tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-266258452024-02-18T20:41:58.302-05:00Not sure what I'm doing with my life.Blog for Don Wiggins, one time Magic: The Gathering Tournament Organizer.TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.comBlogger227125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-80092204735480509222015-03-29T20:33:00.002-04:002015-03-29T20:33:42.504-04:00The times they are a'changingThis is likely not news to most reading this, so I will keep this short overall.<br />
<br />
Don's Magic and Sundry, the store, has ended. It was a great ride, and I loved what I did as a seller of MTG and a Tournament Organizer for WPN events.<br />
<br />
But worry not - out of the ashes rises something bigger and better. I and my partner, Rick, have started Play More Games - currently an <a href="http://www.playmoregamestore.com/" target="_blank">online only gaming store</a> (focused primarily on MTG but soon expanding) which will, if all works the way we are planning, become an honest-to-goodness brick & mortar Friendly Local Gaming Store.<br />
<br />
Once we have a lease finalized, I plan on recounting the process that we went through to get there, much as I did the process of getting started working with the WPN in my series "The Road to WPN".<br />
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In the meantime, follow us on Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/pmgstore" target="_blank">@PMGStore</a>), Instagram (<a href="https://instagram.com/pmgstore/" target="_blank">pmgstore</a>) and Facebook (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/playmoregamestore" target="_blank">Play More Games)</a>.TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-57182609521532678102014-03-21T20:12:00.003-04:002014-03-21T21:46:32.332-04:00WPN Boy: Advanced Plus<span style="font-family: inherit;">A quick entry today - some exciting news to share.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.wizards.com/wpn/News/Article.aspx?x=2014_03_18_WPN_AdvancedPlus" target="_blank">Earlier this week</a>, WotC & WPN announced a new store level for the stores running their events called Advanced Plus. As in the past, there are certain hoops a store needs to jump through in order to make it to this level. Once there, however, the store is eligible for additional goodies, including (but not limited to) additional Buy-a-Box promos, the ability to purchase extra From the Vault products, and the like.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When I looked at the requirements for this level, I thought that maybe (<b>just</b> maybe) the two stores I work with would be able to pull off Advanced Plus if they pooled their resources. Beyond Comics brings in more players to their FNM events generally, so I figured they would be able to hit the Number of Unique Player requirement and the Number of New Players requirement, but they wouldn't get the Minimum Number of Events since they only run their weekly FNMs, 2 Prereleases per set and Game Day. Novel Books, on the other hand, runs weekly FNMs and a weekly Casual Magic, as well as 3 Prereleases per set and Game Days. They would reach the Minimum Number of Events easily, but would have trouble with the player numbers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And, unfortunately, neither store has ever had an event with 50+ players yet (we just don't have the space - the only event that comes close is Magic Celebration, as that one can be run as a rolling event with players coming and going, but all counting as participating in a single event).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Patrick (owner of Novel Books) thought it would be interesting to see where we stood anyway. Unfortunately this is not something that a store can just look up for themselves (something that I wish the WPN would institute) but you can ask your WPN representative to check for you and let you know. So, that's what he did. And the results took us completely by surprise.</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Number of Processed Events: 144 (Requirement for Advanced Plus: 125)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Percent of Events Delinquent: 0% (Requirement for Advanced Plus: 0%)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Biggest Event: 42 (Requirement for Advanced Plus: 50)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">New Players: 49 (Requirement for Advanced Plus: 50)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unique Players: 287 (Requirement for Advanced Plus: 250)</span></span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">That's right - we're almost there already! Since this report was generated we have already had another new member, so that goal has been hit. The only thing we're short on is largest event. We may try to somehow expand out onto the porch of the store some weekend (maybe a huge Conspiracy Draft in June?) to get that one taken care of. So exciting!</span></div>
TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-60685213805156564552014-03-07T10:42:00.000-05:002014-03-07T10:42:03.339-05:00WPN Boy: Home Brewin'To say it's been a while since I added to this series is an understatement. Truth be told I sort of felt like everything I'm doing as a Tournament Organizer has become rather routine. A new month comes, I schedule FNMs and 2nd & 4th Saturday events at Novel Books. Sure, some changes have happened (we now run FNMs at both stores, which allows me to always have a Standard event every week) but for the most part things are routine. What could I possibly write about that would be of interest enough to justify an entire blog entry?<br />
<br />
Then this pops up in my Twitter stream:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7AjNXtygBv1rLq3GcsOck1SvY6c3_d2rmTAGVSWyeAXf3_FOxd9F8SK2j1kbA3h7XrwyiPRACLLq3qbG7lWBjcikQsV5MK99McKnDbCxm4bnQwFz7BGzl7qSZNCd0RO1M3j-6/s1600/Tweet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7AjNXtygBv1rLq3GcsOck1SvY6c3_d2rmTAGVSWyeAXf3_FOxd9F8SK2j1kbA3h7XrwyiPRACLLq3qbG7lWBjcikQsV5MK99McKnDbCxm4bnQwFz7BGzl7qSZNCd0RO1M3j-6/s1600/Tweet.jpg" /></a></div>
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When the Director of R&D for <b>Magic</b> asks you to write something up, you write something up.</div>
<br />
For several years now, the last Standard FNM before a new set comes out has been what I call our "Home Brew" Standard event. This means 4 times a year we encourage people to <b>not</b> bring a net deck, or something that's been winning the latest MTGO events or SCG Opens. Something fresh and new that they built themselves. The description for the event says:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...participants are STRONGLY encouraged to bring decks of their own creation. No netdecking; no copying the "best deck" from last weekend's big event. While we of course cannot REQUIRE you to do this, those who fail to join in the spirit of the event risk taunting, shunning, ill will and cooties.</blockquote>
I feel I should interrupt here to point out that this is not an original idea of my own. Jason Clark (<a href="https://twitter.com/RealEvilGenius" target="_blank">@RealEvilGenius</a> on Twitter) told me that his local gaming store has done this for a while. And, yes, the irony of me adopting via the internet a format that encourages not adopting things from the internet is not at all lost on me. Deal with it.<br />
<br />
I strongly feel that this format needs to exist. Way back in the day (I started <b>Magic</b> back when <i>Unlimited Edition</i> was the active Core Set, back in 1994) everyone made their own decks. By the time the tournament reports could come out in Scrye Magazine or the like, weeks had passed, and things had changed. It was simpler time, before MTGO and dozens of MTG content web sites, where the latest deck tech is just a click away.<br />
<br />
Something has been lost in all that. The simple joy of finding a wacky combination of cards, or throwing together a deck that just <b>feels right</b> to you for whatever reason. Tournaments (even FNMs) are dominated by Spikes who put together the strongest deck in the current worldwide metagame, and we poor Johnnies and Timmies are either forced to do the same, or see ourselves at the lower tables for the whole evening.<br />
<br />
I'm not naive. I know that this is the way things are now, and that there are many people who actually <b>can't</b> build their own decks (that's not a talent they have, or feel they have). Then there are those who are simply not willing to take a chance on an unproven deck. And you know what? They can have the other 48 Standard FMNs I run every year. But for 4 measly FNMs, I want there to be a place where Johnny and Timmy can come out to play. A place where a deck made up from whole cloth can actually have a chance at winning one of the Top 2 FNM promos instead of just hoping for one of the random 2.<br />
<br />
Last time around I brought a deck using Master of Waves. At this point mono-Blue Devotion was <i>a thing</i> and one might accuse me of breaking the spirit of the event. Until one looked at <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ral-zarek-and-the-elementals/" target="_blank">my decklist</a> that is. Yep. "Ral Zarek and the Elementals". Elemental tribal, baby. Elemental tribal. The deck ended up only going 2-2 that night, but <b>man</b> I had fun playing it.<br />
<br />
At the Home Brew events, I ask folks to submit decklists, especially if they make Top 8. Then I highlight the Top 8 in my weekly event newsletter that goes out the following Monday. This gives people their moments of fame and has the added advantage of making the Top 8 decks, technically, net decks, so they can't be used again. :)<br />
<br />
Last time around that looked like this:<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: #e5e5e5; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">
Last Friday marked our "Home Brew Standard" FNM for this cycle (the last Standard at Beyond Comics before the new set, <em>Born of the Gods</em>, is released). An amazing 26 players came out, the vast majority of whom seemed to embrace this format, bringing decks of their own devising to enjoy playing for the sake of playing. As is our tradition, I hereby present the Top 8 players (and their decklists if submitted to me) for all to peruse.</div>
<ol style="background-color: #e5e5e5; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;">
<li style="text-align: left;">First Place: Gavin Wu with his <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/1st-gavin-wus-dredge-20/" style="color: maroon;" target="_blank">Dredge 2.0 deck</a></li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Second Place: Brett Tunick with his <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/2nd-brett-tunicks-monster-mash/" style="color: maroon;" target="_blank">Monster Mash</a> deck</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Third Place: Philip Candleana with his <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/3rd-philip-candleanas-bant-tokens/" style="color: maroon;" target="_blank">Bant Tokens</a> deck</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Fourth Place: Erick Pfleiderer with his <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/4th-erick-pfleiderers-boros-aggro/" style="color: maroon;" target="_blank">Boros Aggro</a> deck</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Fifth Place: Jon Tsou with his <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/5th-jon-tsous-shambleshark/" style="color: maroon;" target="_blank">Shambleshark!</a> deck</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Sixth Place: Ralph Dominguez (who unfortunately did not submit a decklist)</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Seventh Place: Dalton Wu with his <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/7th-dalton-wus-azorius-maze/" style="color: maroon;" target="_blank">Azorius Maze</a> deck</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Eighth Place: Matt Yancer with his <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/8th-matt-yancers-mono-black-humans/" style="color: maroon;" target="_blank">Mono-Black Humans</a> deck</li>
</ol>
Yes, you read that right. 26 players. The store can only comfortably hold 30, so we were nearly at capacity. These events are <b>popular</b>. There are so many people out there with deck ideas running around in their minds that they dare not bring to FNM for fear of being crushed beneath the heels of the latest hot decks that the pros are running. And that's a real shame, because it's not the pros at these FNMs. It's regular players and they should, at least a few times a year, be playing <b>their own decks</b>.<br />
<br />
Of course this is just my opinion, and your mileage may vary. But the fact that these events bring out the number of players they do tells me that I'm not alone in thinking there's a place for this.<br />
<br />
Yes, it is a difficult format to enforce. In fact, it can't be enforced at all, really. I sanction the event as Standard (I have no choice there, really). And there's always the distinct likelihood that someone will show up to the store for the first time, having never heard about Home Brew, and they're slinging a net deck. But the vast majority of the players who attend get into the spirit of the thing, and bring something of their own.<br />
<br />
Hopefully this gives other TOs out there something to consider. I'd strongly recommend giving it a try at least once. It takes some advertising, and talking up to encourage people to "play by the rules" as it were, but I believe it is completely worth it.TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-22632669946754737432013-06-25T12:00:00.000-04:002013-06-25T12:12:15.591-04:00Logo Contest: Vote!When I first created my Logo Contest (full <a href="http://bit.ly/DMaSLogoContest" target="_blank">details here</a> if you missed it), I was nervous and excited. I knew this could end up badly, either with artists raging that I had created a difficult assignment with no guarantee of payment, or (at the other end of the spectrum) so many submissions that I had a tough choice cutting it down to a Top 8. Thankfully, it seems to have hit a middle ground. I'm sure there were many professional graphic artists who chose not to enter, as their time would be better spent on projects that actually got them paid - and I cannot blame then in the slightest bit!<br />
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In the end, five artists submitted work (one of them submitting two versions), leaving me with 6 possibilities. Now the decision is in your hands. One of these six choices will become the new logo for Don's Magic and Sundry, and its creator will be awarded $50 in store credit at my site.<br />
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As promised, these choices will be kept anonymous so as to not influence the voting. The logos should stand on their own merit, not on the backs of any name their creator may have made for him- or herself. Voting will be open from today (Tuesday, June 25) at noon until Sunday (June 30) at noon [all times EDT].<br />
<br />
To cast your vote, please <a href="http://bit.ly/DMaSLogoVote" target="_blank">take the survey</a>. The images are repeated in the survey, but needed to be shrunk to half their size due to file size limitations at Survey Monkey. So I present them here, comment free, for you to look at first.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgFRV-12LZJrjOVjwz-iDeNSZTEA08O03UFHkcHSuZ8a5TTcwb5TNn1_q3XYncnKdU3SmUYExCQCvOaUbiWorgcuYidUCAwuXEgnN1df7xUNDCIQ-4g4UZtb7WNgE2RCn7M_f/s1600/Submission+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgFRV-12LZJrjOVjwz-iDeNSZTEA08O03UFHkcHSuZ8a5TTcwb5TNn1_q3XYncnKdU3SmUYExCQCvOaUbiWorgcuYidUCAwuXEgnN1df7xUNDCIQ-4g4UZtb7WNgE2RCn7M_f/s640/Submission+1.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Submission 1</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsyMSRjT50a5YpzwCtZ3bKIdXS0S8zpBQNQSkes5Qt59jkVgV6Hvkk454OoP1o4iVR-e4AWfNgrS7GF5FJ-2fHOaH00WvdP9bnrWb1seaotYApljjU3E-CY5jBqoY3T-U_ZfTj/s1600/Submission+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsyMSRjT50a5YpzwCtZ3bKIdXS0S8zpBQNQSkes5Qt59jkVgV6Hvkk454OoP1o4iVR-e4AWfNgrS7GF5FJ-2fHOaH00WvdP9bnrWb1seaotYApljjU3E-CY5jBqoY3T-U_ZfTj/s640/Submission+2.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Submission 2</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQAJDTCI7Czod-CcKoNJ4wubZGzN9SJ4sAPC15wqpATGe554ffhbTTo-QqWkdgxWvo-JkpeheSR5-0BYpWAPS_fdkkyv9wAqSsG4eFY28krQ3skIdV9Y5lK4rZHhKwBOtB07j9/s1600/Submission+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQAJDTCI7Czod-CcKoNJ4wubZGzN9SJ4sAPC15wqpATGe554ffhbTTo-QqWkdgxWvo-JkpeheSR5-0BYpWAPS_fdkkyv9wAqSsG4eFY28krQ3skIdV9Y5lK4rZHhKwBOtB07j9/s640/Submission+3.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Submission 3</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-bgtdhCjAb_11kg1cnDPh-5_rXWM_GCNS4Z7q38X1fbJybzIcZ9CtTHQo3XWPHBE__xRsJb-b5bTacwEVnM6nVmVyA39Kmcfou-0GD8GSJ0An0A7rAo12zvMIc4O7AGhRSTeR/s1600/Submission+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-bgtdhCjAb_11kg1cnDPh-5_rXWM_GCNS4Z7q38X1fbJybzIcZ9CtTHQo3XWPHBE__xRsJb-b5bTacwEVnM6nVmVyA39Kmcfou-0GD8GSJ0An0A7rAo12zvMIc4O7AGhRSTeR/s640/Submission+4.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Submission 4</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixsm2aO4gQe-2SZbLlJfTJ6WuKiUkscOSYdrL09gOwz2T9yZluvptBGlXF7yS18GUwr4mQQL_M5FXlniwGokLZCiB5uYMWLdbo1p2k0HsO6w_TA2BEPc7KnAbZ0E0UPDwEK1va/s1600/Submission+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixsm2aO4gQe-2SZbLlJfTJ6WuKiUkscOSYdrL09gOwz2T9yZluvptBGlXF7yS18GUwr4mQQL_M5FXlniwGokLZCiB5uYMWLdbo1p2k0HsO6w_TA2BEPc7KnAbZ0E0UPDwEK1va/s640/Submission+5.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Submission 5</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLR8wMFjGTT1MQODhlJTVYEwZgpQeUV8WPjvE8pSXUNKF56rqHwO-9mEmj4H0i2WH9Yihrfsv18KYu6dkeaJTLTWPBYWtBFAwPrKqry6rRCGZLSP6-cQqZax92g6EflCXOOYI/s1600/Submission+6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLR8wMFjGTT1MQODhlJTVYEwZgpQeUV8WPjvE8pSXUNKF56rqHwO-9mEmj4H0i2WH9Yihrfsv18KYu6dkeaJTLTWPBYWtBFAwPrKqry6rRCGZLSP6-cQqZax92g6EflCXOOYI/s640/Submission+6.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Submission 6</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Once you've gotten a good look, please:<br />
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://bit.ly/DMaSLogoVote" target="_blank">CAST YOUR VOTE</a>!</span></h2>
TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-33510140692151831802013-06-12T22:55:00.002-04:002013-06-12T22:56:14.976-04:00The Don's Magic and Sundry Logo Contest!In case you are unaware, two major changes happened recently for Don's Magic and Sundry:<br />
<ol>
<li>I changed service providers from ProStores to Crystal Commerce. The latter is specifically tailored towards online gaming stores, and includes a whole slew of advantages, like built-in databases of all cards from the game, market price checks, a Point of Sale system that lets me very easily buy & sell cards at events....all for less than I was paying at the old provider. Definitely a no-brainer. The only question is why it took me so long to move!</li>
<li>I have, at long last, finally become an actual legal entity. It is now Don's Magic and Sundry LLC! Woo-hoo!</li>
</ol>
<div>
Anywho, with all these changes comes the desire for a fresh new logo. My old store logo:</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAJENKHB90l1J63-jK5hyt7G0txVeqiaQGmuyYGttvnIYrI_6pZnocfN9SjPNbbF5IxCIult9Mzrk2yWAhBghLcUVb1JMvEVc0et7ap_z-4tjQILG1fHWpAhlLFibkUUKcQWrh/s1600/New+Logo+x2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAJENKHB90l1J63-jK5hyt7G0txVeqiaQGmuyYGttvnIYrI_6pZnocfN9SjPNbbF5IxCIult9Mzrk2yWAhBghLcUVb1JMvEVc0et7ap_z-4tjQILG1fHWpAhlLFibkUUKcQWrh/s640/New+Logo+x2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Created by Josh of VirtualInflux</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
won't quite cut it, as the rather blatant use of WotC's intellectual property (IP) - the subtle Magic card back at the left, the use of the Magic logo, as well as the five-color pentagon - would most likely get me in hot water with their legal department. In fact Crystal Commerce flat-out told me they wouldn't let me use it!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So my current store logo:</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKei0RWiHEaKiJXneeAKcEW90fAHMEaQ7K38q9zE7ckRu1mMUq_FAdpzNgdOzC0ihEfREI4kD1SXwfQEvucO2zg7wjo_3dd4-GTQDx5Pwrv-d8KggFFIqRxrkT65u6k3HB_Rq/s1600/DonSticker2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKei0RWiHEaKiJXneeAKcEW90fAHMEaQ7K38q9zE7ckRu1mMUq_FAdpzNgdOzC0ihEfREI4kD1SXwfQEvucO2zg7wjo_3dd4-GTQDx5Pwrv-d8KggFFIqRxrkT65u6k3HB_Rq/s400/DonSticker2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crafted by the amazingly talented Justin Treadway (@GriffnValentine)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
while awesome, was not intended to be used as such. It was crafted by <a href="https://twitter.com/GriffnValentine" target="_blank">@GriffnValentine</a> to be used on stickers to be given out with orders (and some of you may even be sporting such a thing on your deck box or trade binder!). If you'd like more info on these wonderful things, you can see <a href="http://donsmagicandsundry.blogspot.com/2011/04/so-you-say-you-want-stickers.html" target="_blank">this post</a>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So - that brings us to the point of this post (finally!). I am in need of a new store logo! But I am a poor small business owner who can't afford to pay a real honest-to-goodness graphic designer what s/he would need/want to be paid to call it a real gig. So, instead, I am running a contest to all and sundry (slight pun intended), amateur and pro alike, to see who can design the new logo to be used on my store!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Want to win $50 store credit to my site? Think you have the creative talent to design my new logo?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Here are the details. Please read all if you are interested in submitting a logo to this contest.</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Contest submissions will be accepted from today (Wednesday, June 12, 2013) until midnight (EDT) Sunday, June 23.</li>
<li>Submissions should be sent to Don at DonsMagicAndSundry.com with the subject line "Logo Contest".</li>
<li>If more than 8 submissions are received within the specified time frame, I will cut to a "Top 8" based on my own personal tastes.</li>
<li>I will then post the Top 8 (or less if fewer submissions are received) on this blog (anonymously, so there is no favoritism based on creator vs. creation), and put them to a vote via all my various social media outlets (Twitter, tumblr, Google+, and email newsletter). Voting will be open for five days (12:00 noon [EDT] on Tuesday June 25 through 12:00 noon [EDT] Sunday June 30).</li>
<li>The winner of the open vote will be used as the logo on my site. <b>The creator of that logo will win $50 store credit at www.DonsMagicAndSundry.com</b>.</li>
<li>The logo will run as a banner at the top of pages on my store site (see my <a href="http://www.donsmagicandsundry.com/" target="_blank">Home Page</a> to see where the "sticker-logo" currently resides).</li>
<li>Designs should be submitted in the .png format.</li>
<li>Designs should be 200 pixels high by 800 pixels wide. </li>
<li>Designs must incorporate the name of the store (Don's Magic and Sundry).</li>
<li>Best designs will impart that the bulk of the store's nature is selling cards from Magic: The Gathering, without using the Intellectual Property of WotC. That's a fine line to straddle, but I know you're up to the challenge!</li>
<li>All submissions become the property of Don's Magic and Sundry LLC, and can be used in any promotional way on the site. While only the winner of the popular vote will get the coveted spot atop the site pages, the other logos may be used for other purposes.</li>
</ol>
</div>
TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-32704012634581744772013-01-19T17:44:00.001-05:002015-03-30T09:52:53.748-04:00WPN Boy: Catching Up is Hard to Do...To say this post is overdue is an understatement of mammoth proportions. Generally it just never felt like anything really momentous occurred, and yet as I sit down to start to gather my thoughts here, I realize that there are more than enough things to get a treatment. So I will stop blathering and apologizing and just get down to it.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Gen Con</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Really, this should have gotten its own post back at the time, but for whatever reason I just couldn't wrap my head around the whole thing. I will be forever grateful to WotC for inviting me out, paying my way (and my stay), and basically treating me as if I was actually something special instead of just some random Magic geek whose blog just happened to fill a niche that wasn't at the time being filled :)</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I think also since I spent a great deal of time on Twitter during the weekend, I sort of felt like I had already documented the whole thing. A fallacy, of course, since tweets aren't really searchable easily from that long ago (at least <i>I</i> don't know how to do it), so it's not quite the archive of my thoughts as this blog would be.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
So what do I want to make sure gets noted "forever"?</div>
<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Favorite memory</b>: The handful of us who were invited to GenCon by WotC (<a href="https://twitter.com/ITOmarHernandez" target="_blank">Omar H</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/DreamtimeDrinne" target="_blank">Adrienne R</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/Big_Z_MTG" target="_blank">Matej Z</a> and myself), along with an additional guest each (if we wished - I didn't really have any one to invite - see point 2 below) were treated to a dinner on the Wednesday night before the Con really got going. From WotC Helene Bergeot was in attendance (Aaron Forsythe had gotten too late a flight out of Seattle to make it in time for the dinner) and someone else whose name I didn't catch. He sat next to me at the end of the table, and we chatted about why I had been invited (this blog, essentially) and about my thoughts on recent events (the Helvault fiasco, RTR allocations, etc). When we were all done, and walking back to our hotels, I asked Helene who the gentleman was that I had been chatting with all evening. "Oh, that was Greg Leeds, president of Wizards." Eep. Mr. Leeds - it was wonderful chatting with you, and I profusely apologize for not recognizing you!</li>
<li><b>Bring a friend.</b> While I loved the experience, it would have been 100 times more enjoyable to have had someone (or several someones) there with me to share it all with. While I did get to meet several people in person with whom I had previously only shared a Twitter relationship, there was no-one there that I knew well enough to "hang" with as it were.</li>
<li><b>Aaron Forsythe</b> and <b>Nathan Holt</b> are tall. Or I am short. Or both.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXOJkOASR0mDZ7zLZSh_KkFmCX2E6F6up2xd9ybdiVA4aOiGUqdudnIl_IFDnXSSrCqnC5aFBVrc2vsNmADcLePf825DsBJUs7Wf2Ue_rSwF21DVb5G5iXBujO9QhFgLIeDbmD/s1600/Forsythe+Holt+and+Me.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXOJkOASR0mDZ7zLZSh_KkFmCX2E6F6up2xd9ybdiVA4aOiGUqdudnIl_IFDnXSSrCqnC5aFBVrc2vsNmADcLePf825DsBJUs7Wf2Ue_rSwF21DVb5G5iXBujO9QhFgLIeDbmD/s400/Forsythe+Holt+and+Me.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Nuff said.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li>All of Indianapolis gets into the spirit of GenCon. They even have a whole park just for elves. <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-UanK1ALDd-QTLvzflXfEabDamsPDExbMw4Mxk4TeSIEpRcr_6v4_LraNw2PIg46FUl_xI6y_Ktw-Q4SegGA6wDnyl755e0R7k2drxYZvMRpGikVxUPM1Wab-ftpfjwvdu0wj/s1600/Elf+Park.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-UanK1ALDd-QTLvzflXfEabDamsPDExbMw4Mxk4TeSIEpRcr_6v4_LraNw2PIg46FUl_xI6y_Ktw-Q4SegGA6wDnyl755e0R7k2drxYZvMRpGikVxUPM1Wab-ftpfjwvdu0wj/s400/Elf+Park.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can't make this stuff up.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li>I would definitely say that GenCon is one thing anyone into gaming should experience at least once in their lives. Again, thanks to Helene Bergeot, Aaron Forsythe, and the rest of the team who made it possible for me to say that I have done so.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<ol>
</ol>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<i>Return to Ravnica</i> Prerelease</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
So the <i>Return to Ravnica</i> (RTR) prerelease was, to put it simply, awesome.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
We ran a marathon at Novel Places of 4 events starting at Midnight on Saturday. So we had 12:00 am, 5:30 am, 11 am, and 4:30 pm. Many people signed up for all four events, and most of them were wiped out by the fourth one. I ran (and played in) the first of these, then had someone else take over for me for the 5:30 am event while I went home and got a few hours' sleep. Then I came back to run the last two. Every single one of the events was at capacity (30 players each).</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Now, some background. Unfortunately the allocation of materials for this event was not what I feel it could have been. Specifically, we were allocated enough Guild Boxes to cover a total of 120 players (thus the 30 player cap at each of the 4 events). However, we were only provided with 180 free booster packs for prizes. Using the mandated 2-packs-per-player prize pool, this meant we could only cover 90 players for prizes. And that's without factoring Open Dueling into the equation.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDrUBpJd47y9WFTL75eCFhu2bdnNrtwvkf8TXSGDsHsXT-VL2uRVSIYq7Yxsn5u_YFFrWmL0QSfkygQEhuGD9_rhhVBvFa99Go4lXKh47v2-fjvjCVpESEptCg6-tEbxZzOvf/s1600/RTR+IOU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Anyway, we had to resort to IOUs for the excess packs.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDrUBpJd47y9WFTL75eCFhu2bdnNrtwvkf8TXSGDsHsXT-VL2uRVSIYq7Yxsn5u_YFFrWmL0QSfkygQEhuGD9_rhhVBvFa99Go4lXKh47v2-fjvjCVpESEptCg6-tEbxZzOvf/s1600/RTR+IOU.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDrUBpJd47y9WFTL75eCFhu2bdnNrtwvkf8TXSGDsHsXT-VL2uRVSIYq7Yxsn5u_YFFrWmL0QSfkygQEhuGD9_rhhVBvFa99Go4lXKh47v2-fjvjCVpESEptCg6-tEbxZzOvf/s400/RTR+IOU.jpg" height="331" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Thanks to Craig Sybert for putting these together!</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I will be honest - we were no too happy about having to do this. It sticks a little in your craw to be told you <i>must</i> give out a certain prize payout, and then not be provided with enough materials to do what you've been told to do! Since the launch date was a week away the store was not allowed to order any additional product, so we were forced to choose between limiting attendance to our events, or disappointing players by not being able to give out all the prizes we needed to.<br />
<br />
There are many reasons this sort of situation can come about, many of which I am probably not privy to. Here's what I know:<br />
<ol>
<li>The Guild Box structure made it such that there weren't any "leftover" booster packs. In a normal prerelease you get a whole bunch of regular booster boxes, which can be used either for the prerelease Sealed pools, or prizes, as needed. The only way leftover Guild Boxes could be used as prizes would be if they were broken open to retrieve the booster packs from within. Note that this is <i>not</i> in any way a criticism of the Guild Boxes! I still think they are an awesome idea, and I think WotC did great putting these together.</li>
<li>Allocations for prereleases are based upon past performance only. And they tend to not factor Core Set prereleases into the equation. In this case, we only ran 2 prereleases for <i>Avacyn Restored</i> (the last non-Core Set prerelease), when we were still only a Core Level store. Now that we're Advanced Level, we scheduled 4 prereleases. However, this fact is in no way taken into account when they determine how much product to allocate to us. How do I know for sure? The other store I TO for, Beyond Comics, only signed up to run 2 prereleases for <i>Return to Ravnica</i> and were allocated the <i>exact same number</i> of Guild Boxes and prize packs. Frankly, I think this is short-sighted. Yes, past performance is important - but if a store doubles the number of events they are running, you have to factor that in as well!</li>
<li>WotC <i>grossly</i> underestimated the popularity of this event. They knew RTR was going to be big. They just didn't know <i>how</i> big. The number of players I have seen come back to the game because of this set is astounding. The number of players who wanted to get in multiple prereleases so that they could experience different Guilds was unprecedented. It all added up to more players playing in more events than any prerelease before this (at least that's how it felt on my end). It was awesome.</li>
</ol>
