By Zach Shephard

In Auto Assault TCG constructed play, there are many parameters for building a deck. For example, the cards you use can’t conflict with your vehicle’s Faction or Class. But what if this rule was removed? What if you could put a Doom Cannon on a Human bike, Mutant van, or Scav Sucka? All of these (save for the last one – a Sucka with a Doom Cannon simply isn’t safe) can occur when entering the world of Auto Assault draft format.

In a draft, players do not bring decks to the tournament, but instead start by taking a seat around the virtual table in a circle. They each open a sealed booster pack, select a card they’d like to keep, and pass the remainders to the player at their side. Everyone pulls cards from the small collections sent their way until all of the packs have been exhausted of their contents. At this point, another pack is opened and the process is repeated. This continues until players have drafted everything from three rounds of booster packs.

After the drafting procedure is complete, players are given fifteen minutes to construct their decks. This is where the beauty of the draft comes into play – it challenges competitors to think on their feet, rather than bringing a finely tuned deck to the table.

As mentioned earlier, the deck construction rules in a draft are not identical to those in constructed play. For starters, the minimum size of a draft deck is twenty-five cards (half of what you’re used to). Secondly, there are no restrictions based on factions or classes. That’s right, you can use any combination of cards you want, making the best deck possible with what you drafted.

Now the questions many of you may have are, “What if I don’t draft a vehicle or missions? Aren’t those essential to playing the game? Why does reading this article make my feet itch?”

As far as your podiatric ailment goes, Worlds Apart scientists are working around the clock to create a powerful ointment. This ointment will do nothing to relieve the itching, but it is lemon flavored, so that’s a plus.

In regards to the question concerning missions and a vehicle, those are cards you may want to look into drafting as the packs are passed around. However, if you are incapable of doing so (or simply choose not to), some generic vehicles and missions will be provided for you. The Biomek Proxy Vehicle, Human Proxy Vehicle, and Mutant Proxy Vehicle are all vehicles with twenty speed, twenty accuracy, eight armor, one damage, and no special abilities. If you didn’t pick up a vehicle during the draft, you’ll be using one of these in your deck.

For missions, you’ll have one of each difficulty ready to go, all with the same game text: “When you play this, deal 1 damage to your vehicle.” So, although you will have missions provided regardless of what you draft, you might want to snag a few as the cards go ‘round, just to save some points of damage on your vehicle once game-time comes.

Deck construction aside, the game play of draft is no different than constructed – save for one exception. In a deck so small (remember, twenty-five-card minimum), most players wouldn’t be able to finish a game before they deplete their decks and run out of resources. In draft format, once your draw deck is gone, your discard pile will be reshuffled to create a new deck. But be forewarned – this will only happen for each player once per game.

Drafting is an excellent means of testing one’s skill, putting all players on equal ground in terms of card pool. As if this varied form of competition isn’t enough to entice you, there’s one last thing you should know – every card you draft is added to your permanent collection. After the tournament is over, you get to keep all of the cards you picked up along the way, in addition to whatever prize support you end up with.

Note that the above is only true for live drafts – for our beta test draft weekend, you won’t keep any cards used for draft. However, you’ll be able to provide us with valuable feedback and have fun at the same time!

You can create decks with mixed factions and classes, compete on an even playing field, and build your collection in the process. Is there anything not to like about draft format?