MTG Salvation

Format of the Week:

Hero Week:
All Legendary Creatures get +3/+3 and gain Shroud.
Rakdos the Defiler is banned this week.

This week was:
Hero Week!
All Legendary Creatures get +3/+3 and gain shroud.
Rakdos the Defiler is banned.

1) WhammWhamme - The Cog Gambit
Leyline of Singularity, Meekstone, Mishra's Workshop, Scalding Tongs, Conjurer's Bauble

2) Bateleur - Four Land
Mishra's Factory, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Thoughtseize, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Vesuva

3) Xyre - scrwd
Black Lotus, Black Lotus, Swamp, Thoughtseize, Tolsimir Wolfblood

4) Julius - Leyline be Damned
Damnation, Peat Bog, Peat Bog, Thoughtseize, Tomb of Urami

5) Silkenfist - Over the boiling sea
Mox Jet, Thoughtseize, Mishra's Workshop, Ensnaring Bridge, Scalding Tongs

6) Halinn - ArenaStax
Mishra's Workshop, Sol Ring, Epochrasite, Smokestack, Arena of the Ancients

7) ced395 - Alternate Karakas Stax
Arena of the Ancients, Leyline of Singularity, Mishra's Workshop, Scalding Tongs, Sphere of Resistance

8) Belhorus - Norin, The Dawn Treader
Black Lotus, City of Traitors, Mox Ruby, Where Ancients Tread, Norin the Wary

9) Knowledge - Anti-Isamaru
Black Lotus, Mirri, the Cat Warrior, Thoughtseize, Scrubland, Isamaru, Hound of Konda

10) Error1 - Ignoring the format.
Smokestack, Sol Ring, Ensnaring Bridge, Epochrasite, Mishra's Workshop

11) Thoomor - Stax: Who really cares what the special format is?
Chalice of the Void, Epochrasite, Mishra's Workshop, Smokestack, Sol Ring

12) Spyx - Beats.dec
Black Lotus, Black Lotus, Bayou, Thoughtseize, Silvos, Rogue Elemental

13)ik - Gogo Ornithopter
Ornithopter, Isamaru, Hound of Konda, Leyline of Singularity, Thoughtseize, Scrubland

x/1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0-1-2-3
1 X-0-6-6-3-2-6-0-0-1-0-6-6 = 36
2 6-X-3-6-3-2-6-3-0-2-2-6-0 = 39
3 0-3-X-1-3-4-3-3-3-4-3-3-3 = 33
4 0-0-4-X-3-1-4-3-3-2-3-3-4 = 30
5 3-3-3-3-X-4-3-6-3-4-3-3-3 = 41
6 2-2-1-4-1-X-6-3-4-2-2-3-2 = 32
7 0-0-3-1-3-0-X-0-1-0-0-3-1 = 12
8 6-3-3-3-0-3-6-X-3-1-3-3-3 = 37
9 6-6-3-3-3-1-4-3-X-3-3-3-3 = 41
0 4-2-1-2-1-2-6-4-3-X-2-1-4 = 32
1 6-2-3-3-3-2-6-3-3-2-X-3-4 = 40
2 0-0-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-4-3-X-3 = 31
3 0-6-3-1-3-2-4-3-3-1-1-3-X = 30


Congratulations to Knowledge and Silkenfist!


1) Knowledge (41)
1) Silkenfist (41)
3) Thoomor (40)
4) Bateleur (39)
5) Belhorus (37)
6) WhammWhamme (36)
7) Xyre (33)
8) Halinn (32)
8) Error1 (32)
9) Spyx (31)
12) Julius (30)
13) Ik (30)
14) ced395 (12)

[spoiler=PoTM November [/spoiler]
1) Error1 (86)
2) Thoomor (85)
3) Belhorus (80)
4) Knowledge (79)
5) WhammWhamme (76)
6) halinn (74)
7) Silkenfist (71)
7) Bateleur (71)
9) Spyx (59)
10) Julius (46)
11) ced395 (44)
12) Xyre (33)
13) Ik (30)
14) Yodavader (22)
15) NoMercyEver (20) [/spoiler]

Next Week will be a special week:

Lands Week!:
Your deck starts the game with one of each of the five non-snow basic lands in it. (The deck is stacked in the least useful way possible for you)


