Hey Now, You're an All-Star (Draft) - Part 1

Hello FFTCG Community, this is Jared Scott and I'd like to welcome you to the first part of our series about the All-Star Draft.  Although this format hasn't had much in the way of official events in North America, there have been tournaments in Japan that used it going back to Opus V when the All-Star Draft was first unveiled.  The All-Star Draft has become a very popular side event in our local circuit tournaments for several months now and it will be making it's first official, Square Enix-supported appearance in North America as part of the Reunion Petit Cup in January!

For this series, in Part 1 we'll be looking at what the All-Star Draft is, and what makes it a fun alternative to other formats.  Part 2 will dive into the choices Square Enix made when making their first card pool for the format back in Opus V.  Lastly, Part 3 will look at  how they chose to alter the card pool when implementing Opus VI, as well as how we used the information from their Opus V and Opus VI versions of the All-Star Draft to assemble our own version for Opus VII (while we wait for an official update from Square Enix).

Let's take a moment to do a quick primer on how standard drafts work in the Final Fantasy TCG for the uninitiated (or those who could use a refresher!).

• Each player receives 4 packs of 12 cards

• All players look at their first pack, choose a card to keep, and pass the remaining cards in the  pack to the next player until all cards from that round of packs have been distributed

• This process is repeated for all 4 packs

• Each player then builds a deck that must contain a minimum of 40 cards

• A player loses a match if they receive 6 points of damage (instead of 7)

• All other rules, including payment for abilities and to play cards from hand, are identical to Constructed Format

For maximum fun, have a full 8-player All-Star Draft in one big pod!

You may be asking: 'What makes the All-Star Draft a fun format?'  To which we would say - Good question!  First, it has the inherent benefits that come with being a limited format.  For example, when it comes to card availability, everyone is on equal ground.  The players don't have to own any cards to play in it, which is great for newer players, or those who don't own playsets of every card.  Second, players don't have to construct a deck or try to figure out the 'meta' ahead of time, each draft will be different and you can try to build the deck that you want without having to worry about what other players will be building.  Beyond that, All-Star Drafts improve on the standard draft format in the following ways:

1. Drafts are usually relatively expensive due to having to buy sealed product to run them, however the nature of the All-Star Draft means the cost to the players can be significantly lowered.
2. The pool of cards in this draft is completely controlled by whoever built it, which generally means assembling an elite squad of the best cards in the game from Opus 1 until now!
3. The limited format means that many strong cards which don't see play (due to the meta) get a new lease on life, giving players of any experience level the opportunity to use cards that normally aren't considered viable in competition.
4. There is only 1 copy of each card in the pool, which ensures that a greater variety of cards will be played in any given game (every deck is a Highlander deck!), and that decks need to be versatile and multi-faceted because they can't rely on any one given card or strategy.

So how is the All-Star Draft different from a Standard Draft?  Instead of opening sealed packs, the cards in this draft are taken from a curated list of 400 unique cards that span every set and promo released so far.  In other card games, this set of cards is sometimes referred to as a 'Cube'.  For our purposes (and because we love staying on-brand!), we like to call ours a Crystal Cube!

Each Crystal Cube can support an All-Star Draft for up to 8 players, and the 400 cards in it have no duplicates.  In order to run an All-Star Draft, someone needs to construct additional pylo.....er, a Crystal Cube.  This means taking an existing list (or coming up with your own) and assembling the 400 cards like some sort of Mega-Deck, since all cards in the pool will also need to use the same sleeves (unless you're one of those no-sleeve heathens....).  Before any drafting can happen, you then need to do one of the closest things we have to grinding XP in this game.....shuffle 400 cards in whatever way you best see fit.

Every day I'm shufflin'.

After that, the cards must be put into 'packs' of 12 cards with enough 'packs' for each player to receive 4 total.  At that point you follow the regular rules for drafting and give the players a chance construct decks.  In our personal opinion, one of the best parts of All-Star Draft is nobody has to take time out to sleeve their decks!  Since the Crystal Cube maxes out at 8 players, you simply have the players do 3 rounds of Swiss matchups and then call it a day.  It has become such a popular side event at our Circuit Tournaments that sometimes players are hoping they don't make it into the Top 8 so that they can play in the All-Star Draft!

If you'd like to try hosting an All-Star Draft, the main things you need are somebody to volunteer their cards for a Crystal Cube, and a card list to build it.  Parts 2 and 3 of this series will take a look at building card pools using the model of Square Enix's list.  In the mean time however, if you're looking for somewhere to start, you can check out the card pool we've been using:

All-Star Draft Card List (Opus VII Version)

Have any questions about All-Star Draft you'd like to see us cover? Let us know in the comments!  You can follow all of our FFTCG content at zodiacbraves.blogspot.com or go give us a Like over at facebook.com/ZodiacBravesFFTCG!