A Few Innistrad League Announcements

Hey guys!
  I have a few announcements that I'll go over in the morning, but if you happen to catch this E-mail/post (or the post on Facebook) you'll be up to speed before then. :)

1. Sign-ups for League are now CLOSED! I'm out of product and barely have enough to go around for prizes and the next pack distribution. Thanks to everyone's support for making this such a big success! We have 11 players! I hope everyone's having as much fun with it as I am. :)

2. OVERALL POINTS MODIFICATION(S)/CLARIFICATION(S): Remember we started out with a "5 match minimum" to get your points counted toward a period. What's been in question in part, though, is do those points "disappear" as if they never happened if you don't get to your 5 match minimum?

The answer is NO! If you don't get your 5 matches in, while it means it won't count for the period (the way things stand now, which I'll explain later), it's still matches you played in the overall standings.

Which leads to another question (one we'll think about possibly now but definitely for the next upcoming league, which I've already heard rumbles of interest to do after Avacyn Restored is out): Do we keep a match number minimum in order to be counted for prizes each period? Points would still go into the overall numbers (up to your best 5 matches of a period), but do we deny prizes because someone couldn't get their 5 matches in? The idea is to encourage play, and I'm wondering if this won't eventually do the opposite and discouraging play if it seems like a person can't get to 5 matches.

Maybe a 5-match limit to what's counted in a period instead? Maybe a rule that says "While there's no minimum number of matches to complete in a given period, you may only count your best 5 matches toward your period's point total (which if you play in 5 or fewer matches is all of your matches)."?

And would we want to consider changing this rule ASAP instead of waiting for the next League?

3. RULE ABOLISHED: No longer will you be keeping up with your League pool. At least, it's not mandated any more. It became too much of a hassle and now that school's started back up and going on all 8 cylinders I just don't have the time to track everything. So don't worry about recording your new packs or trades unless you want to keep a personal record of what all's in your pool.

4. RULE ADDED: This is mostly to cover the times when people have their 5+ matches in and are waiting around for prizes on the Saturday that ends each period. If you wish, you can go ahead and get your new pack and start making trades or modifying your decks using the new pack's contents. However, I ask you keep track of what new stuff you got/traded for/put in your deck due to the new cards you got. If we need people to play in order to get someone to 5 matches, I want them to be able to face anyone in the room with their decks being based on the same pack number their opponent's on. The best way to do this is to open your pack and as you modify your deck note what you took out and put in so you can change quickly back to your pre-new pack deck.

      EXAMPLE: You open your 8th Innistrad pack and find a Heartless Summoning that could help out some of your more expensive black creatures and a Bloodline Keeper, so you add them in as two of the cards you need to reach the new 50 card minimum along with 4 basic lands and 4 cards you already had from your first 7 packs' contents/trades done with cards from the first 7 packs. Later, someone still on their 7th pack still needs 1 more match to complete their 5 match minimum. Take at least the Heartless Summoning and Bloodline Keeper out so you're using a deck that only uses your first 7 packs' contents/trades. (whether you want to get rid of the other cards that got you to 50 cards is up to you; the key is to have only cards that came from those first 7 packs' contents/trades).

5. PRIZES: The prizes for this period will come from:

1) 3 sealed Innistrad packs, split as a pile of 2 packs and a lone pack.
2) 2 packs of Innistrad to crack open and display for picking cards from them.
3) 1 Angelic Overseer
4) 1 Verdant Force from Premium Deck Series: Graveborn
5) 1 Duress from Premium Deck Series: Graveborn
6) 1 Exhume from Premium Deck Series: Graveborn
7) 1 Dread Return from Premium Deck Series: Graveborn


Hopefully this gives everyone something good to look forward to. :) And it puts $1.75 into the overall, end-of-League prize pool to help with a BIIIGGGG Innistrad card and the big cards from Premium Deck Series: Graveborn. ;)

