Hey all,

This discussion came up about the God packs, though it seems the official line is to replace the packs, not to mention they're clearly a non-standard pack. I tried searching as I thought this may have come up during Modern Masters' heyday but didn't see anything.

At a regular REL draft, let's say a player was to open a booster pack 1 that was valuable enough that they wanted to drop (let's say Athreos/Foil Athreos for the current JOU format, or the fabled Goyf/Foil Goyf MMA pack), but they instead requested to be sold another pack to replace that pack so as to stay in the draft. Everyone at the table is ok with this as it means it stays an ideal 8-person draft, there's no byes, and the store owner is happy as the draft stays sanctioned as opposed to an unsanctioned 7-man draft.

As the judge is that an ok decision to agree to? It doesn't really have an effect the draft as it's pack 1 and no packs have been passed, and would only be acceptable in these rare circumstances (no “I opened bad cards, I want another pack” deals).

The difficulty I do see of course is where's the cut off. If I say yes to that, what about *any* rare/foil rare combo pack.

Thanks!

The rules already allow the player the option to drop if they deem the cards too valuable to pass, and the Pantheon Packs are considered unusual product in how they are handled. I don't like the idea of adding this third option at the descretion of the judge.

You already raise the valid point of where the line should be drawn, and that this can clearly be abused for

Originally posted by John Winter:

“I opened bad cards, I want another pack”

So now the judge has to decide whether the opened cards are valuable enough for this decision, whether they are good enough to not pull shenanigans, and whether all players are seriously OK with that. Seems like a burden to me.

Also, this only works for pack 1, not for any subsequent pack, so it's a fix that rarely will work (if it were allowed).

So no, I would not be OK with that…but I like your idea to search for better customer service!

Those God packs differ from standard packs in their distribution of rares, uncommons, commons. Other such non-standard packs - say, all uncommons, or commons only without a rare or uncommon, or miscut cards - should also be replaced with standard product.

The other examples you cited are not OK to allow such a swap - as you noted, it's not good to have the option to say “hmmm, don't like my first pick options, guess I'll buy a replacement pack”. And the difference between that and the “I want to keep these really good cards” is entirely too arbitrary.

Please note that

Originally posted by John Winter:

the official line is to replace the packs

is not entirely accurate. It's a recommendation, it's the choice Wizards has made for the events where they are the TO, and it's what will likely happen in many cases. It is NOT, however, the “official line”. The official line - as I posted in two other threads, is “it is a decision for the TO”.

Excellent, thanks for the input! Luckily (or unluckily?) the closest we've ever come to this where I play was a Purphorus/Foil Stormbreath on the Theros release FNM and the player opted to just continue drafting.