Unfortunately the events at Beyond Comics the next day were not as well attended (24 or so per event), which was a shame because: a) they were allocated the same 120 Guild Boxes as Novel Places, so they <i>still</i> have leftovers as of now; and b) they rented out a large space (an empty storefront in the same strip mall) to handle the hoped-for large crowds which did not materialize. I think the 4-event marathon at Novel Places definitely dried up (and tired out) a large percent of the local player pool, which didn't leave much left over for Beyond Comics. I still feel bad about that.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
League</h3>
The M13 League ran pretty well, although participation was much lower for the second cycle than the first. At a players' suggestion, we made an adjustment in that cycle to make matches single-game instead of best 2-of-3, as players were having a hard time getting all 5 matches in each week. This proved to be very disappointing for most, as a single mana screw could cost you the entire match.<br />
<br />
So for the RTR League, I ran only one cycle, and I changed the rules to make a maximum of 3 matches per week instead of 5 (and went back to best 2-of-3). This proved to work beautifully. Not too difficult to get 3 matches in, and best 2-of-3 matches are much more satisfying, viscerally.<br />
<br />
We will do the same for <i>Gatecrash</i> League coming up.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Modern at FNM!</h3>
So one huge change that's happened recently that I am crazy excited about is that Modern is now a format that can be scheduled for Friday Night Magic. I have been wanting this pretty much since I was able to start running FNMs, so I am very glad to finally be able to do so.<br />
<br />
We ran our first Modern FNM last week (January 11, 2013) and it was a smashing success. 22 players came out (which is in the ballpark of our usual Standard attendance these days - Standard usually brings out 22-26 players) and had a blast.<br />
<br />
The need for variety is inspiring me, and I am thinking of running two other odd-ball formats at upcoming FNMs:<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Pauper Standard</b>. Only cards that are printed as commons in the current Standard environment allowed.</li>
<li><b>Guild-centric <i>Return to Ravnica</i> Block Constructed</b>. You must choose a Guild, and build your deck using only cards with that Guild's watermark, or unaligned cards from one of the two colors (so, for example, you cannot use Deathrite Shaman in a Gruul deck, even though you'd be able to cast it using only Green mana). Only <i>Return to Ravnica</i> and <i>Gatecrash</i> allowed.</li>
</ol>
I think there's a real need out there for something other than "the same old Standard" week after week. At least it's true amongst our player base.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Awesome Round Clock!</h3>
So a few weeks back Patrick (owner of Novel Places) contacted me saying his distributor had a special deal going. They were obviously looking to unload their back stock of <i>Magic 2012</i>. If a store bought one of three bundles (all of which included at least 2 booster boxes of <i>M12</i>) they would get a special round clock for use in their store. I told Patrick I'd buy two of the <i>M12</i> boxes if he ordered one of the bundles, which would leave him with two boxes each of <i>M12</i> and <i>Avacyn Restored</i> to sell. Most of that has since sold, so I'm glad he didn't get stuck with anything he couldn't move.<br />
<br />
We had a special "retro" <i>Innistrad</i> Draft on January 12, and held a grand unveiling of the clock for those in attendance. The unveiling was filmed (on a smart phone, so picture & sound quality are not the greatest) and can be viewed here for those who so desire.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3lzf0PoE528" width="560"></iframe>
I found out last night that Beyond Comics also received one of these round clocks. I do not yet know the full details of what hoops (if any) they had to jump through to get it.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Home Brew Standard continues to be popular.</h3>
Last night we had the latest in our quarterly "Home Brew" Standard events at FNM (our fourth), where players are encouraged to go crazy and build a Standard deck that is not from the 'net, not the latest tournament-winning powerhouse. You know that crazy deck you've been itching to build but knew would never survive in the current metagame? Yeah - bring <i>that</i> one.<br />
<br />
We had a whopping 23 players last night. And has become my custom, I present the top 8 decklists for you to peruse if you're curious:<br />
<ul>
<li>8th place: <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/chris-lozons-overpopulate/" target="_blank">Chris Lozon's Overpopulate</a></li>
<li>7th place: <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/rob-kuneys-bloody-golgari/" target="_blank">Rob Kuney's Bloody Golgari</a></li>
<li>6th place: <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/patrick-sikoras-miracle-grow/" target="_blank">Patrick Sikora's Miracle Grow</a></li>
<li>5th place: <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jon-stollbergs-the-gosling/" target="_blank">Jon Stollberg's The Gosling</a></li>
<li>4th place: <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/tony-nguyens-selesnya-beat-stick/" target="_blank">Tony Nguyen's Selesnya Beat Stick</a></li>
<li>3rd place: <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mike-zhangs-urw-burning-vengeance/" target="_blank">Mike Zhang's URW Burning Vengeance</a></li>
<li>2nd place: <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kevin-yehs-gw-crowd-sourcing/" target="_blank">Kevin Yeh's GW Crowd Sourcing</a></li>
<li>1st place: <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/tom-flynns-jacobs-corporation/" target="_blank">Tom Flynn's Jacob's Corporation</a></li>
</ul>
Unlike the Pauper Constructed or Guild-centric Block Constructed, this format is impossible to really enforce (chances are if you look hard enough you can find almost <i>any</i> deck online <i>somewhere</i>), and there will always be new players who show up not knowing what's going on (we had 3 players new to the store last night). However, I think it is truly worthwhile running this this, if only 4 times a year. I have several players who look forward to this every time, eagerly asking when the next one will be. If you've never run one, I would strongly recommend giving it a try, if you believe your player base will truly get into the spirit of the thing.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<i>Gatecrash</i> is almost here!</h3>
As I write this, the <i>Gatecrash</i> prereleases are only a week away. I learned some lessons from the RTR events, and made some adjustments to out schedule.<br />
<ul>
<li>Beyond Comics will get the Saturday events this time, and Novel Places the Sunday ones. The one exception is a midnight event, as Beyond Comics was not interested in running one at that time. Beyond Comics was willing to experiment with three events on Saturday, though - a first for them.</li>
<li>Three events per store, instead of 4 for one store and 2 for the other.</li>
<li>Final schedule: NP Midnight on 1/26; BC 8 am, 1:30 pm, 7 pm on 1/26; NP 10 am and 3:30 pm on 1/27</li>
</ul>
Novel Places' allocation of product is significantly higher this time owing to the fact that they had so many large events last time. No need for IOUs this prerelease! Unfortunately Beyond Comics' allocation actually went <i>down</i> from last time, so we may need to issue IOUs there depending on attendance. Again, we see the problem of not factoring in the number of events the store signed up for. Last time they only ran 2, but this time they're running 3. So they will need half again as much as they needed last time, but what's available to them is actually less than they had available to them for RTR. We'll have to see how this goes.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Caught up?</h3>
Well, that seems to bring us up to the present. I will endeavor to not let myself get so far behind again. I think regular smaller updates would be preferable to a massive catch-up post like this (especially since I'm sure that some things have been forgotten and fallen by the wayside that would have been documented otherwise). As always, thanks for reading!<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED...]<br />
<ol>
</ol>
TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-91233747207316289032012-07-29T20:11:00.001-04:002015-03-30T09:52:36.673-04:00WPN Boy: Reflections on Return to RavnicaAt long last I find the time to write a post I've been meaning to do since the big MTG panel at the San Diego Comic Con on July 13. I was watching coverage of the panel live while my <i>Magic 2013</i> Launch Party FNM was running, providing a running commentary for players as their matches were going!<br />
<br />
At this panel (which you can watch in its entirety <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/magicprotour/b/324829190" target="_blank">here</a> if you somehow missed it), we learned quite a few things about the <i>Return to Ravnica</i> (RTR) set (as well as the set after that, <i>Gatecrash</i> [GTC]). I won't rehash absolutely everything, but I want to cover the points that are relevant to this post. They have to do with the prerelease events for RTR (and also GTC<i></i>, as it was revealed that both sets will follow the same structure for their prerelease events).<br />
<br />
Here are the pertinent points:<br />
<ul>
<li>At the prerelease, players will choose one of the 5 Guilds covered in the set;</li>
<li>They will receive a "Guild box" which will contain:</li>
<ul>
<li>5 normal booster packs for the set;</li>
<li>a "Guild booster" which contains only cards that could be played by their chosen guild (cards of one/both of the two colors for that Guild, or artifacts);</li>
<li>a Guild-specific spin-down life counter (color coded to the Guild);</li>
<li>a sticker featuring the symbol of the Guild;</li>
<li>a letter from the leader of the Guild;</li>
<li>an achievement card specific to the Guild.</li>
</ul>
<li>The "Guild box" is custom-made for the Sealed Deck format of playing (where you get 6 boosters and build a 40-card deck from their contents plus basic lands);</li>
<li>The prerelease foil promo card will be included in the Guild booster. It will be specific to the Guild, meaning there will be 5 different ones. For the first time <i>ever</i>, players will be able to use their promo card in their deck if they wish.</li>
<li>There will be 10 completely new (never before used in any Magic set) mechanics over the two sets (5 in each; 1 for each Guild). So there will likely be judge questions galore that day!</li>
</ul>
Now, I need to say this first and foremost. As a player, I am about as excited as I could possibly be about this. The set looks amazing. The structure (two large sets, then a small set) for the block is intriguing. The Guild boxes for the prereleases are a <i>genius</i> idea (and will make the TO's job somewhat easier, as there is no need to pre-make bundles of 6 booster packs like you normally need to do with a Sealed Deck event). The extras in the box, while not necessarily super-duper exciting, are a very nice touch and show that an awful lot of thought was put into making these prereleases <i>Experiences</i>, not just events.<br />
<br />
As a TO, I am scared spitless. I have SO many questions running around in my head about the logistics of putting this together.<br />
<br />
I realize that the players are probably going to want to attend multiple prereleases (some even will want to get in 5 to pick each Guild once and get all 5 promo cards!). As a result, we have decided to run 4 events at Novel Places on the Saturday (starting at midnight!) and will likely run 3 events on Sunday at Beyond Comics. That's 7 separate events over 2 days (and that doesn't count FNM the night before it starts).<br />
<br />
While I was taking my time writing this post, I happened to get invited to attend the Alliance Game Gathering - a trade show where several game manufacturers were brought in to speak to owners & employees of gaming & hobby stores about their upcoming products. Wizards of the Coast was the first presenter, and I rabidly listened to everything that Mark Price (Senior Distribution Account Manager for WotC) had to say [even the first half, which was all about Kaijudo, WotC's new game which I must confess I have little to no interest in].<br />
<br />
From his discussion (and some q&a with audience members, myself included), I learned the following additional points regarding the RTR prereleases, some of which helped answer questions or alleviate fears I had about the events:<br />
<ul>
<li>Because they recognize that this event is likely to be extremely popular, and that there will likely be a run on select Guilds, allocations for the prerelease will be bumped up. They will figure out what the normal allocation for a store would be, and then increase it. Exactly how much it will be increased was not stated, but at least they have recognized the potential problem here.</li>
<li>The Guild boxes will be sold as multiples of 5 to stores - so stores will have an equal number of all 5 Guilds (they can't request extra Izzet packs or anything like that).</li>
<li>If a site finds out their allocation and a <i>certain</i> that it will not meet needs (like, as an example, they already have more preregistrations than they are getting materials) they should contact their WPN <i>immediately</i> to see about getting additional product. It may be possible to get more.</li>
<li>Allocations won't be known until late August (the prerelease is the weekend of September 29/30). They have to wait until the window for sanctioning the events closes, and then it takes a week or two to figure out allocations. I put the bug in Mark's ear that we need to know these numbers as soon as possible to be able to plan properly.</li>
<li>When asked how Two-Headed Giant would work with these Guild boxes (since 2HG normally starts with 8 boosters, not 6, and not 12), all they could say is that 2HG is a valid format to sanction. None of the WotC people on site had any idea how it would actually be done, however.</li>
<li>The Guild boxes have an MSRP ($24.99). Since we ordinarily charge $25 for a prerelease, this works just perfectly.</li>
<li>It was not at all clear if we would be able to order additional normal booster boxes of RTR to supplement the prize pool beyond the free boxes that are ordinarily allocated to us. Someone asked about this, but Mark did not understand what he was asking.</li>
<li>The Guild boosters will not be wrapped like normal booster packs, but will be in clear plastic wrapping (like wrapping around a preconstructed deck inside its box, or like the packaging they use for sending out promo cards). It will, however, be randomized, and he believes the rarity distribution is the same as a normal booster pack.</li>
<li>Signing up to run a RTR League will get your store the normal League things, but will also get a special bonus Marketing kit (not available any other way) which includes:</li>
<ul>
<li>25 special Guild card boxes</li>
<li>a wall clock with interchangeable Guild faces</li>
<li>5 Guild banners</li>
<li>a RTR standee</li>
<li>[Full details on this kit can be found <a href="http://www.wizards.com/ContentResources/Wizards/Sales/Solicitations/2012_07_16_RtRLeague_Solicitation_en_US.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>]</li>
</ul>
<li>There are no plans at this time to return to the old format of Launch Parties (although I was very gratified to find out I am far from alone at being upset that these were done away with!)</li>
<li>One very nice image from his presentation expanded on the Guilds, giving them "mottoes". Apologies that it's so blurry. I was way in the back and using my 2-year old phone's camera!</li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9x0HgBzIZX7rHCasNQ67Rmaf_DJY9pm_ogM0VnL3CjUGAVsivMl1ehygcSKzgdClORkQJWL7kKXLXUxADUlB54adWA8Gh8J2d3BQcrC1HZ1FZQAjQbhyphenhyphenss1AyXe2or9_858QA/s1600/Guild+mottos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9x0HgBzIZX7rHCasNQ67Rmaf_DJY9pm_ogM0VnL3CjUGAVsivMl1ehygcSKzgdClORkQJWL7kKXLXUxADUlB54adWA8Gh8J2d3BQcrC1HZ1FZQAjQbhyphenhyphenss1AyXe2or9_858QA/s640/Guild+mottos.jpg" height="502" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from Mark's presentation. Love the Guild "mottoes"!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
With all of that said, I am still left with questions and concerns about the RTR (and GTC) prereleases. As I know this blog gets read by some of the folks at WPN, I want to use it to pose the questions/concerns to them. I think it is highly likely that many (if not most or all) of these are things that they have already thought of, and will be addressing. However, the "premium" Helvault promotion proved that the first time something gets done, it's always possible that something gets missed. Just in case any of these issues have <i>not</i> been thought of, I want to get them thinking about them as soon as possible. These are in no particular order.<br />
<ol>
<li>How, exactly, will Two-Headed Giant be run using Guild boxes? Or will it, instead, be done the normal way (8 regular booster packs)? If the latter, how will participants get a promo card (one of the biggest draws for players to these events) and how will we get the 8 packs (break open Guild boxes?)?</li>
<li>Will we be able to order additional booster boxes of RTR to be used as additional prize support beyond what is provided by WPN? Or will we have to break open unused Guild boxes to get boosters that way?</li>
<li>How soon will we know how many Guild boxes we will be receiving? It is vitally important that we know as soon as we can, so that we can have people sign up properly. Players are going to want to sign up in advance and pick the Guild(s) they want to play. We cannot effectively allow them to do this if we don't know how many boxes of each Guild we will have for each event. Even just a rough estimate could he helpful.</li>
<li>What can the stores do with any leftover Guild boxes afterwards? Do they need to be broken open? Can they be sold as-is (once the Release date arrives, of course)? I assume the latter, given that they have an MSRP, but we need to know for sure so that we don't violate any policy.</li>
<li>I assume it is WotC's intent that players get some say in their Guild, and that we not assign these randomly. It is <i>very</i> likely that one or two Guilds will prove most popular and get picked quickly. I don't think you can stress to stores enough that they should consider taking preregistrations (I have made a sample <a href="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/26996118/Return%20to%20Ravnica%20Prerelease%20Signup%20Sheet.pdf" target="_blank">signup sheet</a> that anyone can feel free to use as far as I'm concerned).</li>
</ol>
So that's it. Hopefully we will be seeing answers to some (or all?) of these in time that we can make appropriate plans for this event, which I am sure will be absolutely insanely popular and cool. If I think of anything else, I'll post a supplementary article, but I think those are the major issues.<br />
<br />
I will be a dead man by the time the weekend's 7 events are all done! This is going to be crazy!<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2013/01/wpn-catching-up-is-hard-to-do.html" target="">Catching Up is Hard to Do</a>] <br />
<ol>
</ol>
TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-24127668416513336372012-07-28T15:14:00.003-04:002015-03-30T09:52:15.931-04:00WPN Boy: M13 MusingsI need to publish my thoughts on the <i>Return to Ravinca</i> prerelease announcements, but chronologically-speaking I should cover events for <i>Magic 2013</i> first, so here goes... <br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
"Home Brew" Standard FNM</h3>
As has become our tradition, the last standard FNM before the new set is released is a "Home Brew" event, where participants are strongly encouraged to bring decks of their own devising, and not "net deck".<br />
<br />
This was our second such event, and attendance was higher than the first. Unfortunately (as must be expected at such a thing) we did have one or two players show up who had not gotten the word, and had simply brought a regular Standard deck that you might see at a PTQ or what-have-you (one player was even using a preconstructed Event Deck!).<br />
<br />
Regardless, players had as much fun at this one as they had at the last, and this will definitely continue to be a "thing"!<br />
<br />
For those who are curious, I did have players submit deck lists this time so you could get a feel for what kinds of decks came out to play. Here's the top 8 (thanks to Tom Davis, AKA <a href="https://twitter.com/wingmanmtg" target="_blank">@wingmanmtg</a> on Twitter, for getting these typed up at tappedout.net for me!):<br />
<ol>
<li>Jon Stollberg's <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jon-stollbergs-mono-white-good-stuff/" target="_blank">"Mono White Good Stuff"</a></li>
<li>YiOu (Mike) Zhang's <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/michael-zhangs-infinipod/" target="_blank">"Infinipod"</a></li>
<li>Jeff Lynch's <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jeff-lynchs-br-vampires/" target="_blank">"B/R Vampires"</a></li>
<li>Azelin Benson's <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/azelin-bensons-mono-red-goblin-burn/" target="_blank">"Mono Red Goblin-Burn"</a></li>
<li>Dan Strong's <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/daniel-strongs-illusion-burn/" target="_blank">"Illusion Burn"</a></li>
<li>Jonathan Sirianni's <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jonathan-siriannis-vamps/" target="_blank">"Vamps"</a></li>
<li>Rob Kuney's <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/rob-kuneys-tez-control/" target="_blank">"Tez Control"</a></li>
<li>My own <a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mono-et-mono-v-30/" target="_blank">"Mono et Mono (v. 3.0)"</a></li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Prerelease</h3>
Our events went pretty smoothly. As previously reported, I decided that it made no sense for the two stores I work with to compete against one another, so we ran two events at each store, one store on Saturday (Novel Places) and one on Sunday (Beyond Comics).<br />
<br />
At Novel Places on Saturday we had 16 players at the morning event, and 21 at the afternoon one. It was an <i>extremely</i> hot day (the hottest of the summer up to that point), and the store is now located on the second floor of a very old building with not-so-great air conditioning. This led to somewhat uncomfortable players, and a very exhausted TO by the end of the day. Nonetheless, everyone had fun, and enjoyed the chance to get their hands on the <i>Magic 2013</i> Core Set cards a week early!<br />
<br />
Beyond Comics proved that a Sunday slot does not hurt their numbers, bringing in 24 players for the morning and 22 for the afternoon.<br />
<br />
Now it could be that this is simply a matter of lots of players opening lots of packs in one place at one time - but it seemed to me that we had a LOT of mythics opened during these two days. I know I saw several copies of the new Ajani and Liliana, several Nicol Bolas appearances, and even a foil Thundermaw Hellkite! <br />
<br />
My only real concern with these is I hope the relatively low attendance (compared to what we had at <i>Avacyn Restored</i>) will not hurt us as far as allocations are concerned for <i>Return to Ravnica</i>. I believe WotC/WPN takes into account several past performances, not just the last one. Plus they surely must realize that Core Sets simply don't have the draw that expansions do (especially since there was no splashy "gimmick" this time like the Helvault promotion for <i>Avacyn Restored</i>).<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Launch Parties</h3>
I will just state here, on record, yet again, that I think it is a mistake to tie the launch party promos to FNM. I will not waste your time with all my reasons why (you can read them <a href="http://donsmagicandsundry.blogspot.com/2012/02/wpn-boy-special-dark-ascension-edition.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://donsmagicandsundry.blogspot.com/2012/05/wpn-boy-avacyn-restored-revisited.html" target="_blank">here</a> if you missed it the first time).<br />
<br />
That said, our Launch Parties went pretty well. We had 14 people at the FNM Launch Party at Beyond Comics. That's a small crowd for us these days, but it was a Core Set event, and a Sealed Deck event, so those are both strikes against attendance.<br />
<br />
At Novel Places the next day we had 16 players show up for an <i>M13</i> Draft "Launch Party". I had leftover promos from the FNM Launch Party, so I gave those out to the folks who attended here (we were told that we could use the FNM Launch Party Promos the rest of the weekend - they didn't say it had to be in the same store!). Two pods of 8 people each made for a nice Draft experience, I think.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
League</h3>
Our <i>M13</i> Launch League began on Wednesday, July 18. We have 12 players signed up for the first Cycle. I have learned a few things that I would do differently the next time around:<br />
<ul>
<li>When you schedule your event(s) in the WER for the Launch League, make it for the <i>last</i> day of the Week instead of the first. That way when you go to actually report the event 6 days later it won't be invalidated by the WER. Oops. Hopefully my manual submission of the player list will be accepted at WPN.</li>
<li>Patrick was convinced to keep his store open later on Tuesdays as well, so we are encouraging League players to come out that night to get in matches, so that the Casual Magic Night on Wednesday isn't completely overrun by League matches.</li>
<li>We decided to let players buy their packs for the next Week after all their matches are done on Tuesday night (provided I'm there to finish tallying the results). That way they can get their decks modified in time to play matches on Wednesday (freeing up more Casual Magic time that night). The caveat is that once they buy their pack(s) they of course cannot play any further matches that count for that Week that is ending.</li>
</ul>
Week 2 (with the extra rule that essentially gives each player an additional Exalted trigger) had mixed results. Some folks really liked the extra rule. Some did not. Generally those that won because of it loved it, and those that lost because of it hated it. Funny thing, that. I will hold off on deciding if we will use the alternate rules for the second Cycle or not until we get a few more weeks in and see how the different Weeks' rules are taken by the group.<br />
<br />
I still have absolutely no idea how to use the League poster that was included in the kit, so I created a spreadsheet to track results, and created a Wiki at PBWorks to allow all the players to check the rules, see the standings, contact each other to arrange matches, etc.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
To sum up...</h3>
All in all the <i>M13</i> experience has been going well for us. It is a Core Set, so the excitement is lower overall than it will be for <i>Return to Ravnica</i> (actually the excitement over that set, with zero cards spoiled so far, is <i>already</i> higher than excitement about <i>M13</i>), but players still come out, and still enjoy the events that we put on for them. Ultimately, that's what is most important.<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2012/07/wpn-boy-reflections-on-return-to-ravnica.html">Reflections on Return to Ravnica</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-12184430790630404922012-07-05T21:45:00.003-04:002015-03-30T09:52:02.475-04:00WPN Boy: A League of Our OwnAfter some soul-searching on my part, I decided that I was very interested in giving the "Launch League" for <i>Magic 2013</i> a try. Then I had to work on Patrick (owner of Novel Places) to convince <i>him</i> to give it a try. That done, I finally went to sign up for the League...<br />
<br />
Only to find that I had missed the deadline. UGH!<br />
<br />
I contacted my WPN Rep, and ended up speaking with a coworker of his (the extremely helpful Travis!) who let me know that they will make (if I'm remembering correctly) 2 exceptions per store in a calendar year. As we had not yet used any of ours, they could make an exception and let us sign up for League. What I had to do was just create 10 events (1 for each week of League) and he would change them on his end to be <i>M13</i> Launch League events instead.<br />
<br />
So we are now officially signed up, and thankfully hadn't missed the deadline by too much, so we were even able to get the League Support Kit sent out way (more on that later).<br />
<br />
Why did I decide to run a League? WPN (via Helene Bergeot) has made it quite clear that this is something that they are "pushing" now, being almost aggressively enthusiastic about stores running this program (going even so far as to create Top 10 League Promo cards for this latest League). In fact it is the only special program left to brand-new (Gateway Level) WPN sites, now that they have killed Launch Parties. So, it seemed like a good idea for me to give it a try at least once. <br />
<br />
So, why did this take such soul searching on my part, and convincing on Patrick's? Let me enumerate some issues for you...<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
No Official Description</h3>
I could not find, despite a great deal of searching on my part, any Official word on how a League is run!<br />
<br />
The official description (taken from <a href="http://www.wizards.com/wpn/events/article.aspx?x=magic_new_set_celebrations" target="_blank">this WPN site</a>) is this: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Leagues are a great way to kick off the release of a new <b>Magic: The Gathering</b>
expansion set. Beginning on the day it goes on sale, your players will
have an exciting, ongoing event to participate in until the next
expansion set is released. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The suggested play format for the league is Sealed Deck, however, the
league can be run in whatever format best suits your store. Your league
kit will contain enough materials to run two leagues. Prize supplements
are included with your league kit, however, we strongly encourage you
to add your own prizes. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You can report league play in your store whenever it happens with
Wizards Event Reporter. Players will be able to see your sanctioned
league in the store and event locator, so be sure to sign up now!</blockquote>
So I knew that the recommended format is Sealed Deck. From other sources (like the alternate League rules for <i>Avacyn Restored</i>) I knew that it's supposed to run for several weeks. But Sealed Deck <i>how</i>, exactly? 6 packs at the beginning and that's what you're stuck with? Then I found this information elsewhere:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Over the course of the league, you will be able to add more boosters to your league deck.</blockquote>
So, there should be a system in play that allows players to add additional booster packs. But how is that determined? Are they <i>won</i> (in which case the price of these must be built in to the cost of joining the League) or are they <i>bought</i>?<br />
<br />
Essentially, I was left VERY frustrated at the lack of any official description, even if it was simply "there are a lot of ways to run a League, here are some suggestions..." So, I felt like I was not at all prepared to run a League, because I didn't know what was actually involved.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Time Dedication</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Patrick's biggest concern was one of time commitment. Would he have to stay open later every night of the week now? Would he have Magic players showing up when he had a book club signed up or some other function? What, exactly, would be required of him and his store?</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I was pretty certain that we could fit League into the time we have currently set aside for Casual Magic Night (when Patrick stays open late on Wednesday nights for players to just show up and play whatever). It has been an exceedingly popular event (we actually had 21 players last week!), and although it is only 3 hours officially, it often runs over, and Patrick has no problem with people showing up early.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Eventually, I was able to convince myself and him that it was worth giving a try at least once. If it's a thorough disaster, we can just never do it again.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
So, what are we doing?</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I finally decided to look online and see if I could find the rules for Leagues that other stores have used. As <i>Avacyn Restored</i> was the current League, I did a search for "Avacyn Restored League Rules" and found many sites from several different stores.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
After consulting these different ones (many of which had very similar rules), I created a first draft of League rules and had some of my local players read it over and see what they thought. With some input and modifications, I announced the League in my newsletter and put the Rules up.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Then, earlier this week, Patrick received the League Support Kit. Now I was in for some surprises!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The <i>Avacyn Restored</i> Launch League was supposed to be a 4-week cycle (you can run two complete cycles of League if you wish), so I based my rules on that. Surprise! The <i>Magic 2013</i> League is a <b>five</b> Week cycle! Gee, WPN - that would have been nice to know BEFOREHAND!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