6. BONUS PERIOD: Here are the rules I'm thinking of implementing for the Bonus Period coming up (the time from 1/28 through 2/11):

a) We have 2 players who are 1 period behind (5 matches disadvantaged) at least. To help them make up the time and for me having not enough product to get them started sooner, however many periods they weren't in League they'll be able to play up to 5 matches each to make up ground in the overall standings. For example, someone who hasn't been able to play in the first 2 periods will get the chance to play 10 matches in the next two weeks, while someone who wasn't in it for 1 period will get to play 5 matches.

b) Players who have been in the League since the end of the 1st Period (which should be everyone except for 2 players) may play in as many matches as they wish, but they may only take their best 3 matches and replace them in the overall points standings.

c) Matches played during the Bonus Period for those of us going for replacement points will not change your overall win percentage; they will only change your overall points score. So in essence, if you ever finished a period below 15 points, I literally go back and say "Oh, a loss/tie? Nah...it's a win now. +3 points.  "

d) You are still bound by the "no more than 2 matches per person" rule. I may make an exception if the new players need points but can't find people to play easily, but that will be the only exceptions given.


I'll go over all this tomorrow morning and/or afternoon to get everyone's feedback and see where we go from here on some of the discussion questions. I suggest you read up on this and form your opinions if you're on the computer before coming to SMM.


Thanks for your attention and putting up with some messy first-run issues with the League system. :)

POLL: Keep Track of League Pools: Abolish?

Hey guys!
  Just getting a feel if anyone would be soooo heartbroken if I didn't keep track of new packs entering the League pool and all that. Right now we have 9 players (should be 11 by the end of the week) and the idea of just entering cards is becoming a chore. I think we can trust each other to not add cards that shouldn't be in the pool.

  But still, I want to make sure it's not gonna interrupt your enjoyment of League to not keep track of what you open. :)

Last-Minute Cancellation of League Today, 1/21

Sorry for the late notice, but I only got it late this morning myself.

Because of the threat of severe weather, Rachel thought it best to cancel League for today.

Northgate Mall's food court is usually our backup option, but I won't be there. I share the same concerns she and others have expressed about the conditions today.

We'll be back next week, 1/28, with the run-up to the end of Period 2 and the start of our Bonus Period! :)

(And I'll have this week's prizes posted sometime next week, probably Wednesday)

Innistrad Points Update: Final Period 1 and Current Period 2

 We're into a new 2-week period in our Innistrad League! Yay! Congrats to everyone who played. And we didn't just play, we played hard. We had 29 total matches played last period. Consider that each match had to be a minimum of 2 games and we have at least 58 games played in 2 weeks. Whew! That's a lot of card playing!

I feel everyone got something good, so at least you know your entry fee goes toward something nice and useful. :)

The final results for Period 1 were:

1. David McKnight, with 15 points and a 100% win percentage for his 5 best matches.
2. Shaun Walker, with 15 points and a 83.3% win percentage
3. Danny Mullinax, with 12 points
4. Wayne Eanes, with 10 points
5. Preston Hamill, with 9 points and a 61.54% win percentage.
6. Jonathan Taylor, with 9 points and a 60% win percentage.
7. Marcus, with 9 points and a 50% win percentage (I mis-recorded his match totals)
8. Jenn, with 3 points
9. Tiff Higgins, with 0 points. :(

These points will go into the overall placings total, so what you see here is the current overall placings as well. :)

On to this period though! Already we have 8 matches completed in the last 6 days. For some, the extra pack changed their decks up in a big way. Right now only David has not played any games (that I have on record, anyway).

CURRENT PERIOD 2 POINTS TOTALS:
1st: Shaun, with 6 points
2nd: Tiff, with 3 points and a 100% win percentage
3rd: TIE, Jonathan and Wayne with 3 points each and 2-1 game records.
5th: Jenn, with 3 points and 60% win percentage
6th: Preston, with 3 points and a 50% win percentage.
7th: Danny, with 0 points but a 20% win percentage.
8th: Marcus, with 0 points and a 0% win percentage
9th: David, with no matches played yet.

