Standard Results & Standings Update

Our first constructed event of the year saw a decent turnout of 12 players - not bad, but somewhat smaller than the turnout I expected due to unexpected illnesses and homework burdened by some of the previously interested players. However, we still had an exciting event:

8/29/10 Top Finishers: Standard Constructed

1. 5-1 Red Deck Wins by Emile Paul

2. 5-1 "Old Jund" by Michael Smith

3. 4-1 UW Sun Titan Control by Hunter Garrett

4. 3-2 Naya Beats by John Kreinbring

Three rounds of Swiss saw the elimination of most of the control decks, as we saw Glen's 5-color control, Mike Mooty's Grixis, and Brent's Runeflare Trap all eliminated early along with Noah's green/black deck. However, a clear control-playing frontrunner emerged in Hunter's blue/white Sun Titan deck, which rolled unblemished through the Swiss. In the quarterfinals, my Mythic Conscription deck rolled him over quickly in game 1, but post-board he managed to recover and take the next two games and advance to play against Emile's mono-red, which took advantage of an unexpected opportnity to edge out Bryant's Bant Allies deck. On the other side of the bracket, John rolled over Michael Carney's mono-black deck but run into a buzzsaw against Michael Smith's "Old Jund," featuring previously forgotten high-end creatures like Broodmate Dragon and Siege-Gang Commander, as well as a large heap of removal and, of course, lots of Blightning. Emile joined him in the final after Hunter stumbled in Game 3 on a massive mana flood to take his first loss of the day at a rather inopportune time. Emile prevailed 2-1 in the final, which involved lots of mulligans and plenty of controversy, which made for quite an interesting feature match that you can read all about in the post below this one (or just click here: http://fitssffmagic.blogspot.com/2010/08/feature-match-standard-finals-emile_30.html).

The updated League Standings are as follows. As always, if you feel you didn't receive the correct amount of points for your performance, I'll be happy to send you my spreadsheet so that you can understand how I came up with your score.

1. 16 - Michael Smith (3 events)

0*. 14 - Dominic Casali (4)

2. 12 - Joe Hammond (3)

3. 11 - Emile Paul (2)

4. 10 - Dan Hooghkirk (2)

5. 8 - Bryant Benson (4)

5. 8 - Brent Kollinger (3)

7. 7 - John Kreinbring (3)

8. 6 - Hunter Garrett (2)

9. 5 - Scott Record (1)

10. 4 - Will Sturges (1)

11. 3 - Michael Carney (2)

11. 3 - Liz DiGangi (2)

11. 3 - Alycia Johnson (2)

14. 2 - Shawn Brabant (2)

14. 2 - Nick Catalfano (1)

14. 2 - John Chandler (1)

14. 2 - Michelle Karl (2)

14. 2 - Haren Lalchand (2)

14. 2 - Nikita Nikolayev (2)

14. 2 - Glen Parker (2)

14. 2 - Matt Wills (2)

22. 1 - David Chesnutt (1)

22. 1 - Helen Croce (1)

22. 1 - Kevin Crowley (1)

22. 1 - Kareem Elashmawy (1)

22. 1 - Stephen Kwokchoon (1)

22. 1 - Greg Lovell (1)

22. 1 - Krystal Lutz (1)

22. 1 - Mike Mooty (1)

22. 1 - Jennifer Mori (1)

22. 1 - Noah Senzel (1)

*Zero-rank players are not eligible for the top-8 invitational event at the end of the semester.

I want to take a little time to discuss one more issue known as "rulemongering," or trying to gain advantage on your opponents by using any and all rules infractions your opponents might make to gain an advantage. If you go to the feature match post, which you can find at http://fitssffmagic.blogspot.com/2010/08/feature-match-standard-finals-emile_30.html (the post below this one) and read about the final match, you'll see an example of a significant rules violation. I've heard people on both sides of the argument regarding whether or not what happens was right/moral/fair/whatever. I don't have a specific opinion on that issue, as I was there and could see both sides of the coin, but I would like to see people be lenient and work to avoid having rules issues decide the outcome of a match whenever possible. I'm not convinced it was avoidable in this situation, but I want to generally say that everyone wants to be friends here, and if we can avoid it, I would like to not have to be put in the situation to give out serious penalties in the future. So pay attention to your environment and what's in your deck, and try to be forgiving and flexible if a situation arises. They can't always be solved easily, but having that kind of good mindset goes a long way in preventing these types of problems from occurring on a regular basis.

Finally, our next event will be Rise of the Eldrazi draft this Saturday, September 4, at NOON (not 1:00!). You must sign up if you want to play, as I have limited product for this event. There are still a few spots left. Other September events are posted on the top-right portion of the site. Thanks again to everyone who came to the event, and have a great week!

