About Us

We're a local unofficial Magic gathering group in Hixson, TN.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Charity Tournament Overtime Procedure Revision and Charity Choice

Hey all!
  I only noticed this as I was getting an ad ready for posting on MTGSalvation.com .

  My original statement said that whoever had the highest life totals at the end of the overtime game won the match. Obviously this can only be true for Games 1 and 3 in a match.

  But what about if Game 2 goes to overtime?

  Again, in order to facilitate finishing the rounds in a (relatively) timely manner, whoever has the higher life total at the end of their overtime game wins the game. THEN, if the match score is tied 1-1, the match is a draw and each player receives 1 point. If life totals are tied after 5 turns, the first change in life totals determines the winner and match records will be checked for ties/wins.

I apologize for the confusion.


Also, I've been suggested to the Red Cross  as the charity of choice. This person has had personal experience with how the Red Cross has helped them, so I'm going to donate all proceeds to the Red Cross. If there's a way to designate the money to go straight to Japan, I will.


Thanks for your attention, and we hope to see you next Saturday for what should be a fun Legacy event!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Final Details for Japan Charity Tournament, 4/2

Hello everyone.
  If you've been following the updates on the Japan Charity Tournament, you've seen a lot of "tentative" or "tbd" type of musings here.

  Well, today we're going to finalize most of the information.

JAPAN CHARITY TOURNAMENT


WHEN: April 2nd, 2011 @ 11:00 AM. Late comers may buy a bye for Round 1 by paying another $2 (also to charity) but you will have a 0-0 win-loss record to start and must play in Round 2. No "late bye buy-ins" will be allowed after Round 2 starts.


WHERE:
Baha'i Faith Center
2405 Hamill Road
Hixson, TN 37343

If you need directions, tell me if you're coming from Highway 153 on the Chickamauga Dam or from the Wal-Mart on Highway 153 and I can give you directions if you don't trust Google Maps or Mapquest.


ENTRY FEE: $6, all of which will go to charity. If you are late, you may enter in Round 2 for a $2 "late bye buy-in." You will start with a 0-0 record, though, and must play in Round 2.

FORMAT: Legacy with Proxies Allowed
  NOTE: You MUST have fast access to current Gatherer wordings for your proxies. You cannot go searching on a computer, laptop, cell phone, etc. for your proxy information.

TOURNAMENT STYLE: Swiss Format, with total round numbers to be determined based on the final number of participants after Round 1 starts. A Top 8 playoff may or may not happen, depending on how long we can stay at the church. Each player will get 3 points for a match win and 1 point for a match draw.

OVERTIME PROCEDURE FOR A MATCH: Players will take a total of 5 turns after time is called to finish a game. Whoever has the higher life total after the 5 total turns are over wins the match. If the life totals are tied, the match is a tie. I'm doing this in order to keep the games flowing.

TIES FOR TOP 8: Should we have a tie on points for the 8th place position, the player who finished their final match first will get the position. If this method does not work out (for example, I can't be 100% certain of who finished a match first because both/all Top 8 contenders report their matches at the same time), whoever beat the higher-ranked player in that final match will get the 8th place position. (For example, I have 3 people tied for 8th place after reporting. If I can't determine who finished their game ahead of the others, I'll look at the rankings of their opponents prior to that round. Player A played the 10th place player, Player B played the 13th place player, and Player C played the 9th place player. Player C gets the spot since he had to beat the highest-ranked player among the 3 matches).

PRIZES: This section is still under construction, but so far (as of 3/21/11) we have...
1x Lorwyn Cryptic Command (courtesy Jason Pongonis, aka Microstar22 on MTGSalvation.com)
1x Metalworker (courtesy me. Don't say I never do anything nice. :p  )
4x FNM promo Everflowing Chalice (courtesy Morgan Hardy from Organized Play)
2x Gateway promo Plague Stinger (courtesy Morgan Hardy from Organized Play)
1x Time Spiral (added 3/22) (courtesy Patrick, aka itfeltsowierd on MTGSalvation.com)
1x Spell Snare (added 3/22) (courtesy Patrick, aka itfeltsowierd on MTGSalvation.com)
1x Tutore Mistico (Italian Mystical Tutor) (added 3/22) (courtesy Patrick, aka itfeltsowierd on MTGSalvation.com)
1x set of 5 foils for each color (added 3/22) (courtesy Frank)
1x set of sleeves (added 3./22)  (courtesy Frank)

I have 2 people looking for more potential prizes. I'll add more as I get more. I'll also add the names of the people responsible for donations.
Prize distribution will be finalized probably on March 31st.


Let's remember that the most important part of this tournament is that we're helping Japan a little with their recovery efforts. While I haven't decided on a charity yet, I will take ideas. I'd like to find a trusted charity that's working on the damage the radiation from the nuclear plants has caused as well as finding preventative measures for those who haven't been affected yet.