Basic Rules
- Your deck is composed of exactly 5 cards, all of which start in your hand.
- Your deck has no sideboard.
- You don't lose as a result of not being able to draw a card.
- You can see your opponent's hand, so you can always make the best possible play.
- Random effects always favour the opponent of the owner of the source (and mulligans always put the card you want least to be put in your deck into your deck).
- All other rules of magic remain unchanged, unless otherwise stated.
Tournament Rules
- All matches are played out by the moderator (participants only submit the decks).
- Tournaments are run in round-robin fashion.
- Each matchup consists of 2 games, with each deck going first once.
- Participants earn 3 points if their deck wins a match, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss.
- The moderator may confer any number of Deck Awards. Each Deck Award is worth 10 POTM points unless otherwise specified.
Deck-Building Rules
- You may not submit a deck that can win before the opponent's first main phase.
- You may not submit a deck that can potentially force an opponent to lose a number of cards from their hand greater than the number of turns you have had.*
- You may not submit a deck that can generate infinite (or an arbitrarily large amount of) mana on the first turn.
- You may not include a card that is illegal in T1 (Classic). However you may include any number of restricted cards.
- You may not include a card that appears on the 5CB Banned List.

The Banned List

Ghost Quarter
Strip Mine
Wasteland

Force of Will

Trinisphere
Mycosynth Lattice
Form of the Dragon
Barren Glory
Unmask
Magus of the Moon

Cabal Therapy
Mindslaver
Word of Command

Watch List:
Anurid Scavenger


* - Timetwister is legal. Decks that can play a first turn Timetwister + Uba Mask are not. Decks that can play a first turn Timetwister without using it to 'effectively make their opponent discard their hand' are legal.
Balance is legal. Decks that can play Balance before turn 5 are not (unless they can't empty their hand fast enough).
Hymn to Tourach is legal. Decks that can play it first turn are not.
Thoughtseize is legal. Decks that can play two Thoughtseizes on turn one are not.


Decklists are due by Sunday lunchtime in the US, as that is Monday morning for me...

It was worth it just to play Tolsimir Wolfblood. Everyone loves a 6/7 who taps to produce 7/7s.

I'm surprised, though. Who would have thought that Norin could have won some games.

Well, you kill very quickly on the play, give the first turn Norin trigger plus one if they play a spell, then attack and trigger, then kill them with the next trigger...

On that note, don't I go 6-0 against ced395?

He can't stop me from playing WAT or Norin, and i can use City to play both Mox and Lotus.

Arena of the Ancients does nothing. Norin flickers out when you play it, so it can't tap him, and he flickers out when he attacks too.

Edit:

No drawing on the play.

1) halinn - This deck sucks.
Black Lotus; Black Lotus; Meloku, the Clouded Mirror; Fastbond; Vision Charm
Player: Silkenfist
Deck: It's not how long you live
Ensnaring Bridge
Scalding Tongs
Feldon's Cane
Vindicate
Balance
Tcleberg
No deck name submitted
Crucible of worlds
Treetop villiage
Goblin Trenches
Swords to plowshares
Regrowth
Spyx
Random stuff.dec
Chalice of the Void
Foil
Island
Nether Spirit
Hapless Researcher
ik
loses to bye.dec
1 Wild Nacatyl
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Lightning Helix
1 Black Lotus
bateleur - C'mon Topdeck!
Black Lotus
Thoughtseize
Crumbling Sanctuary
Darksteel Reactor
Soldevi Digger
ced395 - My other entry may have broke the round but probably didn't.dec
Bitterblossom, Lich's Mirror, Sinkhole, Thoughtseize, Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth
(Note: Other entry was not legal. Shared Fate + reshuffle hand = not legal)

Thoomor - Boring Rakdos
Black Lotus
Black Lotus
Rakdos the Defiler
Swamp
Thoughtseize


This is the last round. I'd finish it up properly, 'cept it's already days late and I've burnt out.

I think my deck was going to be Legacy Weapon, Mishra's Workshop, Crucible of Worlds, Mishra's Factory and... Chalice of the Void?

How do you mean, "This is the last round?".

I don't think I'm doing a very good job of running 5CB, and it's just eating too much time... and I actually forgot about it this week. If someone else wants to step up, that would be great.

If not, that's going to be bad.

First, a big thank you for almost thirty weeks of running this format we love. Dedication like yours makes 5CB work, and while I'm not great at expressing my emotions, trust me that I am very thankful for what you've done, and I also understand the need to step back. You've put a lot of work into this.

I'll try running this if no one else steps up. I've enjoyed the year-and-a-half since I last ran 5CB (on MDV). The work you and carrion_pigeons did meant that I could just relax and play, but I feel it's only fair that I offer to at least try to run this again, though I don't know how long I'll last.

It's my plan to run it like that; I don't think that has a large impact on time spent, though. The moderator must still check and compare all the results. The advantage of ghweiss's method is not time, but accuracy.

Also, if people could send me ideas for special weeks, that would be awesome. I love special weeks, but I sometimes have trouble finding a good theme.

