Round 3 will be a Sealed Draft
You will get an entire 6-pack / 90 card draft pool. From this, you will decide your 3-card deck. There will be no draft rounds; you get the entire pool at once and only need to decide your deck. Enter as normal: Create a thread in the draft area, and I will post the sealed pool for you. ENTER NOW!
Perfect Hand Draft is a method of playing Perfect Hand Magic as we do in our forums, but it uses a drafting method for users to build their decks from. The format is Three-Hand Extra Land Rule. In this round, players will get a 90 card sealed pool all at once, and then choose three of those cards to be their deck submission. After everyone has drafted, those decks are played and scored exactly like a normal PHM round.
How to Enter
Entering the draft is easy, although different from the normal PHM submission process. All you have to do is make a thread in the PHM Draft forum. This area is private: other players can't see your thread in there, so you will conduct your draft in the thread therein, without anyone seeing.
Overview (Game Mod Note: Much of this won't apply to the sealed pool this round)
When the draft is started, each player will be presented with a single fifteen card pack to pick a card from. This pack is the same for all players, and what other players pick has no effect on your draft. After you choose your first card, you are presented with another 15-card pack - "Pack 2" - to choose from. You continue until you have drafted a card from all five packs. All five packs are the same for all players - what you see and choose from is exactly what everyone else chooses from.
After you have drafted a card from each of these five packs, you will then choose three of those cards to build your deck submission from. Again, the format is Three-Hand Extra Land Rule. After all players have finished drafting and made their submission selection, the decks will be posted. The format will always have the Extra Land Rule - each player may play basic land cards from outside of the game and players may play an additional land each turn if they play that land from their hand. Note that with the extra land rule, drafting lands is mana acceleration. Even if Karakas doesn't seem great for its ability in a round - it's still as good as a Mox Pearl.
In the end, you will see the entire card pool that everyone drafted from. All of the options and ideas that you saw were options and paths other players may have taken. The draft is the main challenge of the format. How well can you determine all the avenues other players will take, and adapt to defeat them?
You Draft it: You can Play it
If a card is in the draft pool, you can draft it, put it in your deck, and play it accordingly. There are no rules against what your deck can do, such as forcing discard early or winning quickly. The deck and card balancing is built into the cardpool already, so there are no additional rules about what you can play.
Pack Generation
Packs are generated, semi-randomly. They are not constructed, but they are often tweaked slightly and always adhere to a central card pool with design rules and mapping. Each player has the same options in the draft, so everything is always perfectly fair, but care has been taken to allow multiple competitive options. The cardpool and methodology is very balanced, although the randomness can cause certain avenues to be more successful in a draft. Pack sets with obvious issues are simply discarded - I will ensure the packs are balanced by re-generating for the round.
Guaranteed Wincons
Every pack is guaranteed to contain multiple win conditions. If you you've only been picking removal and disruption, you can rest assured there will be a playable wincon in pack five. There is, of course, no guarantee that you will like any of the wincons therein, but you will absolutely have something you can use.
Dependencies
There aren't any truly dead cards. As part of the pack generation design, if a card is dependent on some other card being in the draft, it will be there. If there is an Isochron Scepter, for instance, there will always be an instant with converted mana cost 2 or less to imprint on it. It will always be in another pack (to ensure you can draft both), and it will be something worth imprinting. The ordering is random, however, so Isochron Scepter could come in pack five and require you to have already chosen that card. Likewise for the Instant coming in pack 2 and Isochron coming in pack 3. Alternatively, cards that aren't dependent on something might not have a go-to card that gets played with it. Karakas does not guarantee a Leyline of Singularity, and Progenitus does not guarantee any way to "cheat" him in; these cards are all fully functional on their own. The pack generator does give a chance that a combo of cards do appear together, however.
Draft and Play Rules
The following are the official rules of the Perfect Hand Draft. They cover the drafting procedures, as well as the game playing procedures. Much of this has been adapted from Mogg's official PHM rules, and credit for their beauty goes to him.
