Solomon Drafts are conducted with only two people, but instead of passing packs, all players put the cards from their boosters into a common pile. Then each player takes turns drawing eight cards and separates them into two face-up piles. The other player picks which pile they want and the player who separated them gets the other pile. Then, they switch roles and continue until all of the cards have been drafted. While this doesn’t quite have the mystery of a regular draft, it does make players make hard decisions before the game starts and tests each player’s ability to correctly gauge the value of their cards.
The Winston Draft is another two player favorite. In the Winston Draft, like in the Solomon Draft, each player’s boosters are shuffled together into a single pile. Three cards are drawn face down from that one to make three smaller piles. Each player in turn may look at each of the smaller piles in turn and either take that pile or pass to look at the next pile. If they take it, another face-down card is taken from the main pile to put in its place to start a new pile. If they opt to look at the next pile, they still add another face down card from the main pile to that one. If the player doesn’t want any of the three piles, they take a single card from the top of the main pile.
Winston Draft preserves quite a bit of mystery of drafting while still being interactive. However, it is slow and slightly more random than a standard draft.
Winchester Draft is much quicker, but loses quite a bit of that mystery. In it, each player has their own pile made up of their own booster packs. When the draft begins each player puts two cards from their main pile into two face-up piles in front of them (making four face-up piles, two for each player.). Each player in turn then chooses a pile—theirs or an opponents—and takes it. Then, on each subsequent turn, the players switch order and put another two cards from their main piles onto their own face-up piles (making a new pile if the old one was selected last turn) and choose one to add to their card pool, repeating until all main piles are empty and all cards are chosen.
The Continuous Draft (no direct link) is the final two player draft. It also features three booster packs. Each player opens their own booster packs, but unlike the Winston and Solomon Drafts, they peruse their cards before hand and choose one to put aside; it won’t be in this draft and it won’t be in this game. Then, with a 44 card pile, the first player reveals the top four cards of their pile and chooses one. The other player then chooses two of the remaining cards, and the first player takes the last. The other player then reveals four cards from their pile and the process repeats itself until all cards have been chosen. The Continuous Draft is quite quick and open. In fact, in the format it suggests drafting with other players before matches. This is great for a mercurial draft environment for players who are eager to see what a new set or play environment holds.
Back Draft (again, no direct link) is a fun twist on any drafting format. Instead of drawing the best possible, you take the worst cards you can. Whenever you face off against an opponent, the two of you switch card pools and they make the best deck they can with your terrible cards and the both of you try to win. Back Draft sees rarely-used cards hitting the field and clunky, non-synergistic decks trying to take each other down.
While luck is a larger factor in Limited formats than it is in non-Limited formats, the ability to judge cards for their worth and anticipate the strategies of others is far more potent than it would be in other games. It’s also less susceptible to net decking and simply following a metagame, though powerful cards do tend to be powerful cards, regardless of what decks one plays for or against.
Naturally, Limited and Set-based card pools work with one another. Random packs of cards from a specific set can be found for $4(+) and work with most of these variations. They're transparent and quite equivocal and work very well with the stated rules to create controlled environment for sanctioned play.
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