I recently received mail from a fellow player who was trying out a new way of playing Magic with his friends.  They each purchased three booster packs from a different set each, keeping the best ten cards from these packs and drafting for the rest.  They then added nine of each basic land to their decks.  At first they played for ante, but then they went to a format where the winner took the best card and gave the other to the loser.  Considering that there was the potential for this to get extremely unbalanced, I was asked for advice on balancing it out.    Here are some ideas for this unusual format, which I'm going to call Ante-Draft: 

1.  Use the same booster draft process listed above.  You should end up with 45 cards. 

2.  After you add nine copies of each basic land, you should have 90 cards. To construct a deck without having too much land, cut down to about 25 lands and 40 others.  Put the remaining cards to the side so that you can use them later. 

3.  All of the players now need two more boosters.  Draft ten cards each, then stack the rest face-down nearby.  This is the "pot".  The ten cards you drafted, plus the five non-land cards you set aside, are your sideboard. 
4.  When you play the first game, each player antes one card.  The winner of that game chooses the ante card they like best, then all other cards are returned to their decks.  (The winner exchanges ante cards with the choice card's owner, unless they chose their own card.) 

5.  This is where it gets interesting.  Flip over the top card of the pot. Except for the winner, all other players add two life to their starting life total and one card to their starting/maximum hand size.  The winner adds an additional ante card to his ante.  (All of this is cumulative for each game the winner wins consecutively.) 

6.  If another player beats the winner, they win all revealed cards in the pot.  They do not win all of the winner's ante; however, they still choose and exchange ante cards (not necessarily with the winner).  That player is now the winner, and the cycle restarts. 

7.  If the winner wins five games in addition to the first game, they have an "ante flush".  The winner gets all revealed cards in the pot, as well as all ante cards showing.  The remaining players draft the hidden cards in the pot for future use.  The game is now over. 

   (Note: If this player becomes the first winner in the next two consecutive games, all other players ante.  The owner of the card with the highest mana total may switch decks and sideboards with the winner, but they both keep any other cards they may have.  The game then resets.  This is referred to as a "Power-Deck Mulligan".)     You can, of course, bring a pool of mixed cards instead of boosters to the games.  Don't add any cards that you didn't get through Ante-Draft, however. (To make sure everyone adheres to this,  make sure everyone takes someone else's cards and decks.) If you have any ideas that would improve this format, feel free to contact me!