In the event the rules do not cover a specific happenstance or are ambiguous, the moderator of the Draft will have the final declaration of the rules.
1. Drafting
1.1. An entrant enters the draft be creating a thread in the PHM Draft forum.
1.1a. Packs will be displayed and picks will be chosen within this thread.
1.1b. Each entrant's thread is private and can only be seen by that entrant and the PHM Draft Mod.
1.2. The PHM Draft Mod will post the first pack of the round to start the draft.
1.2. Entrants will choose a single card from the pack to add to his or her draft pool.
1.2a. Entrants may only choose a single card from the current draft pack, unless overriden by round rules.
1.2b. Entrants may change their choice only until the next pack has been posted.
1.2c. Entrants are free to get clarifications or rules questions for any card or aspect of the draft before choosing their pick.
1.3. The PHM Draft Mod will then note the chosen card and post the next pack.
1.4. Rules 1.2 and 1.3 will repeat for the draft, until all five packs of the draft have been drafted.
1.4a. Entrants may never change any previously chosen draft picks.
1.4b. The pick for the last pack of the draft may be chaged only up until the PHM Draft Mod responds and notes it in his or her draft pool.
2. Deck Submission
2.1. Upon completing the draft, an entrant determines his or her deck submission.
2.2. An entrant may only submit a deck composed of cards from within his or her draft pool.
2.3. An entrant may not submit the same draft pick multiple times for his or her deck submission.
2.4. An entrant may change his or her submission up until the round's posting.
2.4a. Entrants should make a new reply in his or her thread to change the deck.
2.4b. The last legal deck sumbission will be used for the round's posting.
2.5. An entrant must make all pre-game choices as part of his or her submission.
2.5a. Any round-rule choices must be submitted at the time of the deck building submission and cannot be changed once the round has posted.
2.5b. Any draft-ability choices must also be chosen as part of the deck building submission and cannot be changed between games.
Contents
1. Overview
2. Game Rules
3. Entry Rules
4. Scoring
5. Extra Land Rule
1. Overview
Perfect Hand Magic (PHM) is a competitive strategy game for two or more players. It can be played using pencil and paper; however, it's most commonly played via an online forum. To play the game, each player secretly chooses a specified number of Magic cards which form his or her hand. Once all players have chosen hands, the hands are revealed and scored.
The object of the game is to choose the hand that will score the most points. The score for each hand is determined by the result that it would achieve if it were used to play two games of Magic – one match – against each competing hand; the rules for these theoretical games are covered in Section 2 – Game Rules. During each theoretical game, the player of each hand employs the strategy that maximizes the score for his or her hand, taking into account the strategy of his or her opponent.
A hand scores 3 points for each game that it would win, 0 points for each game that it would lose, and 1 point for each game that would end in a draw. However, a hand scores only 2 points for any match that would have a symmetrical result, regardless of whether the result would be two drawn games or a win for each hand.
The composition of a hand in PHM Draft is limited to the cards drafted. Unlike most PHM setups, there is no ban list, legality list, or extra deck restrictions beyond the draft and building from those cards. All restrictions and legality are already built into the draft pool.
2. Game Rules
2.1. Except for the changes described in these rules, games follow the rules for a normal game of Magic.
2.1a. Changes to the Comprehensive Rules or the Oracle text of a card take effect at the following times:
i. Changes that would take effect during the prerelease for a set take effect during the first round for which cards from that set may be submitted instead.
ii. Changes that would take effect at any other time take effect during the first round for which those rules have been in effect since the start of the round instead.
2.1b. Ignore any part of an instruction that isn't covered by these rules or by the rules of Magic.
2.2. A player's opening hand contains that player's chosen cards.
2.3. Players' libraries begin the game empty.
2.3a. A player doesn't lose the game as a result of being unable to draw a card.
2.4. An effect that would produce a random result produces the result that least benefits the owner of the source of that effect instead.
