Howdy, folks, and welcome to HowWL! Today we’re going to talk about the Crystal Cup draft format, and how it differs from other draft formats that have been popular in the past. Not every CC is going to have draft, but it will be present for several of them, and we’ve found it to be a very fun format worth exploring in detail. There are several things that make Six Pack Competitive, or SPC, unique, and we’re going to delve into the implications of each. All examples are going to be from Opus VII, but everything we discuss here is valid across all sets. We’ve even Chaos Drafted Opuses 1-6 with SPC rules and had a great time! From my experience in testing so far, this is an exciting format with a lot of room for tough strategic decision making, so lets take a close look at what SPC means for you!

What defines Six Pack Competitive?

Two more packs than normal

Backups don’t have any special rules

Pods consist of eight players

You may be paired against people who were not in your draft

What can we take away from these changes?

The move from 4 to 6 packs increases your pool of cards dramatically. You get two more packs to pull bombs from which raises the average power level of each deck. Also, you move from 48 cards to 72. Being able to cut 32 cards is an unprecedented amount of flexibility. You are able to make many more speculative picks, like taking an Exdeath pack 4 without having taken any other lightning cards. You are able to explore an element more before deciding whether or not to commit to it. You are able to take a card that is only strong when supported, like Sazh before seeing any Ifrits. You are able to forgo crucial cards for stronger cards early, like taking a Time Mage over a Yeul deep into an early pack even if you have no backups yet.

You have a lot more room for exploration. You are able to change elements further into the draft. Two and a half entire packs worth of cards won’t make your deck, it’s worth it to use those to really explore what your options are. You tend to pick strong cards from multiple elements, so picking up cards like Shantotto and Moogle (FFCC) can help you to play these as minor splashes. For Opus VII splashing, keep in mind that the monsters with good discard effects like Bomb and Goblin are very useful, as they are still usable even when you’ve drawn no other cards in their element. This doesn’t apply to Coeurl and Sahagin, however, as Coeurl has no targets and Sahagin can choose only Ramza. Since those two have to rely on their break power, they need a greater amount of elemental support.

On the other hand, with six packs it is easier to force an element that is being taken by your neighbors. While this can be a risky strategy, as many of the strong cards you want will be taken before you can get to them, if you have a couple of serious bombs from early in packs it can be worth it to shore them up despite a restricted selection. Take this example: You start off the draft with a first pick Lann, take an Ifrit second, and see no good fire cards until you open pack two and see Reynn, but also a strong card in an element you haven’t moved into yet. She fits into the two fire cards you have, and you can probably pick up a Fritt or two. This is an interesting decision, as you know Fire is going to be cut hard for packs 3 and 5. Do you risk being able to get the cards you need in the even packs? Or do you take the safer route of moving into a new element? I will always advocate being willing to move off of your first pick, as finding the open elements will usually lead to a stronger deck, but it’s worth keeping this in mind when you start off with multiple high-level cards in one element.

Another thing to keep in mind is that since you are able to create a much stronger foundation in any given element, cards like Tidus L or Ramza H which require a huge commitment to one element end up being much stronger in SPC than in other limited formats. Also, since you will see so many more cards, synergies that require specific cards become much more reliable. Playing Hope for free off of Bartholomew. Finding lots of Warriors of Light to enable Dusk. Buffing Galdes with Cu Chaspel. The Tidus C + Exdeath loop. These sorts of combos will be easier to pull together, and cards that need support rise in value the more picks you get.

With each player having a much wider selection of cards to build their deck from, this also minimizes the damage done by hatedrafting. Typically hatedrafting is already a very weak move, as you skip improving your deck by one pick and only weaken the deck of a single other person, one you may not even play against. In SPC, the people you are passing to have two entire additional packs to continue improving their decks, making it more and more likely that the card you stopped them from getting wasn’t even important. Moving on to another aspect of the Crystal Cup format, the crosspod pairings, hatedrafting continues to lose value. Instead of harming one of your seven potential opponents, you now have thirty one other players, and the impact of removing a single card from such a massive pool is almost negligible. To this end, if playing at an actual CC event, it pays to try and work with the rest of your pod to make all of your decks as good as possible, as slightly fewer than 1/4th of your potential opponents are in your draft. (It pays to do this anyways, but especially at CC.)

So what else is different in SPC than other limited formats I may be used to?

Many of us have a strong background in prerelease formats, whether with the Classic “backups dull for any element” or with Simplified’s “backups may be played without matching their element,” and as we moved into drafting we took these rules with us. However, in competitive events typically these are not in effect. SPC at the Crystal Cups will not use them, so if you’re used to the flexibility of these rulesets it will pay to think critically about how to draft without them. These rules were designed to get around the unreliability of limited pools, however with six packs to draft from we can get much more stable builds than ever before, and no longer need them as a crutch to make functional decks.

It isn’t unreasonable at all to end up with a two element deck, or to have one or two minor splashes. What you want to focus on is a strong base in one or two elements. Make sure you have consistency. If going with a one element core with multiple secondary colors, bare minimum half your deck should be that element. Earth is a great core for Opus VII, as Shantotto and Moogle (FFCC) do a great job of keeping the rest of your deck consistent. When doing a two element core, splashing more than eight or nine cards is a dangerous prospect. I feel though that most of the time the strongest decks will be tight two element affairs with no splash. It is hard to beat the dependability they enjoy, and you need a good reason to deviate from that norm.

If you have previously drafted in the standard 4 player pods, doubling the player count will also affect things. Where before you would see each pack three times (12 cards divided by 4 players) now you will only see the first four packs a second time, and each of them will be very picked through. Wheeling a card around the table is almost impossible in SPC, so don’t ever rely on a card making it back. Even weaker cards are prone to being snapped up. Let’s say you start a draft taking Chelinka out of a pack with Latov in it. Someone very well might take Latov just to make sure he or she has enough sources of fire CP (also this would be a great signal that fire is not open and that you should be in a different element) To that end, if you see a great card make it all the way around the table, you have a strong signal that the card’s element is not well represented and you’ll likely get several strong cards late if you move into it.