The Movies $20 draft, played live.

What is in the deck

The Movies deck has 49 cards. You won't see the order. A few of the names you might draw:

• The Godfather
• Jurassic Park
• Titanic
• Home Alone
• Paddington

A worked spend

You have $20 for 5 picks. Spend $9 on The Godfather and you've got $11 for four more cards. The reserve rule keeps $1 back for every slot you still owe, so your next bid tops out at $8. Win Gravity, Ghost, Mamma Mia! and Avatar at $1 each and you finish with $7 left over. That's your score. Try $5 on every card instead and the rule stops you on the fourth: $5 left, two slots to fill, so $4 is the most you can bid.

How to draft Movies

Every film here is famous, so there's no real junk, only taste. That makes it the deck where the score ends up closest. People bid on what they love, not what critics rank, which means Back to the Future can go for more than Schindler's List. Watch for the bargains in the middle: Gladiator, Die Hard and Jaws are all classics that can still go for $2 when someone's saving up for Star Wars.

The rules are the same for every category and take a minute to read: how to play, or why an auction beats a snake draft.