Wayne's Crazy World Tournament Rules!

Hey guys!

The M11 draft is behind us now. Thanks for all who showed up! I had 4 players, so everyone got one Sun Titan and one Ancient Hellkite promo. Congrats to Marcus for winning with an interesting W/B flying/aggro deck!

I'll get a report up during the week, but right now I'd like to get started in focusing on our next tournament! :)

Coming up August 7th is Wayne Eanes' "Crazy World" tournament! In this tournament, almost everything is a wild mixed bag of randomness! From random Planechase plane chasing to random Un- cards to even random turns, crazy world is expected to be, well, a crazy world!

I'm posting a direct copy-and-paste of an E-mail sent by Wayne. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here.

*   tournament will be a multi-player round table free-for-all (all entrants will play each other all at once) . .

 

*  decks will be 60 card minimum singleton (each deck can only have one copy of each card  ,  except for basic lands) . . . (NOTE: And Relentless Rats, since it specifically states so)

 

*  using vintage restricted list with the addition of . . . can also use "unglued & unhinged" cards . . .

 

*  will also be playing planechase format in addition to everything else (a "community" planechase pile will be provided , so you don't have to bring your own , unless you want to) . . .

 

*  entry fee will be standard $2.00 per player (which will enable us to have 1 M11 booster pack per person to put into prize pool) with "prize points" being awarded as 0 - last place  ,  1 - next to last  ,  2- 2nd to last etc. & so on with player with highest total points getting first pick out of prize pool and then on down .

 

*  will try our best to start tournament promptly at 11:00 and finish at least by 1:45 (so as to allow time for prize picks) and will play as many "rounds" as time permits . . .

 

*  free music and snacks will be provided to enjoy (or not   lol   ) while we battle . . . including  . . . (wait for it) . . . DONUTS ! . . .

 

*  every player wearing a funny , weird , odd , strange or crazy HAT gets to start out each game with their choice of either  -  starting "life total" of 25 instead of 20  - or -  opening "hand" of 8 cards instead of 7 (players must continue to wear hats entire match or forfeit 5 life or 1 card corresponding to which bonus they took) . . . and NO (for all you smart-alecks) , you don't recieve multiple bonuses for wearing multiple hats . . . limit one bonus per customer   lol   . . .

 

*  special crazy world weirdness  -  we will be playing along with a random timer set to go off between 1 minute up to possibly 10 minutes (that will keep being reset randomly again) . . . whenever the timer goes off ! everyone "freezes" whatever they're doing instantly (this means mid-sentence , mid-spell play , mid-response , whatever . . .) and then randomly  gets their seat exchanged with someone else and then play continues with each player assuming their new hand , field , deck , library , graveyard , life points etc ! . . . in other words  , you take over control of everything from the player whose seat you just inherited until next timer goes off or end of game ! . . .

 

*CLARIFICATION: When everyone randomly changes places, the player whose turn it is picks up their turn with their new place. For example, if Wayne, Tiffanie, and I are the only three left and my turn starts and the timer goes off in my first Main Phase, I'll switch to one of their places and I'll pick up my turn still in Main Phase 1, just with the deck of whoever I got randomly assigned to.

 

* "house" banned list  -  no specific card is banned on top of the vintage restrictions BUT "instant-win , one-turn-win , can't lose combos" are banned (everyone pretty much knows these when they see them . . . but if you have questions about a specific combo just e-mail preston & ask) to allow for more fun game play for all involved . . .

Again, any questions please feel free to ask.

We hope to see you there on the 7th!

Top 5 New M11 Cards: Casual

Hello everyone!

Today I figured for a change of pace from the "news updates constantly" format you might like to see some opinions on a few new M11 cards.

So I present...Preston Hamill's Top 5 New M11 Cards for Casual Play!

A few hints first...

1) Red Damage or Blue Mill, this handy little helps make you Immortal against both.
2) So she's not the most impressive Turn 1 creature...in some formats.
3) Love taxes? The cold giant loves you, then!
4) Akroma's not the only one who can wield a sword.
5) Hate those pesky "Sacrifice" costs? You can pay them with just a skeleton crew working for you.


The results...after the Jump!

