That's a very good land rule. I think one land per turn should be used under it too.
Also Time Walk shouldn't be banned the problem is Anurid Scavenger.
I support all of those bans... like usual.
I prefer banning the card that is useless without the other card, so that a lesser version of the deck can be played (like Gargabalance). If multiple cards are problems, I'll ban Scavenger.
I am so very, very against banning Beacon of Creation. I guess my judgment could be warped since I'm used to it in a format with plentiful 2-mana counterspells, but man, it's such a staple, and so easy to shut down... and part of what makes Lich Lord of Unx so cool...
I don't really understand why Shortfang wasn't played and then banned ages ago; that happened in the original 2CB quite quickly.
Time Walk.. enh. Leaves Anurid/Chant as a not-as-good version, so I guess I'm okay with it. I do really think Anurid should be part of the game.
Shortfang takes time to get going, and that time can really cost it, especially in what you can combine with. It still might make the ban list.
Beacon has been one of the top few decks from several weeks. It's almost identical to Red Sun's, but situationally better or worse. Like RSZ, it is both recurring and scaling, which I don't think is legit.
I agree about Time Walk, and would not be surprised to see Chant banned as well, whereas I think there are other fun things to do with Scavenger.
SSG gets stopped by Revoker and friends, while RoF gets Misstepped.
I figured there'd be more Revokers and less Missteps this week.
I was barely right. :/
Manaforge doesn't copy, per week rules, since it's a nonland mana ability.
Oh yeah...I made a deck before the rules change that had him.
The card I really wanted to use this week was Blood Celebrant, but that's not modern, and was before the rules change.
It's not infinite mana...just enough for an Emrakul and a Frozen Aether. Mental Misstep and Snapback as protection. Seemed good, but no dice.
Two Card Blind (2CB) is a weekly Magic tournament, run entirely within this forum. To compete, players submit two-card decks which are played against each other. 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 rules of Magic.
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. Each player owns an infinite supply of Basic Lands of each type outside the game. These may be played as if they were in his or her hand.
1.4b. You may play only one land from your hand in addition to only one land from outside the game during your turn; however, continuous effects may increase these numbers (if a card states that you may play an additional land this turn, you may play one from your hand, one from outside the game and one from either your hand or outside the game).
1.4b'. Playing lands from your hand will make you a better person. Officially.
1.5. A random effect produces the result that least benefits the owner of the source of the effect.
1.6. Each player plays two games (one match) against each other player.
1.6a. Each player is the starting player once per match.
1.6b. If no player can win, the game is a draw.
1.6c. Games are played with perfect information.
1.6d. Games are played optimally; players attempt to win, draw, or extend the game – in that order.
2. Tournament Rules
2.1. Players submit their decks to the 2CB moderator.
2.1a. A player may submit multiple decks, but only the most recent deck is counted.
2.1b. An illegal deck is not counted. The removal of an illegal deck does not affect deck distribution (see Rule 2.4).
2.1b'. If an illegal deck is submitted, the deck may be editted at the moderator's discretion (i.e.: If a deck is submitted with a banned card, but can still be considered a legal deck--such as being able to win against a goldfish deck--without that card, the deck may still be included, but without the offending card).
2.1c. The moderator determines the result of each match. Players may challenge results, but not after the results of the first round belonging to a new month have been posted (see Rule 2.5a).
2.1d. A player may name his or her deck. If a player does not, the moderator may name it.
2.2. Decks are subject to some restrictions.
2.2a. A player may not submit a deck that can – against any deck – force any card in an opponent's hand to change zones or Win the Game before an opponent's second turn.
2.2b. A player may not submit a deck that can't win both games of a match against at least one deck satisfying 2.2a and 2.2c.
2.2c. A deck may include any number of any card legal in Vintage (Type 1), with the exception of the following banned cards:
2.2d. A deck may include any number of any card that will become legal in Vintage upon release of a set that has been revealed fully and officially since the start of the round.
2.3. Points determine tournament standings.
2.3a. Players are ranked – first to last – in order of decreasing number of points.
2.3b. For each match, a player earns 3 points per game win and 1 point per drawn game. However, a player earns only 2 points for a split match (one win, one loss).
2.3c. 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; 6 is a match win, 2 a drawn or split game, and 1 or 4 a draw/loss or draw/win respectively. A player's points are listed at the end of his or her row.