If I can suggest something, might help with special weeks. Greebo used to run all specials for 2 weeks in a row to get some meta gaming of the special formats. I really liked that, it worked well for him and it allows you to get more millage out of each special week idea.

Thanks Whamme for running for as long as you did.

Thanks for running it WhammWhamme, you were awesome!

4v5
4v9
5v9
6v7
7v9
Probably need recalculating.

4v5 I agree with your result.

5v9 I think you may have been too kind to me...

bateleur - C'mon Topdeck!
Black Lotus Thoughtseize Crumbling Sanctuary Darksteel Reactor Soldevi Digger

vs

WhammWhamme
Legacy Weapon, Mishra's Workshop, Crucible of Worlds, Mishra's Factory, Chalice of the Void

I cannot Thoughtseize any of WhammWhamme's mana sources. So on his turn four he drops Legacy Weapon and on his turn five he can start RFGing my permanents. I can Thoughtseize the Weapon, but this only delays the inevitable.

Listed: 6-0
Should be: 0-6

Quote from ced395

Edit: Actually, 5v9 is ik vs Whamme. Your deck is deck 6.

Doh!

Can you guess where I got the '5' from?

But wait a sec... if I'm deck six doesn't that mean you have Spyx down an beating me 6-0? I'm... skeptical. He has to Foil either Lotus or Thoughtseize on my first turn, otherwise I Thoughtseize his Foil. I therefore resolve Digger on my second turn and get Sanctuary down long before he deals 20.

There will be no 5CB this week. 5CB will resume next week. In the meantime, you might check out this alternate format to satisfy your creative needs: XCB.

Sorry for the delay. We haven't had much time as we'd like to figure out exactly how we want the rules to read, and we think it is important to have correct wordings figured out before we begin, to avoid confusion and the need for further revisions.

The majority of these changes are simply to make the rules read more clearly. It is our hope to attract new players to the game, and we think that 5CB is complex enough without the added burden of deciphering the rules.

There are also some more significant changes. We would like to replace deck-submission restrictions with play restrictions (as in 5CBL), and we are especially considering the elimination of first-turn discard. Wording these restrictions so as to avoid all ambiguity has proven difficult.

The other change involves the scoring system. We liked the system of points developed in 5CBL (6-0 and 4-1 = 3, 3-3 and 2-2 = 1, 1-4 and 0-6 = 0), because it incentivizes to leave 3-3 land.

The scoring for POTM may change. An idea ghweiss had a while ago, which I am a fan of, is to count only the top few decks of each round toward the POTM race. This would hopefully incentivize players to submit high-level decks every round, instead ofcoasting in the last round.

As a result of changes to the scoring system, we are reevaluating the banned list. Some cards that are significantly worse on the draw may come off.

Our goal is to encourage innovative design and reward careful analysis of the metagame. We also want to avoid confusion. I ask for your patience. We'll get the next round up as soon as we can, and we hope it will be worth the wait.

Thank you to those of you who have submitted ideas for theme weeks. While I apologize that there hasn't been much chance to interact recently, 5CB thrives because of player involvement. The more players care (whether by checking a deck another time before submitting to make sure it works, or helping with the results, or giving us suggestions), the better the game is for everyone.

That's all for now. Given the changes, you may want to wait before submitting. I haven't had a chance to discuss with ghweiss since I saw Julius's post, and I don't think we've settled yet on all the changes.

Quote from Mogg

The scoring for POTM may change. An idea ghweiss had a while ago, which I am a fan of, is to count only the top few decks of each round toward the POTM race.

Strongly approve of this.

Further suggestion for possible consideration: maybe award PotM points which aren't actually the points won in the round? This would further prevent coasting since it would mean that a single unusually lucrative week was less likely to be an auto-win for PotM (which can happen when number of participants varies a lot across a month).

Hey all, getting back into #CB after a long time away.

Glancing at the format, Thoughtsieze seems like a ridiculously difficult card to play around. Nabbing Black Lotus on the play shuts down a huge amount of decks; if you look at the scoreboard the ones running Thoughtsieze almost always go at least 3-3. Banning it wouldn't shut down the strategy (there's still Duress and Distress), but it will make it a little more manageable. Hell, maybe even those should be looked at.

Here's a format from long ago I enjoyed:

First week is normal.
Second week, all nonland cards played in the first week are banned.
Third week, all nonland cards played in the first and second week are banned.
etc.

I'm mostly thinking back to 3cb, where pretty much all hand-sniping cards were removed. Chalice, Mesmeric Fiend, Meddling Mage, etc.

Right now, the meta looks like this to me; decks that win on the play, and decks that try to counter those decks while still winning on the play. Removing the "first turn win" cards (and there are a lot of them) would really open up the format.