Dice Masters Organised Play

I am getting our very first OP kits for Dice Masters tomorrow...

We will be starting with Age of Apocalypse this Sunday at Gambit Games, the time of the event will depend on how many Dice Masters players will be attending the day in general so on this occasion it will need to be arranged on the day.

Every player will get 'Magneto: Heir to the Dream Limited Edition Card', the event winner will get 'Apocalypse: Earth-295 Limited Edition Card' and second place will get 'Beast: Nefarious Geneticist Limited Edition Card'

The format for the event will be constructed ...

Swiss format with 3 matches per round (minimum 45 min limit per round)

Each player starts with 20 life.

Teams are built to the following specifications:

• 2 different Basic Action cards (with Basic Action Dice)
• Up to 8 Character and/or Action cards with up to 20 corresponding dice
• Players may bring any mix of characters and actions (except Basic actions)
• Players may mix team affiliations, heroes/villains, etc. 
• As per standard rules, players may not have more than one Character/Action card with the same title on it, even if the cards have different subtitles. 
• Players may not have more dice on a card than its listed MAX value.
• Players may bring less than 8 cards/20 dice if they choose, however each card on a Team must have at least one die assigned to it. 

Each player will need a dice bag and 8 basic sidekick dice to be able to play!

There will be an additional £2 entry fee on top of the normal Gambit Entry fee to cover costs of the prize kit. Players do not need to preregister for this event, but can express there interest to play on the day. The number of rounds will depend on the amount of players we have.

FNM Prizes

This year I have moved the location of the Friday MTG events to the Riyal British Legion and as well as be better for most players travel arrangement and much closer to the shop, it will also have an effect of the prize pool.

The high rent costs have meant that our prizes have been static at 2 boosters and promo card for the winner and 1 booster for second and a promo card for second. This has now changed and will be directly connected to the attendance. The follow will apply to all FNM events being held at the Legion....

Up to 8 player - 2 for first and 1 for second.
9 or 10 players - 2 for first and 1 for second and 1 for third.
11 or 12 players - 3 for first, 1 for second and 1 for third.
13 or 14 players - 3 for first, 2 for second and 1 for third.
15 or 16 players - 3 for first, 2 for second and 1 for third and 1 for fourth.
17 or 18 players - 4 for first, 2 for second, 1 for third and 1 for fourth.
20+ players - 4 for first, 3 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth.

If we get to more than 24 players the prize pool will be decided at the event.

Buddyfight Sneak Peak

On either Friday of this week or Tuesday of next week we will be running a sneak peak for the next Buddyfight release. This event will be limited to a maximum of 8 players.

Booster Draft Explanation

Booster Draft is a method of play where players have no cards to begin with. They are required to
have 6 Future Card Buddyfight Booster Packs per player, at the moment of play.
Players then open 1 pack at a time, choose a card they would like to put in their deck in a
predetermined order (this is known as the “draft”), and then the decks are built right then and
there!
With this unique style, players get to experience the thrill of drawing and selecting cards, along with
the joy of playing with a different deck each time!

Requirements

1. Played with 2 or more players (Recommended 8 players for maximum fun!)
2. Each player will require 6 Future Card Buddyfight Booster Packs

Deck Building and Special Rulings

1. Players will build a deck consisting of 30 cards (29 cards + 1 buddy card chosen by you)
2. Players are not required to have a flag card
3. Players life points will start at 10
4. Players with no cards in the deck zone will automatically lose the game
5. Players will draw 6 cards into their hand at the start as per normal
6. World restriction does not apply to the Booster Draft deck construction (i.e. you may have a
Dragon World monster and a Magic World monster in your deck)
7. Attributes still work as per normal
8. Standard game rules apply, except you may have more than 4 copies of the same card in
your deck