2.5. The player with the most PotM points over the course of a month is the Player of the Month.
2.5a. A month includes all rounds for which decks are due during that month.
2.5b. Each round, each player receives PotM points equal to their average match result for that round, rounded down to 1 decimal place. For example, a player scoring 6-6-6-6-X-0-0-0 in a round with 8 decks receives 3.4 points (24/7).
2.5c. Each week, .5 PotM points will be given to the deck deemed most creative and original.
2.5d. Each week, after the grid is posted, the first player to able to post a deck that can successfully go 6-0 over every deck in the grid will also receive 1 PotM point.
1 Heart of Draco- King Nothing Elixir of Immortality / Felidar Sovereign
An alternate win was cool, as was strong lifegain and recursion, but I lose to tokens and Shortfang...a bad plan.
2 Error1- R(one) and Hydra! Molten Hydra / Rock Hydra
Rock Hydra was essentially 11 ones on a warm body. It only really came up twice or so. Molten on teh other hand might actually be a legitimate 2CB card. Made me laugh though.
3 Some One- Sour Flower Bitterblossom / Bitterblossom
This would have been alright, but but starting at 11 and using 2 cards that kill you almost as fast as you kill them was not the correct decision. Hope to see another shot next week.
4 Draco9- There Can Only Be One!* Squandered Resources / Door to Nothingness
Squandered Resources was a Legitimate ramp card, but I think Emploration would have been a strictly better (though I'm not sure that came up) choice. The fast, alternate kill would have been great were it not for a bit of counter and discard.
5 WhammWhamme- Why Mess With a Winning Formula?* Syncopate / Lich Lord of Unx
Because you'll end up with an ok score instead of a winning one. Good choices though. Syncopate worked well, and the exile part came up more than once. The life loss was effective this week.
6 Benbuzz790- Dirty Rat Nezumi Shortfang / Plaguespitter
Great choices. You shut down tokens and hands, and there wasn't much else there this week. Congrats!
7 LSK- Long Walk on the Beast Time Walk / Anurid Scavenger
This combo is starting to irk me, as there are few weeks it doesn't work for. 3rd isn't exactly dominating, but you make a point for a plausible ban.
8 VikingMetal4L- Antipoke Angel Elixir of Immortality / Guardian Seraph
Very techy choice. You prettymuch only beat "dumb aggro" and token decks, but I have to compliment your rules use in this deck. You also received the creativity bonus (though I don't like giving to the 2 time champ, you earned it by thinking this deck out).
9 Feyd_Ruin- Whichipate? Not Datipate. Dissipate / Inkmoth Nexus
Good way of implementing both the recent counter-bans and the land rule. Like Syncopate, Dissipate's exile clause makes it better in a format with heavy recursion themes.
10 Antonia- Don't Mourn For Target Permanent. Vindicate / Nezumi Shortfang
Handling both the field and the hand was hard to beat for most decks. The one drawback to this deck was no second threat.
11 Shogun17- Shogun's Thematically Appropriate Pet Deck Exploration / Beacon of Creation
Your pet deck might not be around much longer, as that card is almost as bad as RSZ, being recurrable and scaling all at once.
12 TANE- Still Alive Pestilence / Stillmoon Cavelier
I liked this deck (I have a pauper deck based around this theme with Order of Leitbur), but it was just too slow. The deck I thought it would simply ace (tokens) even beat it by just going faster. The protection came up a couple times though. You get a bonus for the construction though.
13 DragonDart- Beacon of Negation Negate / Beacon of Creation
Good take on the token theme. The biggest use for this was against all in decks and as a counter-counter, and it was marginally more effective than the speedy tokens build.
14 Personman- Hesitation and Nezumi Shortfang.dec Hesitation / Nezumi Shortfang
It was amusingly sinister to watch people have to tap out for one spell, only to lose the other to discard. I don't thing Hesitation is a great card, but this was a good home for it.
15 Thundersnow- Redundent Master Transcendent Master / Transcendent Master
I can't say a slow fatty was good when it only does 1 damage, but I'd really like to see this card in a normal week. Also, if something beats your card, and you include two of the same, it beats your deck. Food for thought.
Ones:
Error1.................21! (Way to live up to your name!)
