General Tournament Format and Rules

[jatill]

General Rules:
1) Deck name should be in the format "FORMAT_YOURNAME_DECKNAME"
example: EDH_aww1979_affinity
2) Use cards that are in the constructed version of manalink (i.e. Magic.exe).
3) The use of debug mode is banned.
4) Burning Wish, Cunning Wish, Living Wish, and Ring of Ma'Ruf are banned.

Elimination Format:
1) Players will be randomly placed into a certain number of groups. (like the world cup) The number and size of groups will vary depending upon the number of entries, but will likely be something like four groups of four. In each group, the two decks that score the highest will advance to round 2. In round 2, you will be paired with another winning deck, and the schedule will be worked out in advance, i.e. the 1st place winner of group A will play the 2nd place winner of group B, and so on.

2) For rounds 2 and on, all players will play both sides of a pairing in a best of 3 duel. For instance, if one pairing is Finkel and Budde, then *everyone* will play a best of 3 duel, once where they play with Finkel against an AI Budde, and once where they play with Budde against an AI Finkel. Once all players report their match results, I will determine who advances to the next round, and new brackets will be set up between the winners of the previous round. Other decks will be eliminated from the tournament, though all players may continue to test decks. This process continues until only two decks are left; they will play in the final, and the winner of this match wins the tournament.

Scoring:
-if you win the gauntlet with a 2-0 match score, the winning deck gets 2 points
-if you win the gauntlet with a 2-1 match score, the winning deck gets 1 point
-if you lose the gauntlet with a 1-2 match score, the AI deck gets 3 points
-if you lose the gauntlet with a 0-2 match score, the AI deck gets 5 points

Ties:
If there is a tie, the following criteria, in this order, will determine who wins a tie:
a) The person who won by the most points. For instance, if deck A wins 40-30 and deck B wins 40-39, deck A did better and advances
b) If (A) still results in a tie, then the higher score advances. If deck A wins 40-30 and deck B wins 30-20, then deck A advances.
c) If (A) and (B) still result in a tie, then apply the criteria for A and B to the previous round scores, if there was one, to break the tie. If that is a tie, go back to the next round, and so on.
d) If after all this there is still a tie, then I'll play a sudden death matchup between the decks.

Other:
-a minimum of 5 decks must be received or the tournament will be canceled (this has not yet been a problem)
-if a number of entries is received that is not a convenient number for dividing into groups (like 13 or 7 or something) I will at my discretion either give some byes out randomly and/or I will add some extra decks myself, but I will designate one (the one of mine I think is best) as the one that I can win prizes with; if a different one of my decks wins, I'll choose cards from the wishlist thread.

Reporting Games:
1) Please report games in the appropriate Tournament Results thread.
2) You MUST play best of 3 matches; best of 1 or best of 5 reports will be IGNORED.
3) Feel free to include summaries if desired, but please put the scores somewhere very clearly on their own lines, like so:

Finkel defeats Budde AI 2-1 (Finkel +1 pts)
Budde defeats Finkel AI 2-0 (Budde +2 pts)

[Cognis]

I didn't know where to put this but I though we should really make one topic where all the tournament standings would be for all the tournaments,the decks could be downloaded, etc.

[aww1979]

Have we ever made a ruling whether the astral cards can be used in tournaments? Nobody has ever submitted a deck with one yet, but I was just curious. While several of them are rather useless, a few might have limited use, like Gem Bazaar.

[jatill]

Have we ever made a ruling whether the astral cards can be used in tournaments? Nobody has ever submitted a deck with one yet, but I was just curious. While several of them are rather useless, a few might have limited use, like Gem Bazaar.

I would say they should be included.

[Aswan jaguar]

Just a suggestion specially know we are using templates.Please put date/time to know what results-comments are new, to know what to read,since you are not warned that knew posts are made.I thought that no one played games last 2-3 days.