Promo Distribution Ideas

With HUGE thanks to Organized Play and Morgan Hardy in Knoxville, we've got a number of promos headed our way for the Scars of Mirrodin Post-Release draft Saturday!



Now that I've got a promo list, I've got an idea of what I want to do, so here are the details:

Steel Hellkite: Guaranteed handout to the first 15 players (I doubt we'll hit that many, so it's pretty well 100% you'll get one).

Wurmcoil Engine: I bought 1 Wurmcoil Engine just to make sure I'd have a copy of the Pre-Release Promo. Because I only have 1 copy, I'm reserving this for the highest-finishing player who did not get to a Pre-Release. (If not such player exists in the tournament, it'll be a random draw.)

Nissa Revane: I'll have a few (3) Duels of the Planeswalkers Nissa Revanes I'm able to hand out. I have one friend I want to give one to (as long as he plays in the draft, since he doesn't get around to many of our events), but the other 2 will be random giveaways. You may decline the Nissa Revane promo in favor of one of the promos listed next.

Liliana's Specter (full art), Sylvan Ranger, Syphon Mind: Everyone who didn't receive a Wurmcoil Engine or Nissa Revane will get to choose from the following promos until everyone has 2 total promos (Steel Hellkite + Wurmcoil Engine OR Nissa Revane OR one of these three).

So to recap, everyone will get 2 promos total:

1) Guaranteed Steel Hellkite promo.
2) Highest finisher who didn't attend a Pre-Release gets the lone Wurmcoil Engine promo.
3) Friend who will get 1 Nissa Revane promo (unless he earns the Wurmcoil Engine and declines the Nissa).
4) Random drawings for the other Nissa Revane promos. (You may choose to decline this in favor of one of the other 3 promos listed below)
5) Anyone not getting a Wurmcoil Engine or Nissa Revane gets their choice of one Liliana's Specter (full art), Sylvan Ranger, or Syphon Mind.


So...clear as mud? Sorry! It's the best I can do with all the cards I've got coming our way. Here's hoping it helps our attendance figures.  :)

Video Editing Not Cooperating

I'm working on the Cube Draft 3 videos, but my editing software's apparently giving me fits. :(  I've got Part 1 of Round 1 posted, though:





Enjoy Part 1 as I get the others worked on Friday. :)

Possible New End of Match Procedure. Please Discuss!

As we're an informal group (we don't follow DCI rules to the letter, for example), we get to consider things like different formats (outside of Standard or traditional Drafts), procedures, etc.

I want to consider a procedure change for our "end of match" determinations.

Currently, we do adopt the DCI's "five extra turns" rule: At the end of time, after the current turn there are 5 additional turns (total) in the game.

The way we do the "who wins" consideration is this:

CURRENT POLICY
Games 1 or 3: Whoever has the most life at the end of the 5 extra turns wins the game and thus the match (winner would either be 1-0 or 2-1, so there's no need for an extra game).

Game 2: If there's no clear winner, the winner of Game 1 wins the match.


To be honest, I'm personally tired of losing Game 2 in extra turns because I can't kill my opponent. And I've had opponents not even go to Game 2 because time was about to run out and they had no chance to kill me. If Games 1 and 3 get to determine their game (thus match) winner by ending life totals, I want Game 2 to do something similar and mean something.


So I want us to consider this end-of-match policy:

PROPOSED POLICY
Games 1 and 3: Same as normal, since the game records would give one player the clear win of the match.

Game 2: At the end of the extra 5 turns, the winner of Game 2 is determined by who has the highest life total. If it's a tie, ignore non-combat damage/life gain and go to the first combat damage dealt. If there's no clear Match winner (after extra turns, the result is 1-1), go to Game 3. In Game 3, non-combat damage is ignored, as is non-combat life gain. First combat damage in Game 3 wins.



This is just an idea. The crux of it is I want Game 2 to possibly mean something, to not let people quit just because the winner of Game 1 got to run the clock out. I want to do some form of "go to Game 3 if the match score is tied after extra turns", but I don't want cheap burn/life gain to win the game by itself in Game 3. Combat damage would make you work for it. I know it would take longer, but I think it's be a better system to ensure the person who works hardest wins, not the guy who happens to luck up on the clock/direct damage topdeck/life gain topdeck.


Feel free to comment below or send an E-mail to CardGameNut@gmail.com . Chances are we won't implement this for the Scars of Mirrodin draft unless we get a majority approval, so take your time to think about this and respond.

Bit of an Issue with Promos for Saturday

I got the E-mail today about what we can expect for promos.

