MTR 7.7 Booster Draft Procedures

All players must open and draft the same type of booster at the same time. Players open their first booster pack and count the cards face down, removing token cards, rules cards, and any other non-game cards. Players who receive an erroneous number of cards at any time must immediately notify a judge. Players choose one card from their current booster pack and then pass the remaining cards face down to the player on their left until all cards are drafted (Exception: When the Booster Draft consists of Double Masters boosters, players choose two cards for their first pick from each booster. All other Booster Draft rules remain the same). Once a player has removed a card from the pack and put it on top of their single, front face-down drafted pile, it is considered selected and may not be returned to the pack.

Players changing their minds can cause problems or provide cover for sleight of hand shenanigans. It’s a good idea to have players put the tip/token/basic land card face up to avoid non-lands accidentally being removed from the pack. Lands used to be removed from the packs, but occasionally packs will sometimes replace a basic land with non-basic lands.
Keeping the lands with the pack allows for a consistent draft experience.

Players may not reveal the front face of their card selections or the contents of their current packs to other participants in the draft and must make a reasonable effort to keep that information from the sight of other players. Players are not permitted to reveal hidden information of any kind to other participants in the draft regarding their own picks or what they want others to pick. (Exception: This does not apply to double-faced cards, both faces of which may be revealed at any time during a draft.)

Drafters should hold their cards so only they can view them. They may need to be reminded to keep their cards up.

If a player develops a case of wandering eyes, that’s bad. If you think they are doing so to get info on what’s in the next pack, please remove them from the event.

Players and teams may not look at their drafted cards between or during picks at Competitive and Professional Rules Enforcement Levels. At Regular Rules Enforcement Level, players are allowed to review their drafted cards between or during picks as long as they are holding no other cards at the same time. The Head Judge may choose to disallow this provided they announce it before the first draft. Between booster packs there is a review period in which players may review their picks.

If the draft is not being timed, and two players do not wish to make a pick before the other player, the player closer to providing the other player with the pack picks first. If the players are equidistant, then the player in the lower seat number picks first.

Even though players can look at their picks in Regular Rules Enforcement Level, they must still draft at a reasonable pace. Please reinforce to players that they need to keep their picks and pack separate. Players are given a specific amount of time to examine their picks between each pack. For specific timing please see MTR Appendix B.

The last part about pick order is to deal with double-faced cards. Let’s say player 5 is waiting to pick based on player X’s pick. If X is from 2 to 4, 5 picks first. If X is from 6 to 8, X picks first. If X = 1, then X picks first.

After the first pack is drafted and the review period completed, players open the next pack and draft in the same fashion, except that the direction of drafting is reversed—it now proceeds to the right. This process is repeated, reversing the direction of drafting for each booster pack until all cards in all booster packs are drafted.

If a player is unable or unwilling to continue drafting, but wishes to remain in the tournament, they are suspended from drafting and must construct a deck from whatever cards they have drafted thus far. For the remainder of the draft, their picks are skipped and the draft continues with one fewer player.

It is very rare to see “unable or unwilling” being applied, but can theoretically happen. If they are disqualified during a draft, the draft continues and skips over that seat.