- Dom

Feature Match: Standard Finals - Emile Paul vs. Michael Smith

The crowd in the SUB had mostly emptied out as we were down to our final two Standard competitors. Emile Paul was brandishing his Goblin-oriented variant of Red Deck Wins, and had made the finals after dispatching Bant Allies and UW Control. Sitting across the table was Michael Smith, who was playing what he referred to as "Old Jund," referencing the fact that he was playing the pre-M11 build, playing cards like Broodmate Dragon and Siege-Gang Commander, which have been dropped for newer options by some players. Mike had defeated Esper Control and Naya Aggro to reach the finals. Both players shuffled up their decks and prepared for battle.

However, there was an immediate turn of events, as Mike mulliganed to 6 and then 5. While shuffling before drawing his 5-card hand, he realized a critical mistake: he had failed to sideboard properly following a casual game he had been playing to pass time before the finals, which left his deck with only 47 cards (and his sideboard with 28). As the Tournament Organizer and Head Judge for the event, I had to intervene. The required penalty for this infraction is a game loss, which Emile requested I enforce. Therefore, I did so, and the first game was over before any games had been played.

I should mention that although the game loss could've been avoided if requested by both players, but in that case, the correct enforcement following this scenario would have been a forced mulligan to 4, so odds are the result should have been the same. I would've preferred this course of action instead of having to give out the game loss, but rules are a part of the game and this does happen sometimes.

Emile Paul 1, Michael Smith 0

Game 2 was played without sideboards, as sideboarding only occurs after an actual game has been played. The second game started much more smoothly, with both players keeping their opening 7. Having "lost" the previous game, Mike played first and opened with a Savage Lands. There was no action until turn 2, where Emile cast a Goblin Guide and a Quest for Pure Flame, but the Guide met a quick demise from Mike's Terminate.

Mike took the offensive on his third turn, casting the hated discard spell Blightning, forcing Emile to discard Hellspark Elemental and Burst Lightning (17-20). Emile responded by Lightning Bolting Mike directly and then unearthing Hellspark Elemental to deal a total of 6 damage (17-14). There was no action until Mike cast a second Blightning, which got Mountain and earned him a Burst Lightning to the face in response (14-12), but did empty out Emile's hand. Emile looked like the underdog here, needing to pull 12 damage from topdeck mode.

He got his first 3 in the form of Hellspark Elemental (14-9), though he missed the potential 4th counter on his Quest. Mike played a land and passed, appearing to be low on gas at this point. Emile topdecked a Goblin Arsonist and unearthed his Hellspark. However, the hasty Elemental met his end at the hands of a Bituminous Blast, which cascaded into Sprouting Thrinax.

Mike then made a big play, casting his "Old Jund" favorite, Broodmate Dragon, and passing. Emile suicided his Arsonist into the Thrinax to deal Mike 1 point of damage and get his Quest online (14-8). However, Mike cast a Blightning (11-8), and Emile had to respond by bolting Mike and using his quest (11-2). Unfortunately for him, Mike had 11 power on the table with his 2 dragons and his Thrinax, and we were going to game 3 (0-2).

Emile Paul 1, Michael Smith 1

Game 3 was a return to mulligan-land, as Mike went down to 6, then 5, and then 4. Could he stand a chance with just 4 cards in hand? Emile opened again with Quest for Pure Flame, which was followed by Goblin Arsonist as Mike continued playing tapped lands. A second Arsonist joined the team, and the first one poked through for the first damage of the game (20-19), then both hit the next turn (20-17). Mike finally cast something, playing a Bloodbraid Elf and cascading into a Staggershock, taking out one Arsonist, who got the last word in after dying with a ping (20-16). At the end of the turn, Emile fired a Lightning Bolt at Mike (20-13), and then traded his other Arsonist for the Bloodbraid Elf. He fired directly at Mike with a Forked Bolt (20-11) and passed with an empty field. Could Mike actually make the improbable comeback?

He went to work, hitting Emile with the Staggershock rebound (18-11) and a Blightning (15-11), as Emile discarded two Earthquakes. However, Emile ripped Hell's Thunder off the top, and swung with his Quest activated, putting Mike in Bolt range (15-3). Mike cast a second Blightning, hitting Emile's Quenchable Fire (12-3), emptying Emile's hand and leaving him with just 3 Mountains, which was not enough to unearth Hell's Thunder. Emile slowly revealed the top card of his library...sure enough, it was a Lightning Bolt, making him the Standard winner (12-0).

Emile Paul 2, Michael Smith 1

They each won 3 M11 boosters, with Emile also taking the promo Birds of Paradise. However, both understanding the unfortunate circumstance of the game loss at the beginning of the match, they decided to play a bonus game, each with a pack on the line.

