There is more than one different format for constructing a tournament deck. The formats are divided into two categories: constructed formats and limited formats.

Constructed: Players create their decks from their own cards and bring their decks to the tournament. For now, there is only one sanctioned constructed format.

• Classic: A legal deck consists of 1 starbase, 3 outer regions and a market of at least 52 cards. The market cards can be of any combination of ships, locations, starbase structures and news, but no more than 4 instances of each card. A Classic side deck must be either 0 or 13 cards (see 2.2 Side Decking).

Limited: Players create their markets from a limited pool of cards that they receive at the tournament. All limited formats allow players to bring their own starbases and/or outer regions to include in their decks, unless otherwise stated. Starbases and outer regions may also be supplied by the tournament organizer. The tournament organizer must announce before the event begins if starbases and/or outer regions will be supplied 

• Starter Sealed Deck: A legal deck consists of 1 starbase, 3 outer regions and a market of at least 40 cards. The market cards can be of any combination of ships, locations, starbase structures and news, with any number of instances of each card. All the cards that are not used in the market are the player's side deck. Each player receives 15 minutes to construct their deck from one random pre-constructed deck, one booster pack and any combination of starbases and outer regions.

• Booster Sealed Deck: A legal deck consists of 1 starbase, 3 outer regions and a market of at least 40 cards. The market cards can be of any combination of ships, locations, starbase structures and news, with any number of instances of each card. All the cards that are not used in the market are the player's side deck. Each player receives 30 minutes to construct their deck from six boosters and any combination of starbases and outer regions.

• Booster Draft: A legal deck consists of 1 starbase, 3 outer regions and a market of at least 40 cards. The market cards can be of any combination of ships, locations, starbase structures and news, with any number of instances of each card. All the cards that are not used in the market are the player's side deck. Players receive the cards to construct their deck through a process called EVE draft (Appendix A).

2.2 Side Decking

Before each game except the first game of a match, players receive four minutes to swap cards between their markets and side decks on a one to one card basis. After each match, they must rearrange their market and side deck to their original state.

2.3 Who begins

Before a match begins, a player chosen by a random method, such as a coin toss or the throw of a die, decides which player takes the first turn of the game. In a two player game, the player who takes the first turn skips his or her first draw phase. The loser of each game gets to decide who takes the first turn in the next game of the match. If the game ended in a draw, choose this player by a random method. This must always be decided before players draw their opening hands. If the player fails to decide who begins before drawing his or her opening hand, he or she must take the first turn. 

2.4 Shuffling

You must shuffle your deck until it is sufficiently randomized. When you have finished shuffling, your opponent must either cut your deck or shuffle it some more, if he shuffles your deck, you must cut it afterwards. Cutting a deck means taking any amount of cards from the top of the deck and placing them at the bottom without looking at them. If your opponent asks to shuffle your deck, he must do so without looking at any cards in it and must take care not to damage your cards. If you feel that your opponent hasn’t shuffled well enough, call a judge determine whether or not his deck is sufficiently randomized.

2.5 The EVE Mulligan

Right after players draw their opening hands (starting with the player who gets the first turn, followed by his opponents going clockwise around the table) each player may choose to shuffle any number of cards from his or her hand back into his or her market (following the rules about shuffling above, 2.3). Then each player refills his or her hand back to seven cards by drawing the same number of cards he or she shuffled into his or her market. This may only be done once before each game. 

2.6 Match Length

Each match consists of 3 games, and has a time limit of 60 minutes.

2.7 The End of a Match

The player with the most game wins at the end of a match is the winner. If the players have each won one game, the match is a tie. The winner of the match (or either of the players in the case of a tie) must report the results at the judges table. Players who have finished their match may watch the remaining matches of that round. If the time runs out before a match has been finished, the players play 2 more rounds, including the turn that wasn’t finished when the time ran out.

I.e. In a two player game, the time runs out during player A's turn and the players take two more rounds:

Extra round I
Player A (finishes his or her turn).
Player B.

Extra round II
Player A.
Player B.

If no one manages to win the game in these last two rounds, the game ends in a draw.