2.5. Each player is the starting player for one game in each match.
2.6. Players know the identities of all face-down cards and all cards in hidden zones, and players know which decisions have been made by other players.
2.7. If a game would continue indefinitely, then the game is a draw.
2.8. If a loop containing at least one optional action would be repeated indefinitely during a turn, then any player may propose a number of times for that loop to repeat instead. If a player does, then each other player may propose a different number and the loop is repeated for the greatest number of times proposed instead. No player is required to make a choice that would end a loop that crosses multiple turns.
2.9. Cards that have been drafted but not included in a player's deck can be referenced or brought into the game by card effects.
2.9a. Effects, such as Burning Wish, that can bring cards in from outside of the game may only find a card that was drafted and not included in the player's deck.
2.9b. Effects, such as Volatile Chimera, which require drafted cards that are not within the deck function as normal.
3. Entry Rules
3.1. A player's deck is chosen only from the cards that player has drafted, as noted in draft rules above.
3.2. A player's deck submission is always three cards, unless overridden by specific round rules.
3.3. All pre-game choices, such as from round rules and draft effects, must be chosen and locked in as part of the deck's submission.
4. Scoring
4.1. A table of match results is posted at the end of each round. Each row lists one player's result against each other player. A player's points and League points are tallied at the end of his or her row.
4.2. A player may earn bonus League points as specified by the PHM moderator.
4.3. Each player is responsible for determining the match results for his or her hand.
4.3a. Players are encouraged to determine or verify additional match results.
4.3b. An undetermined match result is counted as a loss for both players in that match.
4.3c. A player may challenge any result until the moderator announces that the result is final.
5. Extra Land Rule
5.1 Unless specifically noted in the round's special rules, all games in the Perfect Hand Magic Draft will be played with the "extra land rules" as listed below.
5.1A. Any player may play a basic land of his or her choice from outside the game any time he or she could normally play a land.
5.1b. Any player may play an additional land on each of his or her turns from his or her hand.
I was trying to hold out for knoboddi to submit
HANDS POSTED
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Round 3
Round 3 will be a Sealed Draft
You will get an entire 6-pack / 90 card draft pool. From this, you will decide your 3-card deck. There will be no draft rounds; you get the entire pool at once and only need to decide your deck. Enter as normal: Create a thread in the draft area, and I will post the sealed pool for you.
ENTER NOW!
Entries
1. Superbajt
Arcane Savant1/ Maze of Ith / Raven's Crime || 1Rite of Replication
2. Personman
Approach of the Second Sun / Lake of the Dead / Thunderscape Battlemage
3. WhammeWhamme
Creeping Tar Pit / Memory's Journey / Pirate Charm
4. MyNameIsFourteen
Arcane Savant1/ Garza's Assassin / Memory's Journey || 1Rite of Replication
5. Convoy_Avenger
Arboria / Gideon of the Trails / Helix Pinnacle
6. ManyCookies
Ancient Tomb / Dreamstealer / Riding the Dilu Horse
7. CalvinSchwa
Azorius Chancery / Gideon of the Trials / Raven's Crime
8. Anachronity
Arcane Savant1/ Azorius Chancery / Raven's Crime || 1Rite of Replication
9. Magus of the Aesthetic
Evasive Action / Force of Will / Helix Pinnacle
Introduction & Overview
Welcome to the Perfect Hand Draft!
Perfect Hand Draft is a method of playing Perfect Hand Magic as we do in our forums, but it uses a drafting method for users to build their decks from. The format is Three-Hand Extra Land Rule. In this round, players will get a 90 card sealed pool all at once, and then choose three of those cards to be their deck submission. After everyone has drafted, those decks are played and scored exactly like a normal PHM round.
How to Enter
Entering the draft is easy, although different from the normal PHM submission process. All you have to do is make a thread in the PHM Draft forum. This area is private: other players can't see your thread in there, so you will conduct your draft in the thread therein, without anyone seeing.