Tournament Schedule Update

It's been a while since I've updated our schedule, so let me get a few dates down to give you a better idea of what's to come.

JULY
7/24: M11 "Release" Draft. $8 Entry. Sun Titan and Ancient Hellkite promos available; winner gets one of each. Prizes come from the Rares and Foils in the M11 packs opened for the draft and possibly 1-2 additional M11 prize pack splits.
7/31: Casual Day

AUGUST
8/7: Wayne's "Crazy World" Tournament. Rules will be posted the night after the M11 "Release" Draft. $2 Entry, prizes come from M11 prize pack splitting.
8/14: Casual Day
8/21: Tiff's "Un-"Orthodox Tournament. Rules still TBD. $2 Entry, prizes come from M11 prize pack splitting.
8/28: Casual Day


If we have any changes to this, I'll post a revised schedule when I know about the changes. But I'll also try to keep this updated every week with a new post.

Take care!

We're Ready for Saturday!

Welcome back everyone!

I got a package in the mail today. Wonder what it could be...

Oh! I know. It must be the two M11 boxes I pre-ordered!

Thanks to Morgan Hardy of Organized Play in Knoxville for providing the promo cards! Here I show the winner's guaranteed 1 copy of each Sun Titan and Ancient Hellkite promo, while everyone else will be on a random basis to get Sun Titans and, when/if we run out of Sun Titans, Ancient Hellkite promos.


Be sure to join us Saturday for the M11 "Release" Draft! $8 entry fee, and $2.50 for loose packs. We'll start no later than 11:30, but seeing as it's a new set I'd suggest getting there as close to 10:00 as possible. The address is at the very top of the page if you need it.


I hope we see some new and/or returning faces Saturday! :)  Take care until then.

PS: I apologize for the lateness of a new blog post I'm working on. It's my impressions of what the Top 5 casual new M11 cards might be. It's been a while since I've done a non-news update, so I hope you like it! I warn you, though, this isn't a list of "just barely not competitive level" cards. It's a personal reflection on what I feel would be powerful in (mostly) a casual-only environment. And if a few sneak up to top tournament level status, well, you're welcome!  :)

Our Normal Draft Rules: SMM's M11 Draft Primer

Hey everyone!

Next week we have our M11 "Release" Draft! But I'm hoping for new people to show up, and those people aren't up to speed on our Draft rules.

Don't worry! It's mostly the same as normal drafts, just a few exceptions to how we draft Rares and foils.

So without further ado...Saturday Morning Magic's Draft Rules!

1. We start as normal, with 3 sealed booster packs ready to be drafted.
2. Open the first pack, but note the Rare (and any foils) you open on a separate sheet of paper.
3. Draft as your normally would draft, passing cards to the left after each pick.
4. Repeat for Pack 2, writing down the Rare (and any foils) you open. This time, though, pass to the right.
5. Repeat for Pack 3, writing down the Rare (and any foils) you open. This time, though, pass to the left.

Now you ask, "Why did I write down those Rares and foils?"

Easy. They're mostly our prizes.

When we started drafting here, we didn't have the luxury of $2.50 packs. We had to spend ~$4.40 per pack, making our drafts over $13! I couldn't add any more to that fee, so we wouldn't have prizes if we did a normal draft.

So I got this idea: "Let's use the Rares and foils as our prizes! That way we'll have something to give out and people won't draft money cards just to get money cards."

But there was a problem with that: What if the person who came in last opened a $15-$20 card in their booster? If they finish last, chances are they won't get a comparably-valued card to pick in the prize pool.

Thus, our draft prize tradition started.

Draft Prize Pool Rules
1. When you are out of the tournament, put all Rares and Foils you drafted into the Prize Pool.
2. After the tournament ends, starting with the winner and going in finishing order, each player may reserve 1 (one) Rare or Foil card they had opened from their 3 booster packs and take that as their first pick. (For example, if you opened a Baneslayer Angel, Dark Tutelage, foil Llanowar Elves, and Birds of Paradise in the 3 packs you opened, you may take one of those 4 and only among those 4 as your first pick.)
3. Anyone who did not reserve a Rare or Foil will then pick from the remaining cards in tournament finish order for their first pick.
4. After everyone has picked up one Rare or Foil card, starting with the winner and moving down the finishing order, each player gets to select one remaining Rare or Foil card in the pile.

