Gavin Verhey brought Wizards of the Coast (WotC) Play Design member Melissa DeTora on Good Morning Magic today to demonstrate how to play Booster Blitz.
This quick and easy way to play Magic only requires each person to have a booster pack. Instead of starting with a deck or making one from a larger pool of cards like Draft or Sealed, each player opens a pack, makes four hands of three cards, then battles the piles against each other until someone wins two matches. The twist is each player starts with five life and has unlimited mana.
This variant of play has been around for a while often with other names, but lends itself to be a great way to crack some packs with a friend. Verhey and DeTora explain what to look for when making three-card hands and how card drawing and mana ramp aren’t strong in this format, though finding mana sinks or infinite combos are thanks to the unlimited mana rule. By making four hands, players get to discard the basic land and other cards that don’t function well in the format, leaving four stronger hands to be created.
The two cap the video by playing a match of Booster Blitz to prevent any confusion with the rules or game flow.