Rules

1. Decide on the seating arrangement around the table with a random method.
2. Each person will then proceed to open one of their booster packs and check the cards in the pack
3. Players will now choose 1 card and place it face down in front of you.
4. Once all players have chosen one card and placed it in front of them, pass the remainingcards to person on their left (clockwise direction)
5. From the remaining cards handed over, players will then choose another card and add it to the face down card in front of them
6. Once the cards have been given out, open the next booster pack
7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 until the first 3 booster packs have been disseminated 8. Between the third and fourth booster pack, players are encourage to look at what they have drawn thus far in order to plan what other cards they should draw for the remaining few booster packs
9. Starting from the fourth booster pack, pass the cards that you did not draft to the player on the right instead (anti-clockwise direction)
10. Once all 6 packs have been opened and disseminated, the draft is over
11. Each player should ensure that they have 30 cards each and select their buddy from within their deck (Players will play with 29 cards in their deck)

Game Conditions

The basic rules of Future Card Buddyfight can be found here: http://fc-buddyfight.com/en/rules/
Each player gets to keep all cards that he/she drafted during the booster draft. If all participants
agree, they can redistribute the cards in another method.

Modern Banned List

Incase you missed the announcement Wizards have updated the banned lists, the big changes for KD Magic events will be the changes to Modern which are...

"Decks playing the powerful card drawers have been winning a lot, and pushing a lot of other decks down in competitive play. Blue-Red Delver decks, playing efficient creatures, card drawers, burn, and some permission spells have been the most successful. Also, decks focused on more burn, or combination decks using Jeskai Ascendancy, have done well. However, as these decks have occupied a large portion of the competitive metagame, the overall variety of successful decks has been suppressed. It is imbalanced enough that Wizards of the Coast has decided to act. In Modern, these cards are easy replacements for one another—while a Delver deck might use Treasure Cruise overDig Through Time, banning one but not the other would do little to change the deck. Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise are banned.

Over the past year, Birthing Pod decks have won significantly more Grand Prix than any other Modern decks and compose the largest percentage of the field. Each year, new powerful options are printed, most recently Siege Rhino. Over time, this creates a growing gap between the strength of the Pod deck and other creature decks. Pod won five of the twelve Grand Prix over the past year, including winning the last two. The high percentage of the field playing Pod suppresses decks, especially other creature decks, that have an unfavorable matchup. In the interest of supporting a diverse format, Birthing Pod is banned.

When cards are banned from a format, Wizards investigates whether there is a banned card that, if not banned, might add new decks to competitive play. We look for cards that are unlikely to add power to existing top decks, but instead add new strategies or augment decks that are not currently as successful. Golgari Grave-Troll is very powerful in a deck based on getting a lot of cards into its graveyard. Replacing a card draw with dredge 6 is a terrific rate. However, that type of deck has not been as successful in Modern tournaments recently. While taking such a card off the banned list has some risks, this is a good time to see what happens. Golgari Grave-Troll is no longer banned."

Stand out Cards

Following a weekend of prerelease tournaments here are a couple of the cards that stand out to me, that I think will get played in standard very soon:

The mana cost may be have double red which could be a slight issue, but this card is simply great. It's like Chandra's Phoenix, but even though it is easily killable, as it comes back much more often and at a cheaper cost. Even if it dies on turn three after it has just been played (earlier with many decks) your opponents will have to stop you from playing a 4-power creature, which should be easy enough at some point in the next couple of turns, and all you need is for it to survive until your combat step and the Phoenix will be reborn.

I seemed to miss this card when I was looking at the gallery before the events. It seems a pretty good three drop for many decks. Yasova is a 4/2 trample for three, which is ok, not amazing but ok. However, stealing any creature with 3 or less power and attacking with is it is really good, and will lead to some very interesting turns (maybe as early as turn three with ramp?). Yasova triggers even the turn you play her, so she does not need to tap to use the ability making her good late game as well as an interesting threat early on. She is legendary, so you probably don't want to just run four, but playing a couple copies sounds like an excellent idea. What about using Boon Satyr, which I have not seen for a while making her a pretty aggressive card!

New Lords of War Mats in Stock

The new Lords of War playmats have arrived today. There is a design for both the Orc and Dwarf  armies. Playmats cost just £12 or 2 for £20. We also have stock of the Undead, Templar and Sepia mats which are in the same offer.

Prereleae Packs

A big thank you to A&B gaming for once again helping us to run MTG prerelease events! I have today picked up the boosters and special Ugin boosters ready for the weekend.

If you have not already booked a place then there is still time, but both events are filling up fast!