This was easily the most fun round to calculate in a long time. There's a bunch of lively discussion of various matchups I got wrong in last week's thread; you should definitely check it out.
This was a great round in other ways too - overall high quality decks; victory by a relatively new player (Congrats, tomsloger!), and an emergent best strategy (1/1 flying tokens) that the top three decks all implemented with different blocks, token types, and support strategies. Kind of awesome.
Rules:
0. Overview
Two Card Blind (2CB) is a Magic tournament, run entirely within this forum. To compete, players submit two-card decks which are played against each other by the moderator. Scoring assumes optimal play, without randomness or concealed information.
1. Game Rules
1.1. Except for the changes described in these rules, games follow the Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules.
1.2. Players' decks contain exactly two cards, which begin the game in hand. Players do not mulligan or sideboard.
1.3. Players' libraries begin the game empty. A player does not lose the game as a result of being unable to draw a card.
1.4. A random effect produces the result that least benefits the owner of the source of the effect.
1.5 Whenever a player could play a Land card, that player may put a Basic Land card from outside the game onto the battlefield. (Basic Snow Lands are Basic.)
2. Tournament Rules
2.1. Players submit their decks to the 2CB moderator (Personman).
2.1a. The moderator informs players of mistakes in a timely manner. (Sometimes. Often I run kinda late. Be careful.)
2.1b. A player may submit multiple decks, but only the most recent as of the deadline is counted.
2.1c. If a player's final deck is illegal, their most recent legal deck is used. If no legal deck has been submitted, they do not participate.
2.2. A player may not submit a deck that can, against any deck, win the game or force one or more cards in an opponent's hand to change zones before an opponent's first turn, or force a specific card in an opponent's hand to change zones before an opponent's second turn. (Note that forcing your opponent to discard two cards is very likely to force a specific card their hand to change zones.)
2.3. A deck may include any number of any card legal in Vintage (Type 1).
2.4. Each player plays one match, consisting of two games, against each other player. Each player is the starting player once per match. Results assume optimal play and perfect information.
2.4a. If no player can win, the game is a draw.
2.4b. A player that can't win or draw plays to extend the game.
2.5. Points determine tournament standings. Players are ranked, first to last, in order of decreasing number of points.
2.5a. For each match, a player earns 3 points per game win and 1 point per drawn game. Matches in which each player wins one game and loses one game are worth only 2 points per player, rather than 3.
2.5b. A table of match results is posted each round. Its rows represent players and its columns represent opponents. Match results reflect the combined result of both games played in a match. A player's total points are listed at the end of his or her row.
3. Banned List
3.1 The following cards are banned. Any deck that includes a card on this list is illegal.
* Fastbond
* Meddling Mage
* Arcane Denial
* Figure of Destiny
* Nezumi Shortfang
* The Rack
* Black Lotus
Each month, the player with the highest combined score from the four rounds that month is designated Player of the Month. Here are the previous winners, in reverse chronological order:
EDIT: PotM updated, congratulations once again to VikingMetal4L.
I managed to do pretty darn well this month, except for that one total crap out... If I'd managed to do slightly worse than average instead of getting 6 points, I could have had 2nd. Oh well. Maybe this month I will finally win at my own game
Next week is a normal round, and the deadline will be back to Wednesday as normal, though in all likelihood results will be late again.
When Viking is on the play: If Augur hits the board when Viking has fewer than four lands, I kill it with Shadow Guildmage. If he plays Sacred Mesa with three lands in play, he can create one token during his upkeep on T4. In response to him trying to pay the upkeep on the Mesa, I kill it with Guildmage and he's unable pay. He can never reach four lands during his upkeep because of Army Ants.
When I'm on the play, the situation is comparable, but better for me.
On my match with ~Tilde~ and why I think it should be 3-3.
When I'm on the play: one of the match writeups in the other thread erroneously assumes I chump block with pegasus tokens at the first opportunity (which costs me the Sacred Mesa). Rather, I want to refrain from chump blocking until I can make 3+ dudes per turn, so that I neither die nor fall behind in pegasus production versus Jitte counters. On the play, I claim I can just *barely* do this. (So we've got to expect that I can't do this on the draw.)
VM4L on the play vs Tilde:
T1: Tilde Genju
T2: VM4L Augur, Tilde Jitte
T3: VM4L Mesa
T4: VM4L token, sac, token (1 total)
T5: VM4L token x2, sac (2 total). Tilde: equip and attack, VM4L(17) Jitte(2)
T6: VM4L token x2, sac, token (4 total). Tilde: equip and attack, VM4L(14) Jitte(4)
T7: VM4L token x3, sac (6 total). Tilde: equip and attack, VM4L(11) Jitte(6)
T8: VM4L token x3, sac, token (9 total). Tilde: equip and attack, have to chump or VM4L dies (8 pegasus), Jitte(8)
But at this point I've stabilized, as I am basically just losing 3 tokens per turn (thinking of Jitte counters as tokens lost). My board position grows quadratically while Tilde's grows linearly, and I win the long game.
