You have to play at a bigger FNM to get the multiplier and have a chance.
From the looks of it, the only thing the attendance affects is the number of participation points, not the multiplier. Each type of event has a set multiplier and that never changes.
I love this system. One of the things semi-competitive players have been clamoring for is something that will reward you for consistent good finishes since it is really, really hard to win a PTQ. From the sounds of it, a person who plays in 4-5 PTQs and does well in all of them should have a legitimate shot at an invite even if they don't actually win one.
My only question has to do with timing and the beginning of point total tracking. They said they will start awarding invites and byes beginning in January 2012, but when will you actually start accumulating those points? January 1, 2012, or sooner? If your byes and invites for say, a February GP, begin accumulating in January, it gives a huge advantage to people who have larger events close to them earlier in the season.
@Taylor: The excuse that if you hadn't ripped him off someone else would have is a total cop-out. Maybe the next person would have done what you should have done and made sure the kid didn't get screwed. Maybe you could have gotten a judge or TO or adult and had them explain the situation if he wouldn't listen to you. There is no excuse for that trade getting made, ever. Even if he didn't want anything other than a pile of crappy spiders no one was holding a gun to your head forcing you to trade them. Ethical trading means that you make sure every trade is fair, and if that isn't possible then you don't make the trade. Period.
If you truly feel like what you did was a mistake you should take the cards back and try to make things right. I'm sure it'd be possible to find the kid again and undo your trade.
More Kansas City news. 2 more flights this morning so far and no more treasure. So out of 184 players x 6 boosters = 1104 packs = 30+ boxes there has been 1 treasure card.
I just got back from the midnight flight in Kansas City and the guy across the table from me opened a white-bordered, definitely pre-used Taiga. He was the only one out of 120 people to open a Treasure card as far as I know. If only I'd sat on that side.
Going to bed for a few hours then back to play the lotto again in the morning!
Now that the actual document is available at http://thedci.com/doccenter/, some other changes have been noticed:
- In Regular drafts, unless the HJ says otherwise, drafters can look at their picks during a pack, but they can't hold both their picks and the pack in hand at the same time
The booster change rule freaked me out a little so I just double-checked it and that is only for Regular REL events. At Competitive and higher events you are not allowed to review your picks until between boosters.
I was under the impression that Garruk would be terrible as well before I played in Regionals. I added 2 to my decklist at the last minute and I am really glad that I did. On paper he looks very weak in the current format, but his first two abilities are always going to be relevant. You can either untap and play a two-drop the turn he comes into play, or if you don't have a two-drop you can spit out a Beast token. Either way, you're getting a creature and a threat that your opponent must deal with right away. Even if they can get rid of him, you just bought yourself a turn, and in a deck like BG Elves an extra turn is often very relevant.
I'm not saying there aren't better cards, I would just suggest not dismissing him solely on the grounds that he dies to a a token barrage. I would be much less inclined to play him now because of Faeries, but that is because (1) he is essentially a 4cc sorcery that can be easily countered before I get a chance to do anything with him. And (2), I'd rather be playing Thoughtseize main deck.
Ok I'll throw it out there since no one else seems to be questioning it so far. This archetype is one of the decks I am considering playing for Nationals.
Sygg seems pretty weak in comparison to a lot of other cards in the format. I understand why he is there:
1. He mucks up the board as a difficult-to-remove early drop.
2. He nets you a card whenever one of your attackers manages to connect.
So in looking at that I guess he's not terrible. But is he really that good? He seems to clash with the aggro strategy by not being much of a threat himself, and occassionally the fact that he is Legendary is going to make him a blank if you hit him with your cascade and you already have one in play. I can't really think of any other real negatives, but I think they weigh in equally with the underwhelming positives. What is he getting you that is so much better than Mulldrifter or Esper Charm?
I guess what I am concerned about is that if the deck needs a card like Sygg to compensate for a perceived weakness, does that mean its time to perhaps start looking at some of the better, more-focused decks out there?
Also keep in mind that you are always allowed to shuffle your opponent's deck when it is presented to you. I normally don't but if it seems like they might have tried to stack or mana weave in some way I will usually give it a few good shuffles before I give it back to them.
