Innistrad Draft Tournament!

Well, better later than never.  

Now that we've got a better schedule for Magic: The Gathering there's been a lot of talk of spells around here lately (not that it ever dips below a certain level).  Personally, it's gotten me more excited about playing cards, and I think I'm going to be doing a lot of random challenges on Game Day.  Plot to play Magic against me, as I'm going to try to take over the universe.  Just need to see more open dueling!

One of the reasons that it doesn't really matter that we are a few months late is that we sort of exist inside a strange "game bubble" that isn't necessarily "on the pulse" of each game we play's own publishing schedule.  The sheer amount of material and stuff we move through each season means we can't do everything as it's being done by the game manufacturers...for example, we'll be doing our first Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition campaign six months after it's released, assuming it's released this July (we do 40k in Quarter 1).  We're far out from any real sort of FLGS club, so there's not a lot of interaction with the "mainstream" as far these things go. 

It's not like we're restricted from learning about, obtaining or even gaming with a lot of products during the time they are being promoted by their manufacturer.  It's just that we're literally so busy with everything else going on that some of these things are obtained by the club, only to be used months later.  We have this stuff all around us, for all game systems, waiting for the seasons to roll back around until they are needed / constructed / painted / repaired.  Magic: The Gathering is no exception to this:  a few of us might get some of the new cards from each set as they are published, but don't actually play with them for months.  Every time.

I guess there's a time and a place for everything.  In fact, that's kinda been our de facto motto this whole time.  Meaning there will literally be a time and a place for everything we want to do.  

As a result of this "delay effect", during each of our drafts there have been many players have never seen these spells before, or even heard of the expansion.  Such was the case with Innistrad, as we only had 2 players during the draft who'd had experience with drafting this expansion.  You might be surprised to hear those of us with more knowledge averaged on the low end of the winning players.

Most of our players are novices who've only been playing drafts with us.  We've had a formal Constructed tournament, but not really a day given to open dueling.  To that end, I'm going to have to play Magic every game day.  Really.  So make sure you bring a deck, since you will end up needing it at some point.  Maybe not this weekend, maybe not next, but rest assured YOU WILL be brought to task!  MOAR DOOLZ.  Period.

So, what about the Innistrad draft itself?  Very smooth this time, with double-faced cards causing the appropriate amount of confusion when distributed to gamers who've never heard of them.  Everyone was quite eager to get new spells, and I can't wait to see some of the Modern decks these cards will give rise to.

The most popular colors this time were white and green, which everyone seemed to be drafting.  A few guys drafted red or black, but blue was left in the pile almost every time.  I don't think anyone fielded a deck with blue in it at all, even a splash.  (*Correction: Both Jerry and Chris drafted blue, and Chris even beat me with an Undead Alchemist*)

The breakout card from our draft has to be Mikaeus, the Lunarch.  Newcomer Chris hadn't even heard of the expansion, though he's familiar with the current Magic rules from his PS3 (or whatever video box it is).  He won two of his three matches, along with McNutt, Greg and Jerry!

Don't worry Mark, that's just my leg.

Captain Video also got a Lilliana of the Veil, and he was the big winner Sunday winning all three matches!  I don't know if that was his breakout card, but it seems suspicious to me!  I concede I might be biased there, because I had only won one match out of three.  Only one, and I had gone in with full knowledge of the set and even having a few drafts under my belt!

So there's not any more confusion on dates, I just need to reiterate the following event days for Magic.  We'll probably review this every few months, just to make sure everyone's listening!  If it becomes an issue, I might put a permanent Magic page on the site for upcoming events.  Anyways, the next several month event schedule currently appears as thus:

• May 6 - Dark Ascension Booster Draft (limited signup)
• June 3 - Avacyn Restored Booster Draft (limited signup)
• July 1 - Modern Constructed Tournament
• August 5 - M13 Booster Draft (limited signup)
• September 2 -  Modern Constructed Tournament

For those with limited signups, make sure your name is on the list at the Wargate when we ask!  They fill up quick, so you'll want to make sure you're around when we announce these things.  It's first come, first serve, and I can't wait for everyone to be there all the time.  For Mr. Keiner, I apologize about Sunday - but I'm putting you on the Avacyn Restored list as soon as I announce it!