When Tilde is on the play, Personman's match writeup in the other thread erroneously assumes that Tilde needs/wants to use a Jitte counter to kill my Augur, when in fact the Augur is pretty irrelevant. Then the match plays out like
Tilde on the play vs VM4L:
T1: Tilde Genju
T2: Tilde Jitte, VM4L Augur
T3: VM4L Mesa
T4: VM4L token, sac, token
T5: Tilde equips and attacks; VM4L(17), Jitte(2). VM4L makes 2 pegasus, sac 1 (2 total)
T6: Tilde equips and attacks; VM4L(14), Jitte(4). VM4L makes 2 pegasus on upkeep (total 4) with sacrifice trigger on the stack, Tilde kills them all with Jitte, and Sacred Mesa dies. (If only I could play land during my upkeep with triggers on the stack...)
VM4L: The reason we thought Augur needed to die was as follows:
Quote from ~Tilde~ »
5. 17. Equip Jitte, swing. Gets blocked, but Jitte gets 2 counters. genju dies and goes to his hand. meaning he will draw if he spends jitte counters to kill pegasi on upkeep because augur will hit genju. so kill augur.
The alternative seems to be not swinging, which I think would give you the extra turn you need to start making enough pegasodes to not lose mesa.
EDIT:
Quote from Tails2k5 (from the other thread) »
I think some of the rows sum wrong, for example I should have 30 points.
I think you've momentarily forgotten that 3s in the spreadsheet are worth 2 points. You have 2x win/win, 1x win/draw, 4x win/loss, and 1x draw/draw. At 6, 4, 2, and 2 points respectively, I count 12+4+8+2 = 26 points.
When I am on the draw, I only have one pegasus token available to block the turn 5 Genju attack, so I can't stack block to kill it (incidentally I don't see how that line of play would give me better than a draw anyway). I maintain that the following is accurate:
Tilde on the play vs VM4L:
T1: Tilde Genju
T2: Tilde Jitte, VM4L Augur
T3: VM4L Mesa
T4: VM4L token, sac, token
T5: Tilde equips and attacks; VM4L(17), Jitte(2). VM4L makes 2 pegasus, sac 1 (2 total)
T6: Tilde equips and attacks; VM4L(14), Jitte(4). VM4L makes 2 pegasus on upkeep (total 4) with sacrifice trigger on the stack, Tilde kills them all with Jitte, and Sacred Mesa dies.
I think you've momentarily forgotten that 3s in the spreadsheet are worth 2 points. You have 2x win/win, 1x win/draw, 4x win/loss, and 1x draw/draw. At 6, 4, 2, and 2 points respectively, I count 12+4+8+2 = 26 points.
If by momentarily forgotten, you meant never knew, then yes. I guess I was thinking of tournament play where a win is 3 points while a draw is 1. Crazy.
It's like that in all the CBs. The idea is to punish decks that more or less automatically go 1-1, since that is an issue in 3 and 5 CB. I'm not sure if it's as obvious of an issue here, but I still like it. For one thing, it means that mirror matches are always 2 points, regardless of their contents.
Certainly - go look up my first three posts ever on MTGSalvation, and I think you'll find that one of them was me being confused by this very thing over in 5CB!
Still, I think explaining it to almost everyone is not that high a price to pay. Especially given that we've been using it since the beginning, it would make rounds less comparable to each other, which wouldn't be that great.
Private Mod Note
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http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tA_X7YcXL7yXMcZmBxhOSGA&output=html
This was easily the most fun round to calculate in a long time. There's a bunch of lively discussion of various matchups I got wrong in last week's thread; you should definitely check it out.
This was a great round in other ways too - overall high quality decks; victory by a relatively new player (Congrats, tomsloger!), and an emergent best strategy (1/1 flying tokens) that the top three decks all implemented with different blocks, token types, and support strategies. Kind of awesome.
0. Overview
Two Card Blind (2CB) is a Magic tournament, run entirely within this forum. To compete, players submit two-card decks which are played against each other by the moderator. Scoring assumes optimal play, without randomness or concealed information.
1. Game Rules
1.1. Except for the changes described in these rules, games follow the Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules.
1.2. Players' decks contain exactly two cards, which begin the game in hand. Players do not mulligan or sideboard.
1.3. Players' libraries begin the game empty. A player does not lose the game as a result of being unable to draw a card.
1.4. A random effect produces the result that least benefits the owner of the source of the effect.
1.5 Whenever a player could play a Land card, that player may put a Basic Land card from outside the game onto the battlefield. (Basic Snow Lands are Basic.)
2. Tournament Rules
2.1. Players submit their decks to the 2CB moderator (Personman).
2.1a. The moderator informs players of mistakes in a timely manner. (Sometimes. Often I run kinda late. Be careful.)
2.1b. A player may submit multiple decks, but only the most recent as of the deadline is counted.
2.1c. If a player's final deck is illegal, their most recent legal deck is used. If no legal deck has been submitted, they do not participate.
2.2. A player may not submit a deck that can, against any deck, win the game or force one or more cards in an opponent's hand to change zones before an opponent's first turn, or force a specific card in an opponent's hand to change zones before an opponent's second turn. (Note that forcing your opponent to discard two cards is very likely to force a specific card their hand to change zones.)
