The Bulwark

May the God Emperor bless our members. So often I am asked “How can I help the club”, or “What does the organization need”, people are ready and eager to donate tangible items. Things like fans, or chairs, or what have you. The fact is we get those things off of Craigslist, or purchase them using the dues our members pay.

What we really need is people to coordinate and run games. This doesn’t have to be anything huge, just you, a few friends having a good night. Have an old table top RPG you have been wanting to play for a while? Run it! We have members chomping at the bit to play in some home brew games.  Right now we have Call of Cthulhu, World of Darkness, and Scion being ran at The Bulwark, and we have plenty of people asking about other games too!

Do you love a board game and want to get some players together?  Let me know, and I will create an event. If you are interested in playing a game the club can order a copy for you at a huge discount!

So when people ask me, “how do I give back” I tell them just have fun, and bring people along for the ride.

We have already talked about Kublacon, and the discounted registration fee for Bulwark members. The Bulwark is more than just a great way for you to save money on your gaming hobby though, it’s also a community.  This year the Bulwark will be going to Kublacon, and arriving Thursday night for an evening of pre-con shenanigans. Join us before the event begins for a friendly night of Catan and other casual games in the Hyatt Regency’s atrium as well as an explanation of an exciting contest being run by the Bulwark. The contest will be going on all weekend so if you can’t make it on the 27^th the rules will be posted that evening online. The winner of the contest will receive an event shirt, a tournament held in their honor, and June’s membership dues.  Entry in the competition will be free.

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.