Just a few more things.  Many, many  thanks to contributors this week!  We've done a lot of things with your monies, including buying a resin village to stab each other in, awesome wagons to ambush, and we're getting several new shelving units to enhance our space around the gaming area.  So, special thanks again to Jerry, Mcnutt, Uncle Mark and Shaunny Shaun Shaun Shaun Anderson Andrews.  You guys are helping make us AWESOME.

Also, if you want a new 2012 Wargate T-shirt, we'll be ordering them the week after the 15th of April!  If you want one, talk with me sometime betwixt then and now.

More to come tomorrow!

The Search for the Dragon Sword!

Lots of stuff this week, going to try to keep up with the demanding schedule!  Many apologies for not posting more last month, but I'll try to make it up this week!

The schedule 2 campaign this year has prizes!  If you weren't already in the know, there winner will get a new unit or two, so Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game might even have more players next year - but that's next year.  What about now?  Check out the new campaign page!

This campaign centers around Sauron's search for a mystical artifact, the Dragon Sword.  The Forces of Good are attempting to break the concentrations of the Enemy's followers before their evil plan can come to fruition.  There are some slight anachronisms (certain members of the Fellowship, maybe?) but overall our campaign is entirely within the mythos, and remember - at the Wargate, no canon is sacred.  It's entirely possible in our "reality" the Dark Lord wins the War of the Ring.  Unsettling, to say the least.

This campaign is very similar to our last Schedule 1 campaign (Horrendous Hordes) in that it's an "attack" campaign.  This time it's good-guys on the attack and the evil players are defending their camps and dig sites.  One other neat feature is that there aren't actual "Attack Rounds", but any game can be fought at any time.  Though it's up to the players to decide, it's probably a good idea for each good player to get 5 of the expeditions, unless a player can't get all his games.

We're trying a new system to promote team battles also.  At the end of the campaign, players will have their personal Influence scores, but those will be compared to the total number of objectives scored by each respective side.  The total team win score will be the adjusted totals of all players on a team.  Therefore, the teams will be more closely linked this time.  If one of your team mates fails or is destroyed, you can be the entire alliance will feel it.

Dragon Sword will also let us see some brand new armies here at the Wargate!  If you're in the game, get a warband painted so we can showcase a bit of your force this season.  Remember, this time you're fighting for something real - namely a set of new models for your army!

Death on the Eerie Downs Commences!

Whew!  Long time between posts, and I've really been feeling it.  I was finally able to get some work done, I think I'm still a few days late to this...but our Mordheim campaign is kicking off today (among many other things)!

This season we're introducing a new version of the rulebook (2.1) and the material from the Empire in Flames expansion!  This doesn't change a lot of the basic rules, but a lot more options have been added.  There's a lot of breadth to Mordheim, and we're going to be adding new stuff every year.

That means that this season we're adding a lot of new stuff to our fantasy skirmish game.  Some rules are being adopted as official, and there's a huge list of available warbands and hired swords on the campaign page.  I imagine a lot of us aren't fully familiar with all of the options, so make sure you check them out - you might find yourself with a new project next year!

There are a few neat scenarios that are going to come up, but Upon the Downs will surely be a hated ordeal.  We're getting a bunch of new items that will allow us to play a lot of the more interesting scenarios from Empire in Flames, such as the Stagecoach Ambush.  New and more interesting terrain will be on the table, so get those warbands painted up so we can showcase them!

The game is going to last at least 1 round robin round, so start your games as soon as you can!  We'll be updating the campaign page with more information on the warbands and the campaign leaderboard later this week.  Stake your claim to the treasure on the Eerie Downs now!