I walked into Elite4Games last Saturday for a custom draft tournament. The format was created by the store manager, Ryan. I’ve done pack drafts in the past for things like Magic the Gathering. I had heard of “cube drafts” before but I have never played in one. There is something like 600 cards available in the custom format. The night before the event I was able to read 150 of them. I wasn’t feeling too good about my chances but I was sure I was about to have a good time.

Nine players showed up. There were a few of the usual suspects, three of which were sure to be very challenging opponents. A table was set aside with the cards and the draft began after we all rolled a twenty sided die to decide the “snake” order of the draft.

When it was our turn, we could do any of the following picks from the draft box twice:

• Pick three non-rulebox Pokémon
• Pick two trainer and/or special energies
• Pick one rulebox (EX, V, GX, etc) Pokémon

We would leave the draft table with 2-6 cards at time, and got 10 chances to choose the cards for our 60 card decks.

There were also some pretty cool house rules such as all rulebox Pokémon being treated as homogeneous and subject to any/all effects that could apply to them.

Unbeknownst to me, every single pick from the draft for every player was to be projected on the wall for all of the players to see. My jaw dropped as my first pick, “Squirtle, Squirtle, Squirtle, Squirtle, Wartortle, Wartortle” went up in bold for everyone to see. It was immediately obvious I was going for the 2012 Deluge Blastoise strategy. I can’t help but wonder if the two times I got absolutely thumped by grass decks had anything to do with this. There just isn’t anything you can do about a bad match up.

By the end of the day I had a very fun time. I came out with two wins, two losses and zero draws. I absolutely shattered my second game with a Cyrus and an active knock out on turn four. The victory felt indescribably good. Ryan, at one point, informed me that I nearly drafted his regional championship deck from “back in that day.” I suppose that means I drafted pretty well for my first time at his custom format.

If you’re local to Langford, I highly recommend checking out Ryan’s shop and attending one of these drafts. Ryan, with his 13 years of professional playing experience, creates these events with a lot of love for the cards and the game they’re made for.