Draft Mode

Draft was added early 2022 as a new game mode which, unlike Brawl, is made for everyone by putting every player on a level-playing field, regardless of their Fortress Level or card collection.

Synopsis

In a nutshell, the draft mode is an event where players compete in a series of matches with a unique deck that gets “drafted” specifically for the event. Cards may get swapped or upgraded after every match, leading to previously unseen decks and hopefully some different strategies from your typical ladder gameplay.

The draft runs weekly from Monday to Wednesday (therefore without overlap with the Brawl). Each player is able to play up to 3 draft “sessions” in order to get rewards during that timeframe. After which, it is still possible to play draft mode until the event ends, but without rewards — just for fun (while still earning coins for victories, as usual).

A session ends when the player wins 6 matches or loses 3 times, which ever comes first, leading to sessions lasting between 3 and 8 matches.

Terminology

• Session: A series of up to 8 matches ending with the player having lost 3 times, or the player having won 6 matches, based on the same drafted deck.
• Entry card: A special resource enabling the player to start a draft session.

How to enter

Only players with at least 11 base health can participate in the draft mode.

A draft session costs 1 “entry card”. Entry cards are special resources which are necessary to start a draft session. A player can have a maximum of 3 entry cards at a given time — that’s the upper cap for that resource and they do not expire so they can be saved from one week to the next. Entry cards can be obtained the following ways:

• An entry card can be collected freely once a week by watching an ad in the card shop tab.
• Entry cards can be bought for a few dollars. One entry card +  100 coins costs $2.99, two entry cards +  300 coins for $4.99.
• An entry card can be skipped altogether by paying  600 coins to start a draft session.

Rewards

The content of the chest retrieved at the end of a draft session depends on how many matches the player won, between 0 and 6 (as well as whether or not they own the Premium Pass). Here is the content of the 7 different chests:

• 0 win:  2 common cards +  1 rare card (+  50 coins +  1 fusion stones with Premium Pass)
• 1 win:  3 common cards +  2 rare cards +  1 epic card +  1 fusion stones (+  100 coins +  1 fusion stones with Premium Pass)
• 2 wins:  4 rare cards +  2 epic cards +  2 fusion stones (+  100 coins +  1 fusion stones with Premium Pass)
• 3 wins:  4 rare cards +  2 epic cards +  3 fusion stones +  150 coins (+  100 coins +  1 fusion stones +  1 epic card with Premium Pass)
• 4 wins:  4 epic cards +  2 legendary cards +  4 fusion stones (+  150 coins +  1 fusion stones +  1 epic card with Premium Pass)
• 5 wins:  5 epic cards +  2 legendary cards +  5 fusion stones +  250 coins (+  250 coins +  2 fusion stones +  1 legendary card with Premium Pass)
• 6 wins:  4 epic cards +  3 legendary cards +  6 fusion stones +  600 coins (+  400 coins +  3 fusion stones +  1 legendary card with Premium Pass)

Additionally, it is worth noting that victories will yield  10 coins + an additional  10 coins for watching an ad or for having the Premium Pass, regardless of the league of the player.

Matchmaking

Players are matched based on the amount of battles they have done within their session. So players having fought 1 time will be matched with other players having fought only 1 match so far.

The pools widen for higher number of matches to make sure players can find opponents: so players played 5, 6 or 7 times are all in the same matchmaking pool.

This is important because the base health grows throughout matches (regardless of their outcome). All players start at 10 base health, and every match increases it by 1. This means the base health can never go above 17 (for the last match).

Drafting a deck

Drafting a deck is done at the beginning of the draft session and consists of picking a total of 12 cards, each time from a set of 3 different options.

Cards are always drafted at level 1, and all cards from the game can be drafted, regardless whether the player owns them or not. This truly puts all players on a level-playing field.

The draws happen in that order:

1.  3 legendary cards from different factions, resulting in a faction choice
2.  3 epic cards from your faction, resulting in an archetype choice
3.  3 rare cards with a mana cost of 3- from faction + neutral
4.  3 rare cards with a mana cost of 4- from faction + neutral
5.  3 rare cards from faction + neutral
6.  3 rare cards from faction + neutral
7.  3 common cards with a mana cost of 3- from faction + neutral
8.  3 common cards with a mana cost of 4- from faction + neutral
9.  3 common cards from faction + neutral
10.  3 common cards from faction + neutral
11.  3 epic cards from faction + neutral
12.  3 legendary cards from the neutral faction

Note that for all rolls where the pool of cards is the current faction + the neutral faction, there will be at least one card from your faction, and at least one neutral card amongst the 3. This makes sure a roll doesn’t offer 3 neutral or 3 faction cards.

Leveling up cards

With every match, it is possible to refine the deck to make it more competitive. Regardless of the outcome of a match, it offers the ability to level up 3 cards from the deck.

Which cards can be upgraded is also drafted. That means each upgrade gets picked amongst 3 cards. There is also some logic to avoid the same card being upgraded on a loop while all other cards stay level 1. So all in all, the deck should improve somewhat uniformly throughout a session.

Replacing cards

Losing a match also provides the ability to replace a card from the deck. Because of the 3 loss limit, it is only possible to replace 2 cards in total.

Which card to replace is entirely up to the player, so any of the 12 cards can be discarded. In exchange, 3 level 1 cards from the same rarity get offered as options. This means replacing a leveled-up card will still yield a level 1 card.