Lorcana Draft: picking cards and building your deck
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In a Disney Lorcana Draft, you select cards from boosters passed around a table and then build using your selections. The deck has a 35-card minimum, may use any number of inks and is not limited to four copies of a card. Those exceptions do not let you add cards brought from home.
The tournament rules checked here require at least four boosters per player. Passing goes left for the first booster, right for the second and continues alternating between boosters. Understanding the procedure before sitting down leaves more time for evaluating cards and building a functional deck.
Your starting product and final pool
The organiser chooses the sets and gives each participant the same number of boosters from each selected set. You do not need to arrive with a Constructed deck: your pool is created during selection. Confirm the product and event instructions before opening anything.
Players are seated in groups called pods. Their size is at the organiser's discretion, with the normal guidelines recommending as close to eight players as possible and at least six. Do not rearrange seats yourself to sit beside a friend or change who passes cards to you.
With four boosters containing twelve draftable cards each, a player would finish with 48 cards. That calculation depends on the product. Check how many cards actually take part rather than transferring the number to an event using different materials or announced special rules.
Your final pool consists of the cards you selected throughout the process, not the cards you initially opened. A card from another player's first booster can join your pool through passing. Likewise, many cards from your original boosters will become part of other players' selections.
Selecting and passing in the correct order
For the first booster, choose one card and pass the remainder left. Take the cards arriving from your right, choose one and pass the remainder left again. Continue until every card from that round of boosters has been selected.
Begin the next booster only when instructed. Pass right for the second booster, left for the third and right for the fourth. Direction changes between boosters, not after every individual selection from the same booster.
| Booster in the sequence | Passing direction | Keep these separate |
|---|---|---|
| First | Left | Your picks and the packet still being passed |
| Second | Right | Your picks and the packet still being passed |
| Third | Left | Your picks and the packet still being passed |
| Fourth | Right | Your picks and the packet still being passed |
Maintain a pace compatible with the table. If someone falls behind or packets arrive out of order, alert the organiser instead of improvising a repair. Passing the wrong way can leave several players with incorrect card counts even when your own pile looks normal.
Follow timing and selection-review instructions. The official tournament rules provide pick timings where these are used. They also prohibit taking or consulting notes during drafting and Limited construction, so learn your criteria beforehand rather than relying on a written cheat sheet at the table.
Evaluating a card before picking it
Read cost, inkability, strength, willpower, lore value and ability. High rarity may accompany a powerful card, but it does not explain whether you can play it on time or supply the support it needs. Evaluate the text within your developing pool instead of choosing solely by shine.
Early in a draft, independently useful cards often offer more flexibility than pieces requiring a narrow combination. That is a construction consideration, not an absolute rule. A sufficiently strong payoff can justify seeking support when the draft product contains enough realistic enablers.
If a card requires a character classification, item or other condition, count the enablers you already have and those you have seen. Do not evaluate it as if the requirement always happens. A spectacular reward without reliable activation can perform worse than a simpler card.
Consider how your future deck wins. It needs to gain lore and respond to the opponent's plan. Selecting only strong challengers can leave too little lore pressure; selecting only lore-focused characters can leave too few ways to protect them or recover after losing the board.
Unlimited inks do not mean unlimited resources
Draft allows more than Constructed's two inks, but ink costs still apply. You can include a card from a third ink without creating a colour-source problem. You still need enough inkable cards and a workable sequence of costs to play the deck.
Lorcana does not require a separate coloured source for each ink type. Adding a third or fourth ink therefore is not the same as splashing coloured mana in another game. The usual resource issue is whether you can develop ink and act on time, rather than finding specific coloured sources.
There is no universal non-inkable count that guarantees a good draft deck. Examine the actual combination. If several of your strongest selections are non-inkable, adding more can create opening hands with attractive options but no reliable way to develop resources.
When choosing between similar cards, consider what the pool needs now. An inkable low-cost card can solve more problems than another expensive threat when high costs are already plentiful. That choice follows your selections rather than a generic ranking based on rarity alone.
Building the 35-card deck
Sort cards by cost and separate non-inkables first. Identify early characters, lore generation, interaction and later threats. The goal is a possible sequence of useful plays, rather than a collection of everything that appears individually powerful.
With a 48-card pool, building 35 leaves thirteen out. That subtraction shows why selecting a card does not oblige you to play it. Some excluded picks may have preserved options early, or become less useful when stronger or more suitable cards arrived later.
The minimum is not a maximum, but extra cards reduce how frequently you draw a particular included piece. If you play more than 35, identify the improvement the expansion provides. Difficulty making cuts does not explain how those additions make the deck more consistent.
Repeated copies do not have Constructed's four-copy limit. You may include more if they belong to your pool. Do not turn that exception into permission to add matching copies from your collection: the freedom concerns quantities of drafted cards, not the source of the materials.
Check the final pile against the authorised pool before registering it. A familiar card accidentally mixed in from a deck box remains an external card even when it appears in the same set. Keeping your personal cards physically separate during the event prevents avoidable confusion.
Testing the plan on paper before the event
Imagine a pool containing many expensive characters and very few two- or three-cost options. Its best cards may look impressive, but the deck can lose initiative for several turns. During construction, find pieces that let you participate while developing enough ink for later plays.
Now imagine early lore-focused characters without tools for handling resilient opposing characters. You may need interaction or characters capable of contesting the board. The solution is not simply raising every cost; it is identifying a practical way to cover that specific weakness.
Review song requirements and other synergies too. Do not count an option as available if your deck lacks the characters or conditions needed to use it. Pick advice becomes meaningful only when the completed deck can exploit the suggested interaction.
Before submitting the list, count again. Check that cards belonging to a packet being passed never became mixed with your selections. If the pool contains an apparent error, call the organiser before trying to fix it yourself; an informal swap can create another problem.
Differences from Sealed and Constructed
Sealed uses assigned boosters without the circulating selection procedure and ordinarily has a 40-card minimum. Draft asks you to choose while packs circulate and build from those choices, with a 35-card minimum. Applying Sealed's minimum to Draft can force unnecessary cards into the deck.
Constructed uses a prepared list with a 60-card minimum and ink and copy restrictions. Those construction rules should not be transferred to Draft. Card functioning during games still requires normal reading: construction freedom does not change how characters challenge, sing or activate abilities.
At Entry-level events, pairings can include players from other pods; Competitive Draft pairs players within their own pod under the rules. Confirm the announced level and procedure. Do not assume your only opponents will be the two neighbours who passed cards directly to you.
Frequently asked questions
Can a Draft deck use three or more inks?
Yes. Constructed's two-ink restriction does not apply to this Limited format. Still review costs and inkability: freedom to include colours does not guarantee that your opening hand can develop the resources needed to play them.
Can I add cards from home if my pool is weak?
No. Build from the pool obtained through the authorised Draft. Removing the four-copy limit does not permit external cards or trading selections with another participant during construction. Keep collection cards separate from event materials.
Must I play every card I selected?
No. You select a pool, then build a deck containing at least 35 cards from it. Other selections can stay outside the deck according to usefulness and event instructions. They cannot be replaced with cards obtained outside the authorised pool.