So, I hurriedly modified the Rules (you can read the final version <a href="http://bit.ly/DMASM13LeagueRules" target="_blank">here if you like</a>) to reflect this, and hope that this is the last modification I need to make before we start our first League on Wednesday, July 18 (just under 2 weeks from now as I write this).</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The other frustrating thing was the League poster that was included in the Kit. It looks cool (I forgot to take a picture or I'd put it in here), and has this neat cling that you can use to hide all but the current Week's "optional rules" if you choose to run with them. There are places to put the players' names, and (I presume) keep track of their progress. However, there is not one bit of instruction on how that (apparent) scoring section is supposed to be used! There are 6 boxes with the Nicol Bolas <i>M13</i> symbol thing in them, and 6 boxes showing (I believe) booster packs. I would assume that the former are to (somehow) keep track of match wins, and the latter to (again, somehow) keep track of additional booster packs added - but why 6 of each? One would hope many players would have more than 6 match wins if they're playing up to 5 matches per Week. And if it's supposed to somehow be linked to the Weeks, why 6 and not 5? I have no idea how I'm supposed to use this thing!<br />
<br />
Also included in the Kit, for those who are curious, were two sets of 10 Goblin Tokens (to be given to the Top 10 players in each League) and two sets of 4 Nicol Bolas mini-posters (to be given to the Top 4 players in each League).</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I will, you can be sure, write again once we have gone through a cycle to let you know how it went.</div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Suggestions for WPN on League</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I have been told that many people in WotC and WPN in particular read this blog. In the hopes that this is the case, here are some recommendations I have regarding Leagues, especially if you're really trying to get more stores to run this!</div>
<ul>
<li>There needs to be more details on the officially suggested format. Even, as I said before, if it's simply "Here are how some other stores have run League in the past..." with links to rules from past Leagues (used with permission, of course, or with any info that could identify the store removed if you need to). My single biggest barrier to giving this a try was having no idea what running a League entailed!</li>
<li>Basic information like HOW MANY WEEKS should be available earlier in the process. It seems like the 5-Week cycle for <i>M13</i> was not announced officially until the week that the Kits got released. This is too late in the process (in my opinion) - I had to rewrite rules I had already been sharing with my players because of this!</li>
<li>Explanation on how to use the score-sheet portion of the League poster would be VERY appreciated. I still am clueless on what the intended use of that is!</li>
<li>You need to be sure that TO's and store owners know <i>how</i> to sign up for the League. If I had not missed the filing deadline, I most likely would have signed up for a single League event, thinking that was all that was required of me. Only because I was working with Travis on the exception plan was I made aware that you're supposed to schedule one (at least) for each Week you're running League! This information is, to the best of my knowledge, nowhere to be found on any of the official WPN sites.</li>
<li>The <a href="http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Events.aspx?x=mtgcom/events/league-facts" target="_blank">official <i>Magic 2013</i> League site</a> says "Are You a Store Owner? For more information about running a <i><b>Magic</b> 2013</i> League, visit the information page on the WPN site." By the time this site was active, I believe, it was already too late for anyone to sanction the <i>M13</i> League (it certainly is too late now, and yet this text remains). It seems rather cruel to tease folks with the possibility of doing something that they cannot, in fact, do. It would seem to be more truthful to say "Are You a Store Owner? The next opportunity to run a League will be for our Fall set, <i>Return to Ravnica</i>. For more information about running a League, visit the information page on the WPN site."or something to that effect.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
So, what's next?</h3>
This Friday will be our second "Home Brew Standard" FNM - this time around we want to gather decklists from the players so we can publish a "Top 8" list somewhere.<br />
<br />
This weekend is the <i>Magic 2013</i> Prerelease. We are running only 2 events at each store this time, on separate days, to avoid competing with ourselves. Novel Places will host 2 on Saturday (July 7) and Beyond Comics gets 2 on Sunday (July 8).<br />
<br />
Next weekend will be the official Launch Party for <i>M13</i> at Beyond Comics (at FNM), then we'll have our "Launch Party" at Novel Places on Saturday (July 14).<br />
<br />
There are no special events (like the Helvault from <i>Avacyn Restored</i>) for <i>Magic 2013</i>'s prerelease, so there probably won't be quite as much excitement to write about this go-round, but should anything notable happen, I will be sure to chronicle it herein!<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2012/07/wpn-boy-m13-musings.html">M13 Musings</a>]<br />
<ul>
</ul>TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-44818463901480151762012-05-14T15:43:00.000-04:002015-03-30T09:51:44.312-04:00WPN Boy: Avacyn Restored RevisitedWanted to put out a quick follow-up to the last post (<a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2012/05/wpn-boy-avacyn-restored-edition-or-what.html" target="_blank">regarding the <i>Avacyn Restored</i> prereleases</a>). This one should be relatively short.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Did we make Advanced?</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Thankfully, yes! After an email to WPN, the extremely helpful Linda was able to get the two players who had dropped from the event at Beyond Comics put back in, thus allowing them to count as players 31 and 32. We therefore hit all the requirements, and both stores are officially Advanced Level now. Huzzah!</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgal2hsmsQHExNVOavQknqK98GV_didz28rNzDV_4JCtK5IxFt-3KxcgHUaRmYpUkZVDTtL85UInRWkqUMBRmtqrd0gwtbN-RGbLDLwV0mMDwC8k71nQrieF0IROEw6DPHXPiYC/s1600/Heck+Yeah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgal2hsmsQHExNVOavQknqK98GV_didz28rNzDV_4JCtK5IxFt-3KxcgHUaRmYpUkZVDTtL85UInRWkqUMBRmtqrd0gwtbN-RGbLDLwV0mMDwC8k71nQrieF0IROEw6DPHXPiYC/s400/Heck+Yeah.jpg" height="100" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Words cannot express how happy I was to see this!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
More musing on the Helvault</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
After I had posted my prerelease experience, including my thoughts on the Helvault promotion, I found out something that disturbed me a great deal.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It turns out that the "premium" Helvaults (the ones with the foil tokens, oversized cards, and extra super-expensive promos) were only given out to some Advanced Level stores (only 30 of the 6000 Helvaults sent out were premium - <a href="http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/963" target="_blank">the full story is here</a>). This means that we never even had a chance at one of the premium Helvaults, as we were not Advanced at the time.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
As I am sure none of you will be surprised at, this did NOT make me happy. Wizards of the Coast/WPN should NOT be doing promotions that would ever encourage players to pick the <i>higher</i> level stores over the lower ones. The higher level stores already have the advantage - that's how they got to the higher level in the first place! I can already see players calling up a store and saying "Hello. I'd like to preregister for your prerelease. Are you an Advanced Level store? No? Oh, sorry. Never mind."</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Now for the good news: Helene Bergeot, in a tweet in reply to my rather acerbic comments on this, said (I'm paraphrasing from memory here) "we learn from our mistakes." I take this as a positive for two reasons:</div>
<ol>
<li>It is acknowledgement that this was a mistake;</li>
<li>It indicates that (hopefully) they will not do this again.</li>
</ol>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Launch Parties</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Our Launch Party and our "Launch Party". Ah, yes. Time to discuss another recent WPN decision that I am still not happy about.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The official Launch Parties used to be on the weekend of the release of a new set. They could be scheduled for the Friday, Saturday or Sunday of that weekend. Like prereleases, the formats that could be run were a short list, but Launch Party promos were sent to stores that registered to run one. These events could be scheduled regardless of the store's WPN Level, making them a great way for a new Gateway Level site to get a big event in and help them get to Core.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Now the Launch Party promos are instead tied to the Friday Night Magic of the release date. Only if a store signs up for FNM that week do they get the special promo cards. I've <a href="http://donsmagicandsundry.blogspot.com/2012/02/wpn-boy-special-dark-ascension-edition.html" target="_blank">discussed this before</a>, but here's a quick list of the problems I've thought of (or had pointed out to me) to remind you:</div>
<ul>
<li>It leaves Gateway Level stores out of the running, since they can't run FNMs (and Launch Parties were the only "special events" a Gateway Level store could run);</li>
<li>It leaves out any store (regardless of Level) that can't (or doesn't want to) run an FNM;</li>
<li>It leaves out <i>players</i> who can't (or don't want to) attend an FNM;</li>
<li>It prevents players from attending multiple Launch Parties in a weekend (something many people like to do); </li>
<li>In my particular case it takes our Friday night Launches (which were unique in our area) and makes them generic.</li>
</ul>
We did end up with 20 players (our most comfortable maximum) at the Friday event at Beyond Comics, including a few players who had never played there before. However, the event at Novel Places the next day - our "Launch Party" (in quotes as it was not an official one) - had only 4 players (including myself). As this was a Draft event, it was not the most exciting event ever.<br />
<br />
The event had many things going against it. I had decided to run it at 3 pm, as a few players had indicated that a later start for our Saturday events would mean they could more likely make it. Of course, none of these players actually made it to this one. Second, a Draft event for a brand new format this quickly may not be that attractive to my player base. They want a bit more time to get to know the cards better before trying to draft it. Third, <i>Avacyn Restored</i> is, according to a lot of the players in my group who really like skill-intensive play, not very skill-intensive. It seems to very much be "get the big creatures in play and bash face with them." And, of course, I'm sure the lack of actual Launch Party promos did not help matters.<br />
<br />
So, I will continue (probably in vain) to hold out hope that WotC/WPN will reinstate the Launch Parties of old. They recently undid a change that was only two sets old. With <i>Dark Ascension</i> and <i>Avacyn Restored</i> they linked the Buy-a-Box promotion to the prerelease - if you signed up to run a prerelease, you were automatically signed up for the Buy-a-Box promotion as well. As of <i>Magic 2013</i> (the nest set to be released, in July), they are back to making them separate sign-ups. If they can reverse a program policy change that quickly, maybe the Launch Party change can be reversed quickly as well (although this first requires that they actually see this as being a mistake, which I have yet to see any indication of).<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2012/07/wpn-boy-league-of-our-own.html">A LEAGUE OF OUR OWN</a>]<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-53508227340054476032012-05-01T19:51:00.001-04:002015-03-30T09:49:55.203-04:00WPN Boy Avacyn Restored Edition (or, "What the Helvault?")It has been a good while since I updated this thing (for which I greatly apologize). The increase in business of late (for which I can at least partially thank running events) as well as the time and energy involved in running the actual events has left me with little free time.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Let's Play Catch-Up </h3>
<br />
A quick update of some important events since the <i>Dark Ascension</i> prerelease:<br />
<ul>
<li>On <b>February 11</b> we ran an <i>Innistrad</i>/<i>Dark Ascension</i> draft in the "haunted attic" of Novel Places (there is, purportedly, a ghost in the store). The event had 13 players. Given the horror themes in those sets, this was an event absolutely dripping with flavor.</li>
<li>In the week leading up to <b>February 24</b>, Beyond Comics moved 1 mile north along Route 355. The new space allows us to hold somewhat larger events than the old space. More importantly it allows us to hold events in the main section of the store (as there is no back storage room like in the old site) so we don't quite feel like second class citizens any more!</li>
<li>The <i>Dark Ascension</i> Game Day attendance (<b>February 25</b>) was poor (only 6 players at Beyond Comics, and 9 at Novel Places). This was mostly due to the fact that there was a Grand Prix in Baltimore this weekend, and we lost a lot of players to that larger event.</li>
<li>On <b>March 15</b>, I helped my fellow TO at the Frederick branch of Beyond Comics get up to Core Level in time to run their own <i>Avacyn Restored</i> prerelease. When I tweeted an advertisement about it, this popped up in my feed:</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center" data-in-reply-to="179221492477857793">
@<a href="https://twitter.com/TheSundry">TheSundry</a> Great initiative! BTW, we'd like to invite you to share your views with us at GenCon. Plane ticket and hotel on us! @<a href="https://twitter.com/mtgaaron">mtgaaron</a><br />
— Helene Bergeot (@HeleneBergeot) <a data-datetime="2012-03-12T16:04:24+00:00" href="https://twitter.com/HeleneBergeot/status/179236410358890497">March 12, 2012</a></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Yes, you read that correctly. I have been invited to GenCon. By the Director of Organized Play. I was jittery with excitement for a good hour after that one.</li>
<li>On <b>March 16</b>, Beyond Comics had an FNM hit 25 players, a record
attendance for either store. This prompted me to check on how close the
stores were to getting to Advanced Level in the WPN, and it turned out
both were crazy close. The big hurdle was an event with 32+ players.
This, I felt, we could pull off with the <i>Avacyn Restored</i> prereleases. More on that to come.</li>
<li>On <b>March 23</b> we had our largest (to date) Two-Headed Giant Sealed Deck event. 8 teams competed - a good deal more than the 3 teams we had at our first such event!</li>
<li>On <b>April 20</b>, we ran out very first "Home Brew" Standard event at FNM. The plan is to do this at least 4 times a year (the last Standard event before a new set is released). The description of the event for players was: "As this is our last Standard event before the new set (<i>Avacyn Restored</i>) is released, participants are STRONGLY encouraged to bring decks of their own creation. No netdecking; no copying the "best deck" from last weekend's big event. While we of course cannot REQUIRE you to do this, those who fail to join in the spirit of the event risk taunting, shunning, ill will and cooties." The event was VERY well received by the community, and VERY well attended. Some folks, who had never been to the store before, came out to this BECAUSE it was Home Brew. Amazing.</li>
<li>Novel Places has moved - one floor up. The week before the <i>Avacyn Restored</i> Prerelease, Patrick had to move his entire store to the second floor of the building (the "haunted attic"). My sons and I helped him move for several hours on Monday (<b>April 23</b>) and again on Thursday (<b>April 26</b>). Not quite as bad as it would have been to have to pack up a truck and move to an entirely new location, I suppose, but extremely tiring work nonetheless.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
The Drama Beforehand </h3>
And that brings us up to the Avacyn Restored prerelease weekend (<b>April 28 & 29</b>). As I mentioned before, each store needed to get an event with 32+ players in order to reach Advanced Level. Novel Places also needed to get (at the time I checked, March 21) an additional 6 unique players.<br />
<br />
To review, here are the hoops a store must jump through within a 12-month period to get to Advanced Level:<br />
<ul>
<li>Report a minimum of 20 tournaments</li>
<li> Maintain a delinquency rate of less than 10%</li>
<li> Have a minimum of 100 unique people playing in your reported events</li>
<li> Run and report a single tournament with 32 players or more</li>
<li> Introduce 20 new players to WPN events</li>
</ul>
I had never really planned on getting either store to Advanced Level (I never really thought we had any realistic chance of doing so), but to realize we were so close I decided we needed to try. There are many benefits to being at Advanced Level. The biggest is greater support in terms of prizes (extra promos in Gateway Kits, extra Helvaults or whatever the next great idea from WPN is) and greater access to premium products (an Advanced Level store can order more copies of From the Vaults than a Core Level store can, for example). So, I decided we needed to give this a try.<br />
<br />
With the announcement of the Helvault promotion for the <i>Avacyn Restored</i> Prereleases, I decided that our best chance at trying to get 32+ players was to do so for that event. After a great deal of soul-searching (and an attempt to poll the player base), I decided that we would repeat the schedule of the <i>Dark Ascension</i> Prerelease weekend, with 2 events at each store on Saturday, and one at each store on Sunday. The Sunday events would be the Helvault events, and our shot at the epic 32.<br />
<br />
A whole lot of planning went into this. The March 16 FNM proved that we could not handle 32 players at the new location of Beyond Comics (it was <i>literally</i> standing-room only at 25 players). And Novel Places (in its original first-floor configuration) would not be able to handle more than 20, and even that would be a bit tight. I had the thought that the two stores could work together to find a single large venue that could hold the events, one in the morning and one in the mid-to-late afternoon.<br />
<br />
Our first attempt at a solution looked good initially. A customer at Beyond Comics works at (or runs? owns? I was never 100% sure) a martial arts training facility. They have lots of room, and only have one early class on Sundays. Early contacts seemed positive, but I never got replies to my emails asking for further information on how we could run things, and it was getting to where we HAD to start advertising where the event was going to be, so I jumped to Plan B.<br />
<br />
At this point in the story, Patrick had found out he would need to move his store upstairs. The new arrangement would allow for four of the tables we usually use for events (which hold 2 matches comfortably, 3 if we get really friendly), in two rows of two (which would allow for 10 marches if one were held on the adjacent ends of the two tables. That takes care of 20 players. If Beyond Comics could provide a couple of more tables and chairs, we could handle the additional 12 players in what was to become the common area on the second floor (kinda hard to describe without an architectural layout of the store here). The idea I had was that we could hold both events in this space, with Novel Places essentially donating the space to the venture, while Beyond Comics donated the tables and chairs needed to get to 32 seats.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, this plan was not quite met with enthusiasm by Beyond Comics' owner, so he came up with Plan C. Novel Places could hold their event in this new space (but would have to find tables & chairs to finish things off on their own), while Beyond Comics held theirs in their old location, the lease on which they still have until June (or whenever the mall management can find a new tenant). They are using it as a $1 comic shop, but only actively use the front half of the retail space, leaving the back half (and the old storage area where we used to hold our events) open and available. Beyond Comics would get more tables and chairs to finish off what they needed. To make things easier, we decided to just run all the weekend's events (FNM on April 27, the 2 Prereleases on April 28 and the Prerelease on April 29) at that site, rather than try to move all the tables & chairs Saturday night.<br />
<br />
Side note: As I was working on Plan A, I realized that if we were going to get traffic from the Wizards Event Locator (the number one answer when I ask new players "how did you learn about us?"), it would be extremely important to have the correct address for the event in there. Unfortunately, I had to register the event about a month or more in advance, before I knew where the event was to be held! So while awaiting word from the martial arts studio, I contacted WPN and added an event location to both Novel Places and Beyond Comics. That remote location is now permanently an option when I go to sanction an event, so I need to be careful and make sure that it is not selected (it's actually the default for Novel Places, which is incredibly annoying, and I would change it in a second if I knew how to). Then when we went to Plan C, I had to add the $1 comic shop address in for Beyond Comics (which I found funny since it was the old address that used to be in the system!). Then, I had to call WPN customer support and get the event location switched to the new sites. A special Thanks to Jamie for his assistance with that matter!<br />
<br />
My buddy Craig agreed to run the events at Beyond Comics on Saturday for me while I ran the two at Novel Places. Then he more amazingly agreed (and his wife as well, which is even MORE amazing) to come out on Sunday and help me run both of the huge events, as I came to the realization that I would need help to run events this big.<br />
<br />
In other news, local Magic celebrity Adam Styborski agreed to come out to the event at Beyond Comics (and even gave a mention to it in <a href="http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/sf/192" target="_blank">his weekly article</a> on Daily MTG). Jason Clark (@RealEvilGenius on Twitter, and member of the Brewport Avenue podcast) also jumped in to help, rounding up two friends and making the 3 hour drive out to be at both events on Sunday. To help entice folks further north, Patrick ordered chocolate 20-sided dice from <a href="http://dicecandies.com/" target="_blank">DiceCandies.com</a> to be handed out to players at the Novel Places event.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
The Actual Prereleases </h3>
<br />
So, Saturday arrived and I head to Novel Places. As an added bonus twist, Patrick had a huge conference to go to this weekend, so his part-time volunteer "employee" Jim was on duty during the events. Patrick had a heck of a busy week! I ended up playing in both events to make it an even number (I was hoping to play in one or the other - didn't intend to do both). We had 12 players at the first, and 14 at the second. Meanwhile, Craig ran Beyond Comics' events, with 10 and 8 players. We had expected the Saturday events to be small, as we didn't have the Helvault promotion that day.<br />
<br />
For those who care about such things, I got a killer RG deck in my first pool, and smashed face to go 3-0. My favorite moment was having 3x Kruin Striker on the field, then casting 2x Thatcher Revolt. Good. Game. The afternoon event my pool was not as impressive, and I honestly can't remember if I went 2-2 or 3-1 (we had enough time to get in 4 rounds in the afternoon).<br />
<br />
Then came Sunday. I was extremely nervous, as we had only 26 pre-registrations at Beyond Comics and 20 at Novel Places as of Sunday morning. As it turns out, I has some cause to be concerned. To get out 32, Craig and I had to each join in at Beyond Comics. Two players showed up to show support for the cause, but couldn't stay. They paid their entry fee but left when it was time for Round 1 (after getting their product and opening with everyone else). To avoid essentially giving two players a Bye in Round 1, I dropped these two players from the event before creating the matches. This becomes important later (oooh! Foreshadowing!).<br />
<br />
Everyone had a BLAST! Most of the players really got into the spirit of the whole Helvault promotion, trying to get achievements knocked off so they could break seals. It's the first time I have seen anyone really bother with the achievement cards (which I've handed out at several events now). So that part of the Helvault promotion was successful. WPN/WotC finally found a way to get more people to care about those. By this point in time, rumors were circulating that some of the Helvaults were "juiced" with extra bonus materials, and we eagerly awaited opening ours to see what it contained. Alas, it was one of the "normal" Helvaults. But I believe a fun time was had by all. Adam tweeted the following afterwards:<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center">
2-0-1 for 5 packs. Played out 3rd round after signing the draw; was crushed easily. Worst pool ever, best Prerelease ever. Weird day.<br />
— Adam Styborski (@the_stybs) <a data-datetime="2012-04-29T18:35:15+00:00" href="https://twitter.com/the_stybs/status/196668986673475585">April 29, 2012</a></blockquote>
<script charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js">
</script><br />
<br />
I did my utmost to sell the afternoon event, promising that Patrick would honor the 10% discount he normally reserves for preregistrations, reminding about the chocolate dice, and suggesting that the odds of his Helvault being premium went up when it turned out Beyond Comics' was not one. One or more of the above worked, and a couple of players headed north who hadn't been planning on it, and some even phoned a friend or two and convinced them to come out.<br />
<br />
As I was setting up the afternoon event, I had a nagging thought and checked the email I was sent from WPN when I submitted the morning event. There I saw something that nearly had me in tears. "Number of Players: 30" The two players who I had dropped before Round 1 didn't count. We had not reached our goal as I had thought. I quickly made up my mind to not make that mistake again (we had the same situation at Novel Places), and I put those players in Round 1 but dropped them after that. I have contacted WPN to see if anything can be done about the earlier event. I sincerely hope that we did not miss getting Advanced Level because of this, after all the work and effort that went into making that event happen.<br />
<br />
Conditions were quite crowded at Novel Places. The owner of the building had not moved all of the stuff she was supposed to move out of the "common area" so we were forced to set up tables in a rather narrow hallway, and players were cramped. Fortunately the new tenant on the ground floor had set up three tables for us to use, allowing us to have a "feature match" area that helped alleviate some of the overcrowding. Again, players really got into the achievement thing (one player, after playing a Legendary permanent, went on a run through the whole store, high-fiving everyone so they could check that one off their lists). Again, the Helvault was not "premium", but the extra goodies were appreciated (especially by the younger players at this event - we had 5 players aged 8-14 among the 32).<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
My Thoughts on the Helvault</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I've made it my policy to always say what I really think in this blog. If the WPN does something praiseworthy (their [in my opinion] extraordinary customer support, for example), I'm sure to mention it. On the other hand, if I think something is not so good (like the change to do away with Launch Parties outside of FNMs), I'm sure to point that out as well. The Helvault promotion is, in my mind, a little of both.<br />
<br />
Ironically, I think the Helvault promotion both helped us and hindered us, attendance-wise. I think it definitely helped bring people out to our Sunday events. I'm fairly certain that without it, we could not have hit our 32 player goal. On the other hand, I believe our Saturday event attendances were WAY down, as we <i>didn't</i> have the Helvault at those events. So, in other words, the promotion only helped the events that had one. Advanced Level stores got two Helvaults each, making them even more appealing against those of us who only got one (and yes, the irony of using the Helvault to make Advanced Level myself is not lost on me).<br />
<br />
The biggest mistake, in my opinion, was running some of the Helvaults as "premium". In some cases, the Helvaults contained prom cards worth ~$100 each. They also contained special foil versions of the promo cards given out in the normal Helvaults. Everything in the premium Helvaults was better than the normal Helvault equivalent (with the exception of the spin-down life counter as far as I know). Here are my thoughts on why this was a mistake:<br />
<ul>
<li>They didn't let anybody know in advance. Yes, the contents of the Helvaults were supposed to be kept secret, but it is naive in the extreme to think that it would remain so. A week and a half before the prerelease, the contents of a Helvault were spoiled. God help WotC if the spoiled one had happened to be one of the premium ones! If everyone came rushing to the events expecting $100 promo cards and instead just got what was in the normal Helvault, I think there would have been rioting and lynching of the tournament organizers.</li>
<li>As a corollary to the above: if you know there's a chance of getting the special prize, and you don't, you feel disappointed, but you knew it was only a small chance anyway. If, on the other hand, you find out about the chance afterwards, you feel angry and cheated. Don't ask me why - it's just how the brain works (or at least how it seems to work for most of us).</li>
<li>EVERYTHING about the premium Helvault contents was better. Foil tokens. FOIL TOKENS! Something that we have never seen before (yet many/most folks would love to get) and only a select few sites get them. In my opinion it would have been much better to put the money that was spent on the major bonus (the $100 promos, etc) and put it towards making every Helvault "premium light" (like foil tokens in all of them, for example).</li>
</ul>
On the other end, I've heard of some stores/TOs doing some things I consider to be shady:<br />
<ul>
<li>The store that spoiled the contents early. If their story is to be believed, their Helvault was damaged during shipping. But you know what? THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO SPOIL IT ON THE INTERNET! I was extremely ticked off when this happened. </li>
<li>Some stores were charging more for their Helvault events than their non-Helvault ones. REALLY, people? We were given the Helvaults FREE OF CHARGE! There is no excuse beyond "I can" for charging more for that event. Some think it's good business. I think it's dirt-baggery. </li>
<li>Even worse, I have heard of one store where the premium judge promos in their premium Helvault were taken out and SOLD! I can only hope that (if true), this site has all WPN privileges revoked.</li>
</ul>
So, unfortunately, there were problems on both ends with the promotion. That said, I applaud WotC/WPN for trying it nonetheless. I love the fact that they are trying to make the Prereleases more of an experience than your run-of-the-mill Sealed Deck tournament. These events <i>should</i> be special, and cause lasting (positive) memories for months/years to come. While I think things about this promotion could have been done better, I have high hopes that lessons will be learned, and whatever goodies they have in store for future Prereleases will be even better.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
Wrapping Things Up</h3>
So, here's where we stand right now. Novel Places should be Advanced Level (although that officially doesn't happen until Thursday, I think, when the WPN system syncs - it still shows as "Core" in the WER right now). Beyond Comics, I'm less sure of. I'm hopeful that the problem of the 2 dropped players can be resolved.<br />
