Your first Magic Booster Draft: how to pick cards and build a deck

Booster Draft is not the same as buying boosters for your collection. You select cards from packs shared around a table and then build a deck from those picks. Wizards of the Coast describes ordinary tabletop Booster Draft as a format for up to eight players, with a minimum 40-card deck.

How the table works

Players open a pack, choose one card privately and pass the remaining cards along. In the traditional three-pack procedure, passing direction alternates left, right and left. Your local organiser may use a particular supported set or event rules, so confirm the format before you arrive.

The first pick is not your entire deck

A powerful card can tempt you into a colour you cannot support. Pay attention to cards arriving later in a pack: repeated useful options in one colour may signal that it is available. Early picks should leave some flexibility; later picks should help your deck cast spells consistently.

Build for games, not screenshots

For a beginner, a coherent two-colour plan is often easier to pilot than a collection of expensive spells. You need creatures or other threats, interaction and enough suitable mana sources. The exact proportions depend on the set and its mechanics; do not use one fixed recipe as a guarantee.

Before you pay an entry fee

1. Ask whether the event is beginner-friendly, timed or competitive.
2. Confirm which products are supplied and whether you keep drafted cards.
3. Ask about prize structure and whether extra basic lands are provided.
4. Check the current event's rules and entry price in Australia, rather than relying on an old US example.

Draft is a learning experience even if you do not win your first round. Between games, note which cards you never had the mana to play and which actually helped you stabilise.

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