Fun suggestion for we deck builders

[Resonantg]

I was just thinking, wouldn't it be fun to kinda do a thread here and there of picking a deck theme and then see what people can develop for that theme here? Then we can all download them, play them and rate them or vote on our favorites? Kinda like a good natured contest. It's been dead around here and this could just be a fun little extra for us.

what do you think guys?

[Beached As]

Sounds like fun, i'm in

[Chris H.]

Yeah, and you never know when someone might come up with a deck idea that could be used by the AI in quest mode.

[slowe]

That's a pretty fantastic idea! I don't think I'll be too good at this, but it sounds fun anyway
Any ideas for the first theme? A few off the top of my head: landfall, five color, abusing Eldrazi...

[KingMob]

I'd like to see one where the goal is to get out as many planeswalkers as possible.

[Chris H.]

Some of the landfall cards would be perfect for a theme type deck. I was thinking black and white. I have not had a chance to design the full deck. It is just an idea at this moment.

I like planeswalkers too. Some of them have abilities that are duplicated by other cards in forge. This can lead to a theme style deck that would be fun for us to play and also provide an interesting deck to play against in quest mode.

Some theme decks are just silly but these can still be fun to play against. Look at the pirate theme deck that I created for quest mode. If I took that deck to a friday night magic event, everyone would break out laughing … it would be a good joke … not sure if I would win too many games with it though.

[Resonantg]

Well cool!

With your permission oh ye board in charge of this, here's a sketch of what I'm suggesting. It's based on something I used to participate in with an artwork site back a few years.

1. Create the current monthly challenge thread. This would define the challenge parameters of the deck theme that month.

2. All decks would be posted to this thread for everyone to download throughout the month as they come available. All eligible decks must meet all criterion of the challenge. Those that don't are ineligible.

3. At the end of the month, we give one week for doing final judging so those who came in late can get a chance to be reviewed by the voters.

4. On say the third week of the month, we put up a voting thread and everyone casts their vote for their top three. Three points for their favorite, two for their second and one for their last fave. They cannot vote for their own creation. After say 3 days, we close voting and tally up who won.

5. The winner gets bragging rights, and gets to choose the theme for the following month.

If monthly is too fast, well, we can do bi-monthly or quarterly.

So that's the outline of how I propose we work this thing. If the powers that be wish to enhance or just not be involved, fine unt dandy as far as I'm concerned.

Concepts for challenge themes that I see are as follows:

Subject Challenge: You must do a deck based on a subject or topic like Food, Sky, Plants, Towns, Love or who knows what. It must not be a specific type of card or style of play. The decks may suck functionally, but that's not the point. They must be playable though.

Kill Type Challenge: You must create a deck that kills through a specific type. Poison counters, creatures, enchantments, instants... whatever.

Card Challenge: You must have 4 of a specific card in your deck. Sort of the Iron Chef of Forge. For instance, you must have a deck with the Rack, or Hymn to Tourach or Utopia Trees... something like that. The goofier more lame the card, often the more interesting.

Color challenge: Pick the colors and rock with it.

But these are just samples of what I can see as options to consider. Looking forward to the Holiday challenges. LOL

[Chris H.]

I do not think that anyone would mind if you took on the leadership role.

Granted, there are only about 100 to 200 people who download forge from our forum, most of these people tend not to participate. They download forge and move on. The members of the dev team are pretty busy with dev work and may or may not submit a deck to the contest. I will try to add some of these decks to the quest mode if they are playable by the AI.

We may not see more than a deck or three submitted for the first contest. As such, might want to start this off with reasonable expectations. You could consider keeping the rules, theme, deadline flexible to start with and if people show an interest then things can change to meet the needs and desires of the group.

There is also another thing to consider. With the recent release of the new fantasy quest mode, our user base could be preoccupied with play testing. You may see more interest in a deck design contest once the "newness" factor wears off.

[Resonantg]

All right. I'll pick up the mantle for a little while and see how things go.

I also considered it and think a bi-monthly contest is probably better off. give 6 weeks to build and submit, and 2 weeks to vote.

I don't expect much, but would hope for 5-10 if we make the deadline the end of the second week of July, and end voting by July 31st.

If you on staff have any suggestions on things that could help you, that'd be great.

I'll post a beginning thread before the weekend is out and if we can pimp this on the blog a little bit, that'd be great too.

[Chris H.]

All right. I'll pick up the mantle for a little while and see how things go.

I also considered it and think a bi-monthly contest is probably better off. give 6 weeks to build and submit, and 2 weeks to vote.

I don't expect much, but would hope for 5-10 if we make the deadline the end of the second week of July, and end voting by July 31st.

If you on staff have any suggestions on things that could help you, that'd be great.

I'll post a beginning thread before the weekend is out and if we can pimp this on the blog a little bit, that'd be great too.

`


Yeah, we will keep our fingers crossed. You may want to put a link to this topic in the beta release topic for each new version. This could help to direct a few of the download forge from the forum.

The lurkers tend to find the beta release topics but may not want to read all of the various messages that the rest of us post. A link that they can click on could help to guide them here.

[Resonantg]

Sorry I didn't understand the statement of "putting a link to this topic to the beta release topic of each new version".

Okay, so it's also monday. Creating the contest now. LOL

[Chris H.]

Sorry I didn't understand the statement of "putting a link to this topic to the beta release topic of each new version".

Okay, so it's also monday. Creating the contest now. LOL

`
I could have worded that better ... I do not multi-task very well.

I saw the contest messages and was impressed. Good job.

[Resonantg]

I rememberd now to set up an alert when people respond to the contest thread so I keep track and don't forget. You're welcome and thanks for the compliment. I 'researched' this method from elsewhere and it had great support there as well.