3CB #75 Results and Discussion/3CB Tournament #76 (plus announcement!)

[combo_dude]

I'd like to congratulate combo_dude (again) as the winner of 3CB Tournament #75!
The Stick came out in force for its first legal tournament, so the decks that could beat it did pretty well - my own creation doing that little better than the others, fortunately!

Banned list:
Portal (in ALL its forms)
Unglued AND UNHINGED

Banned list:
Portal (in ALL its forms)
Unglued AND UNHINGED
[card]Black Lotus[/card]
[card]Mesmeric Fiend[/card]
[card]Nezumi Shortfang[/card]
[card]Blackmail[/card]
[card]Chain of Smog[/card]
[card]Cabal Therapy[/card]
[card]Encroach[/card]
[card]Mind Swords[/card]
[card]Anvil of Bogardan[/card]
[card]Strip Mine[/card]
[card]Wasteland[/card]
[card]The Rack[/card]
[card]Balance[/card]
[card]Meddling Mage[/card]
[card]Fire&Ice[/card]
[card]Glacial Chasm[/card]

Decks:

1.   combo_dude    -    The Brick    -    Hickory Woodlot,   Tempting Wurm,   Tempting Wurm
2.   Norm4eva    -    Ponza for Dummies    -    Plateau,   Soltari Foot Soldier,   Raze
3.   Cross    -    I hope no one is playing land destruction    -    Hickory Woodlot,   Darksteel Colossus,   Channel
4.   Moonkeeper    -    Spark on a Stick    -    City of Traitors,   Lightning Helix,   Isochron Scepter
5.   ReAnimator    -    Bears!    -    City of Traitors,   Words of Wilding,   Mox Emerald
6.   Godder    -    Down in the Swamp    -    Bayou,   Thallid,   Duress
7.   wonkey_donkey    -    The Wicker Man    -    City of Traitors,   Soldevi Sentry,   Powder Keg
8.   Franz Ferdinand    -    Moronic Scepter    -    City of Traitors,   Lightning Helix,   Isochron Scepter
9.   Emidln    -    Like Land, The Rack. But Legal.    -    Mishra's Workshop,   Wheel of Torture,   Maze of Ith

Results:

      1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9 Total Position
1|   X   1   2   6   3   6   2   6   6   32   (1)
2|   4   X   4   4   0   0   1   4   2   19   (7)
3|   2   1   X   0   6   0   6   0   2   17   (8)
4|   0   1   6   X   6   3   0   2   6   24   (4)
5|   3   6   0   0   X   3   6   0   6   24   (4)
6|   0   6   6   3   3   X   3   3   4   28   (2)
7|   2   4   0   6   0   3   X   6   6   27   (3)
8|   0   1   6   2   6   3   0   X   6   24   (4)
9|   0   2   2   0   0   1   0   0   X    5    (9)

Surprised that nobody tried Raise the Alarm with the stick, as it's a pretty fast token machine - clearly the lure of the Helix (which is probably better - the only thing that would turn me away from the Helix is if everyone was expecting it!) was too strong. I think I'll leave it unbanned for the time being at least, as it looks strong but not overpowered. This week it was Emidln's turn to make the Wheel of Torture mistake; unlucky for a first entry, but you're in good company in making this mistake! Wheel of Torture does nothing if you can't force your opponent to do anything, unfortunately. Apologies for putting the results up a day late - was writing an essay for uni all day yesterday, I ran out of time for this.

For this week: Back to normal!

(Next week will be a special format.)

Banned list:
Portal (in ALL its forms)
Unglued AND UNHINGED
[card]Black Lotus[/card]
[card]Mesmeric Fiend[/card]
[card]Nezumi Shortfang[/card]
[card]Blackmail[/card]
[card]Chain of Smog[/card]
[card]Cabal Therapy[/card]
[card]Encroach[/card]
[card]Mind Swords[/card]
[card]Anvil of Bogardan[/card]
[card]Strip Mine[/card]
[card]Wasteland[/card]
[card]The Rack[/card]
[card]Balance[/card]
[card]Meddling Mage[/card]
[card]Fire&Ice[/card]
[card]Glacial Chasm[/card]

NOTE BANNED LIST CHANGE!

What is 3cb?

3-Card Blind (3CB) is a very unique game. The rules are as follows

Your deck is composed of 3 cards, all of which start in your hand.
You have no library (technically, the library exists, but starts at 0 cards) and no sideboard (Wishes fetch nothing).
Random effects always go in your opponent's favour.
You can see your opponent's hand, so you can always make the best possible play.
You don't lose as a result of not being able to draw a card.
You will 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 get nothing.
Other than the aforementioned, EVERYTHING IS HANDLED EXACTLY LIKE A REAL GAME OF MAGIC!