<br />
This week we have our Launch Party FNM at Beyond Comics, and our "Launch Party" (minus the promos) at Novel Places on Saturday. I'm running the Novel Places one as a Draft in the hopes that this will entice more players out who want to see what the <i>Avacyn Restored</i> Draft environment is like.<br />
<br />
I have decided that running 3 Prerelease events is a bad idea. When the stores compete against each other, everyone loses. So, I need to figure out what the best schedule is to satisfy the most people involved. If I run one event at each store on Saturday and the same on Sunday, I will likely lose some of the folks who like to come to one place and make a whole day of it. On the other hand, if I run two events and one store on Saturday, and two at the other store on Sunday, I'm likely shooting the second store in the foot, as Sunday attendance is generally lighter (barring some massive promotion and incentive like the Helvault this go-round). I'm really not sure what the best solution here is, unfortunately.<br />
<br />
I will try to get a quick post up after this weekend, with my thoughts on the Launch Parties, and (hopefully) the resolution of the "did Beyond Comics make Advanced or not?" issue.<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2012/05/wpn-boy-avacyn-restored-revisited.html">AVR REVISITED</a>]</div>
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</script>TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-35510972719971199922012-02-18T17:21:00.001-05:002012-02-18T17:33:37.788-05:00Red Monkey's Planeswalker Messenger Bag: A ReviewA while back (shortly after they were announced in <a href="http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/887" target="_blank">this Arcana</a> on the Daily MTG "mothership"), I placed an order from Red Monkey for a Planeswalker Messenger bag. At the time I ordered it, I promised a full review of it to my Twitter followers, as we were all curious as to whether it was really deserving of the $50 price tag. Here, at long last, is that promised review of the bag (the item page of which is <a href="http://www.redmonkeydesigns.com/planeswalker-bag-blue/" target="_blank">here</a>).<br />
<br />
First I will comment on the service aspect. It took a LONG time (in my opinion) from order to final shipping. I suppose it is possible that either:<br />
<ul><li>they make these bags on an as-needed basis, and it takes a while to construct, so there's a delay; or</li>
<li>they were overwhelmed with orders after getting the top spot on the aforementioned Arcana article</li>
</ul>Regardless, I will just state that I ordered on January 18, and the bag shipped on January 30, arriving via UPS on February 3. I cannot say whether this is a normal turn-around time for them or unusual. Your mileage may vary.<br />
<br />
Now as for the product itself, here's what I can say. It seems quite sturdily constructed, and seems (so far) like it will hold up to a great deal of use and wear. Of course, as I have had it less than a month, I cannot be absolutely certain of this.<br />
<br />
My biggest complaint about the product page (and the reason I decided to write this review) is that it was very difficult to get an idea of what the bag was like, exactly. They only show one image of the bag, and that's with it closed. I am a man who loves pockets, and I wanted to see what the various compartments looked like, and just couldn't do so in this case. I took it on faith that the thing would be useful, and figured that if I started using it to lug my netbooks around for the events I TO for I could at least write it off as a business expense!<br />
<br />
Some photos for you, with comments added to flesh out the review...<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCgFFrCcRsCN464M5FyN-v_9-o1jdOTiglpEPQJfiQLIyb4pkZHOKbk6aZozDbCJ7fH3OEJOzcEcRNXDFw2IrftmM42bvY_Ay686nADgAOyut0f7JJ6d9bdNSSfd8QoubXE5im/s1600/Full+Bag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCgFFrCcRsCN464M5FyN-v_9-o1jdOTiglpEPQJfiQLIyb4pkZHOKbk6aZozDbCJ7fH3OEJOzcEcRNXDFw2IrftmM42bvY_Ay686nADgAOyut0f7JJ6d9bdNSSfd8QoubXE5im/s400/Full+Bag.jpg" width="253" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Planeswalker Messenger Bag</td></tr>
</tbody></table> So here's a shot of the full bag. The strap is quite adjustable, and comfortable on the shoulder (it's nice and wide, so doesn't dig in). The large flap on the front gets held in place by two Velcro strips.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1V0U1VAPodWYn7BpfobScCQeLRa7Hrz1kolf4SP9h-jTOUWDEqdcjzsbm1n1U-q-ilbZtX2RH9l1fMUSsJKNJB5qbTI0R53H9pIWZZBYFe3ZzRw5u4J93MrBuEiOhBy-f5gk/s1600/Bag+Open.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1V0U1VAPodWYn7BpfobScCQeLRa7Hrz1kolf4SP9h-jTOUWDEqdcjzsbm1n1U-q-ilbZtX2RH9l1fMUSsJKNJB5qbTI0R53H9pIWZZBYFe3ZzRw5u4J93MrBuEiOhBy-f5gk/s400/Bag+Open.jpg" width="303" /> </a></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td><td style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flap open</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You can see the Velcro strips in this shot. Note that the strips on the inside of the flap run horizontally, while the ones on the front of the bag are vertical. Presumably this is so that if the bag is stuffed full, and the flap can't hang down as far, it can still connect with the Velcro on the bag.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If this picture you can also see the four smaller pockets of the bag. There are two on the front, and one on each side. More on these later.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoasnTtjK2gJPc3dD1tb5aK5Ul4IjPC0wNqBPWDGFaGmT6ihQE8HR0wlYsME-53USPu5g73D2ityLqdqZ2rXOt_6xqY6QkA55qHDNTDgULWAlCo6c3aEftzoyPLqX0Rm-i7Jq2/s1600/Big+Main+Pocket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoasnTtjK2gJPc3dD1tb5aK5Ul4IjPC0wNqBPWDGFaGmT6ihQE8HR0wlYsME-53USPu5g73D2ityLqdqZ2rXOt_6xqY6QkA55qHDNTDgULWAlCo6c3aEftzoyPLqX0Rm-i7Jq2/s400/Big+Main+Pocket.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The interior</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So here's the bag's main compartment. Note the small extra zippered pocket attached to the back of the main section. It's not that large, but would be good for pens, random loose dice, life pads, that sort of thing. I use it for the USB-charger for my cell phone, a pen or two, and some spare business cards and stickers :)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgljlA6EXtUq_oomgpxSFurnbRjgwVIcWu4-gA37gZOtPr6BHCHcMDQCu-yr02k4IEeWqGTixS27ji_-dYIcwdKHAuTrwj5fGYskKduJrL7MVhJ6R5lzAVuxD7OghJNdfj2Ql5E/s1600/Full+Bag+Open.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgljlA6EXtUq_oomgpxSFurnbRjgwVIcWu4-gA37gZOtPr6BHCHcMDQCu-yr02k4IEeWqGTixS27ji_-dYIcwdKHAuTrwj5fGYskKduJrL7MVhJ6R5lzAVuxD7OghJNdfj2Ql5E/s400/Full+Bag+Open.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Open wide!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The bag's base actually sits flat, so when fully opened the bag can stand at attention. Once anything's put in here, of course, it will tip over to one side or the other unless said item can stand on its own as well. But as you can see there's plenty of space in here for trade binders or smaller boxes of cards (an 800-ct long box is just a bit too long, but anything smaller should fit nicely). The base of the bag is right about the width (front to back) of a typical card storage box.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My two netbooks, a mouse pad, and a playmat fit quite nicely with room to spare.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhccie_TuaQXPzOUDgxaaqL97s2Z4APS8CH41PmGyVkDTZ6YZNrHpW6mqUZJC_NJse9n2eh34UXqRjWJBVwbSp7MC6lv-I5uY3Tsf-q_k_w2xTMCIBVT2iEIMDi10WMLjo-8X4y/s1600/Side+Snap+Pocket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhccie_TuaQXPzOUDgxaaqL97s2Z4APS8CH41PmGyVkDTZ6YZNrHpW6mqUZJC_NJse9n2eh34UXqRjWJBVwbSp7MC6lv-I5uY3Tsf-q_k_w2xTMCIBVT2iEIMDi10WMLjo-8X4y/s400/Side+Snap+Pocket.jpg" width="343" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Side pocket snap-action</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Finally, my main interest - the pockets. The two side pockets are too small to fit the Ultra Pro magnetic flip boxes that I prefer (see <a href="http://www.ultrapro.com/product_info.php/cPath/33_58_75_78/products_id/274" target="_blank">here</a> for an example of what I mean) but the two front ones are large enough to accommodate those. The side pockets can, however, fit the smaller plastic deckboxes (like <a href="http://www.ultrapro.com/product_info.php/cPath/33_58_75_78/products_id/265" target="_blank">these</a>). The side pockets have (as you can see in the photo) a snap to close them off, a feature the front pockets do not have.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I use the front and side pockets for power cords & corded mice to go with the netbooks.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, would I personally use this as my "gaming bag"? Probably not. I'm not one to tote around trade binders, nor do I bring boxes of cards to things. I generally travel with several decks, which would either be banging around together in the copious main compartment, or I'd be limited to 4 decks (2 of which would have to be in smaller deck boxes) if I used only the outer pockets. For me, something like <a href="http://www.ultrapro.com/product_info.php/cPath/33_83_55/products_id/532" target="_blank">this</a> is better.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">HOWEVER - that said, I DO think that this bag would work for a LOT of other gamers out there, from what I have seen at the events I host. If you're heading to an event, and only going to be bringing 1 or 2 decks with you, plus binders of cards to trade...I honestly think that this bag could do very well for you.</div><br />
Now - is it worth $50 plus shipping? That I can only leave up to you to decide.TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-90540684437795688742012-02-06T22:25:00.000-05:002015-03-30T09:49:20.224-04:00WPN Boy (Special Dark Ascension Edition)Okay, I am going to abandon my usual format for this special edition of WPN boy. Below are my reflections from organizing & running 6 Prerelease events and 2 Launch Parties for the newest set, <i>Dark Ascension</i> (hereinafter referred to as "DKA" for simplicity). As usual, this post will assume that you are already somewhat familiar with my situation from reading the Road to WPN series (which begins <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html" target="_blank">here</a>) and previous entries in the WPN Boy series (which begins <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/11/wpn-boy-part-1.html" target="_blank">here</a>).<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: x-large;">Prerelease</span></div>
To begin with, this is the first set where stores at the Core level as we are were allowed to run 3 Prereleases. This was the first Prerelease that Novel Places was eligible to run (we got that store up to Core Level shortly after the deadline for registering to run a Prerelease for <i>Innistrad</i> ("ISD" from this point on). This meant that, between the two stores, I would be able to register to run 6 different Prereleases. My struggle over what to do with this has already been covered (<a href="http://donsmagicandsundry.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-wpn-part-24.html" target="_blank">here</a>). We ended up running two events at each store on Saturday (with my friend Craig running the two at Novel Places for me that day) and one event at each store on Sunday.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Attendance</b></div>
The two events on Saturday at Beyond Comics were extremely well attended, with 19 players at the morning event, and 20 at the afternoon event (we can only seat 20 under our current conditions - this may change in the near future as the store is moving to a new location).<br />
<br />
Novel Places, on the other hand, had only 6 players at each event, meaning that each event had to be run as a Casual Event as far as the WER is concerned.<br />
<br />
Sunday's events were also low, with only 5 players at Beyond Comics in the morning, and 6 at Novel Places in the afternoon.<br />
<br />
I now find myself struggling to decide what to do with the next set's Prerelease. I feel that running simultaneous events at both stores hurt the attendance at Novel Places. I don't know if the solution is to run 1 event at each site each day, or to run two events at one store Saturday and two at the other store on Sunday (which will almost certainly result in lower attendance for whoever gets the Sunday slot). The latter has merit, however, as roughly 50% of the players at the afternoon event at Beyond Comics were holdovers from the morning event - they just came and made a day of it. I'm not sure if they all would have been willing to drive 10 miles further up or down I-270 to the other store for the second event.<br />
<br />
This is about the only time when I really don't like being the TO for two separate stores - I am obligated to try to maximize what's best for both stores, and I'm not sure how to do that. Jon (store owner for Beyond Comics) has recommended that I poll our players and see what they think should be done, which I think is an excellent idea. Now I just need to draft said document and figure out the best way to get it out to everyone.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Monsters vs. Humans</b></div>
This prerelease had a gimmick built into it (by WPN, not me). We were to randomly assign players to be "Monsters" for the start of the event (1 player in each tribe: Vampire, Werewolf, Zombie, and Spirit). Everyone else was a Human. Each time a Monster beat a Human, that Human joined that Monster's tribe. At the end of the event, each surviving Human and each member of the tribe with the most members was to receive a special prize.<br />
<br />
Sounded good on the surface, and I think the players really got into it (the number of "Team Spirit" and "Lone Wolf" jokes alone was phenomenal). But I had the following problems with it:<br />
<ol>
<li>This was thrust upon the stores with no prize support to back it up. It was up to the store to come up with the prize for this contest. Neither store was ready to put anything up (we found out about this only a week or so before the event), so I ended up creating a coupon to hand out as a prize (see below). I think that inventing a special promotion is great - but don't announce it to the locations a week before the event and say "oh, by the way, you need to fork out a prize for this." [It appears that this may be fixed as of the next set - more on this in a future entry - but if you'd like a preview, <a href="http://www.wizards.com/ContentResources/Wizards/Sales/Solicitations/2012_02_05_AVRSolicitation_Solicitation_en_US.pdf" target="_blank">check this out</a>].</li>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4UOu8wtiW9gbma53hUfvwyZkhdxMziKFhCpNBQaWXL4iFBdPQzZzESteiVBgvQZH_5FJtFv8jcjuf5lyRaA6FT24tb6ly0cI1bXKCMT8m-tm2JH-XJNRvfjh-jvCZ-uNflCY/s1600/Coupon.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4UOu8wtiW9gbma53hUfvwyZkhdxMziKFhCpNBQaWXL4iFBdPQzZzESteiVBgvQZH_5FJtFv8jcjuf5lyRaA6FT24tb6ly0cI1bXKCMT8m-tm2JH-XJNRvfjh-jvCZ-uNflCY/s400/Coupon.jpg" height="301" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Better than nothing, I suppose!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<li> I had misread the instruction sheet initially, and I thought that only the winning tribe was supposed to get anything. But the directions were for the winning tribe AND any surviving Humans. In our experience, at least, this meant that the majority of players "won". We had, for example, only 1 Werewolf, 2 Zombies, 2 Spirits and 3 Vampires at the first event (if memory serves me correctly). This meant that 11 players were still Humans. So 11 Humans + 3 Vampires = 14 out of 19 players "won" this competition. That's a lot of prizes to give out (and, possibly, hurt feelings among the only 5 people who didn't "win"). For a company that creates games, I think this one was put together rather poorly.</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Prize Support</b></div>
This is the biggest problem I had with my experience. When Beyond Comics ran Prerelease for ISD, we were only allowed to run two events. We ran two on the Saturday (1 Sealed Deck, 1 Booster Draft - the latter of which is no longer allowed as of DKA). For prize support, the store was sent two "Prerelease Kits", which included a batch of Prerelease promo cards, some other goodies, and (most importantly) a free booster box of ISD to be used as extra packs in the prize pool.<br />
<br />
I assumed (yeah, yeah) that, since we were running three events this time, we would get <i>three</i> "Prerelease Kits". NOPE! Core Level stores, from what I have since learned, get two kits, regardless of the number of events they are running (maybe if we only ran 1 event we'd only get 1 kit - not sure on that).<br />
<br />
And then we get to the worst mistake: this one by me. Note that I may very well be getting myself in trouble for this, as I am willingly admitting that I broke an agreement with WotC/WPN (although not knowingly at the time). I can only hope that they will be understanding (or that I am wrong in my current understanding of how things are supposed to run).<br />
<br />
I had understood that the free boxes we were sent was to be <i>additional</i> prize packs for the pool (2 packs per player is the instruction given). We usually have 2 packs per player in a prize pool, and 4 seemed overly generous, so we ran 3.5 packs per player in the pool. This is how I ran the ISD Prereleases, and also how I planned to run the DKA ones. This, however, gave us two problems:<br />
<ol>
<li>Since we were only given 2 boxes for free, the "2 per player" ran out <i>during</i> the second event (two boxes of 36 packs only supports a total of 36 players, and we had 19 and 20 at Beyond Comics that first day).</li>
<li>We actually ran low on DKA packs to the point where, for the second event, I felt I needed to modify my policy and limit the prizes to 4 packs of Dark Ascension per winner (any additional packs were ISD instead). So, for example, a player who got 12 match points (going 4-0-0 in our 4-round event) would win 7 packs: 4 DKA and 3 ISD.</li>
</ol>
My understanding now, however, is that the prize packs given to us by WotC/WPN in the Prerelease Kit were supposed to be the ONLY packs of DKA in the prize pool. We were welcome to supplement the prize pool with other non-DKA items, but that is it for DKA.<br />
<br />
So here's what I don't get. If we are supposed to limit ourselves to only the 2 boxes we received, and we're supposed to put in 2 packs per player, and we're allowed to run 3 events...we're only expected to average 12 players per event? Something seems VERY wrong here, and I'm hoping against hope that someone official from WotC/WPN can tell me I've misunderstood something.<br />
<br />
What's also confusing is the Prerelease promos. Each Prerelease Kit comes with 24 promos, so we got 48 promos for each store. At 3 events per store, that's an average of 16 promos per event. This does not match the 12 players per event of the booster packs. Why don't these numbers match up? [Add to the confusion: The "Helvault" promotion mentioned in the <i>Avacyn Restored</i> solicitation supposedly supports up to 54 players: an average of 18 players per event if a store runs 3 events! None of these numbers match up!]<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: x-large;">Launch Party</span></div>
The Launch Parties were EXTREMELY successful for us. Beyond Comics ran theirs on Friday night in lieu of an FNM that week, and had a full house of 20 people (we even had to turn some folks away as we had run out of room). Novel Places' event on Saturday brought in 12 players (and some additional "railbirds"), and helped Novel Places to set not only a new single-day sales record, but a weekly sales record (beating out the week of Christmas, 2011). A blast of a time was had by all, and I was extremely pleased with how everything turned out.<br />
<br />
And if I had written this blog entry this weekend (as I had originally hoped), this would probably have ended right here.<br />
<br />
But, unfortunately, I awoke this morning to read <a href="http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/181a" target="_blank">this article</a> on the Daily MTG "mothership" this morning. Helene Bergeot, Director of Organized Play announced that, essentially, Launch Parties are done. There will be no official events using this name, and the special promo cards that used to go with said event will only be distributed at FNM the night of the release day.<br />
<br />
It was somewhat unclear whether the promo cards could be used, for example, on a Saturday event instead (like we just did this past weekend). So I emailed her using the link at the bottom of the article, and she kindly replied later in the day (kudos to her for the quick response!):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Your assumption is absolutely correct - moving forward, in order to get access to the LP promos, a store will have to schedule an FNM that day. We want FNM to be a great place for players to join their local community & enjoy playing Magic and this is why we want to make a big deal out of the very first FNM of a new set.<br />
If one of the stores you TO for doesn't run FNM, it may just be the perfect opportunity to get started.<br />
<br />
With that said, we want to continue offering great events (sealed or draft) to the players this very first weekend, but in a much more flexible way than for the prerelease. The local stores and TOs are in the best position to evaluate which events will be the best ones for their player community.<br />
<br />
So, we certainly want to encourage stores and TOs to run lots of events the weekend a new set launches. But as for any other FNM promo cards, these additional promos are meant to be used during FNM.</blockquote>
This confirmed it. We will not be able to do what we did just this past weekend for both stores. The only way that both stores can participate is to have both stores run FNM that week. Of course for us this is a problem, as there has thus far been a "gentleman's agreement" between the stores that Beyond Comics gets FNM, and Novel Places gets regular Saturday-afternoon events. Since the two stores are so close to each other, directly competing seems counter-productive (not to mention the fact that I can't be in two places at once!).<br />
<br />
True, we can continue to run a special event at Novel Places on the Saturday after a release day, but it will not be the same (the loss of the promo is part of it, but more importantly the loss of folks finding us through the Wizards Event Locator looking for a local Launch Party). <br />
<br />
On the larger scale, this policy shift bothers me because it leaves so many players and locations out in the cold.<br />
<ul>
<li>FNM is only available to Core and Advanced level stores. Launch Parties were available to Gateway-level stores, and were a chance for such stores to draw a big crowd, and help them get up to Core level. It's now that much harder to level up.</li>
<li>Many, many people either cannot attend (jobs, family commitments, what-have-you) or choose not to attend (date night, anyone?) FNM. But these people would like to participate in Launch Parties.</li>
</ul>
All in all, I'm very disappointed with this change, to put it mildly. I certainly hope that this, like a few other policy changes that got quickly overhauled after negative player response, gets changed soon.<br />
<br />
Okay, that's all for this installment. I should get another normal edition of WPN Boy out before too much longer (I have many Diary entries already, and even some Q's to A). Here's hoping that in that entry I can report a Launch Party policy shift...<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2012/05/wpn-boy-avacyn-restored-edition-or-what.html">"WHAT THE HELVAULT?"</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-73203060336365237172012-01-05T19:12:00.001-05:002015-03-30T09:48:52.912-04:00WPN Boy (Part 3)[This is part 3 in a series, and assumes that you've already read <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/11/wpn-boy-part-1.html">Part 1</a> and <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/12/wpn-boy-part-2.html">Part 2</a> (not to mention the entire Road to WPN series, which begins <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html">here</a>)]<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: medium;">Q&A Session</span></b> </div>
<br />
I'm afraid no-one has sent me any questions (via email, or comments on the blog), so there's no Q's for me to A this time :( I will say that the comments from last time about having a Draft-training session some time sounds like a mighty fine idea. Lord knows I could use it!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">DIARY OF A WPN KID</b></span> </div>
<b>December 27, 2011</b>: I'm a little frustrated with WotC's Customer Service right now. I emailed trying to find the answer to a question that I just can't seem to get an official answer on. Namely: how many booster packs of <i>Innistrad</i> and <i>Dark Ascension</i> are used to do a Sealed Deck event? My thinking (and I don't know where this comes from) is that at the prerelease it's 3 packs each, then for regular events it would be 4 packs of <i>Innistrad</i> and 2 of <i>Dark Ascension</i>.<br />
<br />
When I posed the question via the WotC Customer Service interface (remember: I can no longer directly email my WPN "handler", Brian), I got a VERY speedy reply (even though it was around 9:30 pm my time) which was pleasantly surprising. Less so, however, was their response, which directed me to the sales announcements for <i>Dark Ascension</i>. These documents did not have the answers I needed, so I wrote back and thanked them for the quick response, but stated that I didn't get the answer I needed.<br />
<br />
The reason I need this answer is so that I can advise Patrick and Jon as to how much product of the two sets they need to order for the events coming up.<br />
<br />
<b>December 28, 2011</b>: Got another reply from WotC Customer Service:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, we do not have any other more specific information for the Dark Ascension Prerelease. Often the specifics (like how many of each booster to be used) will be included in the event kit and it's occasionally posted in an article on our website (<a href="http://www.wizards.com/Sales%29" target="_blank">http://www.wizards.com/Sales)</a> as soon as that information is available. For questions about how much to order, you may want to contact (or have the store owners contact) their Distributors for help with recommended quantities or limits for purchasing products for the prerelease.</blockquote>
I'm sure it will be in the event kit. Unfortunately that will be too late for ordering purposes. Plus, it will not answer the question as to whether regular events use a different ratio of booster packs than the prerelease.<br />
<br />
A quick Twitter discussion today indicates that I am off my rocker, and the whole 4/2 booster split is a figment of my imagination. It seems that the split is 3/3 always. I have no idea where the 4/2 thing came from (maybe I just assumed it, since once the third set of a block comes out it's usually 2/2/2 - so it seemed logical that the big set would get more representation until then?). Anyway, unless I somehow hear/read/see something official that says differently, I will operate under the working assumption that a <i>Dark Ascension</i> sealed deck event will use 3 packs each of <i>Dark Ascension</i> and Innistrad.<br />
<br />
[SIDE NOTE: A <i>Dark Ascension</i> Draft, on the other hand, will be 1 pack <i>Dark Ascension</i> and 2 packs of <i>Innistrad</i>, drafted in that order. Just FYI in case you didn't know.]<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, in much more exciting news, Casual Magic Night had 10 people tonight - including 2 new DCI members, which helps Novel Places' bottom line towards staying at the Core Level. My Green-White Tokens deck ("<a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/tokens-of-my-affection/" target="_blank">Tokens of my Affection</a>") proved to be a VERY capable Archenemy deck with the tailor-made Scheme deck I put together to run with it. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!<br />
<br />
<b>December 30, 2011</b>: FNM tonight was Standard. We had 8 people, so barely enough to run sanctioned (but, then again, it WAS sanctioned, so I can't complain too much!). Everyone had been there before (one player was the gent who had been "strong-armed" into playing Two-Headed Giant last week).<br />
<br />
<b>January 3, 2012</b>: Today I received the nicest note in my email (sent to me and a few of the regular players at our events, from another one of our regulars). I will leave it here with no comment other than: this is EXACTLY why I wanted to start organizing events!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
Gentlemen - a quick Happy New (M12) Year to you guys!</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Just wanted to say thanks for making all the games at Beyond and Novel very fun this past year!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And a big thanks to Mr. Don for starting up his FNMs and other events - we've got a great group</div>
<div>
of players and it has been my pleasure to meet everyone.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
See you at Don's events throughout "M12"... ;-)</div>
</blockquote>
<b>January 4, 2012</b>: Casual Magic Night. Tonight we tried a new format created by William Davy, who runs events for Beyond Comics' Frederick store. I will include here his report from what he learned after the playtest. Here are the <a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0cf9h6ReZNQYjZhNWQxOGEtNDU2YS00MGEyLWE2ODQtYjVmYzk1MzQ2OWVl" target="_blank">rules for the format</a> (called Political Economics Magic) in case you'd like to read them for yourself before reading his review. Take it away, William!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Let me start off by saying that I expected a lot less of the format. I expected I would have to completely overhaul the rules after a play test. I never expected that it would work as well as it did. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Before the game began, I realized I had not planned for Foil lands in the packs. If they were removed, it would reduce the card pool (admittedly only a little bit) and I didn’t want that to happen. So I added this to the rules:</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
1.1.2.2 If a foil basic land is opened, that card goes into the Spell Deck.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
1.3.1 Foil Basic Lands are shuffled into the Spell Deck.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
2.6.1 If a foil Basic Land is played, that land generates 2 mana of the specified type.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
2.9.1.1 Even if a Foil Basic Land is exposed, that portion of the card’s effect does nothing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Even after making this adjustment, we did not open any foil lands and as such, did not get to test this mechanic.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To begin, the card pool was incredible. We used eighteen packs of <i>Mirrodin Besieged</i> and in the process of opening all the cards, I opened a sword of Feast and Famine, Inkmoth Nexus, Contested war zone, Consecrated Sphinx, Hero of Oxid Ridge, Tezzeret, Mirran Crusader, Victory’s Herald, Cryptoplasm, two Galvanoths, a foil Distant Memories, and a Foil Massacre Wurm. Not bad for just eighteen Packs. Anyway… on to the gameplay.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It went much better than I had anticipated. The Face up Land deck made for an interesting mechanic, At more than one point during the game, there was a land that nobody needed sitting on top (a swamp to be exact) and it sat there undisturbed for several turns. And this was not because nobody needed another mana, it was because nobody wanted a <i>Swamp</i>. However, there was much of the land deck that went undisturbed. Because of this, I am changing the land deck construction to include only three of each basic land for every player at the table.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Because we were playing <i>Mirrodin Besieged</i>, there were a lot of creatures being played that had Infect. Right off the bat, we determined that nobody liked poison damage and that, because of our high starting life, fifteen poison damage sounded fair. The starting life total will also be reduced from 40 to 30. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The card pool, while quite valuable, was enormous. Eighteen booster packs for five players seemed like quite a lot. The card pool will be adjusted accordingly. Each player will purchase/supply three booster packs to the card pool. These booster packs will be from any set of the player’s choosing. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The shared mana mechanic was used a lot more often than I expected. Red and Green mana were at a premium (no more than two of each were on the board throughout the game) and as such, the other players often left them untapped in case someone wanted to use them. I remember at one point, another player was swinging with all of his creatures, I think he had three of them, into the biggest threat on the table. He blocked most of the damage but before the damage occurred, I noticed the attacker had an untapped mountain, and offered Rally the Forces. He gladly tapped the red mana and I paid the other two, destroying most of the defender’s creatures in the process. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to test the graveyard mechanic extensively, and the milling mechanic was not used at all. I would like to run another game using cards from <i>Innistrad </i>at some point in the future to test the graveyard mechanic more thoroughly. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Overall, I think the game was a success. Many of the mechanics I devised for the game worked much better than anticipated and only need minor tweaking. <a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0cf9h6ReZNQYjZhNWQxOGEtNDU2YS00MGEyLWE2ODQtYjVmYzk1MzQ2OWVl" target="_blank">Below</a> are the modified rules. Italicized sections are still subject to change, bold sections are new additions and changes.</div>