Thundersnow.......10
Some One............8
Benbuzz790..........7
Personman...........6
Antonia...............6
Feyd_Ruin............5
TANE..................4
WhammWhamme...3
DragonDart...........3
VikingMetal4L........2
Shogun17.............2
Heart of Draco.......1
Draco9.................1 (I guess both Dracos wanted to go for the Meta-One)
LSK......................1
Error1 gets the Bonus point for not only beating out everyone, but beating out any 2 other people. If you add up the 8 lowest out of 15, they add up to 17...which is still 4 points short. In fact, his card with fewer ones would have tied for first by itself.
Alternate Land Rule
If you would draw a card while your library has no cards in it, put a basic land card of your choice from outside the game into your hand instead.
Note: You draw on your first turn even when on the play.
This essentially negates the Extra Land Rule, as both lands from outside the game and in your deck would both be from your hand. This is instead of the land rules normally used. Please post any other questions you might have.
Sorry for the delay. Like I said, I was at GP San Diego (and went 5-4, so not amazing, but not bad for my first GP). I'll post the decks today and try to post the grid by tomorrow. Next week is Normal Week Plus Draco9's Alternate Land Rule Week.
Alternate Land Rule
If you would draw a card while your library has no cards in it, put a basic land card of your choice from outside the game into your hand instead.
Actually, Vex is a tie (Elemental dies to a spell being CAST), and Mana Crypt is a loss on the draw, so if you can sideboard differently each game it's 4-1.
I'm actually quite satisfied with giving up my title this month. I had a great month (5th, 1st, 3rd, 2nd), but knobbodi had a crazy good month (2nd, 2nd, 1st, 1st).
In order to "become tapped", a permanent needs to go from the untapped state to the tapped state. If Mr. Freeze targets a permanent that's already tapped during his upkeep, nothing special happens as that permanent didn't become tapped at that point.
This doesn't work like Frost Titan since its ability is a single ability that both taps a permanent and marks it to not untap the next untap step.
Shogun's got it. There are 2 separate abilities as play. They are synergistic, but unrelated. The first one stops permanents from untapping for a turn after they become tapped. The second taps them; it can target a tapped permanent, and will resolve, but will have no net effect (like an exchange effect after one target is no longer legal: the effect resolves, but nothing happens).
*Takes a Bow*
Though I'm a fan of Hesitation and Nezumi Shortfang.dec. Also, Countersun 2: Feline Bugaloo
I prefer banning the card that is useless without the other card, so that a lesser version of the deck can be played (like Gargabalance). If multiple cards are problems, I'll ban Scavenger.
Shortfang takes time to get going, and that time can really cost it, especially in what you can combine with. It still might make the ban list.
Beacon has been one of the top few decks from several weeks. It's almost identical to Red Sun's, but situationally better or worse. Like RSZ, it is both recurring and scaling, which I don't think is legit.
I agree about Time Walk, and would not be surprised to see Chant banned as well, whereas I think there are other fun things to do with Scavenger.
Oh yeah...I made a deck before the rules change that had him.
The card I really wanted to use this week was Blood Celebrant, but that's not modern, and was before the rules change.
It's not infinite mana...just enough for an Emrakul and a Frozen Aether. Mental Misstep and Snapback as protection. Seemed good, but no dice.
0. Overview
Two Card Blind (2CB) is a weekly Magic tournament, run entirely within this forum. To compete, players submit two-card decks which are played against each other. 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 rules of Magic.
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. Each player owns an infinite supply of Basic Lands of each type outside the game. These may be played as if they were in his or her hand.
1.4b. You may play only one land from your hand in addition to only one land from outside the game during your turn; however, continuous effects may increase these numbers (if a card states that you may play an additional land this turn, you may play one from your hand, one from outside the game and one from either your hand or outside the game).
1.4b'. Playing lands from your hand will make you a better person. Officially.
1.5. A random effect produces the result that least benefits the owner of the source of the effect.
1.6. Each player plays two games (one match) against each other player.
2. Tournament Rules
2.1. Players submit their decks to the 2CB moderator.
2.2. Decks are subject to some restrictions.
2.3. Points determine tournament standings.
2.5. The player with the most PotM points over the course of a month is the Player of the Month. 2.5c. Each week, .5 PotM points will be given to the deck deemed most creative and original.
2.5d. Each week, after the grid is posted, the first player to able to post a deck that can successfully go 6-0 over every deck in the grid will also receive 1 PotM point.
November 2011- ???
11/11/11-???
