MTG Draft Rules: How Booster Draft Works and How to Run One

The basic MTG draft rules: up to 8 players sit in a circle, and each opens 3 booster packs, one at a time. You take one card from each pack and pass the rest: left for pack one, right for pack two, left again for pack three. Then everyone builds a deck of at least 40 cards, with as many basic lands as they want, and plays best-of-three matches.

Below are the full rules, what to change when you don't have 8 players, and the part most guides leave out: how to run the matches afterward, with rounds, pairings, byes and standings.

MTG draft rules at a glance

How booster draft works, step by step

1. Sit in a circle. The players at one table are the draft pod. Seat them randomly.

2. Open pack one. Everyone opens their first pack at the same time, takes one card and puts it face down in front of them.

3. Pass left. Hand the rest of the pack to the player on your left and pick up the pack coming from your right. Keep picking and passing until there's nothing left.

4. Open pack two and pass right. Same process, opposite direction.

5. Open pack three and pass left.

6. Build. Make a deck of at least 40 cards from your picks plus basic lands.

7. Play. Best-of-three matches against the others in your pod.

Can you look at your picks during a draft?

At casual events (Regular Rules Enforcement Level), the Magic Tournament Rules let you review your picks as long as you aren't holding any other cards at the same time. At Competitive level you can only look at them in the review period between packs. At a kitchen table, keep your picks in a pile and don't show them to the people you're passing to.

Do you need a pick timer?

Casual tables usually don't time picks. Competitive events do: the timer in MTR Appendix B gets shorter as the pack gets smaller, with a review period between packs. If one slow drafter holds up the table, a loose "about a minute per pick early on" is plenty for a casual night.

Play Boosters vs Draft Boosters

Starting with Murders at Karlov Manor in early 2024, Wizards replaced Draft Boosters (and Set Boosters) with the Play Booster. That's what you draft with now.

The rules don't change: 3 packs per player, passed left, right, left. Each pack just runs out one pick sooner.

Building your draft deck

How many cards in a draft deck?

At least 40, with no maximum. Play exactly 40. Every card over 40 lowers the chance of drawing your best cards.

How many lands in a draft deck?

The default is 17 lands and 23 spells. If your deck is low to the ground, with lots of two-drops and almost nothing over four mana, 16 lands is fine.

Basic lands come from a shared land station and don't count as picks, so take as many as you need. You can also play every copy of a card you drafted: three copies of a common can all go in your deck.

Sideboarding in draft

Every drafted card that isn't in your deck is your sideboard. Between games of a match, you can swap cards between your deck and sideboard as long as the deck stays at 40 or more. At casual events without decklists, the MTR's "continuous construction" rule (section 7.3) also lets you change your deck freely between matches.

What to pick is a whole other topic. Wizards' Booster Draft page is a good place to start.

Draft rules for 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 players

Eight is the classic pod, but a normal pass draft works fine down to 4. Below that you need a different draft method.

Pick-Two Draft is an official Wizards variant for 4 to 7 players. You take two cards per pick instead of one, which leaves each player with about 42 cards and speeds up the draft. Wizards says the whole thing fits in about 90 minutes.

Can you do a 2-person draft in MTG?

Yes, but skip the pass draft, which with 2 players is mostly guesswork. In a Winston draft you build three face-down piles from a shared stack and take turns either taking a pile or adding a card to it. In a grid draft you lay 9 cards in a 3x3 grid, one player takes a row or column, and the other takes a row or column from what's left. Lucky Paper explains both step by step (Winston, grid). Afterward, play one best-of-three or best-of-five match.

How do you run a 3-person draft?

Grid draft has a 3-player version, with the first pick rotating each grid. The other option is a pass draft with extra packs where each player "burns" (removes) an extra card per pick, so packs don't wheel back full of playables. Lucky Paper's burn draft page covers that variant. With 3 players, everyone plays the other two.

How do you play a 6-person MTG draft?

Exactly like an 8-person draft: 3 packs each, pass left, right, left. With 6 drafters each pack comes back around to you, so you can plan for what will still be there. Then play 3 rounds of Swiss. Nobody gets a bye.

How to run a draft night (the organizer's plan)

The draft is the easy part. Draft nights slow down in the hour afterward, when 8 people with fresh decks are waiting to find out who they play.

Before the night

• Lock the headcount. It decides the pod and the booster order: 3 Play Boosters per player, so 24 for 8 players and 18 for 6.

• Set up a basic land station with enough of each basic that nobody runs short.

• Fix a start time. Three rounds after the draft take most of an evening (see the timeline below).

• Settle the entry fee and prizes in advance. If everyone chips in to cover the boosters, collect before anyone opens a pack.

First time hosting at all? We wrote a guide on how to host a Magic tournament at home that covers the space, the snacks and the supplies.

Seat the pod and number the tables

Seat players randomly and write the seating down, because some groups pair round one by draft seat. Before each pack, say the direction out loud ("pack two goes right"). Experienced drafters pass the wrong way too.

