Double Decker Draft

Designed by Ryan Spain and inspired by the draft structure from Battlebond, double-decker is a draft format where each player assumes the role of a Two-Headed Giant team, playing “both heads” of the giant in the draft and gameplay.

Each player starts with 6 packs of 15 cards. Each pack is then drafted, in typical Booster Draft fashion, except with each player choosing two cards for their pool out of each pack. After the draft, players build two decks from their complete, 90 card pool. This results in powerful decks, as it somewhat emulates two players, sitting adjacent to each other in the draft, colluding over how to make both their decks as good as possible. In fact it’s even better than that, because in some cases both picks will end up in the same deck instead of one in each.

Each player decides which of their two decks is the “A” deck and which is their “B” deck, either randomly or by choice. Each player then plays a best-of-three match against every other player in the pod, starting with the player they were across from. In the best-of-three match, players both play their “A” deck in game one, their “B” deck in game two, and in the event of a game three, players simultaneously choose a deck for their opponent to play in the final game. This prevents players from maxing out the power level of one of their decks hoping it can carry the other, because their opponent will force them to play their “bad” deck in match-deciding game.

A simple way to handle the simultaneous deck selection is to have each player give their opponent one notable card that was played in the prior games from each deck. Then each player places the card from the deck they want their opponent to play face down in the center of the table. Once both players have made a selection, the cards are flipped over and the deck selections are revealed.