3-Card Blind

[wonkey_donkey]

What is 3-Card Blind?

3CB is a form of magic that has been around on various magic websites for a while, although I believe that this is one of the biggest communities on the net. The rules are as follows:

- Your deck is comprised of 3 cards, all of which start in your hand.
- You have a library size of 0 and no sideboard (therefore wishes fetch nothing)
- You don’t lose as a result of drawing a card
- Random effects always go in your opponent’s favour (e.g. Mana Crypt always damages you)
- The games are played out with optimal play, as the hands are revealed all the way through.
- You play each opponent twice – once going first, once going second
- For each win you score 3, for each draw you score 1, for each loss you score 0
- Other than the above, everything is handled like a normal game of magic!

How do I enter a tournament?

- PM a deck entry to me (for the moment, although I shall let everyone know if the TO needs to change) in the following format:

Subject: 3CB Tournament #36 (for example)
Deck Name
Card 1
Card 2
Card 3

Optional Discussion etc.

What are the basics for constructing a deck?
Effectively, I break decks down into several categories when looking at them:
- “Turn1.dec� – This can be Aggro, which is a basic land with 2 threats, or aggro-control with 1 threat and 1 support card.
- “Turn2.dec� – These use the depletion lands from masques (usually) with a very powerful threat; this can either be 2 card-combos, for example using channel or something such as this, or a powerful creature with a useful support card.
- “Workshop.dec� – this uses Mishra’s Workshop with 3cc artefacts to shut down some or all of the opponent’s deck.
- “Storageland.dec� – these have bigger, slower threats that use either FE or masques storage lands to power them out.
- Others: Anything not in the above categories! Remember that metagaming is very important here, more so than in any other format.

Which cards are legal?

Any card from a T1-legal set is legal, with the following exceptions.
Black Lotus
Mesmeric Fiend
Blackmail
Chain of Smog
Hymn to Tourach
Cabal Therapy
Encroach
Mind Swords
Forget
Anvil of Bogarden
Strip Mine
Wasteland
Raze
The Rack
Wheel of Torture
Balance
Meddling Mage
Show and Tell
Isochron Scepter
Phrexian Dreadnaught
Lion's Eye Diamond
Evil Presence
Sea's Claim

Any questions?

Q: Do players still draw a card in theory, even though there are no cards there?
A: Yes, so any necessary replacement effects still work.
Q: What kinds of premises are there for banning a card?
A: Cards banned by default are almost always cheap discard effects or land destruction spells. The exceptions are Meddling Mage, Show and Tell (Which can almost certainly come off the list, it’s a historical ban), Isochron Scepter, Phyrexian Dreadnaught, Black Lotus, LED, The Rack, and Wheel of Torture. Some are banned due to specific decks, others due to sheer power level. As nothing has proved to dominate the format yet, nothing further has been added to the list.
Q: How random does an effect need to be before it is officially “random?�
A: Anything that is impractical to play out or is not dictated strictly by the cards themselves – hence entwine is a playable ability (even though there is an element of choice, it is not really random), but cards like chaos orb are no use, and any coin flips will be lost.
Q: Do I need MWS or anything to do this?
A: NO! The decks are sent to me, and I judge what the best play by each player would theoretically be and write down the result of each game. I occasionally make mistakes (generally an average of about 2 per tournament), but this is usually due to a typo or a genuine mistake.
Q: How does Shahrazad work?
A: Each player will lose 10 life, as the game is always a draw. As both players don't win, they both lose half their life. It's just another interesting card, really!

If you have any more questions, put them in later posts and I’ll edit them into this post. Please don’t feel bad about trying this format – I was terrible with my first couple of decks, but you get used to it! I could only ever win the special-format ones though… ah well. All other information can be found in the casual forum. Send your decks, tournament 37 has now started!

Tom

[combo_dude]

Also, here are a couple of relevant links:

3CB Tournament #36

and 3CB Tournament #35 Discussion

Also, by "support card" he means removal (e.g. Naturalize, but also pseudo-LD like Phantasmal Terrain), discard (e.g. Duress - incidentally, you'll notice that it's still legal, as it doesn't hit creatures or lands, and therefore normally only trades with another support spell), or a proactive card like Sphere of Resistance. These are probably the simplest sorts of decks to think about making - whether they use a storage land for a big effect or not - as it's normally only a matter of thinking about whether a) they can stop you in time, or b) whether you give a toss about what they're really doing. You either have to be fast or monstrously powerful.

For example, my own choice for last time was Eternal Dragon, Fountain of Cho, and Disenchant (which I think was my first ever entry as well, oddly...). It has a very simple structure - it anticipated a lot of Workshop decks (metagaming at work) and so screws them over entirely (maybe not all Phyrexian Processor decks though). It is also very resistant to removal, and trades well with any other huge creatures. But it's very simple to disrupt, as speed will hurt it.

Another point is how fast the 'metagame' changes. I generally use the previous set of results as a metagame (hence the previous deck after a sea of Workshops). Also look closely at the winning deck - unless this was clearly a fluke, it probably pays off to be in a position where you CAN beat that deck (or at least tie with it).

Hope some of this has encouraged people - it's one of the most creative formats out there. And it doesn't need people to get off their backsides and test to win - a 10-minute search on http://www.cardkingdom.com will do the trick.