</blockquote>
[TO BE CONTINUED IN THE <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2012/02/wpn-boy-special-dark-ascension-edition.html">DARK ASCENSION SPECIAL EDITION</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-8887658081899672132011-12-25T11:17:00.001-05:002015-03-30T09:48:22.821-04:00WPN Boy (Part 2)[This is part 2 in a series, and assumes that you've already read <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/11/wpn-boy-part-1.html">Part 1</a> (not to mention the entire Road to WPN series, which begins <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html">here</a>)]<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">Q&A Session</span></b> </div>
<br />
Behrooz 'Bezman' Shahriari checked in last time with more Q's for me to A!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- What's the most rewarding part of being a WPN event-organiser?<br />
- What's the most difficult part?<br />
- Do you enjoy magic more or less? How has your relationship with the game changed since a year ago?</blockquote>
<b>Most rewarding part</b>: To be completely honest, I get a blast out of seeing people having fun playing Magic, and knowing that I had a hand in arranging that experience for them. Also, I love the fact that if I want to play Magic myself, I'm never more than a couple days away from another opportunity to do so!<br />
<br />
<b>Most difficult part</b>: The time commitment is quite more than I thought it would be. Between logging the events in WER, keeping the event calendar up-to-date, getting a decent newsletter out every week, keeping the stores apprised on what booster packs they need to have on stock for any given event, advertising the events, writing the blog - and all of that is on top of the time I put in at the actual events themselves!<br />
<br />
<b>Enjoying Magic</b>: I think there's give and take here. I was disappointed to learn just how many people go to the 'net for deck ideas (sometimes with minor tweaking) for constructed events. I would SO much rather see a bunch of home-brewed decks battling it out, like kitchen-table Magic at an epic level :) As it stands the events often end up being won by those who can afford the cards needed for the "best deck" (whatever that may be at the time).<br />
<br />
On the other hand, I definitely find myself having many more ideas for decks, and build a lot more (and enjoy playing them) than I used to. They're unlikely to win too many of my own events, as they are <i>not</i> the "best deck" (nor am I a world-class player) but I have a blast with it.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">DIARY OF A WPN KID</b></span> </div>
<br />
<b>November 25, 2011</b>: Tonight we held FNM at Novel Places instead of the usual location, and was a Standard event. I knew we'd have trouble, it being the night after Thanksgiving. Adding in the fact that it was at an unusual location, I was worried. Unfortunately my fears turned out to be founded. Only 2 players showed up, so I joined in to make it more interesting. We played three rounds, round-robin style.<br />
<br />
<br />
The idea came up tonight of running a casual Magic night (since this was essentially that). Something to pursue later?<br />
<br />
<b>November 26, 2011</b>: <i>Innistrad</i> Draft at Novel Places. Patrick had another event taking place on the main floor of the store, so we surreptitiously held the event upstairs. That area is used mostly as storage right now, and is filled with antiques and curios. The open rafter design of the old building made for a rather spooky setting, just perfect for an <i>Innistrad</i> Draft. We had 11 players, and (despite my having to rush back home to get my basic land box which I had forgotten), the event went off rather well. I owe a HUGE thanks to Craig, who had come out to help me run the event so he could make sure he knew what would be needed to run WER for the <i>Dark Ascension</i> prerelease events he'll be running at Novel Places at the end of January.<br />
<br />
5 players had never played at Novel Places before, which helped with our bottom line for maintaining Core Level. Thanks go to Serg for helping arrange for so many new people to come out!<br />
<br />
<b>December 2, 2011</b>: Standard event FNM at Beyond Comics. 8 players, so we ran a sanctioned 3-round event. Also tonight I picked up a used netbook to use as a back-up, especially when we'll have multiple <i>Dark Ascension</i> prerelease events going on at once.<br />
<br />
One player was new to the DCI at this event, and two of the players were brothers who attended together. Hopefully some or all three will become regulars!<br />
<br />
<b>December 9, 2011</b>: FNM was <i>Innistrad</i> Booster Draft tonight. All three of the new-to-us players from last week made it, along with another new DCI member and 6 others for a lovely 10-person Draft. The event itself ended up rather oddly, as the prize distribution was originally set based on the "perfect" result which would have had 2 players at 9 match points (we only run 3 rounds for limited events due to time constraints). But after round two, when I expected to have 3 players at 6 points, we instead had only 1 (the player who won round one but got paired down in round two didn't win as the model predicted, and two other round 1 winners ended up in a draw). I made adjustments to the prize distribution (increasing the pack payout at each level, since there'd be fewer people at the very top), and STILL had 3 packs left over at the end to randomly give out amongst 4 players who hadn't won a pack.<br />
<br />
Strangest moment of the draft was possibly the situation where a player who had mulliganed down to 5 cards had an early board state of 2 copies of Blazing Torch and 2 copies of One-Eyed Scarecrow (in addition to his lands). So bizarre!<br />
<br />
<b>December 10, 2011</b><br />
<br />
Bigger news is that Patrick has agreed to give the Casual Magic night a try, so the first one will be this coming Wednesday (December 14). He'll keep the shop open two hours later than normal, and the official posted times will be 6-9 pm.<br />
<br />
<b>December 14, 2011</b>: The inaugural Casual Magic Night was tonight. My sons have karate on Wednesday nights, so we showed up late (~8:30) but there were three other players there (including one that had never been at Novel Places before). Not too bad for the first time out. I'll continue to advertise it in my weekly email newsletter, and try to drum up interest at FNM.<br />
<br />
<b>December 16, 2011</b>: FNM at Beyond Comics, Standard Constructed. 10 players again tonight (this time I did not need to play!). We ran 4 rounds, and I think it went quite well. Next week is Two-Headed Giant, <i>Innistrad</i> Sealed. I'm looking forward to it, and hope we have at least 4 teams!<br />
<br />
Tonight I scheduled the FNMs for February. The first week we'll sacrifice FNM to run a Friday night <i>Dark Ascension</i> Launch Party. Second week will be <i>Innistrad</i>/<i>Dark Ascension</i> Draft. Third will be Standard, and fourth will be my first ever Block Constructed event. Haven't 100% decided if it will be <i>Scars of Mirrodin</i> Block (allows cards from <i>Scars of Mirrodin</i>, <i>Mirrodin Besieged</i> and <i>New Phyrexia</i>) or <i>Innistrad</i> Block (which will allow cards from <i>Innistrad</i> and <i>Dark Ascension</i>). Leaning toward the latter.<br />
<br />
<b>December 21, 2011</b>: 7 players for Casual Magic Night at Novel Places tonight. Much insanity ensued when we combined my deck of Plane cards from Planechase (1 copy of each Plane in existence, including promos) with EDH/Commander. Turns out that a 5-player EDH game with Planes takes a LONG time. We called it (with no-one really clearly in the lead) at 9:30, a good half-hour after the event was supposed to end. Lucky for us Patrick seemed to be enjoying us being so goofy!<br />
<br />
Also tonight, Patrick gave the thumbs up to extend the Casual Magic Night through January at least.<br />
<br />
<b>December 23, 2011</b>: FNM at Beyond Comics was Two-Headed Giant <i>Innistrad</i> Sealed Deck. We had (barely) 4 teams, so an official FNM. One player (Josh) had just shown up to observe, but he was convinced to team up with one of our regulars, Dan, who had shown up without a partner. Dan was willing to pay for both of them, provided he got to keep all the cards at the end of the event. Josh was happy to get to play for free.<br />
<br />
Team "Last Minute" (myself and Craig) played pretty well together, winning Rounds 1 & 2, and were only 1 land drop away from winning Round 3.<br />
<br />
I take issue with the WER on something, though. I had decided that the 12 prize packs would be distributed as follows:<br />
<ul>
<li>1st place: 5 packs</li>
<li>2nd place: 4 packs</li>
<li>3rd place: 2 packs</li>
<li>4th place: 1 pack</li>
</ul>
That way everyone wins <i>something</i>. But in this case what happened was that two teams had identical scores at the top (win %'s, opponent win %'s, in every way identical) and the same for the 3rd & 4th slots. For the top two slots one team (myself and Craig) had beaten the other team, so you would think that the 1st place slot would be given to us. But instead it was given to the other team. And in the lower two slots the same thing happened. The team who ended up 4th place had actually beaten the team that was put in 3rd place. I don't know what criteria the WER bases places when the stats are identical (random would seem logical?) but in this case it seems to me that there's clearly a way to determine ranking: if the two tied teams played each other, rank the one that won that matchup higher than the other!<br />
<br />
I'm worried about tomorrow's event at Novel Places. Despite this incredibly awesome flyer Craig came up with:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYuhMJL13eMPAs8YnUgT7Ko10pw87A18oSJxm73eBH3hyphenhyphen5exgCvQMHwdhQzSUVsJJQ5YuL_W3ldZjbkxRPGrMNV2ntjjouz4W9c-iA01ZwJvo8EIcFw0N5hqOsf4WkiVT596d9/s1600/Full+Page+Ad+12+24+2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYuhMJL13eMPAs8YnUgT7Ko10pw87A18oSJxm73eBH3hyphenhyphen5exgCvQMHwdhQzSUVsJJQ5YuL_W3ldZjbkxRPGrMNV2ntjjouz4W9c-iA01ZwJvo8EIcFw0N5hqOsf4WkiVT596d9/s400/Full+Page+Ad+12+24+2011.jpg" height="400" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Santa Garruk wants YOU for the Draft!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Still it is on Christmas Eve, and with folks on vacation or with family obligations, we may have a hard time hitting at least 8 players. We'll see!<br />
<br />
<b>December 24, 2011</b>: Well, it was not as bad as it could have been! 5 players showed up for the <i>Innistrad</i> Draft at Novel Places today. I joined in as well so that there'd be an even number (although, as my 0-3 record will attest, we might as well have just given a Bye to everyone who was paired up against me). I proved once again that I am absolutely hopeless when it comes to drafting, and my deck was just God-awful. But, the players seemed to enjoy themselves nonetheless, and for that I am grateful.<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2012/01/wpn-boy-part-3.html">PART 3</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-39490655474157617032011-11-19T11:36:00.001-05:002015-03-30T09:48:00.238-04:00WPN Boy (Part 1)As I said at the end of <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/11/road-to-wpn-part-27.html">The Road to WPN Part 27</a>, I feel like that series had served its purpose. I set out to document the process and struggles involved in getting a store set up as a Wizards Play Network site, and bringing that store up to Core Level so that it could run Friday Night Magic, Prereleases and other such events.<br />
<br />
A lot of oddities happened along the way (not the least of which was picking up a second store to run events at), and the series was overall very well received and developed a rather large following. Still, however, I felt that it had run its course (especially given that its name, which implied a trip to a destination which I feel has already been reached).<br />
<br />
So, that brings us to this: the inaugural "issue" if you will of a new series. "WPN Boy" (pronounced "whippin' boy"*) will chronicle my further adventures in TO'ing for Novel Places and Beyond Comics. My intention for this series is to act as two functions:<br />
<ol>
<li>A simple diary of events after they occur (which will mostly consist of date, type of event, attendance, and then anything noteworthy that happened);</li>
<li>A vehicle to answer questions from you, the audience, sent in either as comments to these posts, or via Twitter (I'm @TheSundry over there) or email (TheSundry at gmail dot com). So PLEASE feel free to ask away - it will give me something to write about!</li>
</ol>
*<i>For those who are unaware, a whipping boy was a boy who would be punished instead of a prince when the prince had done something wrong. In this analogy, I will be taking the beating for you as I stumble through the always tricky process of being a TO, so that hopefully you can learn from my mistakes. I guess that makes you the prince - so make of that what you will :)</i><br />
<br />
I will publish these basically as they fill up and seem a reasonable size for release out into the wild, so there will likely be no regular schedule to them<i></i>. I hope that these posts continue to amuse and entertain, as well as (hopefully) shed some light on what happens behind the scenes at events you attend (for you non-TOs out there) and even offer advice and assistance for those of you who <u>are</u> TOs (or wish to be some day).<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: x-large;">Q&A Session</span></b> </div>
<br />
The first question I want to answer came from Behrooz 'Bezman' Shahriari in the comments to the last Road to WPN entry:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I suppose one interesting point that you haven't really gone into would be what kind of advertising you do. Do you leave flyers at BC or NP? Have they had much success? Do you use FB to advertise events? How do folk tend to find out about it? </blockquote>
We do have flyers that each store uses, most of which are put together by my rather talented friend, Craig. Here's a sample, for the Innistrad Draft that I'll be running at Novel Places on November 26:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9KtSy8j5mP9WM6CniLH15VFqhXeZWQ2rIcyYdmn9eFv1obMe8szpzLr3dHdW0w7eJT8o-5QClURPzKiBuTFFtziU7BaTxyhuEt8g1nHiqDoCZ46Jz2Bdh3xBNv6NfR_aAknSF/s1600/November+26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9KtSy8j5mP9WM6CniLH15VFqhXeZWQ2rIcyYdmn9eFv1obMe8szpzLr3dHdW0w7eJT8o-5QClURPzKiBuTFFtziU7BaTxyhuEt8g1nHiqDoCZ46Jz2Bdh3xBNv6NfR_aAknSF/s400/November+26.jpg" height="308" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I thought the celebratory art fit with the fact that this event will be the weekend after Thanksgiving.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Craig usually makes full page flyers as well as smaller ones that cam be printed out 2x2 on a sheet and cut down to size. The stores post the larger ones on their door or in prominent locations in-store, then have the smaller ones out by the cash register as take-aways. For FNMs I make up a simple monthly list as a 2x2 for Beyond Comics to have sitting out by the cash register. It looks like this:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMm-owYj_LY__U7RsGg4pYXpBYnLRHYx6VMmAxhhTDHZrIrdJpFI8rIopyqpkFF164iSi5XwovSN46jHEJb_gCJJKaVDi0FApsQrNz0DFHj1fsGXnda0mXXEZGUysR3Hx12n9h/s1600/FNM+takeaway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMm-owYj_LY__U7RsGg4pYXpBYnLRHYx6VMmAxhhTDHZrIrdJpFI8rIopyqpkFF164iSi5XwovSN46jHEJb_gCJJKaVDi0FApsQrNz0DFHj1fsGXnda0mXXEZGUysR3Hx12n9h/s400/FNM+takeaway.jpg" height="303" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not pretty, but functional. The Comic Sans can be forgiven - it's a comic store!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I used to get a pile of the event flyers (large & takeaways) and post them up at local community centers. I found, however, that when I asked folks how they learned about the event, not once did they say "I saw a flyer at the community center." so I stopped. I also used to post ads in Craig's List (different Craig), but found the same to be true.<br />
<br />
I have found that the biggest source of new players (besides word-of-mouth, "come with me to this event run by this guy called Don" type referral) actually is the Wizards of the Coast Store & Event Locator. For those of you who don't know about this amazing resource, any officially sanctioned and scheduled event is in a large searchable database, complete with map, location info, etc. (you can see it for yourself <a href="http://ww2.wizards.com/StoreAndEventLocator/" target="_blank">here</a>). You can search for specific types of events, like a prerelease or FNM. It's really quite something. I've lost track of the number of people who told me they found our events using this system, so I'm VERY grateful that it exists!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">DIARY OF A WPN KID</b></span> </div>
<br />
<b>November 11, 2011</b>: Not a very auspicious FNM on 11/11/11, I'm afraid. The format was <i>Innistrad</i> Draft, and only 3 players showed up. I joined in to make it 4. P1P1 for me was Bloodline Keeper, and I managed to get some good support. Lost Round 1 horribly, tightened up the deck, and won rounds 2 & 3 to take 2nd place in the event (<a href="http://justindz.tumblr.com/post/12673471635/another-innistrad-draft-report" target="_blank">this guy</a> took first).<br />
<br />
<b>November 12, 2011</b>: Standard constructed event at Novel Places. Two regular players brought friends (3 between the two of them) and a few other regulars showed up (plus someone who had been meaning to make it to an event for a while now). When the dust settled, we had 8 (without needing me) - so we could actually run it as a sanctioned event. Hooray! This was my first event with a "super promo prize pack" for the 1st place player (who was regular-attender and big supporter of our events, Roger). He took home, in addition to his prize booster packs, all of the following promo cards from my ever-growing collection:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>WPN Promo Maul Splicer;</li>
<li>WPN Promo Vault Skirge;</li>
<li>WPN Promo Auramancer;</li>
<li>WPN Promo Tormented Soul;</li>
<li>WPN Promo Bloodcrazed Neonate;</li>
<li>WPN Promo Curse of the Bloody Tome;</li>
<li><i>Innistrad</i> Prerelease Promo Mayor of Avabruck;</li>
<li><i>Innistrad</i> Prerelease Promo Wolf Token;</li>
<li><i>Innistrad</i> Launch Party Promo Ludevic's Test Subject;</li>
<li><i>Innistrad</i> Game Day Promo Diregraf Ghoul</li>
</ol>
I plan to offer the same prize pack for the next three Saturday events at Novel Places (Nov 26, Dec 10, Dec 24). I figure I need some sort of extra draw, especially if I want people to come out the Saturday after Thanksgiving and (even worse), on Christmas Eve (that wasn't on purpose, I swear! It just happens to be the 4th Saturday in December this year!).<br />
<br />
<b>November 18, 2011</b>: FNM at Beyond Comics. Format: Standard Constructed. 10 players made it (sanctioned!). One of them was new to DCI, and two others had never played here before. The former was invited by a friend, and is unlikely to make it regularly as he lives a good deal away. But they latter 2 (brothers) seemed to really enjoy themselves and I think will come back for events here as well as at Novel Places. We played 4 rounds, since it was a Constructed event and that would have us end about the same time as 3 rounds of Limited (once you factor in draft/build time), and we were still done around 9:30.<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/12/wpn-boy-part-2.html">PART 2</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-48123173291525833832011-11-11T12:05:00.002-05:002015-03-30T09:46:58.481-04:00The Road to WPN (Part 27)[This is part 27 in a series, and assumes that you've already read <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html">Part 1</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-2.html">Part 2</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-3.html">Part 3</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-4.html">Part 4</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-5.html">Part 5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-6.html">Part 6</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-7.html">Part 7</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-8.html">Part 8</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-9.html">Part 9</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-10.html">Part 10</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-11.html">Part 11</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-12.html">Part 12</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-13.html">Part 13</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-14.html">Part 14</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-145.html">Part 14.5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-15.html">Part 15</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-16.html">Part 16</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-17.html">Part 17</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-18.html">Part 18</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-19.html">Part 19</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-20.html">Part 20</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-21.html">Part 21</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-22.html">Part 22</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-23.html">Part 23</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-wpn-part-24.html">Part 24</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-wpn-part-25.html">Part 25</a>, and <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-wpn-part-26.html">Part 26</a>]<br />
<br />
<b>October 28, 2011</b>: FNM tonight went reasonably well. We had 8 participants for a Standard event (and I didn't need to sign up to make it 8!).<br />
<br />
It turned out that the FNM&Ms that we received last week were supposed to be used TONIGHT (which I found out from the WPN newsletter this past Wednesday). It would be nice if the instructions on use of these promotional items went out in advance of their arriving at the store so that we know these things! [Side note on these: the reverse side does not have the Planeswalker symbol as I had previously reported, but instead the symbol of Avacyn from the <i>Innistrad</i> set.]<br />
<br />
Anyway, the majority of the players had been here last week as well, so I handed out FNM&Ms and deck boxes to those who hadn't been. We ended up getting the ideal distribution after three rounds (1 player with 9 match points, 3 players with 6, 3 with 3 and one with 0).<br />
<br />
This was, in a way, to be a test night for me. If, as I was concerned, the issue was one of format in competing with Dream Wizards, then (I hoped) running Standard more often at FNM would lead to larger turnouts. But last week's Draft actually had more players. Not sure what to make of this.<br />
<br />
This is the beginning of a Magic intensive weekend for me, as I have not one but two Game Days to run tomorrow. And there's a rare October snow storm forecast for tomorrow, so I'm a bit nervous.<br />
<br />
<b>October 29, 2011</b>: The weather this morning was mostly cold and rainy, not snowy. We ended up with 7 other players at Beyond Comics, so I joined in to make it 8. This meant that everyone got not only the participation promo (non-Foil full art Diregraf Ghoul) but also the "Top 8" foil full-art Elite Inquisitor promo as well (turns out it's easy to top 8 an event when there are only 8 players - who knew?).<br />
<br />
I played my "<a href="http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/tokens-of-my-affection/" target="_blank">Tokens of my Affection</a>" deck, which does not have a sideboard at the moment. It played okay, but not great. I only won one match (Round 1), but, as mentioned before, still managed to Top 8. We had the same match point distribution as last night's event.<br />
<br />
The afternoon Game Day at Novel Places was not so rosy a story. By the afternoon, the snow had really started coming down. We ended up with only 4 players (1 of whom was me). This meant that I had to cancel the official Game Day and run things as a casual event instead. The good news was, though, that all four of us got both of the promos!<br />
<br />
I played the same deck, and defeated two of my opponents. One of the players lost each match, while the other three of us won 2/3 matches. Strange ending record.<br />
<br />
This makes two events in a row at Novel Places that only had 4 players show up (and I was #4 in both cases). I'm really not sure what to do about this. I had seriously thought that having a Saturday Magic option was going to be attractive to folks, and it may simply be that I'm not doing a good enough job getting the word out that we're doing them.<br />
<br />
So, mixed results on my first experience running a Game Day. My hope is that the weather was a major factor and things would have been different attendance-wise if we didn't have the snow.<br />
<br />
<b>November 3, 2011</b>: Stopped by Novel Places today to pick up some books I had ordered, and discussed with Patrick some conflicts that will be coming up on some of our Saturday events. The 4th Saturday of November and the 2nd Saturday of December he had to schedule some other programs that will be set up in the space we normally run the events. We think we have a solution moving into an alternate space. I think it's important that we maintain our "2nd and 4th Saturday" schedule so that folks get used to it and know that if it's one of those Saturdays they can come out to Novel Places and play Magic.<br />
<br />
<b>November 4, 2011</b>: FNM tonight was <i>Innistrad</i> Sealed Deck, and we only managed to get 6 players out (not including me - if a seventh had shown up I would have joined in to make it 8). This, of course, means cancelling the official event and running a casual instead. I am, to be quite frank, getting sick and tired of having to do that.<br />
<br />
The other big news tonight was that John asked if it would be possible to cancel the FNM scheduled for November 25. Here in the US, the Friday after Thanksgiving (Nov 24 this year) is known as "Black Friday" and is, historically, the biggest shopping day of the year. It's the unofficial beginning of the holiday buying season, and a day that most retailers depend on for a huge influx of revenue.<br />
<br />
As could be predicted, then, Beyond Comics plans to have a huge sale, and will need some of the tables we would ordinarily use for an event to set up special sales items. Also, whoever is on duty that day (and they're down an employee at the moment) will likely be wiped out by the end of the day, and not really looking forward to having to stay late for a FNM. Add that to the fact that I had scheduled that night to be <i>Innistrad</i> Sealed Deck (the most expensive of the formats we run) which would likely reduce the potential number of players....yeah, you can see why he'd want to let this one go.<br />
<br />
BUT, I had already received the FNM promos for that week. And there was always the possibility that Patrick would be interested in running an FNM for once (if the event could be transferred from one location to another). So I resolved to check with Patrick and find out.<br />
<br />
<b>November 6, 2011</b>: Turns out he would, so I contacted Brian (through the new interface system with WotC customer support) to ask if it was possible. He told me it would be possible - I needed to create an event at Novel Places for that evening and send him the sanctioning number. He would change that event to an FNM, and I would then need to cancel the scheduled FNM for Beyond Comics.<br />
<br />
We got that all cleared up, and now Novel Places will host its very first FNM on November 25. I decided to make it a Standard event, in the hopes that it will be more attractive to folks (a Constructed event is the cheapest of the events). We have an <i>Innistrad</i> Draft event scheduled there for the day after that as well. It is the Thanksgiving weekend, and many folks will be away. But, on the other hand, a number of college students will be back home for the holiday, so maybe those two will cancel out?<br />
<br />
<b>ON ANOTHER NOTE</b>: This will likely be my last regular update to The Road to WPN. As many regular readers already know, it's rather overdue anyway. Things have become a bit more routine lately, and simple reports of FNM attendance does not for riveting reading make.<br />
<br />
If something of note should occur (like the FNM transfer mentioned above, or an especially large event, or some random big-name Magic celebrity showing up - something like that) I will be sure to post an update on it.<br />
<br />
I want to thank everyone who has made this journey with me, both by attending events and reading about it. Without the former, neither store could have made it to Core Level, and been able to run FNMs, Prereleases and Game Days, not to mention that I've had a blast meeting new people and playing more Magic than I've been able to play in years. And without the latter, well - this certainly would not have been as easy a trip without the support and well-wishes I have received from readers.<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED, EVENTUALLY...]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-19040235689657027852011-10-22T18:36:00.001-04:002015-03-30T09:45:53.090-04:00The Road to WPN (Part 26)[This is part 26 in a series, and assumes that you've already read <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html">Part 1</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-2.html">Part 2</a>, <a href="http://donsmagicandsundry.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-3.html">Part 3</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-4.html">Part 4</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-5.html">Part 5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-6.html">Part 6</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-7.html">Part 7</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-8.html">Part 8</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-9.html">Part 9</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-10.html">Part 10</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-11.html">Part 11</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-12.html">Part 12</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-13.html">Part 13</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-14.html">Part 14</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-145.html">Part 14.5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-15.html">Part 15</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-16.html">Part 16</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-17.html">Part 17</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-18.html">Part 18</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-19.html">Part 19</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-20.html">Part 20</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-21.html">Part 21</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-22.html">Part 22</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-23.html">Part 23</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-wpn-part-24.html">Part 24</a>, and <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-wpn-part-25.html">Part 25</a>]<br />
<br />
<b>October 14, 2011</b>:Tonight's FNM (another <i>Innistrad</i> Sealed Deck event) was, unfortunately, as sparsely attended as last week's was. Only 5 players signed up, so I again joined in so there'd be an even number. Since we were under 8 I had to cancel the actual FNM and run the event as a casual one.<br />
<br />
I found out one big strike against us is indeed Dream Wizards. As mentioned before, they are the "big fish" in our local gaming pond. They are at Advanced level in the WPN, allowing them to run two FNMs each week. As of this week, in response to the new Planeswalker Points system (mainly, I believe, although some expressed the opinion that this is perhaps to help market against us - I'm not quite that paranoid yet), they've changed their policy to make one of the two ALWAYS a Standard event, and will let it run extra long if they've got a large enough attendance (they used to run only 3 rounds, regardless of how many people show up). To quote their calendar description:<br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Weekly FNM Standard Format Tournament: • Best Chance to Rank up Planeswalker Points: 3X Multiplier • Participate in the proper Number of Swiss Rounds: • 9 - 16 players = 4 Rounds • 17 - 32 players = 5 Rounds</span></blockquote>
