Index -> Interface -> Tournaments Lobby -> Types of Tournaments

There are three major types of tournaments: Constructed, Sealed, and Draft.

Constructed tournaments require you to bring a deck to the tournament, composed of cards in your collection. The tournament may be Standard (all cards permitted), or use an Origins Block or Harbinger Block format (only cards from those blocks allowed).

Sealed and Draft tournaments are both limited formats. These tournaments require you to bring unopened boosters (and in some cases starters) and players compete with decks made from the cards in these packs/starters. Your general collection is not used in a Limited Tournament (though cards you use in a Limited tournament join your general collection at the conclusion of the tournament). Limited tournaments have a Deckbuilding phase before the first round wherein players use the Limited Deck Builder to create their tournament decks.

• Sealed tournaments require you to bring either event passes or an unopened starter deck and unopened booster packs. Decks and packs are opened at the start of the tournament, then each player is given some time to use the Limited Deck Builder and construct a deck from that limited card pool.
• Draft tournaments require players to bring unopened booster packs (typically three). At the start of the tournament, each player simultaneously opens one of his packs, takes one card from it, then passes the remaining cards around the table. This process of "drafting" continues until each player has taken 15 cards, and repeats for each of the other booster packs brought to the tournament.

All tournament styles employ a "tourney clock" that works as follows:

• At the start of each turn, players are allowed a short grace period to view the actions of the previous turn's execution phase.
• At the end of the grace period, a "per turn" clock will begin counting down throughout the planning phase.
• Whenever a player's "per turn" clock expires, any further time he spends on his planning phase is deducted from a personal "discretionary" budget of time he has for the whole of the game.
• If a player's "per turn" and "discretionary" clocks both expire during a planning phase, his turn will be locked in automatically, as if he had clicked the Go Button.