Limited Formats on Cockatrice

You can play all manner of draft or sealed games on Cockatrice. This guide will tell you how to do so and give some pointers on show how to get the best result for yourself and your friends. This guide assumes you already know how to:

• Build or import and save a deck
• Connect to a Cockatrice server
• Join or start a two-player game
• Navigate the game controls
• Keep Cockatrice and your card database updated
• Find a file you have downloaded

If you're not down with those things, you'd be better off mastering them before you get into this.

Drafting

Booster drafting is the most common limited format on Cockatrice. Once you understand that the rest is easy. Before we get into the mechanics, though, there is one thing you absolutely must know before all else:

NEVER QUIT IN THE MIDDLE OF DRAFTING

Nothing will lose you friends faster than that. The reason is that seven other people have invested their time into this draft and if you quit you are causing all those other people to waste their time. There is nothing more disrespectful than that. So, if you are thinking of drafting, make sure you have about an hour of time available. Of course, people lose network connections due to things like thunderstorms and no one can do anything about that. So if you must quit, try to make it look like you had a power outage. If you do it repeatedly, many people will block you.

Joining a Draft

When connected to a server, look in the Main tab. Be sure your filter is set to show available games. Look for a game that has 8 players, type Limited, something like this:

Click on it and press Join, or double-click on it. You'll enter a room with at least one person and up to seven others. When eight people are in the room, the host will post a link, like:

Click that link (making sure first it really points to a drafting site you recognize) and you will go to a draft simulation site that allows the eight of you to draft. There are a few different ones but https://dr4ft.info seems to be the most common. If you've just done another draft, be sure to close any old draft tabs in your browser. Otherwise the program can get confused.

Drafting

If this is your first visit to the drafting site, or you have cleared your cookies recently, you will have to give yourself a name. Please make it the same as or similar to your name on Cockatrice. You do this by editing your name directly in its text box or by typing /nick yourname in the chat:

Here's what it looks like:

While the room is filling the host will be identifying and rounding up (or kicking) stragglers, so the host needs to know who has made it. Notice one person's name is dr4fter. That's because they didn't set their nickname. Don't be that guy. He is slowing down the game.

Notice your name is highlighted in green. Another person's is highlighted in red. That person will be your opponent in the first round.

While you're waiting for the draft to start, pay attention to the chat in the draft site as well as in Cockatrice. Sometimes there will be difficulties that make the host have to crate a new draft room, in which case they'll post a new link. Close out of the old tab and click the new link. The host might actually kick you from the old room. Don't take offence, they're just making sure you know the game moved on. Otherwise you might be kicking around in the old room for some time.

Here are some settings that will help you:

The Beep is handy for being alerted when there is a new pack to pick from, in case (when) you get distracted. Column View will sort your picks into columns according the sort order you choose. Sort order also sorts each pack's display, which is useful.

When all players have assembled in the draft site room, the host will start the draft. A pack of 14 or 15 cards will appear. Double click on a card to pick it and add it to your pool. Notice you have a timer. If your timer runs out, the site will pick a card for you. You can single-click a card to reserve it as your choice in case your timer runs out while you're thinking. But if you click it just one more time later it will be selected, even if you didn't double-click it. Click a card in your pool to move it to your sideboard and vice versa. Shift-click a card to move it to your Junk pile. Later, in Cockatrice, cards in this pile won't show up in your sideboard. Oh, and:

NEVER QUIT IN THE MIDDLE OF DRAFTING

Once all picks are made you can revisit your picks and build your deck. The site will allow you to add lands. Add the lands you want to your deck (you may add to sideboard also in case you want more lands in other games). Once you are ready hit the Download as button to save your deck. Save it as type cod and note where you saved it (e.g., maybe your browser's default downloads folder).

Go back to Cockatrice. If you arrive before your opponent, make a new 2-player game in the Main room and put your opponent's name in the Comments section. Let them know the game's ready in the chat. Then your opponent can right-click your name and do Show this user's games and join the game. Or, if you arrive second you can join their game. When you join the game, click Load deck... and navigate to where your browser saved the cod file:

You are generally expected to play at least best 2 of 3 games, both because that is how limited is usually played, and because your opponent just spent a lot of time drafting and building a deck and they want to get the most out of it. If you both are having fun after three games, why not play more? It's efficient.

After your games, report back to the drafting room on Cockatrice that you either won or lost. If you won (or lost for that matter), you can stick around and ask for Round 2 from another player. Most people leave after one round and jump into another queue. But Round 2 matches do happen.

Hosting a Draft

After you've drafted a few times you might want to draft but there's no game to join. Now's your chance to host a game. Here are some tips for managing a smooth game.

The important Create Game dialog settings are highlighted below:

In the Description put the type of draft (the current standard sets, cube, chaos, etc.). Make sure you can accept 8 players. Flag the game as limited (perhaps this is not even necessary). Finally, it is important to not allow spectators. See if you can figure out why!

