This is one of three posts covering the game changing features coming to Skyweaver in early 2024. This post covers our exciting upcoming game mode, Draft. You can read about our new tournament system; a third post detailing the plans for our revamped economy will be posted on December 22nd, 2023.

Hold on to your Speed Boots! An incredible new way to play Skyweaver is on the horizon - Draft! Draft arrives in Q1 2024 alongside the Song of Scales expansion. Our new game mode invites 4 players on a mystical journey through exhilarating events, delving into Sky’s many diverse and beautiful locations.

In Draft, players compete as one of eight elemental Dragon Heroes, constructing a formidable deck using events, cards, and boons to create destructive and creative combos! Once the decks have been built, players square off on the path to becoming the 2024 World Champion. We can’t wait to see what players will discover while venturing across Sky!

Draft Walkthrough

Players begin each Draft by selecting an elemental Dragon Hero. Once heroes have been chosen, the Event Selection Phase begins, and each player choose an event from a selection of two options. These events allow players to modify and augment their cards, boons, or heroes. 

After events have been selected, they are placed on a map that will guide players throughout Sky and to the chosen events.

When the Event Selection Phase is over, players proceed to the first Drafting Phase. In each Drafting Phase, ever player will open a pack of 8 cards and draft them (see below for details) until all 4 packs are empty. These packs contain all of the cards from the Song of Scales expansion, in addition to cards from across Skyweaver’s previous sets.

After each Drafting Phase is finished, players travel to the next Location for the Event Phase, meaning there are 4 total rounds of Drafting Phases and Event Phases.

The Dragon Heroes and Boons: At the start of each Draft, each player is given a choice between two Dragon Heroes, each accompanied by a randomized starting Boon. During Event Phases, each player gains additional Boons and/or has the chance to upgrade existing ones. Boons can empower or synergize with many types of cards, with effects like “Your Fire spells cost 1 less mana,” “Your units do combat damage using their health, rather than their power” or “Sunset: If an ally unit died this turn, summon Zomboid”. The quantity and variety of available Boons offers countless strategies to explore, and ensures that no two runs are ever alike, even with the same Dragon Hero.

Drafting Phase: When drafting begins each player opens a pack of eight cards and chooses one of the eight to add to their deck. Afterwards, that pack is passed to the next player and each player then selects one card out of the seven cards they received, and then passes the pack again. The next pack passed will then have six cards, of which one will be picked, and so on. This process repeats until all cards in the packs have been drafted. The end result is that all four players in the draft will have added eight new cards to their respective decks.

Event Phase: In this phase, each player is given choices that permit them to upgrade their Hero and/or deck, allowing each playthrough to truly be unique. There are a total of four Event Phases in a Draft. Of these, two will always be ‘Boon Events’ and two will always be ‘Non-Boon Events’.

Boon Events let players add a new Boon to augment their Dragon Hero. Furthermore, each Boon Event offers a chance to encounter powerful ‘Rare’ or even ‘Legendary’ Boons. Players can even be able to find ‘Cursed’ Boons, which offer huge payoffs in exchange for a drawback.

Non-Boon Events offer the chance to modify or upgrade a deck in all sorts of fantastic ways. Non-Boon Events allow players the chance to exchange cards drafted for additional health, modify previously drafted cards with new traits and stats, or even upgrade existing Boons into one of a higher rarity.

Competitive and Creative Gameplay

Matches: Once all the decks are drafted, it is time for players to face off against other Draft players, testing the mettle of their freshly drafted deck against customized decks that their opponents have built.

Flexibility and Adaptation: Draft rewards players for adaptability and the ability to recognize synergies between Boons and cards on the fly. Success is not only a matter of playing well, but also building well, both through identifying what cards are immediately useful, and recognizing which may have future potential.

Elemental Strategy and Synergy

Elemental Focus: Deckbuilding in Draft is centered around the game’s eight elements. Each Dragon Hero starts with a Boon to empower their own element. Players gain additional Boons as the Draft progresses, giving them the chance to empower a new element, or double down on Boons affecting their primary element. 

Synergies Between Elements: Different elements can support each other in a variety of ways. As an example, Earth cares about the power of allies increasing, while Fire specializes in increasing the power of allies, making for a potent combo. Water specializes in increasing the damage spells do, and Light is adept at producing cheap spells, easily benefitting from damage enhancements. These are just a few examples of the kinds of inter-element synergies to discover. 

We’re so excited for all of you to dive into Draft and experience all it has to offer! This is a huge moment for us, and we’re so grateful to everyone who has been with us on our journey to reach it. Prepare to put your skills and strategy to the test like never before, and do battle in a Draft experience of draconic proportions!

Disclaimer: Draft details are subject to change prior to release pending playtesting and fine tuning.

Q&A: 

Q: How do you enter a Draft?
A: Each player can participate in up to one Daily Draft Ascent per day using Spark. Relic Drafts require Weave to enter, and are available on demand 24/7. Both Daily Draft Ascents and Relic Drafts award tickets into the Weekly Draft Cup, which in turn qualifies players for the Seasonal Draft Championship. 

Q: What do I earn when playing Daily Draft Ascent and Relic Draft?
A: Depending on your performance, you can earn more tickets into the Weekly Draft Cup, in addition to more Weave in Relic Drafts. Relic Draft will also add tradable cards to packs opened, which players will keep if selected.

Q: How do I get Spark and Weave so I can participate?
A: Both of these in-game currencies are new to Skyweaver and will be discussed in an Economy post on December 22nd.

Q: Do I play my games against the same players who drafted at my table?
A: As players become more familiar with Draft, and ascend into higher tiers of our Tournament system, the Drafts themselves will become more competitive as well. In a Daily Draft Ascent, players draft against bots and play their matches whenever they want against all the other players in the Ascent. Drafting against bots allows each pick to be made at a casual speed with no pressure. Playing asynchronously likewise allows players to complete the event at their own pace. In high-level tournaments, players draft with limited time and play their matches against the other players from their table. This makes drafting itself a more advanced discipline where players must not consider only enhancing the power of their own deck, but disempowering their neighbors.

Q: What happens to Discovery mode  when Draft mode rolls out?
A: Draft will replace Discovery. The launch date for Draft will be revealed at a later date.

Q: Do Draft Tickets expire?
A: Seasonal Tickets are tied to a specific Seasonal Championship, so all unused Seasonal Tickets will expire once their corresponding tournament concludes. This is the same for Worlds Invitations—they are only valid for a specific World Championship. Most other tickets (including Relic Draft Tickets) do not expire, and can be used for any tournament of their type.

Q: How much health does my hero start with in a Draft Game?
A: Both events and boons make each Draft a unique experience, including varying starting health and number of cards in your deck.

Q: Can I enter more than one Draft Tournament at a time?
A: Players can register for more than one upcoming Tournament, and participate in multiple asynchronous Tournaments at once, but players can only ever play one match at a time.

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Skyweaver is in Open Beta. You can play for free at play.skyweaver.net or download the game on Windows, Mac, Linux, IOS, and Android!