These points standings and win percentages can change DRASTICALLY, though! We still have a week and a half in the period. Today's 9th place player may be Saturday's commanding #1 player. :)

We also may have 1-2 more player starting Saturday, so we could see a HUUUGE shake-up!

I have a box of Innistrad on the way. If you want to play in the League, I'm taking sign-ups as late as next Saturday (January 28th). The price will be $21.50 total. This gets you 7 packs of Innistrad and puts $2.25 into the prize pool for this period. If you're local enough and want to meet during the week to get your pool together, we can arrange that so you won't have to worry about doing so much the first Saturday you're here. :)

I'll catch you all later! :)

Vote Needed for INN League End Date

hey all!

i wanted to get everyone's idea on when to end the Innistrad League.

I'm wanting to go at least to the end of March. This way we have roughly 1 month of us running decks on a 40-card minimum, 1 month on 50, and 1 month on 60.

the original idea was to run through Avacyn Restored in May, but that may be too long.

So here are a few ideas. Feel free to vote on one of these or suggest one of your own. :)

1) March 24th
2) April 14th
3) May 26th (allowing one pack of Avacyn Restored to enter the pool)

Please respond when you get a chance. Thanks! :)

Feedback Needed: Change in Tiebreaker Rules Needed?

Hey everyone!

I'll update points later tonight, but I wanted to get some feedback on something that might need to change.

As it stands right now, 2-way ties in points would be dealt with by a match at SMM  before prizes are distributed.

However, we now have 9 people in the League. This opens the possibility more and more for 3 or more people to tie on points. We are also usually short on time at SMM, so a tiebreaker match may draw the league time out a bit because it would delay prize distribution.

I wanted to see how everyone felt about using each player's win percentage each period as the tiebreakers instead, THEN if it's still a tie do a match.

If we do that, do we want to base the win percentages on ALL the games a person plays, or do we pick out their best 5 matches like we do for the points themselves and count the win percentages from there?

I've tested both ways (count all matches vs. only count the best 5) and so far there's not much difference because hardly anyone can get more than 5 matches in (I think 4 of us COULD on Saturday, and 2 of us are already there).

What do you all think?

A Few More Dark Ascension Previews for the Internet Infrequent!

Hey guys!
  A few more days have passed and we have even more preview cards to go through. Oh, the joys of preview season! lol.

Here are a few hints before we get started:

1) This block's Giant Growth effect can be permanent...or you can get a smaller but still permanent boost off it.

2) A new Werewolf "Lord"...that can help keep your transformed Werewolves out a little longer.

3) A new ability word helps super-anthem your creatures...if you're about to die.

4) Sorin gets a new version, and his intentions, though dark, have a little more purity to them. That doesn't mean he won't steal your stuff, though.


Alright, that's one of every rarity, in order (Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Mythic Rare). Wanna see the cards? Then here we go! (NOTE: All images are used from MTGSalvation.com)


1) Here's our Giant Growth of the Innistrad block. Announcing...Hunger of the Howlpack!

How's that for a boost? Get your First Striker to kill something, then get a permanent +3/+3 boost on a regular attacker! Probably more of a Limited bomb and casual Constructed card, I doubt we'll see it in tournament play. Modern possibly? Maybe. That would be the only venue I'd see it in, and only if it's in either a Persist deck (to get rid of the -1/-1 counter) or a Doubling Season deck to get upwards of +6/+6 on a creature dying. But even then, I feel the kitchen table is where this will stay. (Still...the potential is nice. ;)  )


2) Alright, bear with me as this is a foreign-language preview. But I'll post the translation below the picture. This is the 2nd Werewolf "lord" for Innistrad block. But this one doesn't require a Transform. In fact, the name is indicative of how much help he can be to your Double-Faced Werewolves.

Presenting...Everwolf! (NOTE: Name may change once the English version is known.)

