Hosting Your Own Tournaments: A Different Way to Test

I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve got some new playtesting partners, local San Marcos kids. Having partners who are available as much as you’re interested and on short notice is a god send. Hopefully, you can tell I’m really reinvigorated right now.

These guys are fairly new to competition, mostly making it to Austin and San Antonio for FNM’s, but they are looking to qualify for the Tour so we’re speaking the same language. So, in addition, to the unfocused battling we’ve been doing, I’d like to organize a weekly or biweekly tournament (I’ll tell Kyle to come up from San Antonio), probably round robin until we get some more people involved. Proxies will be legal and encouraged no matter what format we’re working on. I wanna get these guys regularly thinking about winning matches, preparing for it, making choices with that end (as opposed to card availability).

I’d like some kind of low-to-no-cost/high-incentive prize to add a little juice to the proceedings. any ideas? any input in general? let me know in the comments.

also look forward to plenty of material to come out of these nights once they get rolling. and if you’re in the area, let me know if you’re interested.

2-ofs a kind…What Funny Card Counts Have to Do with Winning.

Just had a quick idea, an addendum really to the brewing I’ve been doing lately and the reactions I anticipate from readers bamboozled by the density of singletons and two-ofs in the lists. Now, everything I’m about to say has nothing to do with the fact that I have no compunction about weird numbers in decklists I actually register. I am not about to make the case for this, even though I think there are many compelling psychological, mathematical, and strategic arguments.