Thanks for your time, and please RSVP when you can by commenting here. Let's do some good with this tournament. :)

Friday, March 18, 2011

Charity Tournament Update and Knights vs. Dragons Duel Deck Lists

Hey guys! Hopefully I can be back to some regular posting, even if it's fairly brief. No promises, though.

Just to kind of update what we have for the charity event, so far I've got 1 Cryptic Command on the way and Morgan Hardy of OrganizedPlay in Knoxville will see what he can do. Also, I've got promo Everflowing Chalices that I'll use up to hand out here.

So far, then, the prize pool stands at:
1x Cryptic Command
2x-4x Everflowing Chalice promos (don't know how many are in the wrapper. Should be 4, but I'm saying 2 to be conservative)
Some random card(s)/stuff Morgan comes up with.

If you know anyone who would love to give to Japan and have some fun doing it playing Magic, let them know about this event. We'll run it April 2nd. If you know someone who wants to give prizes for this, however they can help, I'll be happy to have it.

I'll also discuss tomorrow what format we'll use, final entry fee, etc. If you want to be part of that discussion, come and take part. Otherwise, leave feedback here or in the post below this one.


NOW...how about some Magic release news, huh?

April 1st is the release date for the next Duel Decks release, Knights vs. Dragons. One store got their allotment early and spoiled the lists. You can find the lists here: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=276474

For those who don't click on the link, the deck comes with Knight of the Reliquary and Bogardan Hellkite as the Mythic Rare foils in the deck. Other noteable Rares include Knight of the White OrchidLoxodon Warhammer (with new art), and Thunder Dragon (not sure if they'll use the From the Vaults or Starter 1999 artwork).

If you're wondering if this is worth the $20...ehh, it depends on what you think of the decks as a whole. I like the Knights deck, but the Dragons are a complete and utter random pile. I was wondering how far they could go with a Dragon theme for a deck. The answer was, not too far.

If you're looking at card values, I'd say stay away from this deck. If you do anything with it, buy it now and hold onto it sealed for a while. If it follows the trends of most other Duel Decks, just having a sealed copy will get you profit in the long run. I just don't know about opening this up and piecing out the cards.


That's all I've got for today. This weekend I'll finalize the charity event information and give you a Two-Headed Giant rules update involving Poison.

Until then, take care!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

An Idea: Charity Tournament for Japan in Two Weeks?

I was perusing Twitter one day this week and saw that, in place of Grand Prix - Kobe (I think it's Kobe, but it doesn't matter. It's a Grand Prix that should have been in Japan) this weekend some tournament organizers in Japan are holding charity tournament to help raise money for the Japanese relief efforts.

So I was wondering...Why don't we do something?

I'm going to see what I can get for prize support, but I want to do a constructed event with proxies allowed (especially if we do Legacy or Vintage). Specific proxy rules and formats would follow, but the basic idea is here.

Entry fee would be $6: $3 would go toward any prizes I may have to pay for, and $3 would go toward the charity part.

My idea is if we could get people to RSVP, I could get a base prize based on the number of entrants and the format we do.

For example...

4-6 people (the minimum I'd do): $12 for prizes, so maybe a Metalworker for Legacy, Cryptic Command for Extended, or an Elspeth Tirel for Standard (depending on which format we choose). The rest would go toward charity.

7-9 people: $21 for prizes, so maybe an Intuition for Legacy or Sword of Feast or Famine for Standard (again, format-dependent). The rest toward charity.

10+ people: $30 minimum available for prizes, so possibly a Rishadan Port for Legacy or, with enough people, a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas for Standard (again, format-dependent). The rest to charity.


NOTE: I'm definitely not tied to anything right now, but you get the general idea. If I can get prize donations, I'll add those to the prize pool and they won't count toward the "prize payback" I'm doing with the RSVP example (so I won't take money away from the charity to "pay" for your contributions).

Just keep in mind: This isn't done for the prizes (they're an incentive to participate, NOT the focus) and there's no ranking of any kind on the line.

If you've got ideas or prize donations you want to add in, feel free to chip in. Again, nothing's set in stone. I just want to get feedback and additional ideas and/or fixes to my proposal.


EDIT: I just wanted to clarify...the $3 per person that I'd use for prizes is to get a prize that's desireable and worth peoples' time to attend. Also note that if I'm doing an RSVP type idea I'd only use the lower number's $3 piece to pay for the card. For example, at the 4-6 bracket, I'd only use upwards of $12 to get a card. If I get 4 people, that's $12 for prize and $12 for charity. If I get 5 people, that's still $12 for a prize and that 5th person's whole $6 would go toward charity for $18 going to charity. 6 people would then be $12 for prize and $24 for charity. At 7 people, the next level, $21 goes toward prizes and $21 goes to charity. At 8 people, that's $21 to prize and $27 to charity, and so on. As I said, though, this is only an idea and is NOT set in stone. Feedback and prize donations are welcome.


EDIT 2: We have a bite on prize donations! We're getting a free Cryptic Command to throw into the prize pool! :) Let's hope to keep the donations rolling. :)