Sadly, zero Wurmcoil Engines extra. WotC screwed up Organized Play's "Buy a Box" promos so Morgan had to resort to giving away extra Wurmcoil Engines in place of the Memoricides that WotC should have sent his way.

We will have Steel Hellkite promos, though. :)  Hopefully enough to go one per person, but I need to see what the other promos he sent are.

So stay tuned for word on what we'll do about Promos for this event (what promos we'll get and how I'll distribute them).

EDIT: Here's what we have to work with:

10x M11 WPN Sylvan Ranger

15x Steel Hellkite

3x Duels Nissa Revane

10x WPN Syphon Mind

10x Gameday Liliana's Specter

I'll definitely do Steel Hellkite guaranteed handouts. With 15, I doubt we'll run out.

The question is...what to do with the rest?

These above-and-beyond promos are to make up for the lack of Wurmcoil Engine promos. I don't want to blow the whole lot in one event, so I'll probably start by doing the Nissas somehow.

I welcome any and all suggestions you've got.

REMINDER: Scars of Mirrodin Post-Release Saturday!

I hope everyone's had a good weekend! For those who play Standard FNM's, I hope Scars of Mirrodin was good to you. I see Wurmcoil Engine is seeing the most play easily. Apparently if you're going to be like Mitotic Slime you need to have some extra abilities on the split-up tokens.


I wanted to remind everyone that our traditional Post-Release draft for Scars of Mirrodin will be this weekend!

DETAILS
Entry Fee: $8
Format: 3x Scars of Mirrodin Draft (ie: 3 packs of Scars of Mirrodin to draft with.)
Prizes: Rares/Foils from the packs (to be collected as players drop out)* PLUS 1 booster split from Scars of Mirrodin.
Promos: May include Wurmcoil Engine Pre-Release promo and/or Steel Hellkite Release promo, but confirmation is still pending. If we have fewer promos than people, we'll give out a Wurmcoil Engine to the winner and remaining promos will be given on a random lottery basis starting with any remaining Wurmcoil Engines then Steel Hellkites until supplies run out.

*When you open your packs, write down any Rares/foils you open from your packs (yes, including normal Mythic Rares and any foil you open). At the end of the tournament after all the Rares/foils are collected and the SOM pack split is open, starting with the winner, each player may reserve 1 (one) Rare/foil they opened from their own 3 packs. This is each player's first pick. Players who did not choose to reserve a card will get first crack (in finishing order) at the remaining cards. Once everyone has one card (from either the Rares/foils or the pack split), starting with the winner each player gets a turn to get 1 remaining card until all cards are gone.


We hope to see you there for a fun Limited format.

*SIGH x2* Tuesday Videos...I Hope

I tried getting some Cube Draft 3 videos up Friday but the process is taking longer than I remember. Tuesday I have a completely free afternoon to work on the videos. Sorry it's taken nearly 3 weeks to get these up. Next set of videos will be up a lot sooner as long as school doesn't interfere.

Standard Rotates Today, but Welcome Scars of Mirrodin!

Hey all!
  Today we lose some valuable members of the Standard metagame.

We bid farewell to Bloodbraid Elf; Sprouting Thrinax; Elspeth, Knight-Errant; Master of the Wild Hunt; Sphinx of the Steel Wind; and a host of others.

Today is the second Standard rotation since Wizards of the Coast changed up the way Core Sets and Standard/Extended format rotations would work.

Today in Standard, we lose 4 sets: Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn, and Magic 2010 Core Set.

In their place, we picked up Scars of Mirrodin since it released today.


Extended lost a lot more. Extended loses Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir; Venser, Shaper-Savant; Tarmogoyf; Wrath of God; Damnation; and more.

Extended rotates at the same time Standard does and only keeps the last 4 years' worth of expansions and a few Core Sets. Therefore, rotating out with Scars of Mirrodin's release are Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, Future Sight, and 10th Edition.


To catch you up on the current Extended list, here are the permitted blocks and Core Sets:

Lorwyn mega-block (Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, and Eventide)
Shards of Alara block (Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn)
Zendikar block (Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise of the Eldrazi)
Scars of Mirrodin block (currently only Scars of Mirrodin)
M10
M11

Extended format rotates once a year now, at the same time as Standard, and is looses the oldest block (out of a 4-year list). I'm not sure how the Core Set rotation goes, but if it's like Standard M10 will tie in with Zendikar block and won't rotate out for a while.


Be sure to update your decks if you're playing these formats! I'd hate for you to end up DQ'd because you've got the wrong Elspeth in your deck.