The translation (also from MTGSalvation):

Everwolf
1RG
Creature - Wolf
Intimidate (This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)
Other Wolf and Werewolf creatures you control get +1/+1.
Werewolf creatures you control that aren't Humans can't transform.
2/2
Uncommon

Nice! This gives Werewolves "lords" (creatures that give +1/+1 to others of their type) a bit of a mana curve at 2 mana (Mayor of Avabruck//Howlpack Alpha) and 3 mana (Everwolf). And it helps your transformed Werewolves stay transformed too! So if you combine this with Howlpack Alpha, you've got a 3/3 Intimidator and you're making 4/4 Wolf tokens every end of your turn.

Not...too...shabby. :)

Will this allow Werewolves to gain some strength? I think so. Two "lord" effects at some low mana costs and the ability to keep Werewolves like Holwpack Alpha, Wildblood Pack, and Terror of Kruin Pass in their transformed states can really help you out. Not to mention the pseudo-Fog Moonmist provides your Werewolves so they can deal combat damage but not take it and...yeah, I'd be surprised if Werewolves are never attempted at an SCG.

3) Who doesn't love getting +2/+2 on all your creatures, eh? Well...if you want it, a new ability word will give it to you.

Introducing...Thraben Doomsayer and the Fateful Hour ability word!

This will be nice in a token deck. A recurable 1/1 creature is nice, and it works well with the Pre-Release card in helping to ensure you have a steady stream of Humans to sacrifice.

What's especially interesting about Thraben Doomasyer, though, is the new Fateful Hour ability word.

Fateful Hour creates or replaces abilities and effects on cards. Fateful Hour always happens when your life total is 5 or less. Then, you either get additional benefits or replacement effects.

Thraben Doomsayer is an example of getting additional effects at 5 or less life. When you're that low, all your other creatures get +2/+2. So while the Sentry won't be 4/4, your Human tokens you created will be 3/3s late in the game. Or the pre-release promo will be an 11/11 Flying Trampler. If that doesn't win the game, I dont' know what will.

Will Thraben Sentry see play? Oh heck yes! He'll be a kitchen table favorite, and at best he'll see play in G/W Tokens as a constant token creator. Not being Legendary will help you become a token factory with 2 of these and a Parallel Lives. And thanks to Isolated Chapel, I'll bet that Demon pre-release card could see some serious play as a 1- or 2-of. (At least, I hope. I want that card to be sooooo good because it has the potential to be soooo powerful!)

There are other Fateful Hour preview cards out. I'll preview a few of those before the set releases.

And finally!!!...
4) It was obvious by the ads for Dark Ascension that at some point we'd get a new Sorin. You don't advertise a Planeswalker character without having a Planeswalker card to go with it.

We got our answer yesterday...in the form of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad!

 WHEW!!!! Let's break this bad boy down!

+1: 1/1 Vampire with Lifelink!? Sweet! I can make chump blockers that gain me life. That can only HELP Sorin. :)

-2: Permanent +1/+0? Heck yes! Nothing you can do to that emblem once it's made. And if you can hold out long enough, guess what? Emblems (as best as I remember) aren't Legendary. So if you can afford at least one turn to make a 1/1 token, you can use up Sorin to get a permanent +2/+0. With some good fliers or even mediocre attackers, that's a huge permanent bonus!

-6: Alright, let me get this straight...all your base are belong to us!? Oh heck yes! "Only" getting 3 permanents may be horrible, but if you can get your opponent's best stuff it can be downright brutal.

I'll bet we'll see him being used. Maybe not as heavily as, say, Elspeth Tirel or any of the Garruks, but with the ability to give a permanent Battle Cry and make Lifelinking tokens, it's kind of hard to ignore. Plus, with all the "dual" lands in Scars of Mirrodin and Innistrad combined, I wouldn't doubt seeing a Parallel Lives deck splashing some Isolated Chapels to run him.

Of course, also remember this comes from a non-competitive player so take this advice for what you will. lol.


That's all I have time for today. We'll be continuing our Innistrad League Saturday! Come down and join us, play some non-League games if you're not in it or (unfortunately) can't get in it. We welcome all kinds of players! :)

Also feel free to leave comments on any of these preview recaps and start a discussion on what cards will and won't see major play. :)