How often does this get updated? Xihao Dun the One-Eyed and Fluster Storm are missing.
Or how about the comic book promo's?
Every couple weeks. I also didn't add the judge promos that quickly, as only one could be part of the 2011 promo series. (and I needed good-quality images on the internet to discern which promo was the first 2012 one)
Treasure Hunt has been known as a promo for a good while now, and the DKA card wasn't spoiled the last time I updated this. I also don't add quite all promos that come out to this section. (if I did, there'd be random cards like a Japanese foil Phantasmal Dragon manga promo I just learned existed today) In a way, there's too much breadth out there to catch absolutely everything.
Reading through some of these posts, and the idea that WotC may want to remove itself from the tournament scene, there's a parallel in Starcraft II right now that suddenly appeared.
SC2's competitive scene isn't run by Activision-Blizzard, instead it is run by several organizations who each run their own "major" event series. (GSL, MLG, IPL, Dreamhack, etc.) The "pros" in SC2 play in several organizations' events, and the pro scene exists to a decent strength. Blizzard's role in the professional SC2 scene only producing a few small, invitational-style events and also providing incentive for the organizations to play on Blizzard's terms. (something that became a major issue with SC: Brood War)
The other important point on SC2, though, is that the concept of "riding results" doesn't exist much within SC2. In GSL, you're 4 losses away from being in the top-level league to being out of the league system. Most other leagues only allow any "riding" for finalists, and only let you avoid long qualification stages.
I could see the long-term view @ WotC being such that they're trying to duplicate this style of scene. The PTQ circuit feeding small PTs, along with invite-free GPs would provide a route for events themselves to be more insular, with the only noticeable "riding" being within individual tournament circuits.
The problem here, and where this analogy falls apart, all comes down to money. The pro SC2 scene consists primarily of heavily-sponsored teams who pay (low, but livable) salaries to their players, and send team members to events. (players usually still keep winnings) You could theoretically never win money at events, but continue to be fine. Magic tournaments, however, do not provide anywhere near a high enough expected return for this model to succeed, especially when you remove any guaranteed pay and re-introduce travel costs. (not to mention deck costs) In addition, the capability to play qualification-level rounds without travel also significantly adds to the expected return from making a travel commitment.
You also have the issue that the US is leading this regionalization of events, while most other countries do not have anywhere near this level of organization from non-WotC entities, so while the US could still have a decent level of organization and organized play, many other countries have lose significant organizational capability.
Owen Turtenwald won WI States w/Wolf Run. 212 players.
2: Wolf Run
3/4: Various W/U Geist-based decks. (one more equipment-based, one more control)
5-8: 2x Wolf Run, a Mono-W token deck, and a weird toolbox W/U/B control deck. (wasn't the Solar Flare I was familiar with, nor like the ones that were more commonly around)
The three that I would bring up fitting everything would be Code Geass, Eden of the East, and Death Note.
Code Geass is about as mainstream as you can get, going so far as to be sponsored by Pizza Hut. (Tiger & Bunny, a very recent show, takes this concept to it's logical conclusion) It's pretty fast-paced and pushes itself pretty quickly, especially at the latter parts of the second season.
Eden of the East was my top anime series; as long as you discount the after-series movies, and that it falls under more of a "mystery" genre, it's up there quite high on the best series of the past decade.
Death Note is just a safe pick. It's a true suspense series, and it's nothing more than a setup which allows for two personalities work off each other as flawlessly as any anime in recent memory. You can stop after the first arc; they really rush the second arc. (ep. 27, iirc)
If you take away the "english dubbed" semi-requirement, Katanagatari and Kara no Kyoukai would be my recommendations. They're both long-form series (former are 45-min episodes, later range from 35 to 120) released in installments, but are quite good in their characterization, and the latter has, while brief and sparse, probably the best fight scenes in the last decade of anime.
All the Japanese boxes I've seen in the last couple years have had the "hanging display" style packs, so I wouldn't be concerned about it.
I'm looking at some cards from the last Japanese box I cracked (M11, looking for NPH right now) and I don't notice any major difference from English, though there is a slight difference.
I'd normally recommend to check the "My Events" thing on the DCI website, but since that's gone now, there really isn't a good way to check if events got reported.
I would consider it a bug, as there is a valid pairing to go on without pairing a 2-0 with an 0-2:
hichow vs. Cult Hero
labuz103 vs. Baedecker
Chewy190 vs. Gunslinger1978
In general you can think of swiss pairings as taking a bunch of flash cards with each player's name on it, and sorting them into piles until there's a pile for each number of match points. Then, from top-to-bottom, you go through and randomly match up players. If two players have played before, you just grab another player for that match. If there are an odd number of players in a pile, then one player plays someone in the next pile lower in points at random.
If you use this as a metaphor, then the only reason someone should play against someone two piles down is if all possible combinations between two piles closest in point totals cannot yield a valid pairing.
PS: Here are all the valid occasions where you could theoretically play against the same person more than once in a tournament:
- Once in swiss, once in Top 8
- A situation where pairings cannot be made without it happening.
