Raw Deal Draft
Version 1.1
By Barron Vangor Toth

The game Mike Foley and I design has been on the market for over five years without an ultimate “limited” format available. Originally, there was sealed (a.k.a. “No Mercy”) but it had too much luck. Then there was Raw Draft, which had numerous problems, but it was better than sealed, so we went with it. Rumble Draft fixed some of the problems of Raw Draft, but at some point you realize that you’re best off not fixing something that is inherently flawed and instead start anew—fresh.

The Rules

1. If you have more than 10 people, divide people up over more than one table.

2. Put 1 starter deck on the table for each person.

3. Randomly select who is first—play proceeds clockwise from there.

4. The first person says a number from 1 to 60.

5. The next person passes or names a number greater than the number the previous person named.

6. This continues around and around the table (those who have passed are out for this round) until everyone has passed except whomever named the highest number,

7. That person then takes any starter deck he wants. He opens the starter, takes cards out of it equal to the number named, and puts those cards in any combination under any of the remaining starters. (If the starter he took had cards under it, those cards are considered in the starter for the purposes of extracting cards from it.) He has a maximum of two minutes to do this, or the cards are taken out randomly.

8. Return to Step 4, except going to whoever is next clockwise from the starting position, skipping those who have already gotten their starter. Repeat until there is only one starter left and the final person gets it with any cards under it.

9. Everyone can take a moment to look through their starter deck and any other cards they got with it. Then give each person any number of packs (events should list how many packs participants will get in advance—from 1 to however many). These packs do *NOT* belong to the player who gets them, so whatever they open is not necessarily theirs. Rather, they will *DRAFT* the packs—something fans of other CCG’s have been able to do with those games and yet it has been impossible to properly do it in Raw Deal … until now. For those unfamiliar, each person opens 1 pack, takes 1 card, and then passes the remaining cards to their left, taking the cards being passed to them from their right. Take 1 card from it, pass, repeat, until there are no cards remaining. Repeat this for all of the packs (note: on the 2nd pack, you should pass to the right and take from the left, on the 3rd, pass to the left and take from the right, etc. etc.).

(As you can see, one of the big problems of previous limited formats in Raw Deal—cost—is eliminated, as this can simply be played with a starter and a booster or two.)

Standard Raw Deal Deck Construction Rules apply, except for one alteration: you don’t need a full Arsenal (this is due to your pool of cards potentially not allowing you to have one—but you can’t go over whatever your Superstar’s maximum is).

Managers: you can run Raw Deal Drafts—and get prize support for them—just like any other event. If you run one, write up a report, email it to me, and I’ll put it up on the site so folks can see how it went.