Don't spam the Main room chat to attract players. People can see the available game easily enough. However, when you have 7 players, it is okay to type something like Cube draft 7/8, because people like to join a queue when they are the 8th person!

It sometimes happens that a room will take upwards of 10 minutes to fill. Some people feel that a fresh room (under 10 minutes, say) is more attractive because older rooms that are not full appear as games that have already started but where someone dropped out. If your room lasts more than 10 minutes and you want to start a new room, go ahead and start it and let everyone know. They'll drop out of the stale room and join your new room. Or not, if they are not paying attention. it's important to kick everyone out of the old room before you leave. The host should be the last person out, so when the leave the memory for the game object in the server is cleared. Otherwise, eventually, if enough "zombie" games remain, they slow down the server and can crash it. The same goes at the end of the draft. You need to make sure everyone is out, kicking if need be, and then the room is closed. Generally, you should try to leave enough time for people to pair up for round 2 duels if they want to.

When the room gets nearly full, go to https://dr4ft.info or your favorite draft simulator to set up the draft:

The defaults are whatever you chose last time. When you have 8 players, click Create Room, copy the new URL, and paste it in the Cockatrice game room. It's good to paste the link soon after the eighth player joins. Any delays will result in some people leaving.

Now you get to herd cats! As people join be prepared to explain to someone how to set their nicknames. Experience has shown that some people will require multiple attempts before they are successful.

When there only a couple of people left to join, it is your job to compare the two lists to find out who the stragglers are. You may have to persuade some people to set their nicknames on dr4ft, so you know who is left. Don't wait too long to do this. Once you identify the stragglers, try to get their attention, then give them a short interval to join or be kicked.

There are several ways to get their attention. First, you can mention them in the chat, preferably using the @ notation to highlight their names. But if they're not paying attention this is not likely to reach them. Better, send them a Private Chat. If they have their game settings right this could cause a notification to appear at their Windows taskbar (what is Linux behavior?). That stands a chance to reach someone browsing or watching Twitch.

But actually best way to get their attention, as needed, is to kick them from the game. You can do that because you're the host! Now don't get kick happy, but don't be shy either. After a reasonable time, a Swift Kick is beneficial to all. It certainly benefits the players who have been paying attention and don't deserve to wait. But it also benefits the person who was kicked. Half the time they will rejoin in short order. And if not, they weren't even at their computers anyway, so justice is served, and it opens up a slot for someone else to join.

Sometimes there will be glitches in the dr4ft room software that causes someone to be unable to join, or they have joined but no one sees them. This can sometimes be solved by having people refresh their browser tabs. But if that doesn't work you'll need to create a new dr4ft room. Create the new room and post the new URL in the cockatrice (your draft room, not the main room, duh). Announce the new room in cockatrice, and also be sure to announce it in the old dr4ft room because some people will have that as their sole focus. If there are stragglers in the old room, you can kick them from there as well and that's often the best line of play. When you've finally got 8 people, be sure to Start the game right away. It gives less of a chance for the software to glitch again.

Make your picks, but also keep an eye on two things: the cockatrice room, and the packs/timer values next to drafters' names. In cockatrice, look for people leaving or losing connection. That is a clue they have bailed on the draft. However, it often happens that someone loses connection to cockatrice but is still picking their cards on dr4ft. You can see that by looking at their packs backlog. If they have a large backlog, ask in the chat for them to reply to you. If they don't reply, and especially if they time out on picks, they are probably gone. But be aware that if someone times out on the last few picks in a pack, they might just have left their computers briefly to take care of something urgent, knowing that those auto-picks won't affect their draft too much. It's a much clearer signal if someone auto-picks near the beginning of a pack, of if they also lost connection to cockatrice.

When someone has definitely dropped out of the draft, there are a few options. If it's near the beginning of the draft, you can just kick the miscreant from cockatrice, get another eighth player, and start a new draft in a new room (new dr4ft room or even new cockatrice room). If it's near the end of the draft, you can just kick that person from dr4ft so the draft can finish without waiting. This requires cooperation from the other drafters. Some will feel it is ruined and want to leave. As long as you end up with an even number of players you can still get matches lined up. If there is an odd man out, sometimes that person will wait to play someone in round 2. This is usually the person who would have been paired with the dropper. It was kind of them to hang in there and finish the draft not knowing if they will get a match, so try to hook them up. Another incentive for that person to stay in and keep drafting is that someone else might also quit so there will be an even number again. The difference between a good host and a great host is that a great host will encourage an unpaired drafter to wait around and then will play them the next round or otherwise try to see that they get into a game.

Once everyone has their cards your responsibilities diminish rapidly. The only main task remaining is to be sure the cockatrice room gets closed and doesn't "zombie".