The hope in these rules was to protect the players' investment: If the person who ends up dead last opened a $10 Rare, I want them to be able to keep that Rare and make back their money (and keep playing, but shh! You didn't hear that from me. ;)  ). If they didn't open something that nice but someone else opened a $5 Mythic Rare they didn't want (maybe they reserved the $10 Rare they opened instead), that gives the last place player a chance to recoup a vast majority of their $8 entry fee.


But overall, it's about the fun and excitement of playing with new cards no more than a week after their release...and on the cheap, too! Just sit down and enjoy some new cards with a great group of players.

And remember, we'll have Sun Titan and Ancient Hellkite promos to give out (you can see the promo images in the post below this) courtesy of Organized Play in Knoxville. If you win, you're guaranteed one copy of each, whereas everyone else will be at the mercy of the "While Supplies Last" fine print: If I don't have enough to go around, I'll randomly award promos so that everyone has a chance at getting at least one of the promos.

I hope to see some first-timers next weekend! If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment here or E-mail me at CardGameNut@gmail.com .

M11 Releases TODAY!

The second Core Set of the new "new + reprint" style comes out today! Magic 2011 Core Set, or M11, comes out with roughly half new cards and half reprints, with some cards new to M10 like Baneslayer Angel returning.

Remember that, for Standard, M10 does not rotate out yet. So enjoy your Siege-Gang Commanders, Vampire Nocturnous, and other M10 favorites that didn't make it to M11 while you can, because when Scars of Mirrodin releases in 2 1/2 months those and others that didn't get reprinted in M11 will be out for at least another year.

I won't have boxes tomorrow, but FedEx expects to deliver my 2 boxes Wednesday. Which sets us up for...

Next Saturday (7/24) is the M11 "Release" Draft! $2.50 per pack for loose packs, $8 entry for the draft ($2.50 per pack plus $.50 toward an additional prize pack split). I'll post our normal Draft rules next week for those who may be joining us for the first time. The Rares, a few Uncommons, and Lightning Bolt and Mana Leak make the set look nice value-wise; if you get a random loose pack, I'd say chances are good at making close to your $2.50 back.

And thanks again to Organized Play in Knoxville, we are looking at having promo Sun Titans and Ancient Hellkites to give away! I don't know how many of each we'll have, but I'll guarantee one Sun Titan and Ancient Hellkite to the winner, then random drawings for non-winners if I don't get enough to go around.

Win the M11 Draft, get these guaranteed!

Enjoy the new stuff in M11 if you get any before next Saturday!

Emblem of Pride: Elspeth makes Emblems Now!

Hey again!

The Comprehensive Rules and Oracle Updates for M11 have been announced, and we've got a bit of a new tool for R&D to consider using on future cards.

First, read Elspeth, Knight-Errant's ultimate ability (for those new to Planeswalkers, that's the final ability listed on a Planeswalker card) (image from Magiccards.info):

Nothing too confusing there, right? Well...only if you think "indestructible" is a keyword.

Find out the clarification and the change...after the Jump!

New Advertising Medium: Twitter!

I'm trying another way to get the word out about us: Twitter!


Follow smmhixson on Twitter to get Twitter updates on what we're up to. It'll mostly be tournament announcements, but I'll try to remember to post about content updates when I get them up.


Let's hope we get at least one person from this, huh?  :)

M10 Rotation

Welcome back!

Remember last year M10 changed how Core Sets rotate out of Standard and Extended. With M11's release, we have the first time we'll see the new Core Set rotation policy in action.

The old policy, when Core Sets released every 2 years, was that a Core Set would be knocked out of Standard on the release of a new Core Set. For example, when 10th Edition released in July 2007, it knocked 9th Edition, which released in July 2005, out of Standard (so a Core Set was legal about as long as a normal block: 2 years).

The new policy, put into place last year when Core Sets went to a once-per-year printing, is that Core Sets will rotate out with the block immediately preceding it, not when a new Core Set releases. For Standard, this means the previous Core Set stays legal for a few months concurrently with the newest Core Set.

When M11 officially releases this Friday (7/16), M10 does not rotate out of Standard and/or Extended. For a few months, we'll have both M10 and M11 legal in Standard.