Batman 1 Week Special- WhamWhamme
October (Batman) 2011- VikingMetal4L
10/28/11 (Joker Week)- VikingMetal4L
10/21/11 (Mr. Freeze Week)- Antonia
10/15/11 (BANE Week)- DragonDart
10/9/11 (Two-Face Week)- Feyd_Ruin
September 2011- VikingMetal4L
9/30/11 (Innistrad Week)- Benbuzz790
9/23/11 (Normal Week)- Personman
9/16/11 (Normal Week)- VikingMetal4L
Decks:
1 Heart of Draco- King Nothing
Elixir of Immortality / Felidar Sovereign
An alternate win was cool, as was strong lifegain and recursion, but I lose to tokens and Shortfang...a bad plan.
2 Error1- R(one) and Hydra!
Molten Hydra / Rock Hydra
Rock Hydra was essentially 11 ones on a warm body. It only really came up twice or so. Molten on teh other hand might actually be a legitimate 2CB card. Made me laugh though.
3 Some One- Sour Flower
Bitterblossom / Bitterblossom
This would have been alright, but but starting at 11 and using 2 cards that kill you almost as fast as you kill them was not the correct decision. Hope to see another shot next week.
4 Draco9- There Can Only Be One!*
Squandered Resources / Door to Nothingness
Squandered Resources was a Legitimate ramp card, but I think Emploration would have been a strictly better (though I'm not sure that came up) choice. The fast, alternate kill would have been great were it not for a bit of counter and discard.
5 WhammWhamme- Why Mess With a Winning Formula?*
Syncopate / Lich Lord of Unx
Because you'll end up with an ok score instead of a winning one. Good choices though. Syncopate worked well, and the exile part came up more than once. The life loss was effective this week.
6 Benbuzz790- Dirty Rat
Nezumi Shortfang / Plaguespitter
Great choices. You shut down tokens and hands, and there wasn't much else there this week. Congrats!
7 LSK- Long Walk on the Beast
Time Walk / Anurid Scavenger
This combo is starting to irk me, as there are few weeks it doesn't work for. 3rd isn't exactly dominating, but you make a point for a plausible ban.
8 VikingMetal4L- Antipoke Angel
Elixir of Immortality / Guardian Seraph
Very techy choice. You prettymuch only beat "dumb aggro" and token decks, but I have to compliment your rules use in this deck. You also received the creativity bonus (though I don't like giving to the 2 time champ, you earned it by thinking this deck out).
9 Feyd_Ruin- Whichipate? Not Datipate.
Dissipate / Inkmoth Nexus
Good way of implementing both the recent counter-bans and the land rule. Like Syncopate, Dissipate's exile clause makes it better in a format with heavy recursion themes.
10 Antonia- Don't Mourn For Target Permanent.
Vindicate / Nezumi Shortfang
Handling both the field and the hand was hard to beat for most decks. The one drawback to this deck was no second threat.
11 Shogun17- Shogun's Thematically Appropriate Pet Deck
Exploration / Beacon of Creation
Your pet deck might not be around much longer, as that card is almost as bad as RSZ, being recurrable and scaling all at once.
12 TANE- Still Alive
Pestilence / Stillmoon Cavelier
I liked this deck (I have a pauper deck based around this theme with Order of Leitbur), but it was just too slow. The deck I thought it would simply ace (tokens) even beat it by just going faster. The protection came up a couple times though. You get a bonus for the construction though.
13 DragonDart- Beacon of Negation
Negate / Beacon of Creation
Good take on the token theme. The biggest use for this was against all in decks and as a counter-counter, and it was marginally more effective than the speedy tokens build.
14 Personman- Hesitation and Nezumi Shortfang.dec
Hesitation / Nezumi Shortfang
It was amusingly sinister to watch people have to tap out for one spell, only to lose the other to discard. I don't thing Hesitation is a great card, but this was a good home for it.
15 Thundersnow- Redundent Master
Transcendent Master / Transcendent Master
I can't say a slow fatty was good when it only does 1 damage, but I'd really like to see this card in a normal week. Also, if something beats your card, and you include two of the same, it beats your deck. Food for thought.