The 3rd actual game began with Emile on the mulligan train this time around, as he went down to 6 and then 5. He still opened well with a hasty Goblin Guide (20-18), followed by a Quest for Pure Flame and an Arsonist, plus another hit from Goblin Guide (20-16). Mike fought back with a Blightning (17-16), forcing Emile to discard Earthquake and Quenchable Fire. Emile swung back with his two creatures (17-13), but Mike then laid down a good blocker in Sprouting Thrinax. Mike then went on the offensive with his Raging Ravine, which was chumped by the Arsonist (17-12). Ravine got in for good next time (12-12), and all Emile could fight back with was a Shock from a Forked Bolt (12-10). He was clearly running out of gas.

Sprouting Thrinax crashed in next turn (9-10), and was replaced on the blocking front by a second Thrinax. Emile put down a Goblin Guide to block, but it had to chump one of the attacking Thrinaxes (6-10). Emile put in a last-ditch Staggershock (6-8), but after the rebound (6-6), he pulled a useless Mountain off the top and fell to Mike's army on the next turn (0-6), costing him one of his prize packs, as he was on the losing end of the wager.

Standard Format Info & Deckbuilding Session

Hi everyone,

I first want to mention that I have added the first 2 events for September (see the "Upcoming Events" information box on the top right of the page). I want to remind you that you must sign-up for the Rise of the Eldrazi Draft, as I only have space for 12 players (and there are already 4 or 5 signed up). Let me know ASAP if you want to come! Events for the rest of September will be announced fairly soon.

A few people have mentioned that they've been struggling to make their decks for $6 Standard this weekend (Sunday at 1:30 PM), so I thought I would try to post some useful information and some strategies that I've seen be successful at Friday Night Magic events I've been to in Florida and South Carolina.

The first place to start in constructed deckbuilding is to know your available card pool and deckbuilding constraints. Remember that constructed decks must contain no fewer than 60 cards and that the sideboard must be exactly 15 cards. The following sets are currently Standard legal:

- Alara Block: Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn

- Zendikar Block: Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise of the Eldrazi

- Legal Core Sets: Magic 2010 and Magic 2011

Let me emphasize that M10 and M11 are both Standard legal right now. This is a change from previous Standard seasons, where each core set rotated when the new one came in. For example, when M10 was released, 10th Edition rotated the same day. But now, core sets rotate when the expansion blocks do, so M10 and Alara block will rotate out at the same time (in October when Scars of Mirrodin is released). This makes for some interesting deckbuilding possibilities that haven't existed previously.

The best place to start deckbuilding is to take one card you really like (or maybe a couple cards that work well together) and see what you can do with them. For example, a few months ago when Worldwake was released, Krystal wanted me to help her make a deck based around Wolfbriar Elemental. So I started by looking at available wolf cards. Master of the Wild Hunt can generate wolves and use them to destroy opposing creatures. Howl of the Night Pack made for a great win condition if you have lots of mana, as does the Wolfbriar. Since we need lots of mana to do this, I also played some cards that accelerate mana, such as Llanowar Elves, Explore, and Borderland Ranger. I don't remember the exact list, but you can see that with just a little thinking I'm on the way to making a solid green deck. A little pump and removal-type spells (cards like Vines of Vastwood, Entangling Vines, and Overrun), some land (don't play too little, most decks need 22-25 lands!) and you have something to test. Obviously, the first iteration of a deck isn't going to be perfect, but it's not that hard to find something to start working with.

Sideboards should mostly be used to address areas your deck is weak against or cannot deal with in your main 60 cards. For this green deck, cards like Naturalize and Windstorm help me deal with artifacts, enchantments, and flying creatures, which are some areas that my main deck cannot effectively address in game 1. It's also good to play cards that supplement weak matchups. For example, mana ramp decks usually struggle against decks that burn their creatures or against well-timed discard spells that hit their big threats before they can be played. This weakness can be addressed by playing a card like Obstinate Baloth, which is great against discard effects and also gains 4 life and is hard to burn with one spell, making it desirable against red decks and maybe some other aggressive decks.

If you feel like you need more guidance in the process, I'll be available in the SUB this Friday, August 27, from 2-5 PM for a deckbuilding session if anybody wants it. I did it last year for a couple people and we dramatically improved what they started out with. Let me know if you're interested so that I can try to schedule different people at different times.

Before I go, let me give you a few strategies that are well-known to be pretty good in the current standard format. You can obviously play something other than these, but if you're struggling to find ideas, this list might help you find something online to play and develop:

- Shard decks: Jund (RGB), Naya (RGW), and Bant (GWU) have been the most successful, but Esper (BUW) and Grixis (RBU) are also playable

- Burn decks: Mono-Red burn is commonly played, as are some aggressive red/black decks.

