Lorwyn Draft Emperor Format

Teams

 * 3-man team
 * 1 emperor
 * 2 generals

Each team face off against another emperor team. They sit around the table as: emperor, friendly flanker, opposed flanker, opposed emperor (across the table), opposed flanker, friendly flanker, back to the emperor we started from. So, emperor at either end, their two generals before them. There is a range of 2 players for cards that have (almost) any given effect, so an emperor could target the creatures and/or player of the enemy flanker starting off, but not the opposed emperor. Combat has a range of 1 player, therefore, at the start only the flankers can assault each other with creatures, and only the one directly next to them. The battle is taking place on multiple fronts, essentially.

So, the team wins when the opposed emperor loses the game, and the team loses when they lose their emperor. Deck-construction-wise, the emperor doesn't really need "combat" creatures except as a last resort (OMG both of my generals died) and then, mainly defensive creatures. Leave the best ones for your generals to get, and take combat tricks. Yes, combat tricks. Removal spells. Things to keep yourself (read: life total, deck size) alive. Utility stuff. The emperor leaves his mana open and helps the generals in combat from afar.

So, the flankers/generals? I think you probably know by now. They pick up all the big/evasive critters and smash face. Here and there they might grab some utility, but leave the best for your emperor, especially if you're about to pass the pack to him. Before the emperors can target each other, and before the generals can assault an emperor, both generals of a given side must be dead first. The four generals have essentially a 4-man chaos going on in the middle of the table with teams and backup. If all four generals are dead, at that point the two emperors can finally engage in creature combat.

Yes, we will draft as teams seated around the table. This will help strategy-building a bit. The teams will be randomly chosen for the sake of fairness (if an unfair team is randomly chosen, you can't really blame them for it).

Things to watch for: spells that say "target player" really help out team situations. If your emperor gets ahold of a card that says "target player draws 3 cards" you're doing good.

The right-hand general is traditionally offensive, while the left-hand general is traditionally defensive. That way, the offense and defense of each team matches up evenly when using the "attack across" variant; we won't need to worry about that.

It *is* possible for the generals to target the opposing emperor with spells due to the 2 player range rule. If a general grabs a few X nukes, it might just come in handy at some point.

Lorwyn is a tribal set. Your deck will likely be stronger as a tribal creature build, although the emperor might not have to worry about that aspect as much (for the emperor, it hopefully shouldn't come down to creatures). The emperors should watch for the new Planeswalker cards, as these will have a tremendous boost for the Emperor while the generals buy time to use them effectively.

Certain cards have a mass, static untargeted effect on the game that ignores the 2-range rule. Examples are: Teferi's Puzzlebox, Timesifter, Wrath of God, etc. Basically, if the card says "target" or it's something like an Aura, the 2-range rule applies.