The 1st TMD Online Invitational

[Nimrod]

Since the days of the old Beyond Dominia (RIP), I wondered how a ToC would be if it had the greatest players around in the community, where people could prepare their decks for a strong meta instead to prepare it to deal with hordes of scrubs hating some archtypes, where people would remain civil and having fun instead of dropping all the time.

And seemingly, through some work, I have gotten to it, and seemingly a great show awaits us.

This is the confirmed list of participants, Im pretty much sure that I forgot to include someones, so those, please PM me.

Brimstone
Barktooth
Axe Murderer
RolandB
FeverDog
Acolytec
Burning Ice
Dave Kaplan
Kirdape
JP "Polluted" Meyer
PsychoCid
CF
MoreFling
Zherbus
Azhrei
Puschkin
Crazy Carl Winter
RiverBoa
kl0wn
MattTG
Legend
Redman
Smmenen
jeek
K-Run
Cooberp


Of course I understand that many of the TMDers would like to participate, if you are one of those, please, PM me aswell so I can considerate your request.

As soon as I get feedback from the persons listed above who havent confirmed if they'll take part in it, the tourney shall begin.

The rules will be the following (This are subject to change if most of you agree):

1.- Decklists from the participants must be emailed to me at tmd_invitational@hotmail.com , Wishes ARE allowed, decklists and SB will be made public, we have been doing this since the ToC, and since this tourney is intended to be something both interesting and fun there is no reason to change this.

2.- Pairings will be made by MoreFling, but all reports will be sent to me at tmd_invitational@hotmail.com , I will trust the reporter because I think I only chose civil people to participate, but I would rather have the loser of the match to report.

3.-  The time to get done with your match and reports will be of 2 weeks, at the end of this period I should have all of the reports, in order to continue with the next round very soon.

4.- The tourney will be the traditional neccesary number of swiss rounds, and then a cut to the t8 on straight elimination.

5.- Though pairings will be made public, email adresses will not, this will only be emailed to the opponent in turn, this is to prevent your inbox from spam.

This is it for now, I would really appreciate any feedback, be it on the rules, suggestion of players, applications to participate, , comments, ideas, or anything you have to say.

Please do not send unwanted emails to the email adress I gave, in order to have a more efficient and smooth tourney I will try to keep it clean from randomness, so I advocate at your cilivity.

-Joel Rojo "Nimrod".


EDIT, about 1 hour after the original message:

I forgot to add crazy carl winter to the confirmed list, also, Ill include a list of some of the people I remember that have declined the invitation:

Declines:

Spin13
Rakso
ETP
Nevyn (could only participate in a tourney that was 1 or 2 days long)
Sylvester (same as Nevyn)
Deranged Parrot
OliverD

Since Im looking for a fun, easygoing tourney, people who are considered uncivil get less chances of being invited, though they are not dismissed and some of those who have already been suggested (glad to have the ammounts of feedback I have so soon.. 2 msgs but its still good) have been discussed and might be included if they present a defence or tell me they want to be in, as Im really trying to not be an elitist or anything.

Please keeps the feedback coming, everything is greatly appreciated (and for those who applicated, a bit of patience please, Ill seek advice to not disturb the majority of the players, as I recognize that I often make mistakes).

EDIT 2: Updated the list.\n\n

[cooberp]

The BD ToC's never really seemed to get organized cause people never got around to playing their matches, but of course it's worth a try.

[MoreFling]

Can we also play using MagicWorkStation, or should (must?) we use apprentice?
When is the deadline for submitting my decklist?

Pitty the fool that declines (hi Rakso ).

[nebrindil]

wtg nimrod. I should probably dust off apprentice and start practicing again though, looks like there won't be any randoms playing ICT or anything

Nebrindil, [-_-], ^_^, c0qz, h8, amm3008, elftor.

PS: Workstation is crap (meaning I don't know how to use it )

PS2: btw Zherb the website looks good.

[Puschkin]

Hm, I thought this would be kind of casual, looks like being highly competitive. But is also fine with me, I just have to get used to apprentice.

Quote (nebrindil @ Jan. 09 2003,12:25)looks like there won't be any randoms playing ICT or anything

I seriously considered exactly that: To play ICT. If I have good results, it will create a big fuzz and piss certain people off, and if I lose ... well, then I have an excuse  

Nimrod, a question: I hope, decklists are posted when everybody submitted theirs, not earlier? Seems only logical but one never knows, its the first time I am participating in a online tourney. And the first time I can use all cards in existance, not only my collection, hm, what to play?

[MoreFling]

Obviously the decklists won't be posted, so you should be armed for a mixed metagame.
Still, you can make certain assumptions though, but I doubt I should share them  

[Rakso]

Hey... have fun guys.

I emphasized to Nimrod that the only reason I was declining was because I don't want to burden anyone with my erratic schedule (two part time jobs plus full time grad school load) combined with my extreme time zone difference (12 hours). If I play, it's going to be midnight for one of us!

I only saw this now, but hope no one interpreted the "decline" above as a snub.

If it's anything, I hope an offer to publicize any highlights and novel tech in my column will compensate somewhat.

[Puschkin]

I´ll have to play at midnight or even in the mornig, too, if its prime time in america(9-10PM), then its best sleeping time here (3-4AM) so what? Sleep is overrated.

[MoreFling]

Rakso : everyone is aware they need to be flexible, and If I would be paired to you, I'd be sure to make some time available for it, just for the fun of playing against Keeper with

Quote janky gold cards

I understand the reasons though, and didn't think It was a snub, I was just hoping to drag you in regardless the reason  

[Nimrod]

@MoreFling:
    I have no experience actually PLAYING with Magic Workstation, so I dont know how you can use stuff like Wishes with it, but if you and your opponent want to use it, and noone objects, its fine by me, since I, aswell, share the view that MWS is the future, mostly because it ACTUALLY still gets updated ¬¬...

