Drafting is one of the craziest Magic: the Gathering formats you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home.
You’ll have fun watching as your friends put together random decks from the cards available for the draft. The results range anywhere from hilarious to impressive.
There are many different ways to create the card pool for a draft, but one way is to purchase an entire booster box which has 36 packs in it. But with so many to choose from, how do you know which one to get?
In this guide, we’ll show you what we feel are some of the best MTG booster boxes for drafts.
We’ll go over:
- What features to potentially factor in to your decision
- Our selections for the best MTG booster boxes for drafts
- The pros and cons of picking each booster box
- Our overall top recommendation for your draft
Let’s dive in.
Features to Consider
For most, drafting at home is a casual event. You get together with a group of several friends, share snacks, and laugh together at the random combinations you come up with.
Because of this, we’re recommending what we think are some of the more fun recent booster boxes. Some of the factors we’re looking at are:
- Affordability
- Theme
- Multi-color support
Affordability
Because drafting is usually more casual and oriented around fun, you’ll probably not want to spend a whole lot on your booster box.
This is particularly true if you don’t foresee yourself using the cards from the draft for your own collection. If the cards aren’t going to see a lot of use, there’s no reason to pull out all the stops when it comes to price.
Of course, you can also reduce your cost by asking that your friends chip in to the initial purchase.
However you decide to go about it, it’s certainly not unreasonable to think about how much the box will cost you before choosing.
Theme
Each booster box has some kind of theme that its card draw from in both function and art.
Innistrad, for instance, has a dark and gothic theme. It’s full of terrifying monsters like vampires, werewolves, and zombies that made it immensely popular.
Battlebond is another example of a set with an interesting theme. It focused on mechanics that worked best in games where people play in pairs rather than in a free-for-all.
These themes are important to consider for your draft. You can think about which ones you or your friends are more interested in.
If you’re planning to save the cards from the box for your own use, you may also want to examine which themes work best with decks you plan to make or are currently using.
Multi-Color Support
While it’s oftentimes easiest to make a mono-color deck, you can’t always rely on that possibility in a draft. Other players will likely snipe the cards you need for a color before you can take them.
For that reason, you’ll usually end up playing two or more colors in your draft deck. Two is normally the sweet spot here.
Because of that, sets that include guilds or feature a lot of multi-color cards will make your draft much easier. Some of these include boxes like Dragon’s Maze, which has all ten guilds in it.
Best MTG Booster Boxes for Drafts
Battlebond
Two-headed giant is a particularly fun format to play, especially if there are beginners at the table. Instead of pitting everyone against each other, players can compete in pairs – and Battlebond was designed specifically for this purpose.
Consider a Battlebond booster box if you have a lot of couples or beginners at your table, or just want to see what playing in teams is like.
Pros:
- Specifically designed to allow players to compete in teams
- Focuses on multi-player games
- Has a few valuable reprints in it, like Doubling Season
Cons:
- If you’re not playing in pairs, some of the mechanics in the cards may not be as useful
- A little more on the costly side
Return to Ravnica
With five of the two-color guilds included, Return to Ravnica is a solid choice for a draft. You’ll find a lot of two-color support in this box, so when you’re forced to build a deck with a color you didn’t anticipate, you won’t be backed into a corner.
Pros:
- Five guilds are included, so there’s a lot of dual color options
- You’ll have the possibility of making some of your money back with valuable shock lands cards
- An economical set that won’t cost you too much
Cons:
- You won’t have as many choices for focusing on only one color – you may be forced to choose a two-color deck
Unstable
This set was specifically designed to be drafted. As one of the three “Un-sets” made in Magic: the Gathering, it’s full of fun jokes and amusing mechanics that will likely have you and your friends laughing for the duration of the game.
Pros:
- Hilarious mechanics you won’t find anywhere else
- Lands in this set have stunningly beautiful artwork
- Not too costly
Cons:
- Aside from the lands, you will not be able to use Unstable cards in any other deck. They are designed only for joke use.
Dragon’s Maze
You’ll get all ten two-color guilds in Dragon’s Maze. Because of that, these booster boxes are absolutely fantastic for building multi-color decks.
Pros:
- All ten guilds are available, so you won’t be limited in multi-color options.
- You have the chance of pulling expensive shock lands cards that have a high resale value.
- Very affordable
Cons:
- Because it focuses on guilds, you won’t have as many single-color choices if you find yourself favoring one color over another.
Conspiracy
As a set created for drafting, Conspiracy is remarkably well-balanced. If you find yourself backed into a corner with your colors, you’ll have options to choose from – and many will be useful outside of your draft deck, too.
Pros:
- Specifically created for drafting with mechanics that will make draft decks function smoothly
- Inexpensive
Cons:
- Because it’s designed for drafting, some of the mechanics in Conspiracy are not useful for non-draft decks
Wrap Up
To begin with, all the sets in this list are fantastic for a draft with your friends. You’ll get a lot out of any one of them.
But if we had to recommend one of them over the others, we’d suggest Conspiracy. That’s because it was a set created with drafting in mind, and despite its age, it’s still a fairly affordable option – especially if you split the cost with your friends.