- Black decks: Vampire themes and mono-black control decks

- Green decks: Token swarms or lots of fatties (ya gotta love the fatties :P)

- Mana ramp: Red/Green acceleration into Eldrazi or Titans

- Control decks: Blue/White with Day of Judgment is most common, but UWR planeswalkers, Esper, and Grixis control have all seen play

- Mono-white: Both aggressive ("white weenie") and control variants exist

- Turboland: These decks feature mana ramp, Oracle of Mul Daya and library manipulation to get tons of land, then play huge fatties like Avenger of Zendikar and Rampaging Baloths to win the game

- Combo decks: If you're a gambler, look up decks like Time Sieve, Dredgevine, and Pyromancer Ascension combo. All are pretty complicated but can be quite ridiculous if played well.

Let me know if you need any more info about standard. I hope to see lots of you on Sunday!

- Dom

M11 Draft #2 Results & Standings Update

Our first event of the semester was a fun one, and at 18 players was the 2nd-largest draft I've been a part of in FITSSFF. It was a great turnout and it seemed like everyone had a lot of fun. Hopefully we can keep this kind of attendance for future events. With that said, let's get to the results:

8/21/10 Top Finishers: M11 Draft #2

1. 4-0 Mono-Red Burn by Joe Hammond

2. 3-1 BW Aggro by Dan Hooghkirk

3. 3-1 UB Control by Michael Smith

4. 3-1 UR Counterburn by Dominic Casali

5. 3-1 UW Skies by Brent Kollinger

2 rounds of play saw 14 players with at least one defeat, leaving me, Michael, Joe, and Ranger Dan as the only unbeaten players. Round 3 pitted the slower, blue-based decks Michael and I were playing against two quicker decks that Joe and Dan were piloting. Speed won out in both cases, pitting Joe's "I guess no one else at my table was drafting red" burn deck against Dan's "oops, I thought I was still drafting Zendikar block" black/white 2-drops deck in the de-facto final. After a well-fought match, Joe prevailed 2-1. Michael and I rebounded to win our round 4 matches and take 3rd and 4th, and Brent made an impressive recovery from a first round loss to jump all the way back to 5th and finish in the prizes. A lot of other players were piloting some pretty good decks as well, and many players finished 2-2 to earn at least 2 League Points for their efforts.

As promised, I have another winning decklist to share. This time it's a 42-card mono-red concoction:

Mono-Red Burn by Joe Hammond:

Creatures (11)

1x Chandra's Spitfire

1x Ember Hauler

2x Fire Servant

1x Gargoyle Sentinel

1x Goblin Balloon Brigade

1x Goblin Piker

2x Goblin Tunneler

1x Magma Phoenix

1x Prodigal Pyromancer

Other Spells (14)

2x Chandra's Outrage

2x Combust

1x Fireball

1x Fling

4x Lava Axe

1x Lightning Bolt

2x Pyretic Ritual

1x Shiv's Embrace

Lands (17)

17x Mountain

Relevant Sideboard (1)

1x Destructive Force

Relevant Hate Draft (5)

1x Blinding Mage

1x Cloud Crusader

1x Mitotic Slime

1x Negate

1x Overwhelming Stampede

When I saw this list, I was interested by a few things I saw, particularly the doubles of Combust and Pyretic Ritual, both of which are usually not played in main decks, let alone two copies. After the draft, I played my deck in a match against it (he won 2-1) and asked Joe a few questions about his deck so that I could share the insight with everyone else. He told me that he played the Combusts because he wasn't seeing much white or blue being passed around, so he figured everyone else would be playing them (which apparently was correct, as it was relevant against all 4 of his opponents, and me as well), and the rituals helped power out Magma Phoenix and Fire Servant. He also mentioned being particularly impressed with how effective Chandra's Outrage was.

Also, this is only my own opinion here, but I think it's worth noting that double Fire Servant makes those Lava Axes a heck of a lot better. I normally wouldn't recommended playing a deck with only 11 creatures and that many spells that don't affect the board, but when they eat half of your opponent's starting life total it doesn't matter very much whether they affect the board or not. It's definitely an interesting deck and a good example of the types of things you can do in draft that you usually can't do in sealed.