@Puschkin:
    I will post the decklists when I get them all, so it goes all fair, maybe I will post my decklist sooner so people dont think I took advantage of the knowledge of the metagame I will be getting.

In all fairness, Ill confess Im thinking about playing Parfait, and I tell this to you so you dont think I will pick a deck to beat the metagame, since Parfait at best splits with Control (at BEST). Ill try to get you my final decklist soon so you all can see this is done with fairness for all.

-Joel Rojo "Nimrod".

PS: Since people might be wondering WHY am I playing in these, Ill try to post a few things in my defense, First, I was for a time the most known Vintage writer for the Spanish-Speaking community, second, I have been a fellow member of the community since the days of Beyond Dominia, Third, I am part of the staff of TheManaDrain.com (performing tasks I wont share here because I dont want to get my inbox full of msgs I dont need). And Fourth, running this is enough pressure that I might even deserve to participate.

Also, I remind to everyone who is applicating, that even if you should tell to me that you wanna take part in this, It won't be me who will decide wether you play or not.

Thanks for all the feedback, metagame predictions are not only welcome, but encouraged, though Im not sure if this is the right post to do them.

[kl0wn]

Yeah, I'd like to get in on this business, but I'm not too savvy with the software.

I'd be happy to participate if someone wouldn't mind holding my hand while I connect to my opponents and whatnot. I just have Yahoo Messenger for my way of getting in touch with people and I can't seem to get AOL IM to work (it crashes my computer whenever I install it).

How do you usually connect/communicate with your opponents when you do these things?

[BurningIce]

However it is decided.  Usually the two of you pick a relative time by email and then meet either on mIRC or on one of the various messengers and then get to gaming.

[Zharradan]

Quote (Nimrod @ Jan. 10 2003,02:06)@MoreFling:
    I have no experience actually PLAYING with Magic Workstation, so I dont know how you can use stuff like Wishes with it

MWS has a View->My Sideboard command, making wishes easy.

MWS also has no easy way to perform genuine sideboarding though, which sucks. Apparently the next version will address this, but the developers have said that it won't be released until February at the earliest.

[spin13]

/me h8 appr

I feel like a dairy farmer.

[Radagast]

One rather important question here is whether Legions will be legal in it. In my opinion, it'd be much better if it were, since instead of playing 90% of the tournament with outdated decks and the results being outdated as well, it could be a sort of proving grounds for the new decks with Legions (assuming we get anything from it; but already Phage seems like it could revitalize FEB, and Suicide is getting an excellent anti-TnT card in Withered Wretch). If it's going to be legal, the question is when the tournament should start; I believe the spoiler will be released on the 24th (unless it gets leaked earlier), so perhaps sometime around the beginning of February be good, or how much time do people need to incorporate the new cards into their decks?

[Nimrod]

As far as I know, Legions will be out in march, and since seemingly WotC doesnt want the people at the pre-release to know the cards, Im guessing we wont have an official spoiler until the release, though the possibility of a leak is very factible, we have no way to know if it will be the real cardlist. And since Im not intending to wait until March to start with this, unless more than 50% of the invitees agree, we wont have Legions in, it doesnt seems like it would add that much from what we already know, though.

I want to thank all of the people who submitted an application, though only few of them got through the voting, I will update the list of invitees soon after I post this. By the way, the application time is over for this Invitational.

Also, to the invitees who did not get my email, please, submit your decks before monday ends, so we can get on with this soon.

And since I dont want people to think I will take advantage of knowing the decks, I will post my decklist now, though I feel Im going to regret not testing certain choices, here it is:

//NAME: Teh B0r3dz0r!!!!111one
// Kill
        2 Sacred Mesa
// Stuff
        1 Blood Moon
        1 Tormod's Crypt
        1 Enlightened Tutor
// Staying Alive
        1 Ivory Tower
        1 Karmic Justice
        2 Claws of Gix
        4 Orim's Chant
// Recursion
        1 Soldevi Digger
        2 Replenish
        4 Argivian Find
// Disenchant Effects
        1 Seal of Cleansing
        2 Aura of Silence
// Creature Control
        1 Balance
        1 Humility
        2 Story Circle
        3 Swords to Plowshares
// Engine
        3 Scroll Rack
        4 Land Tax
// Mana
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Diamond
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Strip Mine
        1 Mountain
        2 Wasteland
        14 Plains
SB:  1 Cleansing Meditation
SB:  1 Swords to Plowshares
SB:  1 Blood Moon
SB:  1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB:  1 Aegis of Honor
SB:  1 Ivory Mask
SB:  1 Rune of Protection: Artifac
SB:  2 Tormod's Crypt
SB:  2 Replenish
SB:  2 Abolish
SB:  2 Abeyance

A consistant deck for a field of broken players.. lets see how this works out ;D.\n\n

[Zharradan]

Quote (Nimrod @ Jan. 12 2003,03:00)As far as I know, Legions will be out in march

From http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/expansion/legions

"Worldwide pre-release: Jan 25,26"

[AxeMurder]

 
Go Nimrod.
On a completly unrelated note I've started working on Dragon again which I haven't really played since GenCon and now it's goten alot trickier, instead of just having to figure out how to combo fast enough while dodging counters and tormod's crypts you need to go off while dodging 32408923749823 pieces of random hate. I'll have details posted after I get some more testing done however it looks like both necromancy and orim's chant are important main deck.
 

[MoreFling]

Pairings for round 1 of 5 are located Right Here!

Good luck !