[FM]

That's not Cube. In MtG terms, Cube Draft is made with a predetermined set of cards, that get shuffled and divided into "booster packs", yeah. But thing is, and every player is aware of that, there is only ONE copy of each card (and some cards won't make the boosters, since the Cube usually have some excess cards so even though players know the Cube, they don't know exactly what they'll see), and they are only the best crds in the game. So, the last Cube Draft MtG held, at the Invitational, sponsore Black Lotus, the moxen, Vindicate, Force of Will, Tolarian Academy, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Ancestral Recall, etc.
In LotR, it'd probably be the best versions of the companions, the best weapons, etc. But only one of each. I think it might be doable, and it might even turn out to be a fun format!

[Xcho]

I have drafted in a few Magic cube drafts, and it was great.! I am sure we could do the same with Lotr.
Cube draft just has the best cards in it that Lotr has, only just one of them. Then random 15 card "packs" are made of it, and then draft!

It would be fun to draft cards from a pack that has for example:
1. Rare ring
2. Aragons bow
3. Greenleaf
4. Sauron
5. Terrible and evil
6. Alternate ringbearers..
7. Pallando
etc, etc..

Maybe some rules need to be made, since not each card can be played in a format that spans all the sets (1-19)
sidepath?
Bring ringbearer, or draft them?

cube draft is a lot of fun, and 0 costs attached...

[FM]

Yeah, Ring-bearer, Ring and sitepath would probably be brought with you (of course, Common Ring and probably a regular Common Frodo RB), unless you also wanted to draft the sitepath separately.

[SomeRandomDude]

So, sure, a LotR Cube could be done and all, but really, what is the point? It's all about who can drop the bomb first, and seriously, where is the fun in that?

Well...that's the same with all MtG decks. And since LotR is a fairly straightforward game strategy wise (compared to MtG), I can see it being fun.

[Hobbit_Pizza]

I'm helping put together a Towers Booster Draft this Saturday at the local comic shop.
I took the time to cut/paste the important parts of the draft rules into a separate document.
See here.

I'll be bringing my Rare Frodo & Ring, however I'm curious about the adventure deck.

Does my 9 card Adventure Deck need to be ready and pre-decided before I open my draft pack, or before the booster draft begins, or before both? Or can I bring all of my sites to the draft and choose from them during deck construction?

If I only bring my 9 cards for the Adventure Deck, do draft packs contain sites that I can swap out?

 

[SomeRandomDude]

Yeah, you need to have your adventure deck preconstructed. I do not believe you get sites, maybe in the boosters, in which case, I don't see why you can't.

[Hobbit_Pizza]

Any strategies or tips for drafting?

[Anvar]

Any strategies or tips for drafting?

Yes, take all minions with Fierce or Damage +1.

Make sure you get 9 companions to play.

Anvar

[Hobbit_Pizza]

According to the draft rules, there is no limit to the number of copies of a card you may have in your deck, as opposed to the usual limit of 4, however I cannot find anywhere where it specifies how many copies of a card can be in play at a time. I ask because if during a draft there is no limit, I could just grab 20 copies of Uruk Regular and if I get 9 twilight tokens to work with past site 5 then it's game over. 

[FM]

That's right. If they're non-unique, go ahead and play all 20 at once.

[MR. Lurtzy]

You can't play the uruk regulars from your draw deck can you?