I can't really ask whatever store employee is running Beyond Comics to stay any later than they already are with a 3-round FNM (although since Standard doesn't have a deck-building time, I could probably squeeze in a 4th round now that I think about it).<br />
<br />
Several people have commented that they would prefer to play a Standard FNM with us than with Dream Wizards, so I have decided that I will start alternating weeks with FNM. Every other week we'll do Standard, and on the "off" weeks we'll do Limited formats, other Constructed formats, Two-Headed Giant, etc. The big test will be October 28, as that's the next Standard FNM we have scheduled. I won't be able to start the new schedule until December, since November's FNMs are already scheduled, and you have to declare the format when you register the event.<br />
<br />
<b>October 21, 2011</b>: What a difference a week makes! In all honesty I left Beyond Comics tonight feeling like I had just had the most fun running an event that I have had so far in my (granted, short) WPN career.<br />
<br />
The evening started off with presents! I arrived at the store to find several boxes awaiting me. I started cracking them open and found that they represented two things. The first was a promo kit for the <i>Innistrad</i> Game Day on October 29, including a big advertising poster and the promos for the event:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9sqUSr-LpwKbS8sYqVd1fTuIFL1sMDi8mIlLtvOOIpoSqzuAZImPcQbmcjT72i_NNwOBaar54aW2TZ_RqRMg0wmppLxVIZDsT7WFJs4IKY6o-fYpP2e0-Pb8BzmBDtS_YzCTC/s1600/ISD+Game+Day+Promos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9sqUSr-LpwKbS8sYqVd1fTuIFL1sMDi8mIlLtvOOIpoSqzuAZImPcQbmcjT72i_NNwOBaar54aW2TZ_RqRMg0wmppLxVIZDsT7WFJs4IKY6o-fYpP2e0-Pb8BzmBDtS_YzCTC/s400/ISD+Game+Day+Promos.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My first Game Day promos :)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The second item (which was in two boxes) was a FNM promotional kit. WotC is really playing up the <i>Innistrad</i>/Halloween synergy and has pulled out all the stops with items to help promote FNM (especially the FNM on the Halloween weekend, next week's Oct 28 event). These included:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhINhO9RQlYpp9kFXIB18UEnkNrIJr5V5T71a09bI_f3XMytzBn9akepAq2RlwFqM78To4z-GW36lP652hNlDG9OQTtjJ0D5cgnHUVVuAAUB15Tx90_j7uRV6fWpgvbrZ2_ACL8/s1600/FNM+3D+Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhINhO9RQlYpp9kFXIB18UEnkNrIJr5V5T71a09bI_f3XMytzBn9akepAq2RlwFqM78To4z-GW36lP652hNlDG9OQTtjJ0D5cgnHUVVuAAUB15Tx90_j7uRV6fWpgvbrZ2_ACL8/s400/FNM+3D+Poster.jpg" height="400" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Big 3D promotional poster.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-kRdGMUszE3HDhwFBOiSywsLvrIPL5u8Mi6imrdDhGjerct4U8dwyTmgqrvOaBLbNsj-_fGWV99IgtBnn3L1DGZMXFVDjnl2vb_NwItP2lVY_tDpW3qOby7YXfu5P3uO_vSf/s1600/Planeswalker+M%2526Ms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-kRdGMUszE3HDhwFBOiSywsLvrIPL5u8Mi6imrdDhGjerct4U8dwyTmgqrvOaBLbNsj-_fGWV99IgtBnn3L1DGZMXFVDjnl2vb_NwItP2lVY_tDpW3qOby7YXfu5P3uO_vSf/s400/Planeswalker+M%2526Ms.jpg" height="321" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Planeswalker M&Ms. How freaking cool is THAT?!?!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Quotes of the evening came from these M&Ms (I handed them out between Rounds 1 & 2):<br />
<ul>
<li>"Should be dark chocolate."</li>
<li>"Hmmm....Tastes like Liliana...."</li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8vY0DaOYYej8xG0m-mcVMU77zzNmebxbOcqO2Oi4nCQuCsvxNR4mzxhM2rupTD3rqMpgNositqCbCgPeoPrYjuK46LVnWuSo0r6XuvSZRcUI8g9bcQhehMXzT_WCA4R05qDU5/s1600/Garruk+Deck+Boxes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8vY0DaOYYej8xG0m-mcVMU77zzNmebxbOcqO2Oi4nCQuCsvxNR4mzxhM2rupTD3rqMpgNositqCbCgPeoPrYjuK46LVnWuSo0r6XuvSZRcUI8g9bcQhehMXzT_WCA4R05qDU5/s400/Garruk+Deck+Boxes.jpg" height="311" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Garruk deck boxes.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
These deck boxes are really cool if you can figure out how to assemble them properly!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoqjLsUjatKb5ejJwbL8gkUVU-MkMr9CB13HFh_NFLb03j_VQxG_0VNYGXM7v1497kXVlXQhxdgDvK8yIIakNeQq-YLbHeXWgx1QkmVeTuOTF732i4HAIiwmk4NH4LARNKhh4Q/s1600/Liliana+Shopping+Bags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoqjLsUjatKb5ejJwbL8gkUVU-MkMr9CB13HFh_NFLb03j_VQxG_0VNYGXM7v1497kXVlXQhxdgDvK8yIIakNeQq-YLbHeXWgx1QkmVeTuOTF732i4HAIiwmk4NH4LARNKhh4Q/s400/Liliana+Shopping+Bags.jpg" height="400" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Liliana shopping bags. My boys will be using some for Trick-or-Treating!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Also included was a gigantic door-cling (like a window-cling, but MUCH larger) with the same Liliana art as the bag above. Yes, they are milking that Liliana art for all that it's worth. I can only hope Steve Argyle (the artist of the piece) gets royalties for every time it gets used!<br />
<br />
So, anyway, when the event was ready to start I already felt like a kid in a candy store, excited to get going.<br />
<br />
And then tonight's FNM (<i>Innistrad</i> Booster Draft) had 11 people at the start! SO much better than only 5!<br />
<br />
There was no need for me to join in (I don't mind Byes if there's over 8 people, as I can play against whoever has a Bye if they're interested so they don't have to sit around bored for the round).<br />
<br />
Of the 11 players, 6 had never played at Beyond Comics before. Of those, 4 were new to the DCI entirely, and needed to get cards. Always cool to have new faces.<br />
<br />
After the Draft was over, one of the players dropped (he knew he had to leave early, he just wanted to sit in and draft some cards he was looking for), leaving us an even number of players for Round 1. Then after Round 1, someone else had to drop as he needed to get ready for the SCG Open tomorrow in Baltimore (more on that later). This left us with an odd number of players for Round 2. One of the DCI newcomers got the Bye, so I played a variety of my constructed decks against his drafted deck, as well as against a constructed one he had brought along. As he described it, he was here to learn (he had never seen any <i>Innistrad</i> cards before tonight, which gave the Draft an extra degree of difficulty for him, I'm sure!).<br />
<br />
Everyone stayed in for Round 3, so I got to play one of regulars who had gotten the Bye. He had a Zombie deck he wanted to playtest, which seemed a good match against my Humans deck. So we had an epic Humans vs. Zombies showdown.<br />
<br />
Random extras from the evening:<br />
<ul>
<li>A girl in her teens stopped in and asked if she could watch, as she's never seen Magic played and is interested. That was fine with all involved - unfortunately a Draft is not the most exciting thing to watch at the beginning (especially if you don't know what's going on) and she had to leave before Round 1 began. I gave her a copy of the <i>Magic 2012</i> Rulebook, and hope she may be back in the future.</li>
<li>One of the oddest "small world" scenes I've seen in a while happened. A guy dropped into the store because one of the women he was with knew Johnny, the guy running the store this evening. While he was there he happened to look into the back room and recognized one of the players. He came back to say hi, and realized he knew a second one of the players. After chatting for a moment, he called the 2 ladies back (as they had met these two players before) and one of the ladies realized that ANOTHER of the players was her cousin! So amazingly random.</li>
</ul>
Anyway, as I said - I had an absolute blast.<br />
<br />
Tomorrow we have a Modern Constructed event scheduled in the afternoon at Novel Places (this months "4th Saturday" event). I'm a little nervous because:<br />
<ol>
<li>It's a relatively untried format (and therefore not as popular as it could be);</li>
<li>Star City Games has their Open series in Baltimore this weekend, and many of our regulars will be heading up for that instead of coming to us.</li>
</ol>
I'm hoping we have enough folks who aren't interested in the big guys' tournament to run a decent event tomorrow, but we shall see...<br />
<br />
<b>October 22, 2011</b>:Yeah, that didn't happen :(<br />
<br />
Only three players showed up today, so I joined in to make it four. This meant, of course, that I had to cancel the sanctioned event and run a casual one. We played three Rounds, with each of us playing each other player at one point or another.<br />
<br />
I don't really have a Modern deck, so I used my Blue/White Humans deck, which is Standard-legal.<br />
<br />
To say it sucked would be an understatement.<br />
<br />
I managed to win only one game all day with the deck. After losing in Round 1 and 2, I played my Mono et Mono deck against that opponent (as my matches were over much quicker than the other match each time). And even THAT deck just did not get the job done. I am just not cut out for the Modern world, I'm afraid. The decks I faced were just too nasty and fast.<br />
<br />
Unless I get a sizable clamoring from my player base, I'm not sure we'll be running Modern again any time soon.<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/11/road-to-wpn-part-27.html">PART 27</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-56939125716050234722011-10-14T23:57:00.000-04:002011-10-14T23:57:08.028-04:00"Cool Metal Life-counter?"Just a quickie, here. In case you're wondering what I mean by "cool metal life-counter" as one of the options you can vote for in the current Blog Poll to pick the next email newsletter giveaway prize, here's what they look like:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9tM7w4HfYnLJv7nc8vPb3vhb8BDMNysxfSoxhMgQpiIkxAfEe2OaAF0n91ZCUSnrbWq0zd8BOQRjSlq_cJBJfm6rrPl8R1oUaYIR5rI2FPp3oT3k29U-GqO0XQEk913HCH_eD/s1600/Metal+Life-counters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9tM7w4HfYnLJv7nc8vPb3vhb8BDMNysxfSoxhMgQpiIkxAfEe2OaAF0n91ZCUSnrbWq0zd8BOQRjSlq_cJBJfm6rrPl8R1oUaYIR5rI2FPp3oT3k29U-GqO0XQEk913HCH_eD/s400/Metal+Life-counters.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bask in the awesomeness!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>They're a bit heavy and will cost more to ship than my normal giveaways, but that's okay. Please note: I get to pick which one gets given away if this prize is chosen in the poll!TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-72614275439666995692011-10-08T19:51:00.001-04:002015-03-30T09:44:50.490-04:00The Road to WPN (Part 25)[This is part 25 in a series, and assumes that you've already read <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html">Part 1</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-2.html">Part 2</a>, <a href="http://donsmagicandsundry.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-3.html">Part 3</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-4.html">Part 4</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-5.html">Part 5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-6.html">Part 6</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-7.html">Part 7</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-8.html">Part 8</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-9.html">Part 9</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-10.html">Part 10</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-11.html">Part 11</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-12.html">Part 12</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-13.html">Part 13</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-14.html">Part 14</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-145.html">Part 14.5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-15.html">Part 15</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-16.html">Part 16</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-17.html">Part 17</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-18.html">Part 18</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-19.html">Part 19</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-20.html">Part 20</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-21.html">Part 21</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-22.html">Part 22</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-23.html">Part 23</a> and <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-wpn-part-24.html">Part 24</a>]<br />
<br />
Astute readers will have noticed that I abandoned the "WPN Report Card" a few installments back. Truth be told, it became too big a headache to keep track of the "unique players" at each site. Before we made it to Core Level, it was relatively easy. Had the person ever played here before? Easy to answer. But now it becomes "have they played here since we made it to Core Level?" and that's somehow a good deal more difficult to determine. I kept track long enough to tell that unless something VERY wrong happens, we will have no trouble maintaining Core Level by running our regular events.<br />
<br />
I have never really mentioned before what is involved in making it to the NEXT level in WPN (yes, there's more beyond Core!) because realistically I don't ever seeing us making it there at either store. But, in the interests of being complete for those not in the know, here's the details on Advanced Level...<br />
<br />
At Advanced Level you get these extra benefits:<br />
<ul>
<li>The ability to run extra events (like 2 FNMs each week instead of just one)</li>
<li>"Advanced Support Kits" (whatever those are)</li>
<li>More special events (such as Premium Tournaments, Grand Prix Trials, WPN Championship Qualifiers)</li>
<li>Extra <i>From the Vault</i> product</li>
<li>The ability to schedule events up to 7 days after they happened</li>
</ul>
To make it to Advanced Level you need to do the following within a 12-month period:<br />
<ul>
<li> Report a minimum of 20 tournaments</li>
<li> Maintain a delinquency rate of less than 10%</li>
<li> Have a minimum of 100 unique people playing in your reported events</li>
<li> Run and report a single tournament with 32 players or more</li>
<li> Introduce 20 new players to WPN events</li>
</ul>
The first two are no problem. Even if you just run FNM for 5 months you've got the first one, and there's REALLY no excuse for having a delinquency rate over 10% (or over 0%, IMHO!). But given the difficulty we had getting to 30 unique players to make Core, I'm not sure how well we'd do at making 100. Also, unless we rent out some larger space, we'll never be able to run an event with 32+ players. The last one could actually be doable (although doing it once a year would be tough unless we got big and STAYED big).<br />
<br />
So, realistically, I think we're at Core and will stay at Core and I'm okay with that!<br />
<br />
<b>October 7, 2011</b>: Today's FNM was a rather odd affair overall.<br />
<br />
First of all, we only had 5 participants, so I joined up to make it an even number so we wouldn't need to worry about Byes. This meant cancelling the scheduled FNM and scheduling a casual event instead, as we didn't meet the 8-player threshold.<br />
<br />
I'm not completely sure what caused the problem, but I'm guessing there were two major factors:<br />
<ul>
<li>The event was <i>Innistrad</i> Sealed Deck. This carries a $25 price tag, and a lot of folks have shelled out a lot of money on <i>Innistrad</i> lately (between Prereleases and Launch Parties and even buying whole boxes) so there's a drop in interest in spending $25 for an event right now. Unfortunately this is what I've scheduled for next week as well.</li>
<li>Dream Wizards (the "big fish" in our local pond) was running a Standard FNM (in addition to a Sealed Deck - THEY are at Advanced Level, and have the space, so they can run 2 FNMs). I think that was more attractive to folks.</li>
</ul>
I'm coming to the realization that despite my personal dislike of Standard events, I need to run more of them. The lower price tag (only $8, since players are only paying for the prize pool packs) is just more attractive on a regular basis.<br />
<br />
But, back to the odd FNM. In an ideal distribution, after 3 rounds of Swiss we would have had 1 person undefeated (9 match points), 3 people who had won 2 rounds (6 match points) and 2 people who had won 1 round (3 match points). We had 12 packs in the prize pool. So I set up the prize allocation as:<br />
<ul>
<li>9 match points = 4 booster packs</li>
<li>7 match points (2 wins & 1 draw) = 3 booster packs </li>
<li>6 match points = 2 booster packs</li>
</ul>
This would, theoretically, leave me with 2 boosters to randomly distribute among those who got under 6 match points (which under ideal circumstances would have been just two players, so effectively you would have had 1 booster pack for earning 3 match points).<br />
<br />
To say the match turn-out was not ideal would be an understatement.<br />
<br />
In the first round, we had two matches play out as expected, but one ended in a draw. So instead of having match points of 3, 3, 3, 0, 0, 0 as expected, we instead had 3, 3, 1, 1, 0, 0.<br />
<br />
That in and of itself wasn't too bad. But then in round two we had two of the matches end in draws (including the match between the two winners from round 1). As a result we were left with no-one undefeated at the end of two round instead of the theoretical 2 players we should have had (point distribution after round 2 was 4, 4, 4, 2, 1, 0 - for the record, I was the 0 at this point).<br />
<br />
Round 3 went as one would expect, with three winners. But while the 4 pts vs 4 pts match ended up with someone getting 7 match points (and therefore in the prize range), the 4 pts vs 2 pts went to the 2 pt person, leaving neither of them in range, and the 1 pt vs 0 pt went to me (bringing me to 3 match points). But neither of us was in the running at this stage. Final point distribution was 7, 5, 4, 4, 3, 1. Only 1 of the 6 players ended up in the prize range, and he wasn't even at the top point level!<br />
<br />
After giving him his 3 packs, we were left with 9 more in the pool. And I had always sworn that I would give out every pack in the prize pool (I don't want to end up with "the house always wins"!). So each of the remaining 5 players got 1 pack each, and the final 4 packs I distributed randomly among the 6 of us.<br />
<br />
Like I said - VERY strange outcome!<br />
<br />
<b>October 8, 2011</b>: Today's event went quite smoothly. It was another <i>Innistrad </i>Sealed Deck event, this time at Novel Places. This was the first of what will be our regular 2nd and 4th Saturday events. I want to establish a regular pattern for players who are looking for events on a Saturday (something that, outside of special events, is lacking in our area - see a need, fill a need!).<br />
<br />
I was worried that we may not get our 8 players, as we only had 2 preregistered (and prepaid) and one person (Darren) who had told me they were likely to come out, even though he didn't think he could play more than 2 rounds. When I arrived, Patrick told me that he had had someone call and ask about the event (confirming the time), and a local guy (Ian) who has been buying some MTG product from Patrick told him that he'd try to make it as well. So we had 3 for sure, and 2 possibles at this point. Then Serg arrived (I figured I could count on him!) although without Vish (boo, Vish!). Then Craig called to say he was coming up (wasn't expecting him - BONUS!). Ian did indeed make it. And then the gentleman who had called earlier turned up, with a friend along for the ride. Suddenly we had 8. Awesome! No need to cancel and run a casual event, and no need for me to jump in to make the minimum.<br />
<br />
Some sick pulls were made. We had a Liliana and a foil Snapcaster Mage (two of the most expensive cards in the set) and several other Mythics (including Olivia Voldaren, who is an absolute beast in a Limited environment).<br />
<br />
Round 1 and two went as an ideal distribution would predict. Then Darren, as he had forewarned, needed to drop after round 2 so the only person who was at this point winless got a Bye. This put everyone into prize range (I give out booster packs for the highest levels, but use WPN promos even down to only 3 match points [1 match win]).<br />
<br />
Five of the eight players had never played at Novel Places before, and 1 of these was completely new to organized play and needed a DCI card. So all-in-all it was a great event for us as far as maintaining Core Level status is concerned.<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-wpn-part-26.html">PART 26</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-25631985456585225742011-10-06T20:08:00.001-04:002015-03-30T09:43:34.623-04:00The Road to WPN (Part 24)[This is part 24 in a series, and assumes that you've already read <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html">Part 1</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-2.html">Part 2</a>, <a href="http://donsmagicandsundry.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-3.html">Part 3</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-4.html">Part 4</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-5.html">Part 5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-6.html">Part 6</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-7.html">Part 7</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-8.html">Part 8</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-9.html">Part 9</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-10.html">Part 10</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-11.html">Part 11</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-12.html">Part 12</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-13.html">Part 13</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-14.html">Part 14</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-145.html">Part 14.5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-15.html">Part 15</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-16.html">Part 16</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-17.html">Part 17</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-18.html">Part 18</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-19.html">Part 19</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-20.html">Part 20</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-21.html">Part 21</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-22.html">Part 22</a>, and <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-23.html">Part 23</a>]<br />
<br />
<b>September 28, 2011</b>: Today I heard from the DCI that last week's FNM (the Two-Headed Giant event that only had 6 players) had also been invalidated.<br />
<br />
Brian got back to me later in the day to confirm my suspicion that this event (as well as the second prerelease event from Sunday) were both invalidated due to being under 8 players. Fortunately, he was able to allow me to submit two casual events in their place, and at least get people credit for having played.<br />
<br />
The answer, it turns out, to how do you create a casual 2HG event is: you don't. I have finally managed to get this fact through my thick skull: for a casual event the DCI and WPN does not give two hoots about who played against who, or how many games each player won/lost/drew. They only care about who was present. That's it. In fact if you submit a casual event, you're supposed to check the box labeled "player list only" to make it even easier. To me that seems rather sad, but there you have it.<br />
<br />
<b>September 30, 2011</b>: Tonight, instead of running an FNM, we had the Launch Party for <i>Innistrad</i> at Beyond Comics. Throughout the day I was keeping tabs on our preregistrations. We had hit 14 early in the day, but two wrote to me to let me know that their circumstances had changed and they needed to cancel. We had planned on capping at 18, since that's the number of chairs we have available normally (extra tables and chairs had been brought down from the Frederick branch of Beyond Comics for the prerelease last weekend). So, I figured with 12 signed up in advance, that only had us at 66% capacity, and we should be fine.<br />
<br />
I couldn't have been more wrong.<br />
<br />
I arrived at the store at around 5:40 this evening. The posted start of registration was 6:00, with the event scheduled to start at 6:30. I always try to get in 15 to 30 minutes before registration even begins to get set up. I arrived to find that John had already started processing people in - without knowing who had preregistered and who didn't (or even how many preregistrations to expect). He was asking folks if they had preregistered, but as we weren't requiring prepayment for this one it didn't really matter.<br />
<br />
This proved to be a bit of a problem, however, because there were WAY more people waiting to sign up than I had expected! By the time the dust settled, we had 15 present and paid for, 2 still on the preregistration list, and 5 more who wanted to sign up! We waited until 6:30, the posted start time, for the final 2 preregistered people to show up. One was a name I didn't know (and who reported in their signup that they needed a DCI #) and the other was Roger, a regular. I felt bad giving up both slots. Roger had proven to be a solid supporter of what I'm doing, even advertising the events among his play group. As for the other person, I would hate to have their first experience with us be showing up despite preregistering only to find that his seat was gone.<br />
<br />
However, we needed to start, and we had 5 eager people willing and ready to pay (some of them even willing to STAND for the event) there in-store. So I finally made the decision to sign up the 5 people waiting in the store. That brought us to 20 people, 2 more than we had chairs for (and making it the largest event I've run to date). Many of these had never played an Beyond Comics before, and 4 were attending their first event (and needed DCI cards).<br />
<br />
While the 5 were paying John, Roger did make it (traffic was awful, it seems). It wasn't a total wasted trip for him, as he had placed an order from me he was going to pick up that evening, but I still feel bad that there just wasn't room to fit him in. If you're reading this, Roger - my sincerest apologies yet again!<br />
<br />
The lessons to be learned here are:<br />
<ul>
<li>I should have contacted the store and let John know how many sign-ups we already had (and sent him a list, so he could check people off);</li>
<li>John should not have started processing people in until I had arrived to give him said info.</li>
</ul>
<br />
So, we finally got started around 6:45 or so, and after 4 rounds of play we ended at around 11:30. My warmest thanks to Jawhara, who had to stay that late on a Friday night to man the store (her shift would normally have been done at 9!) - I don't think anyone had warned her that this particular event would go extra late (FNMs usually run at most an hour later than normal closing time).<br />
<br />
So, why was this event so well attended? I'm not sure. My best guess is that since Friday is the first day one can hold a Launch Party, and (to the best of my knowledge) none of the local places were doing so, we were the "only game in town" for anyone who wanted to attend a Launch Party today. I had originally thought this would be our only Friday night Launch Party (since we run FNMs now) but now I wonder if it may be worth sacrificing an FNM each time to do this instead.<br />
<br />
On a side note, I'm a bit concerned. The FNM promos for October I would have expected to arrive by now, but everyone at Beyond Comics reports that there have been no such deliveries. We need those promos starting next Friday, so I hope they come early next week!<br />
<br />
<b>October 2, 2011</b>: Today was Novel Places' Launch Party for <i>Innistrad</i>. It was scheduled to start at 1:30 (with registration to start at 1). We only had 4 people signed up in advance (two had gone through Patrick's website and gotten the 10% discount; 2 had signed up through my web form just to reserve a space). And two others (Serg & Vish, who have become regulars) were there when I arrived.<br />
<br />
I actually got there a bit frazzled today, as when I was packing up this morning I discovered that my netbook was missing. The only thing I could figure is that I somehow left it at Beyond Comics on Friday night. Unfortunately they don't open until 12 noon on Sundays (unless they're opening early for a prerelease!) so I couldn't call them to check. And if I was going to head south to Gaithersburg to pick it up, and then head back north to Clarksburg for the event, I would have to leave at 12. So, I left (my two sons along with me for the afternoon), hoping it wouldn't turn out that the computer wasn't there after all.<br />
<br />
Fortunately it was sitting there right where I had left it, so I grabbed it and skedaddled, and arrived at Novel Places around 12:30, when I had planned to get there anyway.<br />
<br />
When the time came to start the event, we had no others show up, so my two sons joined the 6 we had to make it 8 for the event so as to allow it to run as a competitive event. With only 8 players, I set the event for 3 rounds and the playing began.<br />
<br />
While the event was running, I borrowed Patrick's camera as our household one has been acting up, and I needed to get pictures of the cards from <i>Innistrad</i> from my store. Thankfully my netbook has a built-in card reader so I could extract the photos from his camera card for processing later. I didn't get everything photographed (the commons and uncommons will have to wait for later - I'm just going to buy a new camera to use exclusively for store work).<br />
<br />
<b>October 5, 2011</b>: I called in to Beyond Comics to check and see if the FNM promos had arrived as yet, and was told that nothing was there. So I used the WotC customer service system to ask if they had been delayed, or could be tracked (past experience has taught me they ship these things with tracking numbers).<br />
<br />
Later I heard back from them, with a FedEx tracking number. That shows the package having been delivered last Thursday, signed for by "CCOHEN". Now Jon Cohen is the owner of Beyond Comics, and usually works in the Frederick store. But last week on Thursday he was manning the Gaithersburg one (where I TO events - the Frederick store has since started running events of their own). Unfortunately he is on vacation this week, and no-one else has any clue where he may have stashed the package of promos after he signed for them. I'm going to have to get there extra early on Friday and help tear the place up looking for them...<br />
<br />
<b>October 6, 2011</b>: Today I got the weekly WPN newsletter, and it linked to <a href="http://www.wizards.com/wpn/Sales/Article.aspx?x=20111003_dka_events" target="_blank">an article</a> detailing some changes they're making to prereleases starting with the next set (<i>Dark Ascension</i>, releasing the first weekend of February next year). There are some interesting changes, namely:<br />
<ul>
<li>Sites at Core Level will be able to run THREE events now (up from two for <i>Innistrad</i>);</li>
<li>Booster Draft will no longer be an allowed format at prereleases (only Sealed Deck and 2HG Sealed Deck).</li>
</ul>
So that removes the question of whether to run a Draft event next time (if you recall, that was the event that only had 6 attendees). But it adds in a complication factor. Can I realistically run 3 events at each of 2 sites in 2 days? Single-handedly, I don't think so. But, my good buddy Craig may be willing and able to help. We'll have to figure out if there's a way to schedule events such that he can run two of the 6 events for me (I think I can pull of two each day that weekend, so if he can manage the other two I'll be set).<br />
<br />
The only questions that remain are:<br />
<ul>
<li>Which store gets which events on which days? Since Beyond Comics is closer to the "big fish" store (who runs the HUGE events on Saturday), it would make more sense to let Novel Places get the Saturday events (especially since we will have established a pattern of Saturday events at that location by then).</li>
<li>Just because we CAN run three events at each store, does this mean we WANT to do so?</li>
<li>What format(s) to do? Two-Headed Giant didn't work so well as an FNM, but there were many mitigating factors, and perhaps the prerelease would be different.</li>
</ul>
The two possible schedules I have come up with are:<br />
<ol>
<li> Novel Places runs two events on Saturday (am and pm), and Beyond Comics runs just one. Craig runs the one at Beyond Comics. Then, on Sunday, Beyond Comics runs two events (am and pm) while Novel Places runs just one. Craig runs the one at Novel Places.</li>
<li>Each store runs two events on Saturday (am and pm). Craig would run both events at one of the stores. Then each store runs a single event on Sunday (one in the morning, one in the afternoon). I'd run both of these, going from one store to the next like I did for Magic Celebration.</li>
</ol>
