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  • posted a message on What happened to blue? (In the player's eyes)
    That's creepy...I was just reading this thread about WotC's attitude toward milling, and then went and checked this week's theme on wizards.com/magic.
    Posted in: Magic General
  • posted a message on To Wish
    I was considering trying Ring of Ma'ruf with the "whole cube" rule. Given how unwieldy and potentially powerful searching the whole undrafted cube is, I think the regular wishes are too cheap for that effect. 5 and 5 might be a bit expensive, but it'd keep from having to make too many searches.
    Posted in: The Cube Forum
  • posted a message on Equipment needs to be changed or removed from the game.
    I remember this from an old issue of Inquest (sorry for the crappy website, but it's the best I could find):

    http://huynh.homeip.net/~eric/genvar2.html#KAN

    Basically, you enlist a third person to be the judge, and he gets to decide on all these plausibility rulings. I've never actually tried it, but it seems like it could be fun, especially with decks built for the format.
    Posted in: Magic General
  • posted a message on Ecological Sustainability of Magic
    My guess is this is about as good as you'll get:

    http://greenrankings.newsweek.com/companies/view/hasbro

    I suspect the actual process for making cards is a trade secret to prevent counterfeit.
    Posted in: Magic General
  • posted a message on Alternative Draft Format
    I realize that I forgot to share my own experience. My greatest triumph was when I successfully got myself all the cards in the pack I wanted by using my knowledge that two other players had a special love for two specific cards. Later, my schemes went sour when I thought a guy was drafting blue, and tried to bribe him with a big stack of blue. It turned out he didn't want any blue (neither did I) and ended up taking the Kamahl, Pit Fighter and Path to Exile that I had wanted for my WRB deck. Another guy managed to negotiate his way into picking up the Stuffy Doll/Pariah's Shield combo with a few well-divided piles despite the fact that when Pariah's Shield was opened the other two of us commented that we shouldn't let him have it.
    Posted in: The Cube Forum
  • posted a message on Alternative Draft Format
    This is a three-player draft format I came up with while trying to extend Solomon Draft to three people. It's based on a solution to the cake-cutting problem for three people that I found here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_(fair_division)

    These are the rules we used:

    Distribute to each player four face-down 'packs' of 18 cards each.

    Roll dice to determine who goes first. Whoever goes first is designated player A, with players B & C following clockwise.

    Player A lays their first pack face up on the table, and divides it into two piles, which do not necessarily have to have an equal number of cards.

    Player B then selects one pile for himself and gives the other to player A.

    Players A & B then divide their halves into thirds (making for six total piles). Again, the thirds do not have to all have the same number of cards.

    Player C now gets to select one pile from Player A, and one pile from Player B. A & B are then left with their remaining two piles.

    The roles of A, B and C now rotate, with B becoming A, C becoming B and A becoming C. This continues for the remaining packs.

    Chosen cards can either be kept face down or face up. I prefer face down, because I don't want to mentally track everyone else's picks, but if your group prefers that kind of challenge, go for it.

    The fun is that you get to try to tempt the other players with cards you believe they over-value, and with cards that are useful for their decks but not for yours. Consider the following, taking place later in the draft:

    You're player A, and are drafting a WU deck. B is drafting a UBR deck, and C is drafting RGW. Your pack of 18 contains several relevant cards from the various colors, along with a Masticore, which you know everyone wants. How do you get the Masticore for yourself?

    First, you have to convince player B not to take the Masticore pile by stocking the other pile with good BR cards (hoping to save some good blue for yourself). You also have to make sure you save some G for yourself, so that you can use it to lure player C away from the Masticore when you're dividing into thirds. You want to avoid giving player B many cards that he can give away to player C, forcing him to give up some R cards.

    I'd be interested to know if anyone else has done something like this, or if anyone feels inspired to try it and share the results.
    Posted in: The Cube Forum
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