Hello everyone! In an effort to cube more in 2017 I am hosting monthly drafts among some friends. I'm looking to award points each month with prizes to those at the top of the standings at the end of the year. I don't want to give points solely based on performance; I want to give points for on other things such as attendance and perhaps creating a deck with certain constraints. So far, these are the categories I am looking to give points for:
Performance, although I don't want this to just outclass other methods of accumulating points
Attendance, perhaps with a bonus for attending multiple months in a row
Deck variability. I have two ideas for this, first is to just have a theme during some months like making a three or four color deck earns bonus points for that month. My other idea is to create a checklist of sorts for each player, awarding bonus points whenever a player has played a new guild or shard/wedge
Has anyone tried anything like this and if so do you have any other suggestions on other ways to award points? Are there any of these that you don't like? Thanks in advance and hope you all have a great 2017!
@Attendance: I'd keep these bonuses small. People that attend multiple drafts already accumulate more points. On the other hand, it's nice that someone that attends every time but loses all their games get more points for showing up regularly than the guy that drafts twice and wins both.
@Deck: Themes don't sound like a great idea, unless you change your cube to accommodate them. Most cubes can't support multiple players drafting the same style of deck too well. If everyone wants to draft 3+ colors, for example, chances are only 1-3 players will have an actual functioning deck. Narrower themes will only be harder to do.
I like the checklist idea though. List all the available color combinations/archetypes etc, give them points every time they draft something for the first time. This gives players incentive to do different stuff each time, and also gives them a handy list of things that are supported.
You could take a step beyond and award points each time they use a card for the first time in their deck. Scoring for this takes a little more work, but it might be fun.
@other points: I really like community voting. Set a couple of subjective categories (most social player, coolest looking deck, best play, etc) and let the drafters vote. This way, you breed a fun and casual atmosphere where everyone wants to be the best version of themselves.
Cool idea. Let us know what you decide on!
Oh I hadn't thought of doing subjective categories; I'll give that some thought. After reading your thoughts about the themes I am also heavily leaning toward the checklist.
It sounds like you're trying to reward your friends for drafting with you, as if it's a chore.
I don't think it's anything like that. We don't get to draft often and this will actually be our first eight player draft so I'm just looking for a fun way to tie all the drafts together I guess. When I decided to make the draft a monthly event it seemed easy to try and turn it into a season of sorts for some extra fun and competition.
It sounds like you're trying to reward your friends for drafting with you, as if it's a chore.
How so? I don't think it's 'we need extra incentive because otherwise people won't show up', but more like 'I'm going to host more drafts, might as well make a league out of it'.
Also: it's OK to do fun things. If I had a regular cube group that did this, I wouldn't think "what a desperate sucka" but rather "**** yeah this is awesome".
It sounds like you're trying to reward your friends for drafting with you, as if it's a chore.
How so? I don't think it's 'we need extra incentive because otherwise people won't show up', but more like 'I'm going to host more drafts, might as well make a league out of it'.
So this is what I've come up with in the little time I've spent thinking about it since life has been pretty busy.
Two points will be awarded to the winner of the draft each month. If a team format is used, each player will on the winning team will receive two points.
One point will be awarded to all players who attend each month. If a player attends three months in a row they will obtain one bonus point which can be achieved twice during the season. If a player attends six months in a row they will obtain two bonus points which can be achieved once during the season.
One point will be awarded to the player who was voted to have the most interesting or unique deck each draft. If a team format is used, players will vote for a deck from the opposing team and two players, one from each side, will awarded one point. Ties will award one point to all tied players.
Each player will have the opportunity to earn bonus points for drafting color combinations that they have not previously drafted in the season. One, two and three colored decks are worth one point each. Four colored decks are worth two points each. Five colored decks are worth three points.
The last thing I need to decide is how to enforce the points for drafting different guilds, shards and whatnot. I'm thinking of stating a minimum card count for each color with some wiggle room. Hybrids and multi-colored cards can only be assigned to one color and non-basic lands will not count toward these totals.. Here is the breakdown I'm thinking of:
Two colored decks - Eight cards of each color
Three colored decks - Six cards of each color
Four colored decks - Four cards of each color
Five colored decks - Three cards of each color
Suggestions on how this looks along with the rest of the distributions? And if you're curious, the end of the year prize is a custom trophy and a six pack of the players choice...I think.
I like those ideas. Some of the point values may need some tweaking, the winner getting fewer points than someone that builds a garbage five-color deck seems a little awkward for example, but otherwise I like it. In addition to most interesting deck, you could also do "coolest play of the night" for an extra point.
I like those ideas. Some of the point values may need some tweaking, the winner getting fewer points than someone that builds a garbage five-color deck seems a little awkward for example, but otherwise I like it. In addition to most interesting deck, you could also do "coolest play of the night" for an extra point.
Hmm, I guess that is a valid point. Like I said earlier I don't want winning to be to really be head and shoulders above everything else. I'm considering bumping down five colored decks to two points and bumping up winning to three. Possibly change the team format to the winning team gains two points each and the player with the best record during that night gains an additional point. Or perhaps just eliminate the five color achievement all together.
Squirrely had also suggested best play of the night but wouldn't only one other person see that play? Ultimately that is why I went with most interesting deck because all the other players will have encountered it.
At the end of the night, everyone could report the coolest play they saw that night, and you could put those up for a vote. It's possible that it wouldn't get awarded every time if there wasn't anything particularly cool that happened.
It sounds like you're trying to reward your friends for drafting with you, as if it's a chore.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
I don't think it's anything like that. We don't get to draft often and this will actually be our first eight player draft so I'm just looking for a fun way to tie all the drafts together I guess. When I decided to make the draft a monthly event it seemed easy to try and turn it into a season of sorts for some extra fun and competition.
Thank you, I like the idea of some of these achievements.
Also: it's OK to do fun things. If I had a regular cube group that did this, I wouldn't think "what a desperate sucka" but rather "**** yeah this is awesome".
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CubeTutor: www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/72
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Hmm, I guess that is a valid point. Like I said earlier I don't want winning to be to really be head and shoulders above everything else. I'm considering bumping down five colored decks to two points and bumping up winning to three. Possibly change the team format to the winning team gains two points each and the player with the best record during that night gains an additional point. Or perhaps just eliminate the five color achievement all together.
Squirrely had also suggested best play of the night but wouldn't only one other person see that play? Ultimately that is why I went with most interesting deck because all the other players will have encountered it.
CubeTutor: www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/72
Thread: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=512410