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Competitive Armies Discussion Discuss, critique, and build ideas for tournament-caliber armies.

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  #1  
Old July 25th, 2015, 07:25 AM
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For Which Game(s) and Scenario(s)?

When I first saw this section, I assumed that it was meant for pure AotP armies initially, with no combining of it with Heroscape. However, eventually it could contain threads on either or both, once we have some standard rules for combos (if we ever do--for now, I suspect several variations will become known, although I have to wait another week or two to get my game and join in).

AotP starts out with several scenarios for different combinations of players, and I understand only one uses the victory condition of killing the opposing Planeswalker. So recommending the best army would also have to be by scenario, I suppose--just as we usually do in Scape for Tournament Format and/or Army Point Cost.

Additionally the limit of having only one Planeswalker per player army is being immediately violated bu curious players who want to learn to use them all quickly; Tom Vassal in his game play video with his daughter starts right out with each of them taking two each!

So I guess the first thing to be established for each thread in this section will be whether you are playing AotP by itself or not, and which scenario you are preparing to suggest an army for...and even which AotP rules you are observing!

Allthough I myself won't be at GenCon 2015, its been pointed out that there is going to be an AotP event, with those who manage to get into it getting a game copy. What would a Planeswalker Arena Tournament format even be like?

It looks like there is plenty to discuss before we even get to suggesting specific armies. And nature abhors a vacuum, so I had to post here when I saw that 'NEVER' unposted status still showing on this last of the first sections to be set up in this new subforum!

And with only two squads provided so far per Planeswalker, is there enough variation in the base AotP game to discuss army variants within it, without combining it with Scape in some fashion?

What do you think?

Last edited by chas; July 25th, 2015 at 07:42 AM.
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  #2  
Old July 25th, 2015, 12:34 PM
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Re: For Which Game(s) and Scenario(s)?

Perhaps an 8 person event with a draft for which Planewalker you play.

I could see two sets of 4 - where you assigned folks into two brackets with one base set in each bracket. Play the other 3 players in your bracket (all different color PW's) - then a final show-down with the best record from each bracket for the winner.

During the final match, you could have the remaining 3 players from each bracket play a 3-player free for all.

If you followed this method, I'd recommend Heroscape maps instead of AotP maps - because you might not have enough 'paper' terrain for 4 maps.
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  #3  
Old July 26th, 2015, 01:02 AM
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Re: For Which Game(s) and Scenario(s)?

I would say that a tournament should simply be the base game, no changing with anything. The next step above that would be to allow up to 2 copies of any spell card in a given color, within the pt limits. Then 3 copies and so forth.

But I definitely would just like to see a tournament where everyone picks Planeswalker and just plays that. Either Round robin play or 2 loss play would do it.

Although it would be cool if the games are short enough to do it like a Magic tournament and have it be the best of 3 games.
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Old July 26th, 2015, 02:25 PM
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Re: For Which Game(s) and Scenario(s)?

For a new game ROLLOUT at a HUGE event like GenCon, I'm sure that WotC/Hasbro want as many people to play this game as possible in as little time as possible. Although it may be termed a "tournament" - I'll bet that anyone that pays for a 'ticket' (in order to receive their own copy of the game) will be allowed to participate. Therefore you are going have players with widely varying skill levels and familiarity with either or both Magic: The Gathering CCG and/or HeroScape's mechanics.

I suspect that for at least the first three days, this event will be more of a Demo than an actual Tourney as we know it. They will probably have four or maybe five players at each table with one PW each on a standard map with one of the volunteers teaching, moderating, and moving things along at a quick pace to accommodate the next group that's waiting in line. But that doesn't mean the winners of each session won't be invited back again later in the weekend to play against other winners to establish tiers and an ultimate victor. However who knows what other events each players has also committed to attend and whether they will prioritize showing up for another session of MtG:AotP when there's so much to see and do inside and around the convention center in Indy, IN.

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  #5  
Old July 29th, 2015, 10:02 AM
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Re: For Which Game(s) and Scenario(s)?

For tourneys, I like the Take 2 format. Bring 2 Planeswalker with matching color army/decks. Then dice off to see who takes first pick of the four. If two people bring the same planeswalker, only one may play it, but if there are different creatures/decks, then you still can choose so they are not thrown out at the start. Last round or two changes to you can only pick from your opponent's army/deck.