Also, on the topic of Ramp, I'm in the camp after playing in Regionals yesterday that feels the deck needs to be Naya and play Wrath/Martial Coup in order to be successful. Volcanic Fallout is simply not good enough to be the deck's sweeper of choice at the moment when there are so many threats out there with 3+ toughness and Path to Exile can deal with any single threat a Ramp deck will play in the later turns.
I qualified in Lincoln going 6-1-1 with BG Elves. There were about 170 people playing and the metagame was pretty diverse. The most popular decks were BW Tokens, GW Tokens, RB Aggro, Jund Aggro, and Jund Ramp. We also had about 15 people who were playing either Turbofog or Sanity Grinding, which was much higher than I would have expected. There were only about 5 people playing Faeries.
Some of the card choices were made with the thought being that Regionals would be a wide-open field, whereas a PTQ will be more focused on the specific decks in the metagame. I think this deck archetype is a good choice right now because it beats up on all the decks gunning for the token decks while still having good tools to put up a good fight against Token decks as well. BW Tokens is definitely the deck's worst matchup but it is very winnable if you get them back on their heels and make them play defensively. If I was going to take this deck to a PTQ I would make the following MD changes:
R1: W 2-0 vs RB w/Blightning
R2: W 2-1 vs Mono-Green Aggro
R3: W 2-0 vs Cascade Control
R4: L 2-0 vs B/W Persist Tokens
R5: W 2-0 vs Esper Beats
R6: W 2-0 vs Jund Ramp
R7: W 2-0 vs GW Tokens
R8: ID with BW Tokens
T8: W 2-1 vs Seismic Swans
I'm sorry for not posting more detailed results as I'm pretty beat. If anyone has any questions I'll do my best to chime in with my thoughts!
Here is a list that I have been playtesting with for Regionals.
Bloodbraid Elf is the NUTS! If you reveal a Bramblewood then Bloodbraid comes in with as a 4/3 with trample and haste. If you reveal a Battle Axe, then Bloodbraid comes in attached to it. Every card in your deck you can play off of it, minus the exception of Garruk Wildspeaker and Wilt-Leaf Liege. And you probably wouldn't want to play a Profane off of it either.
You need to re-read Paragon and Battle-Axe and notice Bloodbraid isn't a Warrior. What you described doesn't work.
I'm in agreement with Seds. As I mentioned a few posts back I thought cascade was a good fit for this deck. I think the goal of this deck going forward is that every turn you need to either (1) accelerate your mana, or (2) deploy a board control element to keep you stabilized until you hit your win conditions. (Broodmate, or the more I think about it, a singleton Obelisk of Alara). Bloodbraid Elf will hit a card that accomplishes one of those two objectives every time while being a warm body himself.
I like Ajani making his way back into Seds' build as well. I think he does a lot more to impact the board the turn he comes into play than Garruk does. The creature suite is superb too. My only real gripes are that I think the main deck needs a split between Terminate and Maelstrom Pulse. Maybe 3/2. Also, I think Volcanic Fallout is superior to Jund Charm.
If I end up building Ramp after ARB comes out it is going to look something like this. I think the days of Garruk are over.
I like the idea of running Cascade spells in this deck since one of the deck's inherent weaknesses in generating card advantage. I don't think Maelstrom Nexus is the Cascade for the deck to be honest but I am going to be testing both Bloodbraid Elf and Bituminous Blast and will weigh in later with my results.
From the looks of it, the only thing the attendance affects is the number of participation points, not the multiplier. Each type of event has a set multiplier and that never changes.
I love this system. One of the things semi-competitive players have been clamoring for is something that will reward you for consistent good finishes since it is really, really hard to win a PTQ. From the sounds of it, a person who plays in 4-5 PTQs and does well in all of them should have a legitimate shot at an invite even if they don't actually win one.
My only question has to do with timing and the beginning of point total tracking. They said they will start awarding invites and byes beginning in January 2012, but when will you actually start accumulating those points? January 1, 2012, or sooner? If your byes and invites for say, a February GP, begin accumulating in January, it gives a huge advantage to people who have larger events close to them earlier in the season.