To make an entry, PM your deck to combo_dude in the following format:

Subject: 3cb Tournament #76 Entry or 3cb Tournament#76 Revision
Deck Name
Card #1
Card #2
Card #3

Optional Deck discussion, random sucking up, etc.

I'll close entries after 2 weeks. Get your entries in by 24th April and I'll calculate.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

In the not-too-distant future I've got exams for university, and so revision is going to be a pretty major part of my life fairly soon. This means that this is something I would rather not have on my plate for the next few tournaments - I'll run this one and the next, but after that, if anyone (Godder? ReAnimator?) is temporarily prepared to take over the running of the tournaments for a few weeks, that would be greatly appreciated. Post in here or PM me.

Thanks,
Adam

[Godder]

I thought MWS, Wheel, Maze was banned after it collected a mise-prize... Speaking of which, how do I lose a game against it? I play first, I Duress and win, I play second, I do nothing and draw, so the result should be 4-1 in my favour.

I'm sure I could run a few of these as required.

[Cross]

I thought my deck would be stronger, but the helix deck is pretty good. Oh well.

Why is glacial chasm banned? What does it combo with to be so strong?

[ReAnimator]

Why is glacial chasm banned? What does it combo with to be so strong?

Jinxed Choker, oddly enough.
bad cards = good combo
i guess.

I will be in the crunch time for school the same as you Combo_Dude so i will not be able to run these, I am also terrible at working these things out, so it would just be endless mistakes if i did do this, glad Godder can step up.

[Cross]

Is that combo really that great?

It seems like you would die to the chasm long before your opponent to the choker.

Even if you waited a bunch of turns arent most decks in the format fast enough to deal?

[ReAnimator]

If you do the math it is acctually pretty quick. the choker goes up by 2 each time, and pretty much nothing damages you other than the chasm. Its sort of like the darksteel reactor energy field deck but instead of winning in 27 turns it wins in like 5.
The real problem with the deck is the whole immune to damage thing, so it's imposible to race.

[combo_dude]

@Cross:

Works out like this:

T1 non-choker: land, threat (e.g. Imaginary Pet)
T1 choker: workshop, choker.
T2 NC: swing for 4 (20-16)
T2 C: take 1 (20-15), drop Chasm
T3 NC: take 2 (18-15)
T3 C: take 2 [3 counters but 2 from Chasm instead]  (18-13)
T4: take 4, take 4 (14-9)
T5: take 6, take 6 (8-3)
T6 NC: take 8 (0-3) - Choker wins.

We banned it more recently - it's the only change to the list apart from the Stick change last tournament since wonkey_donkey and I started running these again - but it's too powerful; it's won pretty much every tournament it's been in (It'd probably be safe if people started with 21 life, as you can work out from the previous bit!).

@Godder: Thanks - will PM you about it [and will change the result, that's a typo on my part]. Also, I think the deck that's specifically banned is Shop-Wheel-Bridge, though this comes to much the same thing.  :lol:

@Everyone - as a result, if I put "please send all decks to Godder" in the starting post (I'll make it big blue text or something), please do in fact send them to Godder!

Thanks,
Adam

[emidln]

I forgot to update this. I knew that I should draw or lose soon after I entered. Slops to me for not thinking the combo through and then being too lazy to correct my mistake.

[combo_dude]

Very short on decks at the moment - more would be great!

Also, if anyone notices any Dissension cards that would be very powerful in here, can they tell me? I'll look through the spoiler myself at some point but if anyone else already knows it well that'd save me some time. Thanks.

Adam

[combo_dude]

Even with a couple of people submitting second decks, I still don't have enough to make the tournament really worth running, so I'll extend this for another week. Feel free to submit a second deck if you so wish, it'll run in the tournament as well as your first deck (rather than instead of) - this goes for all regular tournaments.

Adam

[Franz Ferdinand]

Ghost Quarter and Brain Pry are bannable, I'd say, since they're pretty much Strip Mine and Cabal Therapy.

[ReAnimator]

Ghost Quarter and Brain Pry are bannable, I'd say, since they're pretty much Strip Mine and Cabal Therapy.

I don't think the Pry needs to go as it costs two mana. Hymn seems more powerful and it is still around.

but yeah ghost quarter is a strip mine so thats bad.

[combo_dude]

Ghost Quarter is definitely going - I'm not sure about Brain Pry yet, as it's a strictly better (in 3cb) Addle as it can hit artifacts too. I'll probably allow it, but it's a close call. (Also, I don't think Hymn is the best comparison, simply because it can't be played in conjunction with Mox/Factory.)

Adam