Finally, with such a large event, there were a bunch of League Points handed out (a total of 65 between the 18 players), which dramatically shifted the standings:

0*. 12 - Dominic Casali (3 events)

1. 12 - Joe Hammond (3)

2. 10 - Dan Hooghkirk (2)

3. 9 - Michael Smith (2)

4. 7 - Brent Kollinger (2)

5. 5 - Bryant Benson (3)

5. 5 - Scott Record (1)

7. 4 - Will Sturges (1)

8. 3 - Liz DiGangi (2)

8. 3 - Alycia Johnson (2)

8. 3 - John Kreinbring (2)

8. 3 - Emile Paul (1)

12. 2 - Shawn Brabant (2)

12. 2 - Nick Catalfano (1)

12. 2 - Michelle Karl (2)

12. 2 - Haren Lalchand (2)

12. 2 - Nikita Nikolayev (2)

12. 2 - Matt Wills (2)

18. 1 - Michael Carney (1)

18. 1 - David Chesnutt (1)

18. 1 - Helen Croce (1)

18. 1 - Kevin Crowley (1)

18. 1 - Kareem Elashmawy (1)

18. 1 - Hunter Garrett (1)

18. 1 - Stephen Kwokchoon (1)

18. 1 - Greg Lovell (1)

18. 1 - Krystal Lutz (1)

18. 1 - Jennifer Mori (1)

18. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

*Zero-rank players are not eligible for the top-8 invitational event at the end of the semester.

The large clumps of tied players may look a little strange, but everyone will separate as the semester continues and many more points are given out. If you're unsure how many points you received for this event or believe you did not receive the appropriate amount of points, send me an email and I can send you a copy of the spreadsheet I used to calculate everyone's point totals.

If you missed this event or had so much fun that you want to draft this set again, there may be one more opportunity to draft M11 next month, so stay tuned for that. Our next event is Standard next Sunday, August 29, at 1:30 PM. I'll post more about Standard and send out more emails between now and then. Until then, thanks for reading and I'll see you guys again next weekend!

- Dom

M11 Draft Information & Deckbuilding Tips

Hey everybody,

It seems like there's a whole lot of people interested in attending the $12 M11 draft at 1 P.M. on Saturday, which is awesome. At the request of some of the newer players, I wanted to post some basic information on how drafting works and how to build a good deck and have a successful draft.

First off, here's a quick rundown of how a draft works. A small group of players (the ideal number is 8, and I'll try to keep the size of each group as close to this as I can) sit at a table with 3 booster packs. Each player opens the first pack and removes the rules/token card, and then looks through the 15 cards in the pack. They each pick their favorite card from the pack and pass the other 14 cards to the player on their left. This continues until all cards are picked. This process then repeats for pack 2, but the cards are passed to the right instead. The third pack passes to the left again.

After all 3 packs have been drafted, each player takes the cards they drafted and any number of basic lands (which will be provided) to make a 40-card deck. All cards not in the deck are in the sideboard. Players then face off in matches, which are 2 out of 3. The tournament will have 3 or 4 rounds of matches, and everyone plays in every round regardless of how they do (i.e. nobody is ever eliminated). The final standings will be based on each player's performance in these matches.

What should you draft and put in your deck? It varies from set to set and draft to draft, but generally you want some combination of strong (power/toughness near mana cost) and/or evasive (flying, trample, etc.) creatures at a variety of mana costs (more on this later), ways to make your creatures stronger (such as Giant Growth and Armored Ascension), and ways to disrupt your opponent. Disruption can be creature kill spells (such as Assassinate or Lightning Bolt), counterspells (such as Cancel and Negate), enchantments you put on your opponent's creatures (such as Pacifism and Ice Cage), and creatures that interfere with your opponent's strategy (such as Blinding Mage and Prodigal Pyromancer). It's also good to be able to draw cards and destroy opposing noncreature permanents, especially their artifacts and enchantments, though not every color can perform these functions, so it's important to play to the strengths of your color(s).

It's also important to remember that sometimes the best card you can pick may be common or uncommon. Although many of the rares are awesome (and you might be inclined to pick some of them because you want them for your collection, which is understandable), your deck can often benefit the most from passing the rare and taking something more relevant. I want to emphasize that rares are not the key to being successful. Good ones help, but I've won drafts with no-rares decks and finished dead last in ones where I was playing several rares. The key is picking what's best for your deck. Furthermore, people who attend my events always receive at least 1 prize pack regardless of performance, so this should hopefully alleviate any fears people might have of possibly not getting any rares to put towards their trade binders.

Regarding deckbuilding, there are two main considerations: color and mana cost. Color is the much simpler one. Generally, people just try to follow the colors of the cards they take with their first few picks, which is usually a fine strategy. However, if the color(s) you're trying to draft disappear (usually because the person next to you is playing the same color), then you may need to move into a different one. Usually, it's best to play a 2 color deck, although sometimes it's possible to play just 1 color or to go the other way and "splash" a couple powerful cards from a 3rd color, especially if you're playing green, as green has access in M11 to cards like Sylvan Ranger and Cultivate that help you get lands of other colors.