For the play portion, give every match a table number so nobody wanders around asking where they're sitting. If you'd rather not handle seating and tables by hand, we built draft software that seats your pod and pairs every round.

How many rounds after a draft?

Three rounds of best-of-three for an 8-player pod. It's the standard, and it's about all that fits in an evening after the draft. For 4 to 16 players, use the "Matches after" column in the player-count table above: 4 players play a round robin on paper (3 rounds) or 2 rounds of Swiss, 5 to 8 play 3 rounds of Swiss, and 9 to 16 play 4. It's the same structure we use in our MTG cube draft guide.

A note for rules nerds: the Magic Tournament Rules (Appendix E) recommend straight single elimination for 5 to 8 players at competitive events. On a casual night that knocks half the table out after one round. Swiss keeps everyone playing all three.

Pairings, byes and odd numbers

In Swiss, round one is random (or by draft seat). From round two on, you pair players who have the same record and avoid rematches. After three rounds in an 8-player pod you usually end up with one 3-0, three 2-1s, three 1-2s and one 0-3.

With 5 or 7 players, someone gets a bye every round. Give the round-one bye at random. After that, give it to the lowest-ranked player who hasn't had one yet. Nobody gets two. A bye counts as a match win, worth 3 points.

On paper, this breaks down around round two with 7 players: you're tracking records, past opponents and who had the bye, with six people waiting.

Running 8 players or fewer? We built MTGevent for this part of the night. It seats your pod, makes the Swiss pairings every round, avoids rematches and hands out byes automatically. It's free for up to 8 players. Players join by scanning a QR code and report their own results from their phones. Set up your draft →

Standings and tiebreakers

Rank by match points first: 3 for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. With 8 players and 3 rounds, ties are almost certain, so the standard Magic tiebreakers settle them, in this order:

1. OMW%: your opponents' average match-win percentage

2. GW%: your own game-win percentage

3. OGW%: your opponents' average game-win percentage

We wrote up the full math, including the 33% floor, in Magic tiebreakers explained. In an app, standings update as each result comes in. On paper, agree on the tiebreaker order before round one so nobody argues about it at midnight.

Prizes and rares

Everyone keeps what they drafted. Beyond that, prizes are up to your group. Common options:

• Keep what you draft. No prizes, nothing to sort out.

• Rare redraft. At the end of the night, everyone puts their rares and mythics in a pile, and players pick from it in order of final standings.

• Prize packs by record. Buy a few extra boosters and hand them out by standings.

Pick one before the first pack is opened, not after someone opens a valuable rare.

How long does a draft night take?

For 8 players and three rounds, plan on about 3.5 to 4.5 hours. Treat this as a rough guide based on casual tables, not an official number:

Wizards' format page lists Booster Draft at 120 minutes, with games of about 20 minutes. That covers the draft and roughly one match, not three rounds of best-of-three. Our 50-minute rounds follow the MTR's recommended round length for Limited (Appendix B). To finish earlier, run a round timer, cap deck building at 25 minutes and start the draft on time.

Booster draft vs cube draft vs sealed

Cube uses the same draft rules, but nobody opens product or keeps cards. See our full guide on how to run a cube draft night. Sealed skips the draft: each player opens 6 Play Boosters, the same number that comes in a Prerelease Pack, and builds a 40-card deck from them.

FAQ

How many booster packs do you need for a draft?

Three per player. That's 24 packs for an 8-player pod, 18 for 6 players and 12 for 4.

How many lands should I run in a draft deck?

17 lands with 23 spells is the default. Go down to 16 lands if your deck has a low mana curve. Basic lands are unlimited and come from a shared land station.

How do you play a 6-person MTG draft?

Run a normal pass draft with 3 packs each, passing left, right, left. Every pack comes back around to you once. Then play 3 rounds of Swiss. With an even number of players, nobody gets a bye.

How do you run a 3-person draft?

Use a format built for small groups, such as the 3-player version of grid draft, or a pass draft with extra packs where each player burns an extra card per pick. Afterward, play a round robin so everyone plays the other two.

Can you do a 2-person draft in MTG?

Yes. Use a Winston draft or a grid draft instead of passing packs, then play one best-of-three or best-of-five match.

How many cards do you need in a draft deck?

At least 40 cards, with no maximum. Most players run exactly 40: 17 lands and 23 spells.

Do you keep the cards after a booster draft?

Yes. In a booster draft, each player keeps what they drafted. Some groups run a rare redraft at the end, where players pick rares from a shared pile in order of standings. Cube drafts are different, because the cards belong to the cube owner.

How many rounds do you play after a draft?

Three rounds of Swiss, best-of-three, for an 8-player pod. Five to seven players also play 3 rounds, with a bye each round when the count is odd. Nine to 16 players draft in two pods and play 4 rounds of Swiss together.

Run your next draft night without pen and paper

You've got the boosters and the land station. The pairings shouldn't be what holds up the night. We built MTGevent to handle seating, Swiss rounds, byes and standings, and it's free for up to 8 players. It runs in the browser, so nobody installs anything. For two-pod nights, Pro covers unlimited players for $9.99/month.

Start your draft night →

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