2.3. A deck may include any number of any card legal in Vintage (Type 1).
2.4. Each player plays one match, consisting of two games, against each other player. Each player is the starting player once per match. Results assume optimal play and perfect information.
2.4a. If no player can win, the game is a draw.
2.4b. A player that can't win or draw plays to extend the game.
2.5. Points determine tournament standings. Players are ranked, first to last, in order of decreasing number of points.
2.5a. For each match, a player earns 3 points per game win and 1 point per drawn game. Matches in which each player wins one game and loses one game are worth only 2 points per player, rather than 3.
2.5b. A table of match results is posted each round. Its rows represent players and its columns represent opponents. Match results reflect the combined result of both games played in a match. A player's total points are listed at the end of his or her row.
3. Banned List
3.1 The following cards are banned. Any deck that includes a card on this list is illegal.
* Fastbond
* Meddling Mage
* Arcane Denial
* Figure of Destiny
* Nezumi Shortfang
* The Rack
* Black Lotus
Each month, the player with the highest combined score from the four rounds that month is designated Player of the Month. Here are the previous winners, in reverse chronological order:
POTM 7: VikingMetal4L
POTM 6: VikingMetal4L
POTM 5: Tails2k5
POTM 4: VikingMetal4L
POTM 3: VikingMetal4L
POTM 2: VikingMetal4L
POTM 1: DragonDart
PotM update soonish.
EDIT: PotM updated, congratulations once again to VikingMetal4L.
I managed to do pretty darn well this month, except for that one total crap out... If I'd managed to do slightly worse than average instead of getting 6 points, I could have had 2nd. Oh well. Maybe this month I will finally win at my own game
Next week is a normal round, and the deadline will be back to Wednesday as normal, though in all likelihood results will be late again.
When Viking is on the play: If Augur hits the board when Viking has fewer than four lands, I kill it with Shadow Guildmage. If he plays Sacred Mesa with three lands in play, he can create one token during his upkeep on T4. In response to him trying to pay the upkeep on the Mesa, I kill it with Guildmage and he's unable pay. He can never reach four lands during his upkeep because of Army Ants.
When I'm on the play, the situation is comparable, but better for me.
Modern UW Taking Turns
VM4L on the play vs Tilde:
T1: Tilde Genju
T2: VM4L Augur, Tilde Jitte
T3: VM4L Mesa
T4: VM4L token, sac, token (1 total)
T5: VM4L token x2, sac (2 total). Tilde: equip and attack, VM4L(17) Jitte(2)
T6: VM4L token x2, sac, token (4 total). Tilde: equip and attack, VM4L(14) Jitte(4)
T7: VM4L token x3, sac (6 total). Tilde: equip and attack, VM4L(11) Jitte(6)
T8: VM4L token x3, sac, token (9 total). Tilde: equip and attack, have to chump or VM4L dies (8 pegasus), Jitte(8)
But at this point I've stabilized, as I am basically just losing 3 tokens per turn (thinking of Jitte counters as tokens lost). My board position grows quadratically while Tilde's grows linearly, and I win the long game.
When Tilde is on the play, Personman's match writeup in the other thread erroneously assumes that Tilde needs/wants to use a Jitte counter to kill my Augur, when in fact the Augur is pretty irrelevant. Then the match plays out like
Tilde on the play vs VM4L:
T1: Tilde Genju
T2: Tilde Jitte, VM4L Augur
T3: VM4L Mesa
T4: VM4L token, sac, token
T5: Tilde equips and attacks; VM4L(17), Jitte(2). VM4L makes 2 pegasus, sac 1 (2 total)
T6: Tilde equips and attacks; VM4L(14), Jitte(4). VM4L makes 2 pegasus on upkeep (total 4) with sacrifice trigger on the stack, Tilde kills them all with Jitte, and Sacred Mesa dies. (If only I could play land during my upkeep with triggers on the stack...)
Modern UW Taking Turns
The alternative seems to be not swinging, which I think would give you the extra turn you need to start making enough pegasodes to not lose mesa.
EDIT:
I think you've momentarily forgotten that 3s in the spreadsheet are worth 2 points. You have 2x win/win, 1x win/draw, 4x win/loss, and 1x draw/draw. At 6, 4, 2, and 2 points respectively, I count 12+4+8+2 = 26 points.
Tilde on the play vs VM4L:
T1: Tilde Genju
T2: Tilde Jitte, VM4L Augur
T3: VM4L Mesa
T4: VM4L token, sac, token
T5: Tilde equips and attacks; VM4L(17), Jitte(2). VM4L makes 2 pegasus, sac 1 (2 total)
T6: Tilde equips and attacks; VM4L(14), Jitte(4). VM4L makes 2 pegasus on upkeep (total 4) with sacrifice trigger on the stack, Tilde kills them all with Jitte, and Sacred Mesa dies.
If by momentarily forgotten, you meant never knew, then yes. I guess I was thinking of tournament play where a win is 3 points while a draw is 1. Crazy.
Still, I think explaining it to almost everyone is not that high a price to pay. Especially given that we've been using it since the beginning, it would make rounds less comparable to each other, which wouldn't be that great.