The first option requires Craig's help on two separate days, but only for part of each day. The second option requires his help on only one day, but for the WHOLE day.<br />
<br />
And, of course, I'm not so sure how his wife Misty will feel about this!<br />
<br />
On another note, Patrick got the new batch of WPN Gateway promos in today (and Beyond Comics got theirs later) and he kindly took photos and sent them to me. So, starting with his event on Saturday, I'll be able to offer these lovelies as additional prizes:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif1J_hEcWeEFPqkinJFHf0ZgATu38HXhdjE1nqDGa8zOLhfd-hRr2g1JChZ9uVdWsGftc2JeWN-bicJIjRdNSVauNDYchqgmg1iRKPWjIN0FzAslGJ3-yhZjhoBm6n70so6pde/s1600/Gateway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif1J_hEcWeEFPqkinJFHf0ZgATu38HXhdjE1nqDGa8zOLhfd-hRr2g1JChZ9uVdWsGftc2JeWN-bicJIjRdNSVauNDYchqgmg1iRKPWjIN0FzAslGJ3-yhZjhoBm6n70so6pde/s400/Gateway.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I actually prefer the promo Neonate to the original!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So cool! I just love getting new promos in!<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-wpn-part-25.html">PART 25</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-9018226731914492112011-09-27T20:24:00.003-04:002015-03-30T09:39:28.510-04:00The Road to WPN (Part 23)[This is part 23 in a series, and assumes that you've already read <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html">Part 1</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-2.html">Part 2</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-3.html">Part 3</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-4.html">Part 4</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-5.html">Part 5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-6.html">Part 6</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-7.html">Part 7</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-8.html">Part 8</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-9.html">Part 9</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-10.html">Part 10</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-11.html">Part 11</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-12.html">Part 12</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-13.html">Part 13</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-14.html">Part 14</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-145.html">Part 14.5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-15.html">Part 15</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-16.html">Part 16</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-17.html">Part 17</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-18.html">Part 18</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-19.html">Part 19</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-20.html">Part 20</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-21.html">Part 21</a>, and <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-22.html">Part 22</a>]<br />
<br />
<b>September 25, 2011</b>: Today was the <i>Innistrad</i> prerelease, my first experience running such an event. And it has its ups and its downs.<br />
<br />
First a recap of what we knew going in to this:<br />
<ul>
<li>We were running two events: an a.m. Sealed Deck event (to start at 10:30), and a p.m. Draft (to start at 3:30);</li>
<li>We were limiting the event to 18 players as those were the # of seats available</li>
<li>A signing from comic-book creator Kurt Busiek was scheduled for the same day (to run from 1 to 4)</li>
<li>We were also going to allow Open Dueling during the event</li>
</ul>
I was dropped off at the store around 9 a.m. (as my family needed to continue on to head to church for the morning). John had kindly agreed to meet me there at that time (a full 3 hours before the store normally opens on a Sunday). I found that at this point in time we had 17 people registered for the morning event, but only 4 for the afternoon. A quick look at the list revealed that someone was on there twice (clerical error), so we really only had 16.<br />
<br />
As I was setting up, John received a phone call asking if there was still space. He said there was, and registered the player for both events. Now up to 17 and 5. Then John showed me something nice - they had brought some additional tables down from the Frederick store to help out (what with Kurt needing a table for his signing, and us potentially needed to exceed 18 if possible). With those set up, we expanded our potential to 22.<br />
<br />
I asked John to hand the little white registration slips I use to everyone as they checked in with him, as a way to double-check that they were in fact paid & registered (and also a clue to me that I needed to give them their promo cards). <br />
<br />
I finished setting up, and John opened the doors at 10:00 (we already had some players gathering outside). I grabbed the signup sheet and started getting folks registered into the system. Everything worked well - the majority of the players were folks who had played at one of my events before, and therefore were in the Local Players section. Those that weren't had provided DCI numbers, and were easily entered in, with the exception of the gentleman who called up that morning. His DCI number was not recognized. I hypothesized (and later had it confirmed) that he must have just gotten his DCI card the day before, and it hadn't gotten into the system as yet. I entered him in as if he were someone I had just given a DCI card to, and I hope that things work out properly there.<br />
<br />
Two players (Serg & Vish) came in last-minute and joined the morning event, bringing us to 19. They had both been to events before, and John just quickly sent them back without the little registration slips. They flashed me their receipts and I handed them their promos.<br />
<br />
I made my usual announcements (where's the bathroom, who I am, free shipping option at my store, etc) and then explained how the DFC's work (using sleeves or checklists, how they interact with copy cards like Evil Twin, etc). And then I handed out product and we began to open our packs (I myself was registered for the event). I gave 50 minutes for deck-building, which is longer than normal for a Sealed Deck event, but I figured as the cards were mostly new to most people, the extra time was not a luxury. That proved to be correct as some folks were still sleeving up their cards when time was called.<br />
<br />
During deck building I collected up empty wrappers and spare token, rules tips, and checklist cards. We ended up with a big stack, as most players seemed to be opting for the sleeves instead of the checklists (I went with checklists myself). So that fear of not having enough checklist cards did not bear any fruit, I'm happy to say.<br />
<br />
Personally, I couldn't decide on a single deck, so I ended up building two. Deck #1 was Blue/White/Black, heavy on Humans and Equipment (along with the Angelic Overseer). I was really looking forward to equipping the Invisible Stalker and running rampant on my opponent. The deck also had a slight mill theme, as I had a Trepanation Blade and two copies of Curse of the Bloody Tome. My second deck was a Werewolf/Vampire hybrid in Green/Red/Black. Two copies of Curse of the Pierced Heart (one in foil) along with great Vampires like Rakish Heir looked like a nice quick aggro build.<br />
<br />
My first opponent was one of the young women from Clarksburg who had attended the Magic Celebration up there. This is an example of how nicely my "cross pollination" attempts have gone. We've had several players now who have found events at one site, then come to events at the other since I can advertise for both. It's nice to see that working. I think the family from Clarksburg would much rather have attended a prerelease IN Clarksburg (that makes sense), and they'll probably start coming to ones at Novel Places starting with the next set.<br />
<br />
Round one went fairly well for my deck, despite not ever really getting the Stalker/Equipment combo thoroughly working. We had near mirror decks, each having a lot of Humans and Equipment (she even had a Curse of the Bloody Tome and a Trepanation Blade!). And we nearly used up the entire 50 minutes for the round getting two games in. I won both of those games by milling - a strategy I don't particularly enjoy winning by. I decided then that I would try the other deck in Round 2.<br />
<br />
That deck proved to be MUCH quicker. I won against another Red-heavy aggressive deck in two games fairly quickly, which was good because one of the drawbacks of taking long in Round 1 is that results slips started to build up. A quick round meant I was available earlier to start processing those. It also gave me an opportunity to quickly eat the sandwich I had brought along for lunch.<br />
<br />
Round 3 proved to be much worse for me (understandably - since, with Swiss pairings, you're put up against another player with the same record, if you keep winning, your opponents, theoretically, get more difficult). Despite getting an early Curse of the Pierced Heart out, I just couldn't get enough Creatures going in Game 1. I decided to switch to the first deck for Game 2, since my opponent was playing more White/Blue. Didn't matter, and I lost that game fairly quickly as well (although I did enjoy getting a Bonds of Faith on his Hanweir Watchkeep - on one side it was buffed up but has Defender; on the other side it loses the buff and can't attack or block!).<br />
<br />
Round 4 I swapped back to my quicker deck, and hoped for a fast Round so that I could be available to distribute prize packs as people finished their rounds. This proved to not be the case, as the first game dragged on a long time (I <i>almost</i> had managed to defeat him, but a judicious life gain spell combined with a clever Butcher's Cleaver wielding gained him enough life to survive my onslaught and launch one of his own). The second game took almost as long, but I managed to win it. At this point there were only 5 minutes left, and several people were standing around awaiting their prize packs. I knew I needed to quit then and there, so I conceded game 3 (and therefore the match).<br />
<br />
Lesson here: Don't sign up for your own event if it's this big unless you've got someone to assist with the administrative stuff. I thought I'd be able to handle it, but I ended up inconveniencing some folks (since the event ran longer than expected, some like the Clarksburg family really needed to go, but were awaiting their prizes). I should not have made them wait like that.<br />
<br />
While all of this was going on, a few other things were happening as well. My two sons had shown up and bought their decks to start Open Dueling. A few folks from the Sealed Deck event also joined in, and side games were being played while folks who had ended their rounds early (or the one each round who had a Bye) played those who needed to get in 5 games to collect their bonus booster pack. One person paid four times for Open Dueling to get 1 copy of each deck, but then never joined the group to play. I've heard of such things before (like people paying for the Sealed Deck event, then taking their packs and immediately leaving before Round 1 even starts) but it was the first time I had it happen at one of my events.<br />
<br />
The other thing is one on a personal level. I started getting a low-grade headache and having a very odd feeling in my chest starting around Round 3. I think it was part tension, part dehydration. But it led to me feeling very uncomfortable for the rest of the day, and it was a LONG day. Lesson here: make sure to bring PLENTY of water (my Klean Kanteen was empty long before the first event was finished) and pain relievers just in case.<br />
<br />
So Round 4 was finishing around about 3:15 or so, and 3:00 was the published start time for registration for the Draft (to start at 3:30). Needless to say, things were tight. I was juggling folks' prize packs, and awaiting the last couple of matches to end, and dealing with folks finish up their Open Dueling, and trying to get my sons out to the car where my wife was waiting to take them home, and also dealing with a situation where someone who had paid for the afternoon Draft had decided he was too tired to continue (he had done a few events the previous day), so his friend was going to take his slot (not a problem as I had not yet put anyone into the system)...in short, it was just a wee bit chaotic. Somewhere in all this Serg asked if there was time for him to go get something to eat. I answered "yes", not fully registering what the question implied. This would come to haunt me later.<br />
<br />
We finally got things settled from the Sealed Deck event and got ready to launch the Draft. Vish had decided to sign up for the Draft as well, and that put us at 6 players - 5 on the signup sheet and Vish. Five of them had been in the Sealed Deck event, so I just checked with player 6 to see if he had any questions regarding the DFCs, and he seemed pretty comfortable with them. I told him to feel free to ask if something should come up. I explained to everyone how drafting would work with the DFCs. Then we got ready to start. But wait, Vish said - wasn't Serg going to Draft? I didn't think so - he wasn't on the list. Vish tried to call him, but got no answer. We were already running late, so I started the event, and everyone cracked the first pack and began to draft.<br />
<br />
After the first couple of picks, Serg came back. He had indeed been planning to Draft (which is why he asked me if there was time before he went to eat - this is what hadn't clicked with me). He had, in fact, already paid for the Draft (he paid for both when he arrived). But, at this point, it was too late since the event had already been started in the system, and in fact the first pack of the Draft had been opened.<br />
<br />
What we had was a complete cock-up of a situation which could have been avoided if almost any of the following had happened:<br />
<ul>
<li>I had left the Draft portion of the sign-up sheet with John when I went to put people for the Sealed Deck event, so he could add names to that list if people paid later;</li>
<li>John had given Serg two Registration slips to indicate that Serg had paid for both events;</li>
<li>Serg had said something more definitive like "don't start the Draft without me" or answered his phone when Vish had tried to call him</li>
</ul>
And there's probably many other ways it could have been avoided. But to my mind the lesson here is that EVERYONE absolutely MUST fill out a registration slip when they pay and give it to me. There can't be any exceptions, that's got to be the way it goes. Otherwise, there's this possibility of missing someone.<br />
<br />
To make matters worse, Serg was Vish's ride home, so he was stuck and had to sit around and watch a Draft he couldn't participate in. I felt horrible about the situation, and hoped I could find a way to make it up to him. As it happens, at the end of the evening he expressed interest when I jokingly offered the giant Garruk advertising thingy for the prerelease, so I gave it to him. Hopefully that helps to make amends. And, in case you're concerned - Serg was, of course, given a refund for the registration fee for the event.<br />
<br />
The Draft went relatively well. They only played three rounds, as there were only 6 in the event. One player did drop after Round 2 (which is the first time I've ever had anyone actually check the "drop" box on the results slips) which led to someone getting a Bye for Round 3.<br />
<br />
Other than the delayed prize packs at the end of the first event, and the snafu with Serg's registration, I think everything went well, and everyone was happy with how the event went. I'm very curious as to the discrepancy in attendance between the two events. A bit more than 3x the number of players in the morning event vs. the afternoon. I don't know if it's Sealed vs. Draft, or morning vs. afternoon. But we may be better served running two Sealed Deck events next go round. I need to come up with some way to poll the players and see if I can find the answer to why the numbers were so different.<br />
<br />
Another lesson learned: Prerelease events take longer than normal ones. Since the cards are brand new to everyone, deck-building is slower, drafting is slower, and games go slower (as players often need to read what cards do when their opponents cast them). I scheduled the two events figuring on normal times, and that proved to be a mistake.<br />
<br />
<b>September 27, 2011</b>: Today I was very disheartened to receive the following email:<br />
<blockquote>
The DCI has invalidated the following event:<br />
<br />
Event name: Prerelease - Innistrad<br />
Sanctioning #: 11-09-2989605<br />
Coordinator: Don G. Wiggins, DCI# xxxxxx<br />
Brand: Magic<br />
Event type: Magic Prerelease<br />
Game: Booster Draft<br />
Location: Gaithersburg, MD, United States<br />
Date: 2011-09-25<br />
# of players: 6<br />
# of matches: 9<br />
Former status: Received<br />
New status: Invalidated</blockquote>
I can only assume that the problem is that the event was registered with under 8 players. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I should cancel the scheduled prerelease and create a casual event instead. It would seem that this may have been the right thing to do. I've got an email in to Brian (my WPN Rep) asking what I should do at this point. Hopefully it's possible to resubmit this event as a casual one after the fact, but I don't know.<br />
<br />
Even worse, I'm worried about what this may mean for future prereleases. My understanding is that your allocation of product for a prerelease is based on past performance. And essentially I've managed to prove to WPN that we can only successfully run a single prerelease. Let's hope that they're a bit forgiving in this department!<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-wpn-part-24.html">PART 24</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-24033477460139355822011-09-24T12:35:00.002-04:002015-03-30T09:32:03.723-04:00The Road to WPN (Part 22)[This is part 22 in a series, and assumes that you've already read <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html">Part 1</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-2.html">Part 2</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-3.html">Part 3</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-4.html">Part 4</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-5.html">Part 5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-6.html">Part 6</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-7.html">Part 7</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-8.html">Part 8</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-9.html">Part 9</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-10.html">Part 10</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-11.html">Part 11</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-12.html">Part 12</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-13.html">Part 13</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-14.html">Part 14</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-145.html">Part 14.5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-15.html">Part 15</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-16.html">Part 16</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-17.html">Part 17</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-18.html">Part 18</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-19.html">Part 19</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-20.html">Part 20</a>, and <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-21.html">Part 21</a>]<br />
<br />
<b>September 20, 2011</b>: I have decided that we should offer Open Dueling at the prerelease next Sunday. For those of you who don't know, in Open Dueling a player purchases an Intro Pack from the new set (which includes a preconstructed deck and a booster pack). They play games against each other, against players from other events between rounds, or between events, etc. We will also run it such that after they have played 5 other games they can report their games and receive another booster as a prize pack (I'm modeling this after how Dream Wizards runs their Open Dueling).<br />
<br />
I tried and tried, but I would not figure out how to report an Open Dueling "event" using the WER. So, I decided it was time to try out the fancy new interface (actually it's not - it's just the WotC customer service system) we will have to start using after October 4 to get WPN answers (we will no longer be able to email our WPN reps directly - something I have mixed feelings about*). So, today I sent in this message through the system:<br />
<blockquote>
It is my understanding that we are allowed (even encouraged) to offer Open Dueling at our prerelease event.<br />
<br />
I know from past experience (through my son playing Open Dueling at other prereleases) that it is possible to report the results of Open Dueling (these past events show up in his history).<br />
<br />
My question is: how does one report Open Dueling? I have tried to figure out how to use the WER to schedule such an event, but nothing in any category seems to mention Open Dueling. And if I try to schedule a casual event, I need to specify a pairing method, which isn't how Open Dueling works (as I understand it).<br />
<br />
Any help/instruction/advise on running Open Dueling and correctly reporting it would be greatly appreciated.</blockquote>
<br />
We'll see how long it takes to get a response. I got an auto-generated email letting me know my "incident" had been reported (how ominous does THAT sound?), and that I can expect a response within 24 hours. <br />
<br />
*On the one hand, it's nice that we can get answers more easily from another rep if ours is unavailable for some reason. But there's no way to tag the message "first try Brian, then next available rep" so there's no guarantee you'll be getting a reply from your actual rep, and dang it I like my rep very much, thank you!<br />
<br />
<b>September 21, 2011</b>: I got this response from the WPN system today:<br />
<blockquote>
This email is to inform you that we have received your incident and have escalated it for further review. A representative should be contacting you concerning your incident in 24-48 business hours or less. We apologize for this delay and appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this.</blockquote>
While it may be unkind, what this says to me is: we folks on the front line of customer service can't answer your question, so we sill kick it up to a WPN rep. So, I wonder, why can't I just directly correspond with a WPN rep? Do you think me incapable of determining whether a question is a general WotC Customer Service question, or if it is indeed a WPN-rep-worthy one? Le sigh.<br />
<br />
I later got a second copy of that same email. Weird.<br />
<br />
Then, about 6 hours later, I got this response:<br />
<blockquote>
Thanks for writing in! You can indeed sanction Open Dueling as a Casual Event. You can put the format as Casual Constructed and the pairing method as swiss, but as a casual event, the program will not ask you for match results. You can reference this snippet we have on our website about Open Dueling:<br />
<br />
Open Dueling: Open Dueling players each receive 1 Innistrad Intro Pack and 1 promo card (Mayor of Avabruck/Howlpack Alpha, while supplies last). Open Dueling players use their Intro Pack to play against each other, as well as Prerelease tournament players who are between matches. All players should be encouraged to help teach Open Dueling participants how to play Magic.<br />
<br />
If there is anything else I can do for you, please let me know!</blockquote>
That second paragraph appears, almost verbatim, on the Prerelease info sheet included with the promo cards that I mentioned in Part 21. I'm pretty sure I have reported an event as a Casual one before, and it did indeed ask me for match results. So, I will give this a try, but I'm not 100% confident. Also, as I said in my initial email in to them, I know for a fact that my son's DCI info said "Open Dueling" in his record, so it seems to me there should be a more specific method for reporting this type of event. Maybe there used to be and isn't now? I don't know. I guess we'll find out on Sunday.<br />
<br />
<b>September 23, 2011</b>: Tonight's FNM was both a disappointment and an awesome time.<br />
<br />
When I arrived, I found there were two WPN-related packages for me (along with all of the <i>Innistrad</i> booster boxes for this weekend's prerelease - yeah, I may have geekgasmed a little at those). One package was the Buy-a-Box promos for the store to hand out to people who purchase a full booster box of <i>Innistrad</i>. The second contained these beauties (the Launch Party promos for next weekend):<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgygP-rLVf0V1BXO3gaOSiVKzMHmCtBeoqIc7FjUsl-JRifp7T4CTR1qEeh6xVcfDuTrn5Shs4dum259qXvilaL1XS8mEL_aeqlxQmOk5Y7W18qVeztrDnhuT3jB4lTJtvHnCot/s1600/ISD+Launch+Promo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgygP-rLVf0V1BXO3gaOSiVKzMHmCtBeoqIc7FjUsl-JRifp7T4CTR1qEeh6xVcfDuTrn5Shs4dum259qXvilaL1XS8mEL_aeqlxQmOk5Y7W18qVeztrDnhuT3jB4lTJtvHnCot/s400/ISD+Launch+Promo.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I can't wait to Proliferate one of these! (Yes, I know you have to pay for the first & fifth).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
As of late last night I only had 4 people registered for the event (a Two-Headed Giant M12 Sealed Deck event). I had many things working against me here:<br />
<ul>
<li>It's the night before prerelease weekend; many people are probably skipping FNM and instead going to midnight prereleases;</li>
<li>Two-Headed Giant is a somewhat obscure format and not everybody loves it.</li>
<li>A lot of folks are just tired of M12 already.</li>
</ul>
I'm still not sure whether to run a 2HG event in November. The jury's still out. Maybe in December.<br />
<br />
So, anyway, I contacted my main man Craig this morning and asked him if he wanted to be my partner so that we'd have a third team, and I hoped and hoped that a fourth would show tonight.<br />
<br />
Craig was indeed available, and agreed to come out and sling some spells (HUGE thanks to his family for letting him have the evening free!). We formed team "Last Minute" (the WER has you enter a Team Name as well as the individual partners in the event - and pairings, rankings, etc are done by the team name) and prepared to face off against "The Raging Goblins" and "Blue Balls". I kid you not. Unfortunately, since there were an odd number of teams, there would be a Bye for each round.<br />
<br />
Side note here: It was my understanding that if I had fewer that 8 people at an FNM, I would have to cancel the registered event, then create & sanction a casual event in the WER. Try though I might, I could not for the life of me figure out how to create a casual 2HG event in WER. At one point in the process I was able to click on a "Team" checkbox, and select 2HG in the "type of team" drop-down box that came up afterwards. But then once I clicked on "Create and Sanction" I lost that option. Obviously I was doing something wrong, but I simply could not figure it out. So I decided to go with the "it's easier to get forgiveness than permission" philosophy and run the event as scheduled (thankfully some foresight told me to not cancel the already registered event until I got a new one put together). Foreshadowing: the event ran fine, and WER even allowed me to submit the results. I don't know what that means as yet - I guess we shall see what happens.<br />
<br />
Craig and I opened a fairly decent pool. I built a BR build with lots of removal, a Bloodlord of Vaasgoth, a couple copies of Child of Night and a Bloodrage Vampire. Craig piloted a WG deck with lots of defense to let my deck build up to what it needed. I talked him out of including his 1 Naturalize. This would prove to be a mistake (that he will almost certainly never let me live down).<br />
<br />
Round 1 we got paired up against The Raging Goblins (and Blue Balls got the Bye). It was going great at first: got the Bloodlord out (after hitting the opposing team in combat, so he was a 6/6), used Gravedigger to get back a Child of Night and cast her with Bloodthirst 3 thanks to the Bloodlord. Things were looking pretty good despite a turn 2 Jace's Erasure on their side of the board (which had effectively milled a lot of my removal away).<br />
<br />
Then the blue mage played a Mind Control on the Bloodlord. "Wish I had my Naturalize!" says Craig. Arggghhhh....that was pretty much it. The Raging Goblins took the match (2HG matches are single-game, as they can take a LONG time).<br />
<br />
Round 2 found The Raging Goblins facing the fury of Blue Balls ("maybe that's why their raging!"). Craig and I chatted about some potential business plans during our Bye, so I can't tell you much except that Blue Balls took the round.<br />
<br />
In Round 3 we again came to the battlefield, this time against Blue Balls. This game took FOREVER. It was EPIC! Huge amounts of creatures on the board. Craig's deck played excellent defense while I built up an army (and used Goblin Fireslinger to slowly whittle away their life ["I hit you with a flaming rock."]). Blue Balls got 2 (TWO!) Swiftfoot Boots out, but thankfully that player didn't have many creatures (and you can't equip things to your team-mate's creatures!). At one point they also got our Sorin Markov and got him up to 6 (thankfully my 6/6 Bloodlord took him out after Craig's Stingerfling Spider took out their one flyer). It all ended with Craig and I attacking all in (after taking out one defender with my Grim Lavamancer and hitting them with another flaming rock).<br />
<br />
When the dust settled, they were left with 5 life, and we had 14. All our Creatures were tapped out. Things looked bleak for us...<br />
<br />
But I had enough mana for a final Lava Axe for 5. Go team Last Minute!<br />
<br />
So we ended the evening with each team having 6 match points - all equally set. I took the prize packs (3 per team were in the pool) and distributed 3 to each team. The FNM promos were randomly assigned to Blue Balls and The Raging Goblins. All agreed that the night was amazingly cool (and we all wondered why not more people had shown up - 'cause IT WAS AWESOME!).<br />
<br />
Okay, the geeky fan boy in me will now shut up.<br />
<br />
September 24, 2011: Confirmed with John at Beyond Comics that we are still at 11 (out of 18) preregistrations for tomorrow morning's Sealed Deck event, and only 2 (out of 18) for the afternoon's Booster Draft event. I expect we will have a number of walk-ins in the morning. I hope we don't have to turn anyone away.<br />
<br />
John told me he had already had one person walk in asking when the prerelease was going to be (thinking it was today) and another call in with the same question. My guess is that folks find us on the Wizards Event Locator but don't really look at the details (like what day it's on), they just see the store name and head there or call.<br />
<br />
Less than 24 hours until I run my first prerelease!<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-23.html">PART 23</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-18421810096469731182011-09-18T14:28:00.003-04:002015-03-30T09:30:31.830-04:00The Road to WPN (Part 21)[This is part 21 in a series, and assumes that you've already read <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html">Part 1</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-2.html">Part 2</a>, <a href="http://donsmagicandsundry.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-3.html">Part 3</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-4.html">Part 4</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-5.html">Part 5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-6.html">Part 6</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-7.html">Part 7</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-8.html">Part 8</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-9.html">Part 9</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-10.html">Part 10</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-11.html">Part 11</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-12.html">Part 12</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-13.html">Part 13</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-14.html">Part 14</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-145.html">Part 14.5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-15.html">Part 15</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-16.html">Part 16</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-17.html">Part 17</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-18.html">Part 18</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-19.html">Part 19</a>, and <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-20.html">Part 20</a>]<br />
<br />
<b>September 14, 2011</b>: I hadn't seen any indication that the original event I ran at Novel Places had been cleared up yet, so I sent in an email to Brian to check on its status. Hopefully that whole situation will be resolved soon.<br />
<br />
<b>September 15, 2011</b>: Brian emailed me back to let me know he was going to ask the data crew to get the event reported properly, and would let me know the results. Later I got the automated email from WPN that is sent when an event is successfully reported. Brian followed up with an email letting me know that all should be well now.<br />