If you truly feel like what you did was a mistake you should take the cards back and try to make things right. I'm sure it'd be possible to find the kid again and undo your trade.
Going to bed for a few hours then back to play the lotto again in the morning!
Thanks for the info, looks like mostly filler but I like a few of them such as Cliff Threader and Mark of Mutiny.
The booster change rule freaked me out a little so I just double-checked it and that is only for Regular REL events. At Competitive and higher events you are not allowed to review your picks until between boosters.
I'm not saying there aren't better cards, I would just suggest not dismissing him solely on the grounds that he dies to a a token barrage. I would be much less inclined to play him now because of Faeries, but that is because (1) he is essentially a 4cc sorcery that can be easily countered before I get a chance to do anything with him. And (2), I'd rather be playing Thoughtseize main deck.
Sygg seems pretty weak in comparison to a lot of other cards in the format. I understand why he is there:
1. He mucks up the board as a difficult-to-remove early drop.
2. He nets you a card whenever one of your attackers manages to connect.
So in looking at that I guess he's not terrible. But is he really that good? He seems to clash with the aggro strategy by not being much of a threat himself, and occassionally the fact that he is Legendary is going to make him a blank if you hit him with your cascade and you already have one in play. I can't really think of any other real negatives, but I think they weigh in equally with the underwhelming positives. What is he getting you that is so much better than Mulldrifter or Esper Charm?
I guess what I am concerned about is that if the deck needs a card like Sygg to compensate for a perceived weakness, does that mean its time to perhaps start looking at some of the better, more-focused decks out there?
Also, on the topic of Ramp, I'm in the camp after playing in Regionals yesterday that feels the deck needs to be Naya and play Wrath/Martial Coup in order to be successful. Volcanic Fallout is simply not good enough to be the deck's sweeper of choice at the moment when there are so many threats out there with 3+ toughness and Path to Exile can deal with any single threat a Ramp deck will play in the later turns.
Top 8 was:
2 BW Tokens
2 GW Tokens
1 BG Elves
1 Boat Brew
1 Seismic Swans
1 Jund Ramp
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
3 Putrid Leech
4 Civic Wayfinder
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Chameleon Colossus
4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
3 Cloudthresher
3 Profane Command
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Nameless Inversion
4 Treetop Village
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
3 Twilight Mire
2 Mutavault
4 Forest
2 Swamp
SB:
Some of the card choices were made with the thought being that Regionals would be a wide-open field, whereas a PTQ will be more focused on the specific decks in the metagame. I think this deck archetype is a good choice right now because it beats up on all the decks gunning for the token decks while still having good tools to put up a good fight against Token decks as well. BW Tokens is definitely the deck's worst matchup but it is very winnable if you get them back on their heels and make them play defensively. If I was going to take this deck to a PTQ I would make the following MD changes:
-2 Garruk
-1 Finks
+1 Maelstrom Pulse
+1 Profane Command
+1 Chameleon Colossus
My results from Regionals were:
R1: W 2-0 vs RB w/Blightning
R2: W 2-1 vs Mono-Green Aggro
R3: W 2-0 vs Cascade Control
R4: L 2-0 vs B/W Persist Tokens
R5: W 2-0 vs Esper Beats
R6: W 2-0 vs Jund Ramp
R7: W 2-0 vs GW Tokens
R8: ID with BW Tokens
T8: W 2-1 vs Seismic Swans
I'm sorry for not posting more detailed results as I'm pretty beat. If anyone has any questions I'll do my best to chime in with my thoughts!
You need to re-read Paragon and Battle-Axe and notice Bloodbraid isn't a Warrior. What you described doesn't work.
I like Ajani making his way back into Seds' build as well. I think he does a lot more to impact the board the turn he comes into play than Garruk does. The creature suite is superb too. My only real gripes are that I think the main deck needs a split between Terminate and Maelstrom Pulse. Maybe 3/2. Also, I think Volcanic Fallout is superior to Jund Charm.
If I end up building Ramp after ARB comes out it is going to look something like this. I think the days of Garruk are over.