Magic: The Gathering Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, has revealed that the upcoming Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man set was “designed specifically for [the] new Pick Two draft format.”
When it was revealed that Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man would be a considerably smaller set compared to Magic’s other Standard-legal releases, many were quick to question the reasoning, but never received a clear answer until Rosewater made this Blogatog post last Friday.
Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has been talking about the new Pick Two Draft format since late June, but there hadn’t been any communication linking the format to a specific product – let alone a highly-anticipated Universes Beyond set – until now.
According to Rosewater, the Pick Two Draft format is basically the same as regular Draft, but requires half the number of participants (four) and, as the name implies, each player drafts two cards instead of one from each pack. These changes essentially streamline the drafting experience while also making it easier for events to fire. Also of note, due to the smaller set size, Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man will only have five major Draft archetypes, down from the usual 10.
While Pick Two Draft is already recognized as an official Magic format, there hasn’t been any word on if it will be featured as part of upcoming Premier Play or sanctioned local game store events.