When Scars of Mirrodin releases October 1st of this year, Shards of Alara block (Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn) will rotate out of Standard as scheduled (Standard only allows the last 2 years' blocks. That was the Shards of Alara block and Zendikar block, but Scars of Mirrodin starts a new block, thus knocking out Shards of Alara block). M10 is tied to Shards of Alara block, so October 1st is when Standard loses M10.

For now, Extended doesn't toss out M10, even when Scars of Mirrodin releases. It should rotate the same way, though: In 2 years, when Shards of Alara block rotates out of Extended, M10 should go with it.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to post them here!

Until then, enjoy your week. :)

Don't Forget: Planechase/Archenemy Combo Tourney This Weekend!

Don't forget tomorrow we have our Plancechase/Archenemy combo tournament! Vintage restriction list, and I'll provide the Planechase and Archenemy cards we'll use. Entry fee is $2 and prizes will come from Rise of the Eldrazi cards.

We hope to see you there!

M11 Reprint Previews!

Sorry for the delay! Sunday I was pure out of energy, and today I just kept putting this update off.

But no more!  You'll see one card from each rarity that Wizards of the Coast chose to reprint in M11!

HINTS:

COMMON: "Gain control" used to only be at higher rarities. Not anymore...and I'm fairly recent too!

UNCOMMON: I was actually banned at one point! But apparently The Powers That Be are okay with that in the modern world.

RARE: I was a Mythic. Apparently sprouting heads "isn't Mythic enough."

MYTHIC RARE: We 5 scour the Multiverse for places to play. And play we shall! >:-)


Find out what we've got...AFTER THE JUMP!

Some M11 Previews, One of Each Rarity, Part TWO!

Here we go again! This weekend brought a ton of previews, so we're going again with one card of each rarity!

But first, the hints...

COMMON: Burn in Green? Impossible!...Or not...

UNCOMMON: Elixir of Immortality, all right, in more ways than one.

RARE: Serra Avatar would be so proud of her child!  :_-) *sniff*

MYTHIC RARE: Green's nigh-unstoppable fattie? Right here!


Check out the new cards...AFTER THE JUMP!

Cube Draft #2 Tournament Report

For the second time in as many tournaments, we only had 3 participants. So again, we did a 3-way tournament. It was a "winner-take-all" event, as we were late enough starting and couldn't afford to drag out a second or third game at the place we decided to go for lunch.

Tiffanie drafted a U/W control deck featuring 3 Planeswalkers, including the ever-lovely Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Ajani Goldmane. Counterspells (including hard counters like Mana Drain to soft counters like Mana Leak) and strong defenders helped with keeping the board under control.

Wayne drafted a Naya-flavored Aggro deck with an Isochron Scepter + Orim's Chant lock possible. Most of the rest seemed to be a beatdown featuring efficient creatures like Tarmogoyf and Giant Solifuge and cheap powerups like Umezawa's Jitte helped to fuel his aggro advances.

I drafted a B/R aggro/burn deck featuring Ob Nixilis, the Fallen for a Lightning Bolt to a player per turn and trying Abyssal Persecutor for the first time for me. A slight recursion sub-theme (via Bloodghast and Corpse Dance), evasion (via the Persecutor, Ob Nixilis [in a way], and minor splashes for Lightning Angel), and 


The game starts off slow for Wayne. Tiff and I are building up our forces, Tiff with her Ajani leading the way and me with Ob Nixilis.

At one point still early in the game, Wayne says he's taking a gamble and shows us the payoff...

 +

=

The best multi-player negotiating tool EVAH!!

Now the wheeling and dealing is on!

As Tiff keeps making deals to not be hit by the ScepterChant combo, her Ajani builds up to 6 counters and she gets a 24/24 Avatar token off his ultimate. Tiff keeps gaining 2 life, I keep landfalling for 3 against Wayne (twice in one turn due to a misplayed Powder Keg on Wayne's part). Some counters come off Ajani while attacking, just to see them start back on. I try to keep pace, at one point getting Ob Nixilis back out from a kicked Corpse Dance to hit her Ajani for 3. But with Wayne casting Pulse of the Fields each turn and Tiff Instant-Casting Rout after my attack, my work's quickly made worthless. A few turns later I lose out from one of Tiff's attacks.

