How many people are required for a booster draft in Magic?

Question

How many people are required for a booster draft in Magic the Gathering and how many packs should be purchased per person?

Answer 1

8. Drafting with less than 8 just messes up how many cards people end up getting. 3 packs per person. The packs have to be from the same sets and its advisable to have them all from the same box(es). Mainly so people won't get grumpy if someone gets a bunch of foil rares. Also, you have to make sure there's mana for everyone to use in their deck. Doing Sealed Deck would eliminate that problem. Go to http://www.wizards.com/magic/rules/MTG9EDRulebook_EN.pdf It has a better explaination of drafting than I can come up with.

Answer 2

Generally its up to 15 people, it can be any number between 3 and 15. Additionally each person should have 3 packs. That way each person will have drafted 45 cards and leaves them only needing to add land, which the host should provide. This is how I have drafted in the past. And let me tell you, set a time limit to speed up the draft. It will be time consuming as it is, but when you get people looking at one set of cards for five minutes it can turn into a long day.

Answer 3

I believe the minimum for a sanctioned event is 8, although we've run plenty of unsanctioned tourneys with 6. With 4 players you can do a Rochester Draft but once it comes time to play, you really should have more.

3 boosters per person is the norm.