I likely just need to make a concrete rule in regards to it. Borrowing the "your deck must win against a deck with four blank cards" rule allows for Cry to be fine, but also then allows for creatureless Therapy, which I think no one wants allowed. Well, Therapy would probably just be banned at that point (and isn't in the format anyway), but you get the idea.

Round 8
Due Wed. 12/17 @ 5pm PST.

The deadline will always be on Wednesdays at 5pm PST from now on, whether I announce the round or not. I won't issue any bans without both discussion and warning, so feel free to submit yours decks as soon as the previous round goes live.

Congrats to Heinsun for winning round 7! Still a little over 24 hours left to submit for round 8.

Round 8 Spreadsheet

On a number of occasions during the run of this game, I've had to tell people that Karn doesn't qualify as a win-condition. I'd like to repeal this ruling and get rid of the rule that forces a player to submit a deck that wins against a deck of blank cards. I don't actually think anyone will intend on submitting something that aims at causing ties, and I'll gladly inform players if their deck doesn't actually work. The player who submitted a Karn deck this round hasn't responded to my message, so I'm leaving that deck out until some feedback comes in.

Scoring this round left to right was heartbreaking. Things looked so good... 6, 6, 6, then in the next two rounds my opponents had scored 0 and 1 respectively. Well, both of those were wrong (should be 2s)... then I score the last 3 matches. Zero, zero, zero. Ow.

I may well wind up having 6-0d the #1 and #2 finishers, but will finish off the podium.

2.5 hours left for submissions! Busy holidays are busy!

Update: I've made three updates to the rules to help with future clarity. If you have any comments or issues with them, let me know.

1. I've removed the rule about a deck needing to win. I feel that it doesn't serve a positive purpose and kills the legality of some interesting decks.
2. I've updated the first turn win rule to have the following clarity: "Decks are not allowed to win before an opponent has completed a full turn. When determining this, consider the opponent's deck to consist of four blank cards. (For example, a deck designed to play Ignite Memories on turn 1 would be legal, even if doing so could kill an opponent.)"
3. I've updated the discard rule to have the following clarity: "Decks are not allowed to reduce the number of cards in an opponent's hand by more than one per turn. When determining this, consider the entire set of possible characteristics a card in your opponent's hand could have. (For example, Persecute is not allowed in a player's deck.)"



Round 10
Decks due Wed. 12/31/14 at 5pm PST. I should be back to a normal schedule and be able to update this more promptly with the coming new year. I also intend to do a card/deck analysis to see/suggest new bannings. Until then, brew wisely.

I've decided to discontinue running this both here and on WOTC. There just hasn't been enough response. I'll continue running it over at MTGS, where almost all of the participants have originated from.

Thanks for playing along!