In my opinion, the more challenging part of drafting is creating a good "mana curve," which involves the mana cost of cards you play in your deck. Usually, you want to have a well-rounded mana curve, which means you want to play a large amount 3 and 4 mana cards (with 3 mana usually having the most cards), a medium amount of 2 and 5 mana cards, and a small amount of 1 and 6 or more mana cards. As an example, here's the mana cost comparison of the blue/green deck I played in the draft a couple weeks ago:

1-mana: 3 (Brittle Effigy, Diminish, Llanowar Elves)

2-mana: 4 (Augury Owl, 2 Mana Leak, Plummet)

3-mana: 6 (2 Aether Adept, Cancel, 2 Cloud Elemental, Cultivate)

4-mana: 5 (2 Azure Drake, Foresee, Prized Unicorn, Sleep)

5-mana: 4 (2 Air Servant, Greater Basilisk, Jace's Ingenuity)

6+ mana: 2 (Yavimaya Wurm, Duskdale Wurm)

If you want to see the deck list in full, scroll down to the very bottom of the site. You can see here that I'm only playing 5 cards at 1 or 6+ mana, but I have 8 cards at 2 or 5 mana and 11 cards at 3 or 4 mana. This is a decent mana curve, and is also partly why there are so many 2-mana spells in my sideboard, as I didn't want to play any more 2-mana spells because it would throw off my curve. Of course, every deck is different, and some decks can have an emphasis on cheaper or more expensive spells depending on their strategies, but this is a decent guideline, especially if you're new to drafting.

Finally, it's also important to make sure you play the right ratio of creatures, land, and other spells. Most decks play 14-16 creatures, 16-18 land, and 6-10 noncreature spells (the deck above played 14 creatures, 10 noncreature spells, and 16 lands). Still, these are just guidelines. I'd rather play 20 creatures and 3 noncreature spells if I had that many good creatures and very few good noncreatures! However, cases like this are fairly uncommon, and the guidelines are a pretty good place to start for new drafters.

To the newer players, let me know if you have any questions about drafting, and to the veteran players, please let me know if I made any mistakes in the information. Thanks and I hope to see lots of you on Saturday!

- Dom

Event Times and OGN Points

Thanks to everyone who attended Open Game Night yesterday. It was a lot of fun, and though the Student Activities miscommunication prevented us from getting the freshman turnout we usually get at that event, it was still a lot of fun for the returning members, and it seems like we recruited a lot of freshmen at the Org Fair, so not too much harm done there.

Based on the feedback I got from people, I've scheduled the last two August events for the following times:

$12 M11 Draft #2: Saturday, August 21 @ 1:00 P.M.

This just so happens to be the same drafting time as last semester, but people had issues with Saturday evening and Sunday, so we'll go with it. Try to show up by 12:45 if possible, as there seems to be a lot of interest. This is shaping up to be a pretty big (possibly 2-table) event, which could make it worth a lot of League Points! With 14-16 people already planning to come, first place will be worth 8-10 points or even more, so this is one event you probably don't want to miss!

$6 Standard: Sunday, August 29 @ 1:30 P. M. (Registration from 1:00-1:20)

There's apparently a big tournament in Orlando on Saturday that several people want to go to, plus I might have some family business to do that morning, so this event will be on Sunday (be good students and get that homework done on Saturday!). Also, I had to adjust the price of entry to $6 instead of $5 because I made a math error in prize calculations. Sorry about that, but it's still cheaper than the $8 I charged last year. :) Please try to arrive sometime during the registration period from 1:00 to 1:20 PM; it makes my life a lot easier.

Finally, here's the up-to-date league standings. After considering it for a while I've decided to include the small draft from last week along with the events of the last two days. Sorry to the people who weren't in town for it, but there were only a few points earned (only 9 total, where the draft Saturday should have about 40-50 total points earned), and most of those people who were there put a lot of effort and coordination into making that event happen, so I'm going to let them keep their small reward. Also, over the course of many larger events, the small amount of points earned in that event isn't going to make a huge overall difference. Everyone who couldn't come will get plenty of chances to catch up.

