WittCon X: March 23, 2013

WittCon X is coming to town in two months!

We're going to follow the usual pattern of doing the first session as a constructed event followed by a sealed event in the second session!  The first session is 10:30am to 2:30pm.  The second session is 2:45pm to 6:45pm.

Last year we had two people build decks for the constructed part of the tournament.  (Thanks, Aaron, for not leaving me in the dust!)  This year we're going to change it up a bit and make this an EDH/Commander tournament that way the decks are not just one-time deals.  I sincerely hope this will bring in more people!


We are still going to alter the play structure, however, so that the games are not just free-for-all chaos games.  We'll play a different format based on the number of people we have.  If we have

• 2 people, we'll just have duels.  Gosh, I hope this isn't the case!
• 3 people, we'll play 3-player cutthroat games.  This means that whenever you attack, you attack both opponents.  They can "team"-block as they see fit and whatever damage gets through is dealt to both of the defending players.  (For the purposes of cards like Scroll Thief and commander damage, the attacker chooses which opponent is actually being damaged.)
• 4 people, we'll play two-headed-giant (2HG) games.
• 5 people, we'll play cutthroat-star games.  In this variant of cutthroat (or variant of star) your two opponents are the players across from you.  If they die, you leave the game (on a positive note, having beaten them).
• 6 people, we'll either play emperor or cutthroat with three two-headed-giants.
• 7 people, we'll have one cutthroat game and one 2HG game going simultaneously.
• 8 people, we'll have two 2HG games simultaneously.
• 9 people, we'll have one 2HG game going and one star-cutthroat game.  (Or, possibly, three 3-player cutthroat games.
• 10 people, we'll have two cutthroat-star games.
• 11 people (I wish) we'll have one 5-player and one 6-player game going.
• 12 people (this will never happen) we'll have three 2HG games going.
• ... I'll make something up following a similar pattern.

I know this may not be as fun as your usual huge chaos game of Commander, but there are two very good reasons for doing this:

• we always try to mix it up... even more than usual for WittCon.  (Okay, this is a terrible reason.)
• It would be nice to play more than 1.7 rounds in 4 hours.

"How will scoring work?" you might be asking.  Very simple: outlast your opponents.  (Actively trying to kill them will help!)  Okay, so it's a bit more complicated.  There are three important parts to this:

• Base Points: Each round will be worth the same number of base points.  For example, if there is a star game, then whomever wins that round earns 4 points.  Whomever comes in second earns 3, then, 2, then 1, then 0.  (If two people tie, they split the points.  Thus, if they tie for second (and third) place, they split the 3+2 points so they each get 2.5.)  In a 2-team game (regular 2HG or duel), the winning team gets 1 point, the losing team gets 0.  With three teams (cutthroat) it's 2-1-0.  Not terribly complicated.
   
• Even-it-out Multiplier: "But what if there are uneven numbers, like with 7 people and we have one 2-team game and one 3-team game?"  That is the only sort of case where this part matters.  In one of those cases, you multiply your score by the maximum number of base points in the game you weren't a part of.  Thus, the players from the 2-team game would multiply their score by 3 and those from the 3-team game would multiply their score by 2.
   
• Round Multiplier: In order to make the latter rounds more exciting, those games will be worth more points.  For the first round, the multiplier will be 3.  For the second, the multiplier will be 4.  Then 5 and 6 (if we get that many rounds).  Just multiply that your score for the game by that multiplier and you've got it. :)

Examples!  If there are 5 total people and you come in (in this order): 2nd, 5th, 1st, then you get a total of: (3 x 3) + (0 x 4) + (4 x 5) = 29 points.  If there are 7 people and three rounds and you win the first 2HG then come in 2nd in the second cutthroat then win the third cutthroat, you get a total of: (1 x 2 x 3) + (1 x 1 x 4) + (2 x 1 x 5) = 20 points.  (These last ones are of the form (Base x "Even it out" x Round).)

We'll set up each round so that the players with highest current point totals are playing in the same game.

Important Question For You:

It would be great to keep these rounds to an hour each. What should the life-point totals be for multi-team games to make this a bit more reasonable?  Perhaps 26 life for a cutthroat game and 20 for star?  Let me know in the comments!

Final note: if you are coming please please please follow the deck construction rules for commander.  Seriously.  They might change between now and WittCon, so pay attention!

See you there! :)