Overview
(Game Mod Note: Much of this won't apply to the sealed pool this round)
When the draft is started, each player will be presented with a single fifteen card pack to pick a card from. This pack is the same for all players, and what other players pick has no effect on your draft. After you choose your first card, you are presented with another 15-card pack - "Pack 2" - to choose from. You continue until you have drafted a card from all five packs. All five packs are the same for all players - what you see and choose from is exactly what everyone else chooses from.
After you have drafted a card from each of these five packs, you will then choose three of those cards to build your deck submission from. Again, the format is Three-Hand Extra Land Rule. After all players have finished drafting and made their submission selection, the decks will be posted. The format will always have the Extra Land Rule - each player may play basic land cards from outside of the game and players may play an additional land each turn if they play that land from their hand. Note that with the extra land rule, drafting lands is mana acceleration. Even if Karakas doesn't seem great for its ability in a round - it's still as good as a Mox Pearl.
In the end, you will see the entire card pool that everyone drafted from. All of the options and ideas that you saw were options and paths other players may have taken. The draft is the main challenge of the format. How well can you determine all the avenues other players will take, and adapt to defeat them?
You Draft it: You can Play it
If a card is in the draft pool, you can draft it, put it in your deck, and play it accordingly. There are no rules against what your deck can do, such as forcing discard early or winning quickly. The deck and card balancing is built into the cardpool already, so there are no additional rules about what you can play.
Pack Generation
Packs are generated, semi-randomly. They are not constructed, but they are often tweaked slightly and always adhere to a central card pool with design rules and mapping. Each player has the same options in the draft, so everything is always perfectly fair, but care has been taken to allow multiple competitive options. The cardpool and methodology is very balanced, although the randomness can cause certain avenues to be more successful in a draft. Pack sets with obvious issues are simply discarded - I will ensure the packs are balanced by re-generating for the round.
Guaranteed Wincons
Every pack is guaranteed to contain multiple win conditions. If you you've only been picking removal and disruption, you can rest assured there will be a playable wincon in pack five. There is, of course, no guarantee that you will like any of the wincons therein, but you will absolutely have something you can use.
Dependencies
There aren't any truly dead cards. As part of the pack generation design, if a card is dependent on some other card being in the draft, it will be there. If there is an Isochron Scepter, for instance, there will always be an instant with converted mana cost 2 or less to imprint on it. It will always be in another pack (to ensure you can draft both), and it will be something worth imprinting. The ordering is random, however, so Isochron Scepter could come in pack five and require you to have already chosen that card. Likewise for the Instant coming in pack 2 and Isochron coming in pack 3. Alternatively, cards that aren't dependent on something might not have a go-to card that gets played with it. Karakas does not guarantee a Leyline of Singularity, and Progenitus does not guarantee any way to "cheat" him in; these cards are all fully functional on their own. The pack generator does give a chance that a combo of cards do appear together, however.
Draft and Play Rules
The following are the official rules of the Perfect Hand Draft. They cover the drafting procedures, as well as the game playing procedures. Much of this has been adapted from Mogg's official PHM rules, and credit for their beauty goes to him.
In the event the rules do not cover a specific happenstance or are ambiguous, the moderator of the Draft will have the final declaration of the rules.
1. Drafting
1.1. An entrant enters the draft be creating a thread in the PHM Draft forum.
1.1b. Each entrant's thread is private and can only be seen by that entrant and the PHM Draft Mod.
1.2. The PHM Draft Mod will post the first pack of the round to start the draft.
1.2. Entrants will choose a single card from the pack to add to his or her draft pool.
1.2b. Entrants may change their choice only until the next pack has been posted.
1.2c. Entrants are free to get clarifications or rules questions for any card or aspect of the draft before choosing their pick.
1.3. The PHM Draft Mod will then note the chosen card and post the next pack.
1.4. Rules 1.2 and 1.3 will repeat for the draft, until all five packs of the draft have been drafted.
1.4b. The pick for the last pack of the draft may be chaged only up until the PHM Draft Mod responds and notes it in his or her draft pool.