I gave a point to anyone who attended any Magic event this weekend, which includes FNM, OGN, and M11 Game Day, but only one point maximum even if they attended multiple events. Here's a list much longer than the one from last week:

0*. 5 - Dominic Casali (2 events)

1. 4 - Bryant Benson (2)

2. 3 - Alycia Johnson (2)

3. 2 - Joe Hammond (2)

T4. 1 - Shawn Brabant (1)

T4. 1 - Michael Carney (1)

T4. 1 - David Chesnutt (1)

T4. 1 - Helen Croce (1)

T4. 1 - Liz DiGangi (1)

T4. 1 - Kareem Elashmawy (1)

T4. 1 - Hunter Garrett (1)

T4. 1 - Dan Hooghkirk (1)

T4. 1 - Michelle Karl (1)

T4. 1 - Brent Kollinger (1)

T4. 1 - John Kreinbring (1)

T4. 1 - Haren Lalchand (1)

T4. 1 - Greg Lovell (1)

T4. 1 - Krystal Lutz (1)

T4. 1 - Jennifer Mori (1)

T4. 1 - Nikita Nikolayev (1)

T4. 1 - Glen Parker (1)

T4. 1 - Michael Smith (1)

T4. 1 - Matt Wills (1)

*Zero rank players are ineligible for the top 8 invitational tournament at the end of the semester.

Thanks again for coming and I hope to see lots of you for M11 draft on Saturday!

- Dom

League Points System and OGN Reminder!

Hi everybody,

Before I ramble about League Points, let me give you a couple quick reminders. First, Open Game Night is from 8-11 PM in the Hartley Room this Saturday, August 14. I'm giving you a little extra bonus for showing up, but you have to read the rest of this post to find out what it is. :P

Also, if you're interested in drafting Magic 2011 next weekend (on August 21 or 22), please send me an email with times you will and/or won't be available, so that I can make sure I schedule it for a time you can attend. I'll announce the time of the draft in a few days.

So, without further adieu, I finally got some time to sit down and fully develop all the details for the League Points system, so I wanted to explain it to all of you before the semester starts. I feel like doing some role-play, so let's do this in Q&A format:

Question: So what exactly do you mean by "League Points"?

Answer: League Points are something I encountered during this summer at the place in South Carolina where I regularly attended Magic events.

Question: OK, so what do I do with them?

Answer: In South Carolina, the 8 players who accumulated the most League Points over the course of every 3 months would receive special prizes and an invite to a special tournament where the top 3 finishers received planeswalkers. I want to start doing something similar here using a semester-long time frame.

Question: Sounds awesome! So how do I get League Points?

Answer: I thought you'd never ask. There are two ways to earn League Points. First, you get 1 League point just for playing in an event. Then, you can earn more points for the same event if you place in the top half of the standings. In Limited formats (Booster Draft and Sealed), this involves winning at least half of your matches. In constructed formats (such as Standard, Extended, etc.), this involves surviving the "cut," which is the stage where roughly the bottom half of the field is eliminated before the single elimination portion of the event.

Question: So is it all about finishing in the top half, or do you get even more for winning?

Answer: As they say, to the victor go the spoils. The higher up in the standings you finish, the more league points you will earn. For example, if you attend an 8-player booster draft, points would be awarded as follows:

• 5 points for 1st place
• 4 points for 2nd place
• 3 points for 3rd place
• 2 points for 4th place
• 1 point for 5th-8th place

It is important to note that I intentionally set up the scoring system so that events with more players result in more people getting more points. Hopefully this will encourage lots of people to play in lots of events.

Question: Do these points replace the prizes you used to give out?

Answer: Absolutely not! The point system won't detract in any way from the prizes normally given out at events. It also will not increase the entry fees (in fact, I have actually decreased the price of attending constructed events this semester). Also, just like in previous years, participating in any event will guarantee you at least one booster pack, even if you finish in last place. Aside from giving me a little more work to do (which is okay), there is no other drawback (at least that I'm aware of) to implementing this system.

Question: Seems pretty cool, but what is the ultimate goal of implementing this system?

The goal of implementing this system is simply to get more people to play Magic. This point system will hopefully encourage more people to play in more events, particularly in both constructed and limited formats. The beauty of this points system is that it makes it more worth it to play in a format that maybe isn't your best than to sit it out. Even if you don't do really well, you'll still get more out of playing than you will out of sitting out.

To elaborate on why I set it up this way, I spent an hour sorting through the results from last year's events and I discovered one very interesting thing: only 32% of players played in both a constructed and a limited event. The goal of League Points is to motivate people to step outside their comfort zones a little bit and explore the formats that they normally wouldn't play in. I was originally reluctant to do this myself, but I finally did it while I was in South Carolina, and I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed playing formats that I didn't even know anything about (and I actually did pretty well in most of them!).

Question: So when you were sorting those results, did you retroactively score us for last semester?

Answer: I actually did, just to make sure my scoring system made sense. If you want to know how you did, send me an email. The person who had the most points might surprise you.

Question: It was you, wasn't it?

