Expo 2018: Magic The Gathering

Linc

I don't have Magic on the schedule, but here's a few things I can organize impromptu in the boardgaming area.

(I'm happy to teach anyone to play Magic! It takes about an hour and needs to be before dinner.)

General house rules:

• I'll provide the cards. No fee. I keep the cards. Provided sleeves are required.
• I'll provide basic deck building tips so you can't go too far afield.
• We'll just play 3 games (technically "3 rounds of 1 game each"). This isn't a great measure of skill, but it does go twice as fast and we're maximizing fun not tournament grading.
• Free mulligans if you draw 0, 1, 6, or 7 lands. (This & the next house rule are to offset the 1-game rounds format.)
• Scry 2 at the start of each game regardless of mulligan. (Look at the top 2 cards of your library. You may put those cards on the top of your library or the bottom in any order/combination.)
• These formats are in order of card quality we'll use, time investment, and fun level (IMO). As in, the first format takes the most time, but it's also the most fun with the best cards. (Personally I think Pack Wars is most fun with garbage sets.)

Format options:

1. Fast Draft: 4-8 players, 2-3 hours. We pick-and-pass from 3 packs each and build a deck.
2. Fast Sealed: 2-8 players, 1.5-2 hours. We each get 6 packs and built a deck from those cards.
3. Pack Wars: 2 players, 1-1.5 hours. We each get 3 packs & shuffle in land without looking.

Would I play a proper draft or sealed tournament if folks want to? Of course. Just be aware that's 4-5 hours.

Lastly, a few rules about cards generally:

• Be super careful with drinks while playing.
• Don't put drinks on the large shelves that hold my card binders in the pub room.
• Ask me before taking out any binders (EACH TIME). Never remove singles from them.
• I may provide you packs to play Pack Wars without me if you ask nicely.

Thanks!

drasnor

Will play though I am rustiest at Magic.

MAGIC

I'm in. I think fast sealed would be the best format especially if there are going to be new players. Also, it seems like we always run out of time when we try to do this so it would be the quickest option.

mertesn

I could be persuaded for something that doesn't involve a six hour draft

MAGIC

Yeah, maybe get a head count, put the packs in the welcome bags and schedule a couple hour blocks for the games throughout the week.

Linc

The point of the "fast" format is it's only a couple hours total.

If we wanna do an asynchronous tournament, I'd suggest "proper" sealed where we do 3 matches, each of which are best of 3. The organizational effort required for asynchronous is less finding the time than herding the cats to finish their matches.

RyanFodder

I'm in if there's a dedicated 2-3 hour slot. I think the "herding cats" is a result of trying to MTG while other events are happening.

Tushon

I would be in for this with the fast sealed or pack wars, have not played in a long time, would like the tips

BobbyDigi

I want to play!

cola

I'll play

Soda

yessss expo magic

Linc

Looks like we have 9 players for some fast sealed, which means I'm gonna go with Dominaria, the big set that just came out. I'm gonna suggest we do this 2pm Thursday during Giant Catan. We'll do a 30-minute deck build followed by three 30-minute rounds.

Linc

I'll be able to seat up to 10.

I have contingencies to seat more, but it won't be all Dominaria at that point.

TIPS!

Linc

Thanks for playing! It was quite a scramble to get it done in 2 hours 15 minutes but we only had to end 2 games early to make it happen. We'll give it a bit more breathing room next time.

Final standings:

Player  Points
1: Linc 9   
2: Soda 6   
3: Benson   6
4: Beth 5
5: Mertes   4
6: Cola 3
7: Tushon   3
8: Digi 2
9: Magic    2
10: Drasnor 1