2. Deck Submission
2.1. Upon completing the draft, an entrant determines his or her deck submission.
2.2. An entrant may only submit a deck composed of cards from within his or her draft pool.
2.3. An entrant may not submit the same draft pick multiple times for his or her deck submission.
2.4. An entrant may change his or her submission up until the round's posting.
2.4b. The last legal deck sumbission will be used for the round's posting.
2.5. An entrant must make all pre-game choices as part of his or her submission.
2.5b. Any draft-ability choices must also be chosen as part of the deck building submission and cannot be changed between games.
1. Overview
2. Game Rules
3. Entry Rules
4. Scoring
5. Extra Land Rule
1. Overview
Perfect Hand Magic (PHM) is a competitive strategy game for two or more players. It can be played using pencil and paper; however, it's most commonly played via an online forum. To play the game, each player secretly chooses a specified number of Magic cards which form his or her hand. Once all players have chosen hands, the hands are revealed and scored.
The object of the game is to choose the hand that will score the most points. The score for each hand is determined by the result that it would achieve if it were used to play two games of Magic – one match – against each competing hand; the rules for these theoretical games are covered in Section 2 – Game Rules. During each theoretical game, the player of each hand employs the strategy that maximizes the score for his or her hand, taking into account the strategy of his or her opponent.
A hand scores 3 points for each game that it would win, 0 points for each game that it would lose, and 1 point for each game that would end in a draw. However, a hand scores only 2 points for any match that would have a symmetrical result, regardless of whether the result would be two drawn games or a win for each hand.
The composition of a hand in PHM Draft is limited to the cards drafted. Unlike most PHM setups, there is no ban list, legality list, or extra deck restrictions beyond the draft and building from those cards. All restrictions and legality are already built into the draft pool.
2. Game Rules
2.1. Except for the changes described in these rules, games follow the rules for a normal game of Magic.
ii. Changes that would take effect at any other time take effect during the first round for which those rules have been in effect since the start of the round instead.
2.1b. Ignore any part of an instruction that isn't covered by these rules or by the rules of Magic.
2.2. A player's opening hand contains that player's chosen cards.
2.3. Players' libraries begin the game empty.
2.4. An effect that would produce a random result produces the result that least benefits the owner of the source of that effect instead.
2.5. Each player is the starting player for one game in each match.
2.6. Players know the identities of all face-down cards and all cards in hidden zones, and players know which decisions have been made by other players.
2.7. If a game would continue indefinitely, then the game is a draw.
2.8. If a loop containing at least one optional action would be repeated indefinitely during a turn, then any player may propose a number of times for that loop to repeat instead. If a player does, then each other player may propose a different number and the loop is repeated for the greatest number of times proposed instead. No player is required to make a choice that would end a loop that crosses multiple turns.
2.9. Cards that have been drafted but not included in a player's deck can be referenced or brought into the game by card effects.
2.9b. Effects, such as Volatile Chimera, which require drafted cards that are not within the deck function as normal.
3. Entry Rules
3.1. A player's deck is chosen only from the cards that player has drafted, as noted in draft rules above.
3.2. A player's deck submission is always three cards, unless overridden by specific round rules.
3.3. All pre-game choices, such as from round rules and draft effects, must be chosen and locked in as part of the deck's submission.
4. Scoring
4.1. A table of match results is posted at the end of each round. Each row lists one player's result against each other player. A player's points and League points are tallied at the end of his or her row.
4.2. A player may earn bonus League points as specified by the PHM moderator.
4.3. Each player is responsible for determining the match results for his or her hand.
4.3b. An undetermined match result is counted as a loss for both players in that match.
4.3c. A player may challenge any result until the moderator announces that the result is final.
5. Extra Land Rule
5.1 Unless specifically noted in the round's special rules, all games in the Perfect Hand Magic Draft will be played with the "extra land rules" as listed below.
5.1b. Any player may play an additional land on each of his or her turns from his or her hand.
Follow me to be notified when weekly Perfect Hand Magic results are posted