The Bulwark

This year there will be several tournaments and organized play events that members of your FLGS will be participating in. Collectively members of the Bulwark often call themselves “Team Chico” when playing in these events to represent a solidarity and consistency of butt whoopin’ us Chicoans deliver;  this also helps organizers either separate us or keep us together to ensure a fair seeding, go with whatever story you want.

That being said one of the worst experiences imaginable is to roll up to a tournament only to find out you cannot participate because of banned cards or an incomplete knowledge of the rules.  A lot of these tournaments take time to prepare for.  Painting, planning, and playing dummy games are all fun but really just whet the appetite for a more hard core and competitive gaming moment.

Fear not, below is your hyper linked salvation!  The Bulwark has compiled the tournament rules for some of the most anticipated Kublacon events.  There are major changes in some, smaller tweaks in others, and some just point out the audacity that is needed sometimes to ensure gamers play a fair match.  The Bulwark’s unofficial motto of “If you have to cheat at [insert game here], then you have more problems in life than cheating at [insert game here]” is all well and good when playing with locals, but while it remains true even in the strangest lands, miscommunications can sometimes lead to people becoming frustrated.  The rules below sort out what happens when pride, ego, and Kublabucks are on the  line to make sure everyone has a great weekend; especially the winners.

A Game of Thrones – Apparently there is a banned list! The format each game at Kublacon is in LCG Constructed. Also, note the tweaks in supporting with titles.

Common/Uncommon Grab Bag – This event uses the Magic: the Gathering Comprehensive Rules as revised February 1st 2010, which is a mere 171 page document.  On top of that, when you approach the grab bag bin, you must dip your hand in and remove a grips worth of cards.  You will be expected to hold on to these cards from anywhere between 5 – 15 seconds, and/or to turn your grip up and down.   All players will abide by a consistent set of rules.

One World By Night, Always Comes Evening LARP – While the game’s own house rules can be found here, One World By Night has their own set of rules by it’s representative player council. Those rules can be found here.

RPGA – Even the RPGA, a fan club and cooperative player body, has its own set of rules to abide by.  While most of the rules are common courtesy and can be summed up with “Don’t be a dick” and “if you have been a dick about it, please don’t play with us”, there are a few points that are interesting.  Mostly Wizards of the Coast is just covering all it’s bases with this one.

Warhammer 40K – Warhammer has a set of rules for tournament play that not only rewards savvy generals, but also well rounded hobbyists and people who are just fun to play with.  The Rogue Trader system judges wins versus losses, sportsmanship, and craftsmanship of an individual’s army.  Along with the almost Biblical tome known as the Warhammer 40K Fifth Edition Core Rulebook, the Rogue Trader system has its own set of rules here. Unlike other games Warhammer is very modular, keep this in mind when building your army. Points totals, special rules, and special events may all be included in the specific tournament you are playing in.

With all of these events going on, it’s very likely some where missed.  Many of Team Chico’s Diplomacy players “the Beer and Blades Club” will be trying to get into pick up Diplomacy rounds early on, and remember Catan regionals are held at Kublacon. If you would like to see something posted, comment  below!  The entire program for the convention can be found at Kublacon’s website or behind this link.

Release day can always be tense. You have studied the lists and spoilers; you have an almost celestial knowledge of the combinations, tricks, you just hope the spoilers were correct. You gird your facial expressions as you draft, and scowl across the table like a hawk leering at a mouse in a field, he has no idea what is coming, now the next decision is crucial to making the best deck that will win you the day.

In all regards, that situation will not play out this weekend. On March 6^th, the cunning and confused will collide as each player saddles up to make the worst deck possible!  The object of this tournament is to win, of course, but you will never play with your deck.

Since you won’t ever play with your own deck want to design it to lose no matter what.
Deck design constraints will ensure that every deck can win, but you get points for your deck losing.  The format is constructed of course, with the following constraints and restrictions.

So come by the Bulwark for this special event March 6^th at 3:00PM.  Bring your own deck, Invite friends, anyone who has ever played Magic has a stack of crummy cards, and anyone can be a winner.  Winners will get a special prize, and some sort of awkward bragging rights.

Design Constraints for the WMD Tournament Decks
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1. All cards from all expansions (except Unglued & Unhinged) may be used.

2. Deck must contain exactly 75 cards – no sideboard.

3. Deck must contain exactly 30 mana-producing lands.

4. Deck must contain at least 20 Summon Creature spells.
a. 75% of the creatures in the deck may not have the champion ability, require a sacrifice to remain in play for at least one phase, have the defender ability, or be a wall.

5. The sum of the basic power of all the creatures must be at least 40.
(*=1, X=1)

6. No duplicate spells – only one of each. No duplicate lands other than basic lands. Snow-covered lands are considered basic lands.

7. Deck must contain at least 5 non-creature cards capable of dealing unconditional* direct damage to your opponent.

8. Deck must contain at least 5 non-creature cards capable of destroying a
creature. These can overlap the previous requirement.

9. Must be able to play every spell card using only basic lands – i.e. must include minimum number of each type of basic land to be able to play the most expensive (in that color) spell.

10. For each color, count the number of spell cards that use that color. You must have at least half that number (rounded up) of basic lands that produce that color.

11. Must be able to play every card in the deck.

12. No Ante cards.

*unconditional = can be conditional as long as you can be assured that the condition will always be possible in every game. For instance, a spell or ability that depends on your opponent having a particular land type will not count, but if it depends on *any* player having a particular land type, and you are playing with that land type, the card would be OK. A card that does damage based on the number of cards in the opponent’s hand would be OK because it is always possible for any opponent to meet the condition. Of course, direct damage spells (like Fireball) will always be OK.