So . . . who, what, when, how @ Dice tower con?

[rcone002]

"the 3-hour match Mark alluded to was NOT a tournament game, but a casual game he played with a friend/fellow gamer. " -- that's not correct. The three hour game I played against Graham was my second match during the Tuesday pre-lims. (Both Graham and I had won our first match that day). The 75 minute time-limit was imposed later in the week, I think.

I apologize if it was in a preliminary tournament at Dice Tower (since the convention didn't start until Wednesday, did you mean Wednesday and not Tuesday, Mark?). I'm guessing if there were just 4 of you in the prelim on Wednesday, whoever was running the tournament may have just decided to let you play it out until someone won the match instead of adhering to the 75-minute time limit, which was strictly enforced in the final tournament on Sunday.

I want to hear your opinion, though, Mark, on the time limit. As your build was pretty aggressive, I assume you don't really have a problem with the 75-minute time limit? If the limit had been 90 minutes at DTC, do you think that would have been better or worse for the overall tournament structure and participants? I feel that 90 minutes would have greatly reduced the number of ties (I believe we had 2 ties and 2 wins/losses each round out of the 3 rounds total).

I'm just worried that time constraints at Gen Con will force the final tournament time limit to something like 65 minutes per match, and that may preclude all but the most aggressive builds from being viable.

[Koz]

It's a shame that a time limit wasn't imposed on these games right from the start.  The results from this tournament are being used by a poster on BGG to criticize the game in a review thread about the game being too slow and long to play.  Stuff like that can keep players from trying the game, which is a shame.

 

[DrMark]

"since the convention didn't start until Wednesday, did you mean Wednesday and not Tuesday, Mark?)." -- oops, yes, I meant Wednesday.

" I'm guessing if there were just 4 of you in the prelim on Wednesday, whoever was running the tournament may have just decided to let you play it out until someone won the match" -- I only saw four of us on Wednesday, so that's probably correct.

[Texan85]

The time limit thing and game play is going to be a community issue, a solution that will be generally positive and promote incentives to play quickly is needed.

[DrMark]

We discussed various tie-breakers at Dice Tower. (Note: The goal of the tie breaker should be to be "fair" which I define as awarding the match to whoever would have won if the match was played all the way to a conclusion)

Various metrics were suggested including:
* Less damage - although this is simple, this tends to disfavor slow-starting decks and favor agro decks.
* Unspent spell book points (Sum of spellbook points of all cards still in the spellbook)
* Unspent spellbook points + spellbook points in play

Personally, I really like one person's suggestion for something to the blinds in poker. That is,  starting 60 minutes into a match, the tournament director announces that during each upkeep, both players take a certain amount of damage. Five minutes later, the upkeep increases; five minutes later, it increases again. It keeps increasing like that until one of the mages is dead. If they die simultaneously, it's a draw. 

[sIKE]

Personally, I really like one person's suggestion for something to the blinds in poker. That is,  starting 60 minutes into a match, the tournament director announces that during each upkeep, both players take a certain amount of damage. Five minutes later, the upkeep increases; five minutes later, it increases again. It keeps increasing like that until one of the mages is dead. If they die simultaneously, it's a draw.

Sounds like the person who can keep the Sunfire Amulet the longest will win in this scenario...just run to a corner and start life buffing/healing yourself....he who can heal the most wins.

[Servasky]

If anyone's interested, here's the deck I won the tournament with:

Equipment (Total: 30)
1 x Dragonscale Haubert (1)
1 x Demonhide Armor (2)
2 x Lash of Hellfire (4)
2 x Mage Wand (4)
1 x Gautlets of Strength (2)
1 x Helm of Fear (2)
1 x Regrowth Belt (2)
1 x Reflex Boots (4)
1 x Dancing Scimitar (4) 
1 x Fireshaper Ring (1)
1 x Elemental Cloak (2)
1 x Moonglow Amulet (2)

Creatures (Total: 7)
1 x Dark Pact Slayer (3)
1 x Goran, Werewolf Pet (4)

Enchantments (Total: 30)
1 x Bear Strength (2) 
1 x Rhino Hide (2)
2 x Falcon Precision (4) 
1 x Armor Ward (5)
1 x Moongoose Agility (2)
1 x Cheetah Speed (2)
1 x Vampirism (2)
2 x Death Link (4)
2 x Ghoul Rot (4)
1 x Nullify (2)
1 x Agony (1)

Incantations (Total: 29)
1 x Purify (3)
1 x Knockdown (2)
2 x Battle Fury (4)
1 x Purge Magic (6)
1 x Teleport (4)
2 x Dispel (4)
2 x Dissolve (4)
1 x Seeking Dispel (2)

Attack (Total: 8 )
1 x Firestorm (3)
1 x Flameblast (1)
2 x Fireball (4)

Conjurations (Total: 15)
1 x Idol of Pestilence (2)
1 x Enchanter's Ward (2)
1 x Pentagram (4)
1 x Battle Forge (3)
2 x Mana Crystal (4)


Almost immediately after the tournament was over, I made some changes to it based on what happened in the finals. It's a bit nastier now - I dropped the Pentagram, Dark pact slayer, and a couple other things to make room for Aldramech, tainted blood, mage bane, another battle forge, etc.

I think that spellbook is illegal.

"2 x Mage Wand (4)" but the Mage Wand is a level 2 arcane spell so it costs 4 points each copy.