I covered the easiest format of all, Sealed Booster Pack, in my last article, and several Metagame.com writers have already covered basic Booster Draft. For the next few weeks, I’m going to begin with “easy” and work up to “challenging”—how does that sound? Today’s article will show you all the ins and outs of continuous Draft! It’s fast, easy, and one of the best ways I know of to get acquainted with the cards in a new set. Here we go!

For continuous Draft, you’ll follow the same deck and life point guidelines as you would for Booster Draft; namely, a 20-card minimum deck and starting each duel with 8000 life points. These instructions are for drafting with standard 9-card booster packs, not the 12-card packs from the reprint sets (Dark Beginning and Dark Revelation), or the 5-card Duelist Packs. If you want to draft with those, you’ll have to adjust the number of packs accordingly.

For each Draft pod, you need two duelists and six booster packs. This will work best if you use six packs of one expansion, particularly if you’re drafting from the newer releases. Once you’ve got your packs, you and your Draft partner should decide how many matches you’re going to play. As soon as that’s settled, the fun begins! Here’s how it works.

First, open all the packs without looking at them, and shuffle them into one face-down pile. You heard me. Don’t look at the cards as the packs are opened. Resist the temptation to peek and shuffle them up thoroughly. Trust me, you want the rares to be evenly distributed. Get all six packs—54 cards total—in a neat face-down stack on the table. Now throw away those wrappers so you’ve got some room to work and so you don’t look like a pair of slobs.

Next, decide who will draft first. You can do this any way you like: roll a die, flip a coin, play rock-paper-scissors, or decide based on who of you is taller. Each drafter will get to choose cards first over the course of the draft, so don’t worry, it’ll work out.

The player who drafts first should flip over the top four cards of the pile and place them face-up on the table. Then, he or she gets to choose one of the cards, leaving the rest where they are. The first card has been drafted! Now, the other player gets to choose, but since he or she goes second, and loses a bit of advantage, that player gets to choose two cards. The remaining card goes, by default, to the first player.

Now, repeat this process, alternating who goes first, until all the cards have been drafted. Then, build your decks and play!

This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to draft. Your card choices are limited to four each time, so it’s easier to make your selection, and no cards are being passed around. Short of an earthquake, a riot, or a large animal stampeding through the draft area, it’s next to impossible to mess up the card count. It’s also quite balanced, because while the player who drafts first might get the “best” single card, the player who goes second gets a better chance of choosing cards that will work well together and can stick the first player with the dud.

Since each player will be able to see what the other is choosing, the tactic of “make life hard for your opponent,” becomes a viable strategy. Sure, you want to get the cards that will work in your deck, but you also want to prevent your opponent from getting the cards that will work in his or her deck! You’ll need to keep track of what your opponent drafted, in addition to remembering what you picked up. You may have to make the choice between taking a card that will help you and grabbing a card that will help your opponent. Keep an eye on what he or she is choosing, so you can head off a potentially dangerous combo before it starts. As you move up to more complicated Draft formats, you’ll want to be able to do this, so here’s a great opportunity to practice the fine (and fun) art of, “Do unto your opponent before he or she can do unto you.” And while you’re dishing it out, remember that you’re going to have to take it as well.

You can do this as a fun, casual activity with a friend by going out and purchasing six booster packs. It’s cheaper than going to the movies (at least in New York) and a good way to brush up on some of those neglected skills. Continuous drafting goes beyond a quick, fun afternoon, though—it’s one of the best ways to learn the new cards in a set. If you buy by the box like many players do, you’ve got enough cards for four separate continuous Drafts, and you’ll get more out of the set if you try a continuous Draft or two than you will if you just rip open booster after booster, sorting out the rares while you sink slowly up to your eyebrows in shiny wrappers.

If you regularly playtest as a team, you’re probably purchasing multiple boxes of new expansions. Do yourself a favor and try continuous Draft with at least some of those booster packs. There isn’t a faster way to familiarize yourself with what’s in the set, and by playing with the cards instead of just looking through them, you’re going to find uses for them that you’d probably have missed otherwise. Draft, build, play, and then mix up the cards and do it over again until everyone feels familiar with the new set. Each major tournament that comes up features new ideas for both decks and tech cards, and everyone wants to find them first, so play with the new stuff while keeping part of your brain ticking away over possible Constructed ideas. If you take a break from testing your Constructed decks, you just might find the inspiration you were looking for.

Next week, I’ll be discussing “Solomon Draft,” which is also a lot of fun and will build on the decision-making skills that you developed with continuous Draft. You’ve got some advance notice, so grab a draft partner, get your hands on some packs (you were planning to buy cards this week anyway, right?), and have a go at continuous Draft. Be sure to return next week to get ready for Solomon Draft!