4CB Tournament #1 - and so it begins!

[combo_dude]

Hi all - I'm back, which means it's time to follow up on my earlier post: Welcome to the very first TMD 4 Card Blind tournament!

This is the rule set that my brother, wonkey_donkey, had whilst moderating 4CB at mtgsalvation.com - this seemed to work well enough.

Rules:

Basic Rules

- Your deck is composed of 4 cards, all of which start in your hand.
- Your deck has no sideboard.
- You don't lose as a result of not being able to draw a card.
- You can see your opponent's hand, so you can always make the best possible play.
- Your random effects always go in your opponent's favor.
- All other rules of Magic remain unchanged, unless otherwise stated.

Tournament Rules

- All matches are played out by the moderator (participants only submit the decks).
- Tournaments are run in round-robin fashion.
- Each matchup consists of 2 games, with each deck going first once.
- Participants earn 3 points if their deck wins a game, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss; thus, over the course of a match, you can earn 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0 points.

Deck-Building Rules

- You may not submit a deck that can win before the end of your opponent's first turn.
- You may not submit a deck that can force an opponent to discard more than 1 card in one turn.
- You may not submit a deck that can generate infinite (or an arbitrarily large amount of) mana on the first turn.
- Your deck may not include Unglued or Unhinged cards, ante cards, Garfield event cards (such as Splendid Genesis or Proposal), or 1996 World Champion.
- You may not include a card that appears on the 4CB Banned List.

Banned List:
Strip Mine
Ghost Quarter
Wasteland
The Rack
Trinisphere
Channel
Form of the Dragon
Abandon Hope
Addle
Brain Pry
Blackmail
Cabal Therapy
Duress
Mesmeric Fiend
Meddling Mage
Energy Field
Foil
Force of Will
Show and Tell

(This is subject to change, as I haven't looked hard enough at Coldsnap and Ravnica block for 4CB purposes.)

Preferred Submission Format: (Use [] instead of <>)

Subject: 4CB #??
YourName
DeckName
<card>Card1</card>
<card>Card2</card>
<card>Card3</card>
<card>Card4</card>


(Of course, this submission assumes the card tags are working in some way now - since I've been away, I don't know if they've been fixed - but if they aren't, just send me card names.)

The closing point for entries will not be settled yet - in order to fit with 3CB, I will publish these a week after the next 3CB results are published. This will probably be early next week.

Please check the banned list closely before you send me anything - I hope you enjoy this!

Cheers,
Adam

[parallax]

Does Foil really need to be banned? If you play a threat, you can no longer use Foil, leading to the dreaded all-draw deck (unless the opponent can't deal with a one-drop creature). I'll wait to see the round one decks before I argue either way over Force of Will. Obviously, all the cards are on the banned list for a reason; I would just like people to keep an eye on the list as the results from the first few tournaments come in.

Also, will you be allowing multiple submissions if there is a low turnout?

[combo_dude]

Foil is banned because the deck Island-Foil-Hollow Trees-Crush of Wurms - or alternatively Island-Foil-Dwarven Hold-Flaming Gambit - is very powerful; unlike 3CB, you can counter any spell and still be able to win under your own steam.

As for multiple decks, I'd hope that for at least the early tournaments, they won't be necessary - but I'll post if I'm looking for them.

Adam

[parallax]

Foil is banned because the deck Island-Foil-Hollow Trees-Crush of Wurms - or alternatively Island-Foil-Dwarven Hold-Flaming Gambit - is very powerful; unlike 3CB, you can counter any spell and still be able to win under your own steam.

As for multiple decks, I'd hope that for at least the early tournaments, they won't be necessary - but I'll post if I'm looking for them.

Adam

OK. That seems right. I wasn't thinking about flashback. I was stuck on Nether Spirit.

[Illissius]

How come Duress is banned, while Encroach, Ostracize, and Coercion aren't?

[combo_dude]

Basically, because none of them are as good as Duress! Ostracize takes creatures - fine, but why not use StP instead? Encroach will only work on the play, and even then only against the part of the field that doesn't use Lotus or basic lands; Coercion is more dangerous, but I don't think it's a big threat because it needs Lotus to back it up. Lotus-Coercion-Scavenger is very dangerous in 3CB, but not only is there another card to stop this loop available here, but it's a 3-card combo that doesn't really co-ordinate with another card in the deck. However, a deck like Factory, Jet, Shortfang, Duress is seriously dangerous, as Duress can either take the removal for the Shortfang to mop up, or take a key combo card.

Adam

[combo_dude]

Hi guys,

These results will go up on Wednesday - normally I'd put them up next Sunday (just over a week from now) but I'm going away for a week early Thursday morning. This means that this tournament will run for 2 and a half weeks, as will the next one - after that it's every fortnight. Just so people know what's going on.

A few more decks would be good, I've got a decent number but more never hurt!

Adam