- A format change happens. If you play in a tournament where one format changes into another half way through, (usually sealed -> draft) you can play against the same person twice for each time the format change happens. Also, moving from one draft to another constitutes this.
- You participate in a 2001+ person constructed tournament. (long explanation involving software limitations and split tournaments)
Every couple weeks. I also didn't add the judge promos that quickly, as only one could be part of the 2011 promo series. (and I needed good-quality images on the internet to discern which promo was the first 2012 one)
Treasure Hunt has been known as a promo for a good while now, and the DKA card wasn't spoiled the last time I updated this. I also don't add quite all promos that come out to this section. (if I did, there'd be random cards like a Japanese foil Phantasmal Dragon manga promo I just learned existed today) In a way, there's too much breadth out there to catch absolutely everything.
SC2's competitive scene isn't run by Activision-Blizzard, instead it is run by several organizations who each run their own "major" event series. (GSL, MLG, IPL, Dreamhack, etc.) The "pros" in SC2 play in several organizations' events, and the pro scene exists to a decent strength. Blizzard's role in the professional SC2 scene only producing a few small, invitational-style events and also providing incentive for the organizations to play on Blizzard's terms. (something that became a major issue with SC: Brood War)
The other important point on SC2, though, is that the concept of "riding results" doesn't exist much within SC2. In GSL, you're 4 losses away from being in the top-level league to being out of the league system. Most other leagues only allow any "riding" for finalists, and only let you avoid long qualification stages.
I could see the long-term view @ WotC being such that they're trying to duplicate this style of scene. The PTQ circuit feeding small PTs, along with invite-free GPs would provide a route for events themselves to be more insular, with the only noticeable "riding" being within individual tournament circuits.
The problem here, and where this analogy falls apart, all comes down to money. The pro SC2 scene consists primarily of heavily-sponsored teams who pay (low, but livable) salaries to their players, and send team members to events. (players usually still keep winnings) You could theoretically never win money at events, but continue to be fine. Magic tournaments, however, do not provide anywhere near a high enough expected return for this model to succeed, especially when you remove any guaranteed pay and re-introduce travel costs. (not to mention deck costs) In addition, the capability to play qualification-level rounds without travel also significantly adds to the expected return from making a travel commitment.
You also have the issue that the US is leading this regionalization of events, while most other countries do not have anywhere near this level of organization from non-WotC entities, so while the US could still have a decent level of organization and organized play, many other countries have lose significant organizational capability.
2: Wolf Run
3/4: Various W/U Geist-based decks. (one more equipment-based, one more control)
5-8: 2x Wolf Run, a Mono-W token deck, and a weird toolbox W/U/B control deck. (wasn't the Solar Flare I was familiar with, nor like the ones that were more commonly around)
Code Geass is about as mainstream as you can get, going so far as to be sponsored by Pizza Hut. (Tiger & Bunny, a very recent show, takes this concept to it's logical conclusion) It's pretty fast-paced and pushes itself pretty quickly, especially at the latter parts of the second season.
Eden of the East was my top anime series; as long as you discount the after-series movies, and that it falls under more of a "mystery" genre, it's up there quite high on the best series of the past decade.
Death Note is just a safe pick. It's a true suspense series, and it's nothing more than a setup which allows for two personalities work off each other as flawlessly as any anime in recent memory. You can stop after the first arc; they really rush the second arc. (ep. 27, iirc)
If you take away the "english dubbed" semi-requirement, Katanagatari and Kara no Kyoukai would be my recommendations. They're both long-form series (former are 45-min episodes, later range from 35 to 120) released in installments, but are quite good in their characterization, and the latter has, while brief and sparse, probably the best fight scenes in the last decade of anime.
I've found that public release of DCI numbers to be a bit of a ... touchy subject from WotC's perspective.
I'm looking at some cards from the last Japanese box I cracked (M11, looking for NPH right now) and I don't notice any major difference from English, though there is a slight difference.
I'd normally recommend to check the "My Events" thing on the DCI website, but since that's gone now, there really isn't a good way to check if events got reported.
hichow vs. Cult Hero
labuz103 vs. Baedecker
Chewy190 vs. Gunslinger1978
In general you can think of swiss pairings as taking a bunch of flash cards with each player's name on it, and sorting them into piles until there's a pile for each number of match points. Then, from top-to-bottom, you go through and randomly match up players. If two players have played before, you just grab another player for that match. If there are an odd number of players in a pile, then one player plays someone in the next pile lower in points at random.
If you use this as a metaphor, then the only reason someone should play against someone two piles down is if all possible combinations between two piles closest in point totals cannot yield a valid pairing.
PS: Here are all the valid occasions where you could theoretically play against the same person more than once in a tournament:
- Once in swiss, once in Top 8
- A situation where pairings cannot be made without it happening.
- A format change happens. If you play in a tournament where one format changes into another half way through, (usually sealed -> draft) you can play against the same person twice for each time the format change happens. Also, moving from one draft to another constitutes this.
- You participate in a 2001+ person constructed tournament. (long explanation involving software limitations and split tournaments)