Now the game really gets going!

Tiff drops a Jace, the Mind Sculptor and starts going to town getting him built up and always choosing to look at the top of her library. A Nevinyrral's Disk when Wayne was tapped out ended any potential Scepter locks.

Meanwhile, Wayne starts running and gets Giant Solifuge out with Umezawa's Jitte...but the Jitte can't equip it because of Solifuge's Shroud! The Solifuge gets in for one good hit against Tiff. Wayne next turn tries to drop a Marshal's Anthem to get back one of his big creatures, but it's met with Tiff's Force Spike while Wayne had no mana. Wayne later tries an Enlisted Wurm, only to have it met by an Exclude and no immediate help off the Wurm's cascade (remember, even if the card with Cascade gets countered, the Cascade is a separate trigger that happens when you cast the spell with Cascade).


A Transcendent Master lands with no problems for Tiff as Wayne has no mana with which to respond. She immediately pumps 6 mana into the Master, turning it from an even 3/3 for 3 to a 6/6 Lifelink threat for a total of 9 mana. She has a Lightning Greaves but chooses not to use it.

Next turn, Wayne gets Tarmogoyf back thanks to a Regrowth and equips Umezawa's Jitte to it.

But it's too late for Wayne.

Tiff pumps another 6 mana into Transcendent Master, now making it a 9/9 indestructible lifelink creature. Even if Tarmogoyf attacks as an 8/9 and the Jitte gets 2 counters, he'd need 9 eventually to take out the Master.

A few turns later, Master wins the game for Tiff!


So from the 3 of us, and anyone who's reading this blog, what do you think was the MVP for Tiff? Was it one of Wayne's misplays? Did she make an awesome play? Did any one card contribute heavily to her win, or was it a combination of factors from all players? Leave your comments here!

Remember we have a free play day this weekend, so I'll probably use it to show off Archenemy in preparation for our Planechase/Archenemy free-for-all tournament next weekend. Please come by and enjoy some Archenemy craziness!

Until then, take care!

July 10th Tournament: Planechase Archenemy Multi-Player!

In a little over a month, we have Wayne's "Crazy World" Tournament! It involves using Planechase, but we didn't want to come up on the tournament cold on how to play Planechase.

So we're doing something a bit odd on the 10th. I saw this on a Twitter post and figured it might be interesting and crazy in its own way!

We're going to do a multi-player Planechase Archenemy tournament!

All players will get an even amount of Archenemy scheme cards for their Scheme Deck (even if that amount comes in under 20). There will also be a "communal" Planar Deck that we'll use throughout the tournament.

Shuffle your normal deck and your Scheme Deck. Your Scheme Deck is put somewhere so you'll remember where it is.

The game goes as normal except for the following 3 changes:
1) After you draw your opening 7 cards, you get 1 free mulligan (mulligan to 7 cards instead of 6). After that, mulligan like normal.
2) The player going first gets to draw a card during their Draw Step.

3) Each player gets to "set a scheme into motion" (flip over the top card of their Scheme Deck and carry out its effect(s)) at the start of their first Main Phase.

Aside from those 3 changes, everything goes as normal for an "everyone for themselves" game.


I'll have my Archenemy stuff with me this upcoming Saturday to show how you use Scheme cards. My hope is to give everyone a taste of "uber-power" that Archenemy schemes grant, and what combination of Planes and Schemes might be able to do to cause ultimate mayhem. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!


So come around the next few weeks for some Archenemy fun before we focus on M11 two weeks after this.

We hope to see you soon!

Some M11 Previews, One of Each Rarity

Hey all! I'm back with another M11 update.

Today I've picked one card of each rarity to show off here. Hopefully you'll enjoy them!

Let me preview them before the jump, though:

Common: What do you get when you take one of Black's most iconic cards in the entire game and make it Red?

Uncommon: An old Red creature card becomes an updated new White card. It involves Eggs.

Rare: Ehh...I think I'll split this creature's abilities up a bit.

Mythic Rare:  It seems to be Black's Baneslayer Angel...but it can't fight the Angel herself??

Find out the answers to these clues...after the jump!