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Similar to the idea James had on the latest TTC, I was wondering what it would be like to draft a complete 100 card EDH deck?

I envision the format would either be a cube or a rotary draft of the cube, with an 8 man draft pod that would split into two four player games, or a larger draft pod(maybe 12) for more matches.

I don't have many of the details worked out but I would like to hear some feed back on this!

In the draft version, I imagine the first pack would be the all legendary creatures(and commander planeswalkers) so that everyone was guaranteed some commander options. Followed by random packs of everything else. I'm not sure if land should be mixed in or their own packs.

Anyway, What do y'all think?

A few issues (also, are you planning to make lands there?):

1) It would take a while.
2) You would need to have larger packs, or more than 3 packs. (This leads to 1.)
3) After you have your commander locked in (especially if you make all of the possible commanders in p1), you're even more locked into your colors than a normal format. (No drafting that bomb rare in p3 and working to splash it.)
4) Trying to make a commander deck through a normal draft format will result in a rather high percentage of cards that don't fit your intended theme. Sure the decks will function, but they won't be what you're hoping for going in.

If you're interested in drafting commander decks, have you looked into making it a rotisserie draft? http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Rotisserie_Draft

Anyway, that's my 2¢, if you can find ways around the above - or think they're not problematic, it might be fun. ^^

Alright, I can these issues, here are some potential solutions:

1. This isn't a huge deal for me, doing this draft digitally over a week or a month would not be that bad, and honestly playing with a huge pool of cards(Problem 4) would not be as challenging with a long form style

2. I am thinking more packs, or combination of packs and roto for more speed, large packs are not a good idea

3. No lock in, you can switch your commanders at any time, after the legend pack you'd have 15 potential commanders to draft around, you only lock in after deck construction.

4. I think this would be better done digitally so that you can manage your cards and lists, or just paper drafting face up with a GM shield.

How does it sound now?

The 2015 commander decks have 500 cards in total, 126 of which are basic lands, so such a cube would have 374 cards. Assuming you carefully exclude 14 cards, it is possible to have a 360 cards cube - perfect for 8 drafters.

Phi, are assuming this would be a limited format? I was working under the assumption of a 100 card deck, traditional EDH style, instead of 40. So the cube would need to be significantly larger than 360. Maybe 600-800.

I've thought about doing exactly this. I like your solution for pack 1.

The way that my playgroup figured the draft would go was:
* you can pick any card
* you can only play cards in your commander's color identity
* 99-card deck size, plus your chosen commander
* there would need to be about eight to nine packs in the regular draft, to ensure everyone gets enough playables to fill out the reduced minimum with cards in their color identity.

Just getting my hands on minimum 120 commanders for pack 1 would be difficult, then the rest of the cube would end up being 720 to 960 cards. I could fill up 100-150 slots with Commander staples and good general-purpose cards.

The commanders should mostly be two- and three-colour, with very few (maybe three) five-color commanders, and maybe a handfull of monocolor legends. I want color identities to be accessible, but I don't want everyone to just be able to run every card they get.

I'd try and get about 60% mono-color, 10-15% artifacts, 10-15% lands, and the rest multicolor in the main cube. I'd have to work on the breakdown for individual colors a bit harder than that, but the numbers feel correct there.

8 or 9 packs seems like a lot, what do you think of a hybrid of draft and roto draft?

To be honest, I don't like the idea of essentially having to pick your commander in pack one. People might lock themselves into a color identity that turns out to be very fought over, and then they won't feel comfortable switching since the main chance at getting a commander is in the past. And that just seems like a miserable experience.

I would probably do something like put a minimum of one commander-y legendary creature in every pack instead. That way people can commit early but still hold out hope for switching if it turns out they, for example, pick up a perfect card in a third color outside of their original commander's color identity.

And I wouldn't discount the idea of having larger packs, for that matter. Nothing crazy, but maybe 20 cards. Apart from cutting down the number of packs needed that would also slightly rarefy the experience of being passed a pack full of cards outside of your commander's color identity.

Edit:
Since I think you'll ineveitably end up with a larger than normal number of literal unplayables in a draft like this, maybe you should consider adding one or two Deal Brokers to the pool?

Deal brokers and 20 card packs I can see. Your concerns about locking in seem like the concerns of any draft, committing is a risk. Further you don't lock your commander in until deck building, so you have your 15 legendary creatures to draft around for the whole draft. Does that clear it up?

Yeah, we're just using "locked in" diffrently. What I'm afraid might happen is this:

a) In pack 1 I chose to draft legendaries with, say, a mono-red, Boros and mardu color identity.
b) In the following packs it becomes clear that I'm entirely locked out of Red and partly out of white and black because the people next to me hoover all the good cards in those colors up. Green is super open, however, and I could totally do something sweet with the green cards I see and the few white ones I have, for example. In a normal draft I could change lanes and adapt to the draft, but I can't go into that color now since I only picked up Mardu-y commanders in pack one.

Yes, committing is a concern in any draft, but since your commander is determining which cards are _legal_ in your deck the commitment is much harsher and I think that could be counteracted if there was a reasonable chance of picking up new commanders as the draft progresses.

Oh I see, I'd need to see it play tested to see if that happens. One way to fix this would be the hybrid Roto draft. You could then go pick exactly what you need.