Subject: All heck breaks loose Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 15:10:22 PDT From: "Kent Kelly" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com [ STRATEGY / MISCELLANEOUS ] The Excellence of Orthodoxy Hi Frank and everyone, I have been a passive observer of the Dojo environs for several months now. While I try to refrain from getting mired in the myriad political aspects of the game, I am intensely interested in deck design, card analysis, mana curves, tech discussions, etc. I have compiled a database that helps me to track which cards are currently "hot" in the environment, and have found to my dismay that there is a core of about 190 cards (pre-Exodus) that make up over 50% of the total non-basic-land cards being used in all posted elite decks! These select "instruments of destruction" need not necessarily be deemed "broken" (the #1 card in the anaylsis of 92 decks during April-June, for example, was Disenchant), but they are obviously the "best of breed" power cards that are being used to the exclusion of other similar cards due simply to their maximum efficiency. This is, I believe, an unavoidable reality of the Type II scene - the "adapt or die" mentality is compounded by the "use the best, cull the rest" credo that is necessary while building any cutting-edge deck. While understandable, this means that 90% of the eligible cards out there are being treated as chaff, or, at best, questionable alternatives, needed only when a specialized gameplay demand arises. Thus, variety suffers while the game rolls on, ruled only by the wonder-cards, the predictable few - thus, the "Excellence of Orthodoxy." I know that the Sealed Deck environment was created largely to counteract this situation, but truth be told, it is the constructed format that rules the day as far as ratings and deck technology are concerned. I adore constructed play. I feel it, perhaps in competition with the Solomon Draft, is the best test of a MTG player’s overall skills and inspired play finesse. But, I feel there is room for a new type of play, perhaps to fill the creativity void created by the degenerate Classic ("Ancestral Recall Sprint Rally") and Extended ("Thank God They Printed Reclaim") formats: the Experimental Point-Based Constructed Format (EPBCF). Once, way back when (1994, I believe it was), Wizards proposed a point system for rating cards. You would be given a certain number of points to build a deck, and off you go. Chaff cards would be rated at 0. As I recall, it was a total flop. Most likely, this was because of the idiocy of the ratings (Juzams and Time Walks, as I remember, were horifically underrated), and the lack of a 4-card limit on any card. What I would propose for this new system would be the following: (1) An analysis of all decks in every major event (Regionals, Nationals, PTQs, etc.). Cards would be rated by how many eligible decks were using the given card (if a white card, let us say Armageddon, was being used in 67% of all decks using white spells, it would be worth 6.7 points.) (2) Any card with a point value of 8.0 or higher would be temporarily Restricted. (3) Any card with a point value of 9.0 or higher would be brought to a vote, perhaps by a select panel, perhaps by a general controlled DCI vote, perhaps both these alternatives averaged together percentage-wise; cards voted to be "tossed" are Banned for 3 months, cards voted to be "acceptable" are Restricted for 3 months, whereafter a new vote is conducted. Three concurrent "Banned" votes would lead to a permanent Banned status from the environment. (4) A base rating of 0.0 would be applied to every card at the format’s inception. This would be a total invitation for players to point out the power cards. (5) The "maximum of 4 per card" rule would still stand. (6) All cards legal in Extended would be legal (at least at first). (What point level would be used to build a deck, is totally open to debate.) Obviously, point level ratings would have to change monthly, or at least quarterly, to keep up with current trends. EPBCF events would not count towards anyone’s DCI ratings for at least the first 6 months, since there would be wild swings in the point levels of all cards at first - cards with an obviously too-cheap rating would appear everywhere at the next event, which means that their point level would surge, causing them to be dropped later for suddenly-viable alternatives, and cards from any new set would need testing as well. Overpowered cards would become too expensive to use, leaving them dormant for awhile (or even Restricted). After a few insane months, cards would begin to stabilize to their "playable" value. Note that overpowered and underpowered cards could coexist in such an environment - if Shattering Pulse is rated at 7.8, and Shatter is at 4.5, both become viable. Admittedly, type II deck-tech would go out the window. But this would create an entirely new format in which people could show off their innovation and deckbuilding skills, using "inferior" cards to create killer combos, which would then be copied by the masses, causing the point values of the "bad" cards to soar, which means that new alternatives would have to be found. Creativity in card selection would be the ruler. Copiers of last month’s killer decks would get hosed. I know that this is going to bring howls of outrage from some. This is, I confess, a radical proposal, which I am throwing to the wolves just to see what happens. But if a new format could be instituted that showcases "alternate resource savvy," perhaps some true variety would finally flourish once again on the tournament circuit. Kent Kelly kent_kelly@hotmail.com ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com