<br />
I can't wait until tomorrow when I can open up the WER and see "Core" next to Novel Places!<br />
<br />
<b>September 16, 2011</b>: FNM tonight, so I opened up the WER to get the preregistered players into the system. And, of course, I had to check on the Novel Places status. I think "Core" may be my new favorite word :-)<br />
<br />
Tonight's FNM is Standard. I'm thinking of entering myself tonight with Mono et Mono. It doesn't have long before it's no longer Standard-legal (in its current form, anyway), and I wouldn't mind winning one of the FNM promos myself!<br />
<br />
Had a bit of a scare today, as Jon (owner of Beyond Comics) contacted me to say that the distributor was only allowing him to purchase Intro Packs for the prerelease of Innistrad, not booster boxes. WHAT?!?! He was going to email the guy again and try to get the full details, as we absolutely need booster packs of product for the event.<br />
<br />
I jumped on the phone to Brian to see if I could get any details from him. As this is my first prerelease, I have NO idea what the ordering process is (and since I don't do the ordering for the store, I'm even further out of the loop). I needed to know what the normal operating procedure was.<br />
<br />
While I got his voice mail, Brian was very quick to get back to me (under 10 minutes, I believe). He had a copy of the spreadsheet with him that the distributors are given to let them know how much product any given venue can order. It turns out we're eligible to order up to 10 boxes of booster packs, PLUS WPN throws in two full boxes to be used as additional booster packs in the prize pool. This explains why (most) of the prereleases I've been to have been more generous in their prize distribution than ordinary events. I look forward to having an extra-generous prize hand-out at ours!<br />
<br />
In addition, he let me know, we could order 1 Into Pack display for folks to buy and play open dueling if they wish. That cleared up a point I was confused about. I had distinctly remembered seeing text that said prereleases could no longer have side events, and yet the store where I had typically been going for prereleases was still advertising open dueling at their events. How could they do that, I had wondered. It turns out that the WPN does not consider open dueling to be a side event, and it is in fact allowed. Good to know! My older son will be pleased (that's his preferred way to prerelease).<br />
<br />
Finally, Brian let me know that we should expect to receive two kits with 24 prerelease promo cards each in them. He said they'd probably arrive today, and if we hadn't gotten them by Monday I should let him know.<br />
<br />
And, sure enough, when I arrived at the store tonight for FNM, I found the prerelease kits awaiting me. And oh are they loaded. Each of the two kits contained:<br />
<ul>
<li>A point-of-sale stand up to advertise the prerelease and Launch Parties (since Beyond Comics doesn't need two I'll take one to Novel Places with me tomorrow so Patrick can advertise his Launch Party);</li>
<li>2 packs of 12 foil prerelease promo cards that look like this:</li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhbZOvnltVY6ZuvOcJ2ZT1q1eIVQP4bvNEm6uniFi_wFNRrdUiuowYXzQPYzf2NZLFOeWXr0LnWGKoQoYjM_QmbdQxLe3cipg75TtQg4WNp6VOPyf8WIqPUCFzc93iDgTUl_zz/s1600/ISD+Prerelease+Promo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhbZOvnltVY6ZuvOcJ2ZT1q1eIVQP4bvNEm6uniFi_wFNRrdUiuowYXzQPYzf2NZLFOeWXr0LnWGKoQoYjM_QmbdQxLe3cipg75TtQg4WNp6VOPyf8WIqPUCFzc93iDgTUl_zz/s400/ISD+Prerelease+Promo.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So exciting to hold my first batch of prerelease promos as TO!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul>
<li> 2 packs of special Wolf token cards that advertise the Judge program on the back;</li>
<li>Special <i>Innistrad</i> "achievement cards"</li>
<li>An <i>Innistrad</i>-themed life pad.</li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCl4sqP-C_aF7fgxyVrK-9ZsCVIIYvhOg1dD97Lu5BKF1KiRcL41QHzk9rC8CHkbePCBAhdFEVT3yBD4qkP8xqO5EtQDhCW35WpoPsWDpAxdUaF9Xa_Nci8dBceSFbLd9LwKkx/s1600/ISD+Prerelease+Promo+Flip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCl4sqP-C_aF7fgxyVrK-9ZsCVIIYvhOg1dD97Lu5BKF1KiRcL41QHzk9rC8CHkbePCBAhdFEVT3yBD4qkP8xqO5EtQDhCW35WpoPsWDpAxdUaF9Xa_Nci8dBceSFbLd9LwKkx/s400/ISD+Prerelease+Promo+Flip.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By special request in the comments, the back of the promo DFC.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In addition to these two packets was a large cardboard box which, upon opening, I found to contain a folded-up display to advertise the prerelease. After unfolding, and snapping open (with some rubber-band assistance inside it), it proved to be a rather large 2-sided stand alone ad that shows the art for the double-faced Garruk in the set (one face on each side of the promo). This thing looks so cool. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I will get one for the next update, I promise!<br />
<br />
I was, however, disappointed at the lack of checklist cards among the prerelease goodies. For those of you who have not followed along with the drama of double-faced cards (DFCs) in <i>Innistrad</i>, here are the quick salient points:<br />
<ul>
<li><i>Innistrad</i> introduces the first ever DFCs to Magic</li>
<li>In order to play with a DFC in your deck, you must do one of two things:</li>
<ul>
<li>Use opaque backed sleeves;</li>
<li>Substitute a checklist card for the DFC while it is in your deck, hand, exiled faced down, etc (anywhere that the card's identity should not be known)</li>
</ul>
<li>There will be one DFC in every booster pack of <i>Innistrad</i></li>
<li>There will be one checklist card in approximately 3 out of every 4 booster packs of Innistrad</li>
</ul>
You can, I hope, see the potential problem. Eventually, I imagine, the supply of checklist cards will exceed the need (not all DFCs printed will be used, and many will be used with sleeves). But at the prerelease, the very first time people are getting their hands on these cards, it seems to me likely that someone will want to use every DFC they get in their pool, but not have a checklist card for each one.<br />
<br />
I thought for sure that WPN would be sending TOs a small supply of extra checklist cards, just in case, to help avoid this problem. Unfortunately, they did not appear. I feel like the ball was dropped on this one.<br />
<br />
There ended up being 8 players at FNM tonight, so I bowed out rather than have 9 players, and have someone with a Bye every round. Maybe I'll play in tomorrow's event at Novel Places instead. Otherwise the event ran smoothly. There were some folks there who had never played at Beyond Comics at all.<br />
<br />
The language was a bit rougher than I like to have at my events (and I even asked one player if he would cut back on some of the language he was using, as it just makes me uncomfortable). I would hope that such things would be moderated had, for example, my sons been present, but you never can tell.<br />
<br />
I gave the November FNM poll to this group as well as last week's, and here's the final breakdown of the formats chosen, ranked from most votes to least (14 ballots total were cast, voters could pick up to 4):<br />
<ol>
<li><i>Innistrad</i> Sealed Deck (11 votes)</li>
<li>Standard (10 votes) </li>
<li><i>Innistrad</i> Booster Draft (9 votes)</li>
<li>Two-Headed Giant <i>Innistrad</i> Sealed (7 votes)</li>
<li>Modern (5 votes)</li>
<li>Two-Headed Giant Standard (3 votes)</li>
<li>Legacy (1 vote) </li>
<li>Two-Headed Giant Vintage (1 vote)</li>
</ol>
Not sure if I should run the top 4 in November, or double up on the Sealed Deck. While there seems to be support for the 2HG, I've only got one team signed up for next week's 2HG <i>M12</i> Sealed event. Perhaps I will register for the first 3 weeks in November tomorrow (going with the top 3 picks) and then wait for week 4 until I see how next week's event runs.<br />
<br />
<b>September 17, 2011</b>: Today's Standard event at Novel Places went pretty smoothly. We only had 7 folks show up, so my younger sun threw his hat in the ring so we could run it sanctioned. We had a about a 5/3 split between experienced, rough-and-tumble MTG players and relative newcomers (more what I'd consider in the "casual" group - a term I absolutely do NOT use with any derision, and a group I in fact included myself in). As a result I think the three more casual types were a bit disappointed with their performance.<br />
<br />
This is something I really hate about the standard environment. Anymore you rarely get anyone who brews their own decks, it seems. It seems to be mostly copies or modifications of big-tourney winning <br />
decks. It would be impossible to enforce, really, but I'd love to run a standard event where the deck HAD to be a home brew. Entirely your own creation, no netdecking allowed. Yeah, it would never work, but a man can dream.<br />
<br />
For me the personal highlight was seeing my older son finally get a hold of the Silvos, Rogue Elemental (in foil, no less) that he's been wanting to be the Commander for his mono-green Commander deck. Silvos is actually on my Needs List, meaning not only do I not have any in stock for him, I've never even owned a single copy of the card. So I was very happy for him, and grateful for the gentleman who traded it to him.<br />
<br />
There were two players who had never attended before (brought along by someone who's become a regular at my FNMs) and also one of the fathers (along with one of his daughters) who had attended last week's Magic Celebration came back, which is always nice to see. Hopefully they will become regulars, as they live in Clarksburg, so the store couldn't be much more convenient for them.<br />
<br />
Now my focus is on next weekend, and my first ever prerelease as TO. I'm looking forward to visiting the plane of <i>Innistrad</i> with folks next Sunday!<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-22.html">PART 22</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26625845.post-86699220195841585852011-09-11T11:04:00.001-04:002015-03-30T09:29:19.942-04:00The Road to WPN (Part 20)[This is part 20 in a series, and assumes that you've already read <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-1.html">Part 1</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-2.html">Part 2</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-3.html">Part 3</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-4.html">Part 4</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-5.html">Part 5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/05/road-to-wpn-part-6.html">Part 6</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-7.html">Part 7</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-8.html">Part 8</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/06/road-to-wpn-part-9.html">Part 9</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-10.html">Part 10</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-11.html">Part 11</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/07/road-to-wpn-part-12.html">Part 12</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-13.html">Part 13</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-14.html">Part 14</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-145.html">Part 14.5</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-15.html">Part 15</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-to-wpn-part-16.html">Part 16</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-17.html">Part 17</a>, <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-18.html">Part 18</a>, and <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-19.html">Part 19</a>]<br />
<br />
<b>September 10, 2011</b>: Today was Magic Celebration - a promotional event sponsored by WotC (and/or WPN - I'm not sure how to properly assign the praise) to thank the players for making the game great. It was also a clever way to try to get newer players (especially ones who found the game through <i>Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012</i>) into stores where they will, hopefully, come back to play in future events.<br />
<br />
What WotC did was provide stores with three booster boxes worth of Magic 2012 (already opened and with labels reading "Mini Master Product ONLY NOT FOR RESALE" slapped on them*. Also included in the kit were four T-shirts (2 XL and 2 L, WotC apparently depending on the stereotypical hefty gamer crowd, which - for the record - we did not have today) to be given away as bonus gifts for purchasing a Deckbuilder's Toolkit (an awesome starter-kit product that WotC makes for new players). The final addition were cards with promo codes on them to unlock some bonus items on the various platforms that run <i>Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012</i>.<br />
<br />
*Am I the only one who wonders who had THAT job? That's a LOT of boxes to rip open & label! Or maybe they were special ordered from the factory without shrink-wrap? Ugh - I think about this stuff far too much!<br />
<br />
The event was intended to be free of charge, and run as a Mini-Master tournament. Players are given 1 booster pack of <i>M12</i> and 15 basic lands (3 of each type) to be shuffled together and played as a deck of 30 cards. Every time a player wins a match, they get another pack of <i>M12</i> and can start customizing their deck (as long as, after winning a pack, the deck maintains at least 40 cards). And given the size of the event, 4 rounds were played (at my locations, any way), so players could, theoretically, leave with 5 free booster packs of <i>M12</i> by the end of the event.<br />
<br />
Fortunately, I had recently purchased a collection from someone on eBay that included among the thousands of cards a HUGE batch of <i>Tenth Edition</i> basic lands that look like they've never been played. Yesterday I took those and made up the batches of 15 lands to be used in the event:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy1eRGbIXB6Gyfwg0U4OZW6BRSd-0COtmuMUv-GE4n9_mAvtMewHzwS7tH2O26Y_yIpThekg2nN1VCfZGjeYdJrKfGn7JXnXNB4mdfKYrz41l5Y5RYdTQE9CVJN-I34hJS8sGM/s1600/Land+packs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy1eRGbIXB6Gyfwg0U4OZW6BRSd-0COtmuMUv-GE4n9_mAvtMewHzwS7tH2O26Y_yIpThekg2nN1VCfZGjeYdJrKfGn7JXnXNB4mdfKYrz41l5Y5RYdTQE9CVJN-I34hJS8sGM/s400/Land+packs.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ready to rumble! (Booster pack required, not shown).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So, how did the event work for me, personally? Ideally the intent of the promotion was to run this event all day long, adding in additional tournaments into the WER as necessary, until the product ran out. Unfortunately it was intended to be a world-wide (as far as I know) event all played on one day. This meant for me, with two locations, that I couldn't run it as intended at two stores (unless I successfully cast Clone on myself). And due to space limitations we really didn't think we could run more than 16 at each store (18 at a pinch, if John at Beyond Comics procured two more chairs, and if Patrick at Novel Places put together two small cafe-style tables in between the two comfy leather book-store chairs). So I had intended to cap preregistration at 16 at each location, and maybe try to fit in a couple of extra walk-ins if necessary. Anyone beyond that we would give a free booster pack to, and offer that they could watch the event and see how it goes if they were curious.<br />
<br />
Beyond Comics had the morning shift today. In the late afternoon yesterday, we reached our 16 preregistrations for the event. I modified the sign-up sheet to warn that all slots were filled, but that folks were welcome to come by in case of no-shows, and could add their name to a waiting list just in case. That night at FNM one of the players told me he had registered, but would not be able to attend, so we were then down to 15 signed up. When the time actually came, only 11 of the 15 registered had arrived. One of the no-shows was someone who had signed up for the first FNM on September 2 and didn't show (he's also registered for this coming Friday's FNM, and he's supposed to be picking up an order from me!). The other three seem to have registered together (based on the time-stamp on their registration), and had never been to an event at Beyond Comics before, so I expected that they would be arriving together, and maybe were having trouble finding the store. So, I decided to delay the beginning of the event for about 10-15 minutes to give them time to find us.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, we had 2 more folks come in who had, I learned later, initially stopped in to Novel Places looking for the event. Patrick kindly directed them down to us. The other 4 registered people never did show up, but if I had not delayed the event, the 2 new players wouldn't have made it in time, and would have made the long haul down for nearly nothing, so I'm not sure delaying was a complete mistake. These 2, by the way, are the only players from the whole day that I know for a fact learned about the event via <i>Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012</i>.<br />
<br />
So, we ended up with 14 players for this event (I signed myself up so that we would have an even number and could avoid any byes). We had an eclectic mix. Some of the players are older, but relatively new players. Some (like Craig and myself) have been playing for years. We had 4 who were 11 years old or younger (the youngest was 8), and we had the two who used to play paper Magic years ago from what I gathered, and had recently only been playing it via <i>DotP2012</i>. But we all had one thing in common, at least - we all had a blast!<br />
<br />
<br />
For Round 1 I manually created the matches, as I wanted to get the 4 young boys playing against each other initially to ease them into the tournament (2 of them, my two sons, already had participated in at least one before, but the other 2 were completely new to the scene). After Round 1 I let the computer pick the match-ups using the Swiss pairing method. I'm personally very proud of my players for taking the younger players in stride, helping them out with game play [making sure they didn't skip their Draw step, which seems to be a common young player mistake], etc. Even the language was (mostly) kept rated PG.<br />
<br />
For those interested in such things, here's my quickie tournament report for my Rounds:<br />
<ol>
<li>Craig thoroughly flattened me in Round 1, despite my Aegis Angel protecting my Swamp (I had no other permanent in play for its protection).</li>
<li>In Round 2 I faced Logan, aged 10, Craig's guest. This was his first ever event (he reportedly had only played 5 games before today!). Like me, he had lost Round 1 and he was disappointed in not having another booster pack to add to his deck. I won Game 1, due at least in part to some misplays on his part. In game 2 I had the opportunity to win again, as he attacked me all out with his creatures for lethal damage, but I had Fog in my hand an an untapped Forest available to cast it with (and enough Creatures on my side left to take him out on my next turn). We only had about 7 minutes left in the Round at this point however, and it was far more important for him than for me, so I kept the Fog to myself, losing Game 2. Then, due to the lack of time, I conceded Game 3, letting him have the match (and the booster pack).</li>
<li>In Round 3 I finally managed (barely) to win a match, despite being "paired up" against someone who had previously won a match and therefore had a larger deck (at this point there were only three of us who had not won a match, so one of us had to face someone who had and I drew the short straw).</li>
<li>After I got the Round 4 pairings posted, the 2 gentlemen who had found us through <i>DotP2012</i> let me know that they actually needed to leave, and therefore conceded their Round 4 matches. One of them had been paired against me, so I easily defeated my non-existent opponent.</li>
</ol>
At the beginning of Round 4 I gave the person who had lost all three Rounds at this point the opportunity to swap out his deck (the booster he got initially only had 3 creatures in it!). As he put it: "I got some good cards - they just aren't good <i>together</i>." After that swap-out he was able to win Round 4, so everyone left the day having won at least one Round. The Mini-Master format can be wacky and crazy fun, but is extremely disappointing if you get a horrible initial booster pack. As the whole point of today was to have fun, letting him swap out just seemed the right thing to do.<br />
<br />
I had forgotten to point out the T-shirt promotion until Round 4. Shortly after that, all the T-shirts were gone. They were a big hit, and I'm sure the store was happy to sell those 4 Deckbuilder's Toolkits! <br />
<br />
Because we had extra product available still, I also awarded everyone a "thanks for coming" pack at the end of the event. Any packs still left I handed off to the store staff to hand out to anyone who might come in later in the day asking about Magic Celebration. Any left after that we will use as prize packs for future events, so that at least the intent of them (to reward players who come in for events) is still met (worry not - the leftovers at our stores will NOT be put out for sale!).<br />
<br />
At this point in time it was 2:30, and my event at the next store was scheduled to start at 3:30 (with registration staring at 3:00). I knew there was no way I was going to make it for 3, as I had to still take my boys home and deliver them and my wife to their afternoon obligation (volunteering at a local CSA farm's Harvest Supper fundraiser) so I called Patrick to let him know I was running late. I also invited him to view the Google document that was the preregistration sheet so he'd have some way of checking off people as they arrived. At this point in time we had 14 registered. These included: a couple of folks who had come to Beyond Comics as well; two fathers and their (combined) three daughters; a regular attendee along with two of his friends from University of Maryland. Many of these people had never attended an official MTG event before, and would need to fill out DCI cards. Conveniently I had recently ordered another batch for Novel Places and they had arrived, so Patrick had some on-hand to have them fill out. I have now learned that it is a very good idea to leave some DCI cards with the store for situations such as this, so I'll need to make sure to leave some with Beyond Comics as well.<br />
<br />
Lesson learned here: If scheduling two events on the same day at two locations make SURE you schedule with enough time to comfortably finish the first AND get to the second location! I had originally scheduled the afternoon event to start at 4:30 (4:00 registration) but somehow talked myself into moving it an hour earlier.<br />
<br />
When I finally arrived at Novel Places (at 3:20) I found just a few more players than I had expected! In addition to the 14 we had registered, Patrick had checked in an additional 4 more for a total of 18. I couldn't believe it! There was a stack of 8 DCI cards filled out already waiting for me, and Patrick's printout of the preregistration sheet along with the four additional names added. I quickly booted up my netbook and started getting players registered into the WER for the event. Normally I try to get players registered into the event beforehand, but so many of those who registered either needed DCI #'s, or chose to give it at the event instead of the online form, I didn't bother (I could have only entered about 3 of those who preregistered - hardly a savings).<br />
<br />
Adding in new DCI players is the most time-consuming version of putting a player into the WER. For players you've had in one of your events before, the software saves their information in a "Local Players" section. All you need do is check the box next to their name in the list, hit enroll, and they're in. If the player is new to one of your events, but already has a DCI #, you just enter the DCI # and click "Find Player" and their info is brought up. Click enroll, and they're in. But for a new DCI #, you have to enter the #, which then (after a moment of searching) brings up the "DCI # not found" message. Then you need to enter their first & last name, and hit "Find Player". This brings up the find player window, where you click okay, then finally enroll and they're in. An extra step or two, and the wasted time while it searches for a DCI # that you know it's not going to find.<br />
<br />
A couple of people had turned in the full DCI card (including the part they're supposed to tear off and keep for future use) so I got those back to them and kept plugging away at the entries (this is why I try to get to the events early, so I can get people into WER as they show up and not have to do them all at one time). I finally had all 18 names entered, printed out the round one pairings, and started handing out product (with Patrick helping by passing out the land packs I had put together).<br />
<br />
I had only handed out boosters to two players when "Wait!" was shouted out. Turns out there were 19 players at the event, not 18 (I didn't have time to do a head count, and had trusted Patrick's list to be accurate). What seems to have happened is that three brothers showed up together. Two already had DCI #'s, and just put their names on Patrick's sheet (only one of those two wrote their DCI # on the sheet). There was also a new DCI card for brother #3. Since the last name on the new card matched the last name on the sign-in sheet that didn't have a DCI # written down, I assumed they were one-and-the-same, and that the person had just used a nick-name when he put his name on the sign-on sheet. So, unfortunately, one of the brothers had not been included.<br />
<br />
This meant that we had an odd number of players, so someone would have a bye each round. It also meant we had more players than we had seats for. And, unfortunately, it also meant I had to cancel the event since I had already started Round 1 in the software, and it wouldn't let me end the event, add the 19th player, then start the event again.<br />
<br />
So, I canceled the event, quickly sanctioned another one, added 18 people quickly from the Local Players section (thank goodness there IS a Local Players section!), then added the 19th. I started THIS event, printed up new pairings (which annoyed a few folks, I'm afraid), and got things going finally. This incident drove home for me the importance of the registration slips that I usually use. Ironically it was the size of the group that stopped me from using them this time, and it was the size of the group that allowed for the mistake to happen (I doubt many of use can take a quick look at a group and tell if it's actually 18 or if it's 19 - I sure can't - where the difference between 8 or 9 is more obvious).<br />
<br />
So, finally, Round 1 got underway. As seems to be the case in this format, the majority of the matches were over quickly, but there are always one or two that go to time (or close to it). At the end, I collected up the results slips, entered the data, and printed pairings for Round 2.<br />
<br />
"WAIT!" was called out before folks could start. Another problem! This time a person who had lost the first match had been paired up against someone who had won the first match. And what was worse, the pairings printout showed that the one who lost had 3 match points - as if he had won. Had I entered in something wrong? I pulled out the results slips and found the one in question. No, I had entered what was written. Turns out the player who filled out the slip filled it out incorrectly, and marked the two wins next to the wrong name. So, I had to cancel Round 2, delete the results from Round 1, re-enter the results from Round 1 (with the correction), and print new pairings for Round 2.<br />
<br />
UGH. Two Rounds in a row and I had to print new pairings. With 15 new people at the event! I'll be lucky if they don't think me a complete incompetent and never come to one of my events again!<br />
<br />
I guess the lesson to be learned here is to either have a quick tutorial on how to fill in a Results slip when you have new players (especially a group this big) OR to quickly go over the results before starting the next Round (which is what I did after Round 2 to make sure I had the standings correct before having WER create Round 3).<br />
<br />
The other thing I did between Round 1 and 2 was collect funds for a pizza run. The event was likely to run until 7:30 or 8:00, and I knew some (including myself) would be hungry. There's a pizza shop all of 2 minutes away that we use when we have later events at Novel Places. $4 gets you 1/4 of a extra large family size cheese pizza. I collected enough orders for 2 pies, and Patrick phoned in the order during Round 2. I went to pick up, and got back with 5 minutes still left in the Round (although most of the matches were done by then).<br />
<br />
The mother of two of the competitors (and the ride for a third) had shown up at that point, as she thought they'd be done around then (eep!). She took it good naturedly, and bought the remaining 1/4 of the last pizza (I'd only had 7 orders). Also, after threatening that her three charges would have to leave early, she relented and let them stay "a little longer" while she left to take care of some other things. Ironically, they ended up being the last to leave, as she didn't get back for them until much later than she'd planned, I think!<br />
<br />
Thankfully Rounds 3 and 4 went off without a hitch, although a few players had to bow out at Round 4 as it had gotten later than they had planned (we had advertised 3 to 7, and it ran a bit later). Again I provided each player a "thank you for coming" booster at the end, and we will use any leftover packs as prizes for future events at that store.<br />
<br />
Patrick had only slightly less success with the T-shirt promotion, only selling 3 Toolkits during the evening. I think he'll still give the remaining T-shirt to whoever buys the next Toolkit (although I would have been happy to take it off of his hands, as it was just my size :-).<br />
<br />
All in all I think I can call the Magic Celebration a successful endeavor. I hope that WotC feels it worked well everywhere, and that they even consider making it an annual event. I certainly can attest that it helped bring players in. At Beyond Comics 4 of the 14 participants had never attended an event there (2 of whom didn't even have DCI #'s yet) before, and at Novel places a whopping 15 of the 19 had never played there (8 of whom needed DCI #'s). Many of them told me they plan to come back for future events (and some expressed disappointment that Novel Places won't be running an <i>Innistrad</i> prerelease since we didn't hit Core Level in time to register for one).<br />
<br />
Which makes a great segue to bring you the WPN Report Card!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl6BDyEPj7JpQUepMIyVbFqsc1RIL4z4Av1-TzFvHevFEBI0IP2BfTTSf4_y5SBvsx9fZw2P1wV2pbsz6ophyphenhyphendHlAUB9T4J2lsflKU456h5EqiZvXIc9zmxsVSj-3sS68MF8VM/s1600/WPN+Report+Card+September+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl6BDyEPj7JpQUepMIyVbFqsc1RIL4z4Av1-TzFvHevFEBI0IP2BfTTSf4_y5SBvsx9fZw2P1wV2pbsz6ophyphenhyphendHlAUB9T4J2lsflKU456h5EqiZvXIc9zmxsVSj-3sS68MF8VM/s400/WPN+Report+Card+September+10.jpg" height="207" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No more Red X!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That's right - you're reading that correctly! Novel Places has met the requirements for reaching Core Level!<br />
<br />
A few things have me bothered and/or worried, however:<br />
<ol>
<li>As of right now, the issue with the very first event I ran (described in Part 19) has not yet been resolved. Until it does, the system only has us at 3 events, not 4. We still have all the other requirements, though - so worse case scenario the Standard event we're running there on Saturday (Sep 17) will count as our fourth event, and we'll officially be Core then, still with enough time to register for the <i>Innistrad</i> Game Day.</li>
<li>If my understanding is correct, the clock on jumping through these hoops again to STAY at Core Level begins after you've made it to Core Level. If so, that means the 8 new DCI members from today's event will not count towards our 6 new players we need to maintain Core Level, which kinda stinks.</li>
<li>For some reason the new Magic Celebration event I had to make shows up on my netbook's version of WER (and I got the email telling me it had been reported successfully), but after synchronizing my desktop PC's version of WER it doesn't show up there. I will assume that has something to do with it being the weekend, and it will show up eventually. But we all know what they say about assuming...</li>
</ol>
This coming weekend I have back-to-back Standard Events: FNM at Beyond Comics, and then a regular sanctioned event on Saturday at Novel Places. It won't be quite as busy as this past weekend, and will soon become the regular 2nd and 4th weekend pattern, so I'd better get used to it.<br />
<br />
[TO BE CONTINUED IN <a href="http://playmoregamestore.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-to-wpn-part-21.html">PART 21</a>]TheSundryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08682058776462298070noreply@blogger.com8