Over the years, Wizards of the Coast has sanctioned many types of Magic: The Gathering formats, but only one is truly chaotic in name.
Out of all the sanctioned formats out there, there is nothing crazier than a chaos draft. For those who have played them, they know the madness. For those who haven't, well, the first time is always an eye opener.
Allowing for booster backs from virtually every set printed, that means that virtually any kind of card is allowed as long as it comes from one of those booster packs. Anyone from beginners to experts can play them, but if you have a knowledge of magic history or can better construct a deck on the fly, you have something of an advantage.
Each player has three booster packs (or in the case of eight-card booster packs, those being doubled up to 16 cards total) from any time in Magic history, and from there, they are all passed around. Older players have to remember all the mechanics. Newer players have to figure it out. Judges really have their work cut out for them. And, if you picked some older boosters, then you get to explain what an ante is or why the Chaos Orb is about to wreck everyone's nights.
And here's the kicker, as it were: WotC has guidelines on this.
Costs can vary too, which in more recent years, became a problem. As unopened booster packs become rarer and the prices go up, certain sets and expansion were priced out. If you wanted to play a vintage chaos draft, then you were going to have a lot of cheap print overrun packs in there like Fallen Empire and Homelands. Still fun, but it limits the experience. There was also the affordable option of just picking the most recent sets, but again, limiting.
The late 2010s saw chaos drafts become so popular that WotC took advantage of it.
Wanting to give players a chaos draft experience while keeping it cheap and also pulling out the cards that have been effectively cancelled, Wizards of the Coast introduced the Mystery Booster in 2019. On the plus side, it had a large number of cards to choose from and the price was right. On the downside, it missed out on the wonky mechanics and the cards themselves were nowhere near the value as the original cards. Nonetheless it remained popular and spawned a second version, Mystery Booster 2, in 2024.
But there is more than just random chaos here. Many top players, as well as more beginner players wanting to hone their drafting abilities. If you could make a competitive deck out of random boosters dating back potentially to the Clinton administration, then making a deck out of a draft with the most recent expansion should become a lot easier. And, for those interesting learning about Magic history, including disused mechanics and why certain cards went to the banned list, or just getting the opportunity to play a 20-30 year old expansion you missed out on, chaos draft holds an advantage.
A chaos draft is one of the most bizarre ways to play Magic that is fully sanctioned, but in that chaos it can actually help players at every experience level.