THE GRID: (coming sometime soonish)
X | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
1 | X 6 6 0 0 6 0 6 0 0 2 6 0 0 6 38 2.7
2 | 0 X 6 0 6 2 0 0 2 2 0 6 0 4 2 30 2.1
3 | 0 0 X 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 06 0.4
4 | 6 6 6 X 6 0 0 6 0 0 0 6 0 1 6 43 3.1
5 | 6 0 6 0 X 2 2 6 2 2 0 6 0 2 6 40 2.9
6 | 0 2 6 6 2 X 2 0 6 2 6 6 6 4 6 54 3.9
7 | 6 6 6 6 2 2 X 6 0 2 2 6 4 2 4 54 3.9
8 | 0 6 6 0 0 6 0 X 0 2 6 2 6 0 6 40 2.9
9 | 6 2 0 6 2 0 6 6 X 1 2 6 0 2 6 45 3.2
0 | 2 2 6 6 2 2 2 2 4 X 2 6 6 4 6 52 3.7
1 | 6 6 6 6 6 0 2 0 2 2 X 6 2 2 6 52 3.7
2 | 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 X 0 0 4 12 0.9
3 | 6 6 6 6 6 0 1 0 6 0 2 6 X 0 6 51 3.6
4 | 6 1 6 4 2 1 2 6 2 1 2 6 6 X 6 51 3.6
5 | 0 2 6 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 X 10 0.7
Benbuzz790 and LSK are #1 on 11/11/11 week!
This Weeks's Standings:
Benbuzz790.........54 3.9
LSK....................54 3.9
Antonia...............52 3.7
Shogun17............52 3.7
DragonDart..........51 3.6
Personman...........51 3.6
Feyd_Ruin............45 3.2
Draco9................43 3.1
WhammWhamme...40 2.9
VikingMetal4L.......40 2.9
Heart of Draco......38 2.7
Error1.................30 2.1
TANE..................12 0.9
Some One.............6 0.4
Ones:
Error1.................21! (Way to live up to your name!)
Thundersnow.......10
Some One............8
Benbuzz790..........7
Personman...........6
Antonia...............6
Feyd_Ruin............5
TANE..................4
WhammWhamme...3
DragonDart...........3
VikingMetal4L........2
Shogun17.............2
Heart of Draco.......1
Draco9.................1 (I guess both Dracos wanted to go for the Meta-One)
LSK......................1
Error1 gets the Bonus point for not only beating out everyone, but beating out any 2 other people. If you add up the 8 lowest out of 15, they add up to 17...which is still 4 points short. In fact, his card with fewer ones would have tied for first by itself.
Card Frequencies:
Nezumi Shortfang: 3
Elixir of Immortality: 2
Beacon of Creation: 2
Bitterblossom x2
Transcendent Master x2
POTM- November
Benbuzz790.........4.4
LSK....................3.9
Antonia...............3.7
DragonDart..........3.6
Personman...........3.6
Feyd_Ruin............3.5
Shogun17............3.4
Draco9................3.2
Error1.................3.1
VikingMetal4L.......3.4
WhammWhamme...2.9
Heart of Draco......2.7
TANE..................1.4
Some One............0.4
Next Week is Normal Week With The Exception of Using Draco9's Land Rule Week
Note: You draw on your first turn even when on the play.
This essentially negates the Extra Land Rule, as both lands from outside the game and in your deck would both be from your hand. This is instead of the land rules normally used. Please post any other questions you might have.
Md5: 34d8b7cfbc61d52e08f1d9e3d767e832
Last Week:
King Nothing
Notes:
Time Walk, Beacon of Creation, and Nezumi Shortfang are next on the chopping block. A poll is going up to see what people think about them.
Simian Spirit Guide and Manaforge Cinder were cards I really wanted to include. They would have been good in your deck.
Been playing for what, a month? I see 2 blind wins if I'm not mistaken.
Yep!
The latter.
EDIT:
You draw a card even if you go first.
You know...I never clarified this.
Because I never thought of it.
Umm.....
I don't care. Sure, have points.
Wait, I thought Yanni wanted adopted children.
You need good-ol'-fashion Orphan Meat to make a Meat Dragon.
Yep. That's a 2-2.
Nice!
I thought the Yanni/Seppel/Manders chat room that in no way related to the game was funny, but Gigas's cage full of ghosts was hilarious.
Shogun's got it. There are 2 separate abilities as play. They are synergistic, but unrelated. The first one stops permanents from untapping for a turn after they become tapped. The second taps them; it can target a tapped permanent, and will resolve, but will have no net effect (like an exchange effect after one target is no longer legal: the effect resolves, but nothing happens).