Rotisserie Draft, Cube Sealed, and Team Cube Formats

A rotisserie draft lays the entire cube face up on the table and has players pick one card at a time, in snake order, until everyone has a deck. It is the slowest way to draft a cube and, for the right group, the most fun. Cube sealed is the fastest: deal everyone a pile and build. Team formats sit between, and turn an individual game into something a table does together.

A weekly group that only ever runs eight-player booster-style draft is missing some of the best nights a cube can offer. This article covers the three families of alternative formats, how to run each one, and which situations call for them. It assumes you already know how to run a standard cube draft.

How does cube sealed work?

Cube sealed is the simplest alternative. Shuffle the cube, deal each player a pool, and give them time to build.

Pool size. 90 cards per player is the common number, the equivalent of six packs, and it means a 540-card cube supports six players and a 360 supports four. Some groups deal 75 to stretch a smaller cube to more players. Fewer than 60 and the pools start to lack playables.

Build time. Thirty minutes is generous. Twenty is enough for players who know the cube.

Why run it. Three reasons:

1. Time. A draft takes 40 to 60 minutes before anyone shuffles a deck. Sealed takes five minutes to deal. When the group has two hours instead of four, sealed gets more games played.
2. New players. Drafting is a skill on top of the game. A new player at a sealed table only has to build a deck, which is a smaller ask. It suits a new-player night.
3. Odd numbers. Sealed works with any player count. Five people and a cube is an awkward draft and a fine sealed night.

What changes. Sealed decks are less focused than drafted ones. You get what the shuffle gave you, and two-color decks with a splash are normal. Aggro is weaker because you cannot assemble a curve on purpose; midrange with the best removal in your pool usually does well. Expect games to be grindier and slightly longer.

Sealed with a twist. Some groups run “sealed, then one pick”: after building, each player passes three cards they are not using to the left and takes three from the right. It adds a small draft element and rescues the worst pools.

How does rotisserie draft work?

Rotisserie is cube’s slow-food format. Every card is visible to everyone, and picks are made one at a time in snake order, 1 through 8 then 8 through 1, until each player has 45 cards.

Setup. Lay the whole cube face up, sorted by color and then by mana value or alphabetically, on as many tables as it takes. A 360 cube needs a lot of surface area. Many groups now run rotisserie on a shared spreadsheet or on a CubeCobra list instead, with one person marking cards as taken. Online rotisserie also lets the draft run over days, with each player having a time window per pick.

Picks. 45 picks per player is standard, which for 8 players is 360 cards, the whole cube. For a 540 cube with 8 players, you can run 45 picks and leave 180 cards undrafted, or run more picks. Fewer players means more picks each, if you want.

Time. A live rotisserie with 8 players and 45 picks is 360 individual decisions, each made with full information. Expect four to six hours if everyone is disciplined and longer if they are not. A pick clock of 30 to 60 seconds after the first few rounds keeps it moving. Online over a week removes the time problem entirely.

Why it is good. Rotisserie turns drafting into a game of perfect information. You know exactly what your opponents have taken and can read their lanes. You can cut a color on purpose, hate-draft the one card that beats you, or commit early to an archetype knowing nobody can accidentally take your pieces. Every pick is a public statement and the table talks about it, which is where the fun lives.

What changes. Decks are the best decks the cube can produce, because every player built with full knowledge. Expect combo decks to show up if your cube has the pieces, because a player who can see every piece can assemble them. Expect lanes to be fought over openly, with two players racing for the same deck and one of them pivoting late. Games are tighter than a normal draft, and more decks run clean two-color mana. Rotisserie etiquette. Decide the pick clock and the order in advance. Allow trash talk, forbid collusion. If a player cannot be present for a live pick, they may leave a short ranked list with a neighbor.

If this is useful, the newsletter sends more like it.

What team formats work with a cube?

Team formats are where a cube night stops being eight individual games and starts being one shared thing. Three worth knowing:

Team draft, 3 vs 3 or 4 vs 4. Seat players alternating by team around the draft table, so each pick passes to an opponent. Draft normally. Then each player plays one match against each member of the other team, and the team with more match wins takes it. The seating means every pass is to an enemy, which makes hate-drafting correct and makes the table louder. With 6 players, use 3 packs of 15 from a 270-card stack; with 8, the standard 360.

Two-Headed Giant. Teams of two share a 30-life total and take turns together, each with their own deck. Draft as pairs: a two-player team drafts together, passing as one seat, and builds two decks from a shared pool. Four teams make an eight-player draft. Rules reminders that trip people up: teammates share a turn and can block for each other, each player draws and plays lands separately, and “each opponent” effects hit both heads. It is the best format for pairing a veteran with a new player.

Rochester-style team pick. Open a pack face up, and teams take turns selecting one card each until the pack is gone. Slower than normal draft and fully open. Rarely used now except as a novelty, but it combines well with team play because every pick is visible to your partner.

How do you choose a format for the night?

A rule of thumb that has served us: run standard draft three weeks out of four, and use the fourth for something else. The variety keeps regulars interested, and the alternative formats each pull in a different kind of player. Sealed brings new people. Rotisserie brings the ones who like to think. Two-Headed Giant brings couples and friends who want to play together, not against each other.

What about larger cubes and multi-pod nights?

A 540-card cube can run a 360-card standard draft and a 180-card sealed side pool at the same time, which is one way to handle twelve players with one box. Running two pods from one cube is its own logistics problem, covered in running two draft pods at once.

A cube built for rotisserie specifically tends to be larger and to include more narrow combo pieces, since a full-information draft can find them. If you only run rotisserie once a year, draft the normal list; it will produce more interesting decks than you expect.

FAQ

How long does a rotisserie draft take?

Live, four to six hours for eight players making 45 picks each. Online over several days, with a time window per pick, it fits around normal life and is how most groups run it now.

How many cards per player for cube sealed?

90 cards is standard, the same as six packs. 75 works if you need to stretch a smaller cube to more players.

Can you play Two-Headed Giant with a cube?

Yes. Teams of two draft as one seat with a shared pool, build two decks, and play with a shared 30-life total. It is a good way to pair an experienced player with a new one.

What is the difference between rotisserie and Rochester draft?

Rotisserie lays out the whole cube and players pick from everything in snake order. Rochester opens one pack face up at a time and players pick from that pack in order. Rotisserie is slower and has full information across the entire pool.

One box, many nights

The same 360 cards can be a fast sealed league, a six-hour rotisserie event, or a Two-Headed Giant night where nobody plays alone. The box does not change. The way people sit around it does. The game is the reason. The people are the point.

Subscribe to The Ludarium newsletter for new pieces on cube formats and the groups that play them. In Indianapolis, Cube Commonwealth, our cube group, is relaunching as part of The Ludarium; subscribers hear first when the first night is set.