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Standard Two-Headed Giant Tandem Guilds

The evening was interesting. LordofScryb and MrMrFrodo did not play as they were too late to start. Dreamlander groped for land all night leaving him and Autumn Willow zero for six. In the end it was the team of Mjolnir and Serenity with a Boros wall of hate that won the preliminary. In the final, the two faced eachother and Serenity emerged the winner. This is a pivitol tournament for placement.

Card of the night:

7/19/2014 Conspiracy Draft Tournament

7/19/2014 Conspiracy Draft Tournament.

It was a nice change of pace to switch it up and engage in a draft. I think we decided that--for better or worse--conspiracy was actually a lot of fun.

The game dynamics were very different than they normally are. There were many surprising developments and interesting maneuvers on the field. In the finals were Erebos.Hades and Autumn Willow. Erebos.Hades outlasted Autumn Willow in a grueling match that lasted for what seemed like aeons.

Card of the night?

Re: 6/21/2014

Holy Crap. You called it Tatoe. I am suddenly a bit nervous about your prophetic rise to victory.

7/5/2014 Modern

Modern



It was a weird night for the House of Melira. MrMrFrodo was the target. That is, there was a concerted effort among the players to not allow him to increase his lead.  Well, it worked. But it was Tatoe who served up a cold dish of pain to the group.  Utilizing black and white spirits, he trounced the rest of us into the fetal position, including MrMrFrodo. It was a welcome and interesting upset.

Card of the night:


Uh...now that is just mean.

Re: 6/21/2014

I agree. And it is obvious that the only way to do that is to make me take the number one spot. Let the reign of Tatoe be brought onto the House of Melira on this 5th of July of the year 2014.

6/21/2014

EDH
Mrmrfrodo won, again.

This is a call to destroy mrmrfrodo. He intends to run away with first place. He is putting distance between himself and the rest of us. Fact: he spends more $ on magic than anyone else. There is no rule against that. There is also no rule against everyone else conspiring to dethrone him and push him below third or fourth place. Band together. It does not matter who wins just as long as he loses.

Asher points

Asher gets 5 points for 6/26/2014

Swiss Rounds and Rankings

Because we have moved to Swiss Rounds, it becomes possible for players to amass points more quickly. It stands to reason that we adjust the ranking system to follow suit. I have adjusted the ranking system to match the accelerated points scheme. Some of you may see a drop in rank. Example...Uncommoner to Commoner. Conversely, it is possible to gain way more points than before. Remember the season goes all calendar year long.

Swiss Rounds are like this:

Three Swiss-style rounds will be played with the following schema:

2 wins / 0 losses = 3 pts.

2 wins / 1 loss = 2 pts.

1 win / 2 losses = 1 pt.

0 wins / 2 losses = 0 pts.

The two players with the highest number of points after the three rounds will play for the tournament win. The player who wins the final game will receive three victory counters for the final Swiss Round instead of two points. Otherwise, each player will recieve a victory counter for each win in addition to one victory counter for participation.

This system should provide a much more level chance for players to advance.

House of Melira (Imperial Beach) Tournament 2014-5

Modern with Infect Variant.
Lord of Scryb won overall.

Infect Banned As Of 4/1/2014 and the House of Melira

While infect is, as game mechanics go, seriously bad ass, it is not a mechanic that easily lends itself to the type of play that this tournament was intended to be. Now, I know that just using the word "tournament" creates an atmosphere of competition, which causes players to find the best ways possible to win. However, the bombastic, quicker-than-thou brutality of infect prevents players from sufficient time to enjoy the full range of mindsets, speculative strategy, flavor and community of playing magic in a non-pro environment. It is just a wanton blood bath. Additionally, it creates an atmosphere where all who are not playing infect must have a deck made to eliminate infect. Two types of decks emerge as ubiquitous: Infect and Anti-infect. This is not what I want out of play.

I want to simmer in strategy. I want the chance to use cards I never use. I want to explore new strategies and develop new community ties. When I lose (which seems to be often these days) I want to be thankful for the lesson. I want to have fun. I also want the younger members of our group to continue playing and learning. 

There are some of you who disagree. That is okay. I know who you are and I respect your opinions and I even understand your rationale. But I also know that each of you is smart enough and humble enough to let infect go.

House Rule #1: No Infect...Ever.
A change to this can only be made if all members vote unanimously to allow infect. A call for a vote can be made by an interested member once a gaming session before the tournament starts.

One way I thought we could do this in an interesting way is to give the tournament an emblem that is similar to the card Melira, Sylvok Outcast. The emblem would read like this: Players may not receive poison counters, all creatures lose infect and all instances of the word infect on all cards are disregarded. That way, players may still use creatures that have infect as regular creatures. For example, Priests of Norn is a 1/4 infect with vigilance. It would just be a 1/4 creature with vigilance. This might create new deckbuilding matrices for dynamics such as creature typing.

Let's discuss next tournament. We would consider the emblem as "House of Melira" or "Melira is in effect".