I do like kill the planeswalker scenario if just doing the fist master set units. We will see what expansions bring to the game, and then maybe change to kill the whole army.
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  #6  
Old July 29th, 2015, 04:41 PM
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Re: For Which Game(s) and Scenario(s)?

Drafting the units and spells would be very fun, but we'll need more expansions to do that.

Oops, rolled a 1.
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  #7  
Old July 29th, 2015, 04:59 PM
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Re: For Which Game(s) and Scenario(s)?

One of the most interesting things about theoretically building a deck of spells is the hard limit on the size of the deck - it MUST contain 12 cards, and can cost up to 200 points. Makes doubling up on the more expensive cards difficult. Having said that, some of the cheap spells are brutal when employed in a time effective manner. Unsummon for 10 as a way to make a squad temporarily disappear while killing any enchantments they had is something you'd be happy to have more than 1 of in a deck. If we ever have a spell cards ranking, I expect it to be an A-, minimum.

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  #8  
Old August 10th, 2015, 11:16 AM
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Re: For Which Game(s) and Scenario(s)?

I am thinking that since next Gencon would probably mark the first official tournament setting I would recommend these simple events:

Main tournament - Single Planeswalker

Two Headed Giant - Team game with 2 players.

Take 2 - Bring two different Planeswalkers, roll off and the loser chooses which Planeswalker his opponent plays, and then the winner chooses.

4x4 or 5x5 - This just could be fun where you bring all the Planeswalkers, and then choose the order with which you play them in a tournament. You play each one once.
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  #9  
Old August 10th, 2015, 06:30 PM
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Re: For Which Game(s) and Scenario(s)?

I think that the Conquest format is the ideal tournament format and if I were running an AotP tournament, that would be what I would use.

Conquest- Both players select three colors for themselves. Before each game, players simultaneously select a color to play and then play a kill the planeswalker match. If a color wins, that color cannot be used in future games. The first player to win with all three of his colors wins the series.

As more colors are added to the game, there would be an added deck and army building component to the format; you would still only be allowed to have a color once.

I think this format works well because more games decreases the variance in an inherently high variance game. Plus, it's fun to play more games, and a standard amount of time for a tournament game is about an hour, and these series should take about an hour max.
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Old August 10th, 2015, 07:02 PM
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Clarify?

Quote:
Originally Posted by vegietarian18 View Post
I think that the Conquest format is the ideal tournament format and if I were running an AotP tournament, that would be what I would use.

Conquest- Both players select three colors for themselves. Before each game, players simultaneously select a color to play and then play a kill the planeswalker match. If a color wins, that color cannot be used in future games. The first player to win with all three of his colors wins the series.

As more colors are added to the game, there would be an added deck and army building component to the format; you would still only be allowed to have a color once.

I think this format works well because more games decreases the variance in an inherently high variance game. Plus, it's fun to play more games, and a standard amount of time for a tournament game is about an hour, and these series should take about an hour max.
So what are we defining as colors? Magic doesn't have any additional colors outside of the five in AotP (well colorless but if a colorless Planeswalker exists they are not famous). I mean there are plenty of multi colored Planeswalkers and decks (blue/black is a favorite of mine) so I am not sure how you're delineating the differences here.

~Dysole, making a rainbow connection
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  #11  
Old August 10th, 2015, 07:33 PM
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Re: For Which Game(s) and Scenario(s)?

Um, Red, Blue, Black, White, and Green are the colors? If the game adds multi-colored Planeswalkers, I guess the solution would be to clarify that players must win once with each Planeswalker. Players would still only be able to use each color once, so if you had a Blue/Black Planeswalker, you could not use a Blue or Black Planeswalker as one of your other three armies. I don't anticipate seeing colorless Planeswalkers but I guess they would be another color.

Last edited by vegietarian18; August 10th, 2015 at 07:39 PM. Reason: I've never played MtG so I cannot really anticipate the future of this game in that sense
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Old August 10th, 2015, 07:39 PM
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Kewl

Okay, the "adds new colors" statement threw me.

~Dysole, noting this format would basically eliminate a four or five color planeswalker
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