Answer: Maaaaaybe. :P But since I'm the tournament organizer, I don't actually count in the standings and I'm not eligible to qualify for the invitational event. When I said you might be surprised by the player with the most points, I was referring to the person right below me. But even though I'm ineligible to make the top 8, I'm going to keep track of my own points just for my own entertainment and in case anyone else is interested in knowing.

Question: But if you can't win it, are you really going to offer planeswalkers if we make the top 3 of the invitational?

Answer: I'm not promising anything specific, but I'm going to do everything I can to make the prizes worth the time and effort you put into qualifying for the invitational tournament. And I must admit that planeswalkers do seem to fit that bill. ;)

Question: OK, I'm on board. When's my first chance to earn some points?

Answer: The first actual event isn't until after the first week of classes are over, but you can earn your first point before then! If you attend the FITSSFF Open Game Night this Saturday, August 14, from 8-11 PM in the Hartley Room, and visit me at the Magic table, I'll give you a League Point just for coming and supporting FITSSFF! Do note that I might be a little late due to circumstances beyond my control, but I should be there by 9:00 or 9:15 at the latest.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions or comments. I hope to see lots of you on Saturday!

- Dom

August Magic Events

Hey everybody, here's a list of the Magic events I have planned for the month of August:

Saturday, August 14 @ 8 PM: Freshman Orientation Open Game Night - Free Casual Play

Come support Magic and other FITSSFF activities by attending Open Game Night! We will have tables available for casual Magic play as well as many other board games and video games. Come welcome the new freshmen to FIT and have fun playing casual 1-on-1 and multiplayer matches!

Weekend of August 21-22: M11 Draft #2 - $12

Most people agree that Magic 2011 is one of the most exciting core sets in Magic history. Come play some limited and get the opportunity to jumpstart your collection of the new set on the first weekend of the semester! Everyone will receive 3 packs to draft, plus at least 1 prize pack regardless of performance.

Weekend of August 28-29: $5 Constructed - Standard

The last weekend of each month will be a $5 constructed event. We'll start off with Standard, which, with the release of M11, is more open now than it has been in a long time. The Standard format includes the following:

- Alara Block: Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn

- Zendikar Block: Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise of the Eldrazi

- Core Sets: Magic 2010 and Magic 2011

All participants will receive at least 1 Magic 2011 booster pack regardless of performance.

The exact date and time of the draft and standard events will be announced at a later time. Let me know if there are times when you know you will and/or won't be available on these weekends and I will try my best to accommodate you. Email me at valkyrio71@gmail.com if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

- Dom

M11 Draft #1 Results

This wasn't actually an official FITSSFF event, but it was played with FITSSFF people and I want to give an example of what the results updates will look like.

8/2/10 Top Finishers: M11 Draft #1

1. 3-0 UG Tempo by Dominic Casali

2. 2-1 BR Midrange by Bryant Benson

3. 2-1 BW Aggro by Alycia Johnson

This was a fun event, as between us we opened 4 of the 5 Titans (all but the green one). I'm hoping the winner of each event will allow me to post their decklist after each event, and this time around the winner was exceptionally cooperative in this matter:

UG Tempo by Yours Truly:

Creatures (14)

1x Llanowar Elves

1x Augury Owl

2x Aether Adept

2x Cloud Elemental

2x Azure Drake

1x Prized Unicorn

2x Air Servant

1x Greater Basilisk

1x Yavimaya Wurm

1x Duskdale Wurm

Spells (10)

1x Brittle Effigy

1x Diminish

2x Mana Leak

1x Plummet

1x Cancel

1x Cultivate

1x Foresee

1x Sleep

1x Jace's Ingenuity

Lands (16)

9x Island

7x Forest

Relevant Sideboard (7)

1x Back to Nature

1x Flashfreeze

1x Mana Leak

1x Negate

1x Plummet

1x Sylvan Ranger

1x Cultivate

Relevant Hate Draft (2)

1x Inferno Titan

1x Excommunicate

Finally, I'm also going to keep a running tally of "league points," which is something they did in South Carolina that encouraged people to keep participating, as the top point earners would receive special prizes after every few months. You get 1 point for playing and some extra points for placing. This would be the standings after one event:

Fall Semester Standings:

0*. 4 - Dominic Casali (1 event)

1. 3 - Bryant Benson (1)

2. 2 - Alycia Johnson (1)

T3. 1 - Joe Hammond (1)

T3. 1 - Krystal Lutz (1)

T3. 1 - Michael Carney (1)

T3. 1 - Shawn Brabant (1)

*Note: I'm going to keep track of my points just for fun using the "zero ranking", but as the tournament organizer, I won't be eligible to receive any prizes or make the top 8 of the standings.

Hope you're as excited as I am for Magic in the 2010-2011 school year! Let me know if you have any comments or questions. Thanks!

- Dom