Sanctioned Vintage at Scholars IV August 12th

[ELD]

Sanctioned Vintage is really picking up steam, and will return on August 12th at Scholars, the home of the longest running weekly Vintage series anywhere.  With the unpowered prize firmly established, we aimed to grow the event, and the community came through in a huge way.  With 15 players, and 3 new players to the Scholars, the total prize was nearly 400 in credit.  This time, let's leave that number in the dust!  Extra players directly increase the prize pool, so the more the merrier.

The highest finishing Unpowered Deck* will receive a prize, so the value is insane.  Last time, we had two Unpowered decks who were one game way from making Top 4, as well as in contention for the Unpowered Prize.  Who's going to be the first one to win not only the Unpowered Prize, but also make Top 4?  If you want to take part in a hugely fun and unique Vintage event, but don't have power, brew something new, or go ahead and take your Legacy deck, makes some tweeks and have a blast.  Either way, it's an awesome time.  If we hit enough unpowered decks at this event, we'll take a look at making the Unpowered Prizes Scale with attendance even better.  

What do the prizes look like?  Here are some examples:

Here is 16 players, with 2 or more unpowered:

cash prize   credit prize
1st    105.6    140.8
2nd   79.2            105.6
3rd   39.6            52.8
4th   39.6            52.8
1st Unpowered   40   53.33

This is what 32 players, with two unpowered looks like:

   cash prize   credit prize
1st   227.2   302.93
2nd   170.4   227.2
3rd   85.2           113.6
4th   85.2           113.6
1st Unpowered   40   53.33

Now you're seeing that you can also choose cash as an option.  Pretty useful for acquiring singles.   I'll be there with a sick selection of the goodness you need to keep up your rep as a formidable spell slinger.  

For those of you who don't know Scholars:

Scholars has been supporting Vintage in New England for as long as I can remember.  They are the site of my first Vintage tournament (I was playing with Miracle Grow in 2001)  

Located at:
Scholar's Bookstore
34 Central Sq
Bridgewater, MA
Phone: (508) 279-1712

Google Maps Directions

Ample parking in rear.  

$20 entry fee
zero proxy sanctioned Vintage

I am always buying or trading for any and all cards – turn your unwanted cards into cash!

*A deck is eligible for the Unpowered Prize if it contains no copies of the following cards:

Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Timetwister
Black Lotus
Mox Emerald
Mox Ruby
Mox Pearl
Mox Sapphire
Mox Jet
Mishra's Workshop
Bazaar of Baghdad
Time Vault

[Demagoguery]

I missed the last one so I'll try really hard to make this one, even though it's the day after a weekend when a friend is having a wedding.

[ELD]

Be sure to spread the word about the unpowered prize at the wedding, especially if you find yourself with the opportunity to make a toast. 

[Demagoguery]

Seeing as he's a Magic player it wouldn't be completely out of place, I'd even suggest they take their honey moon playing some Vintage because it's just that cool.

So here's a question that just came to mind, why does the prize not extend to Top8 at 32 players? That seems like the standard thing to do with that many players.

[ELD]

Good question about the 32 player threshold.  We'll take a look at options and consider it.  We are building towards bigger events, and I don't anticipate 32 for this one, but it may be possible later on.  If these continue to be successful, we will look at doing weekend events, where we would be cutting to Top 8.

[ErtaiAdept]

oh god, a 32 man tourney starting at 7:30 on a Monday night.....I'm tired just thinking about it.

[ELD]

Yes, we've been at 4 rounds, which has gone very smoothly.  Anything over 32 would get to 6 rounds, which would get to time concerns.  If we start breaking into 5 rounds (17+), we will definitely add to the schedule with weekend Sanctioned Events as well. 

To ensure time does not become an issue, we're starting the tournament at 7:30 on the dot this time.  We're talking lands hitting the table at 7:30.  In order to make this happen, we're asking everyone show up at least 10 minutes early.  Scholars' is dedicated to making these tournaments run smoothly and fairly for everyone. 

[joshuaclayton]

Count me in! These events have been absolutely amazing thus far.

[ELD]

A reminder for everyone that we are aiming to start the tournament at 7:30.  Please to try and be there by 7:20 at the latest, out of respect to everyone who is making it out and has to work the next day.  Thank you all, and see you Monday Night!

[ErtaiAdept]

Fantastic time and another amazingly successful event.  Thanks you Eric and Scholar's for hosting and thanks to everyone who came out!  I said this to many people last night, but I played some of the most intense games of magic I have in a long time last night and had a great time.

Thanks again and can't wait till the next one.

Oh! Almost forgot...thanks to Adrian for lending me the power I needed making my attendance possible.

[rooneg]

Agreed, this was loads of fun.  Did anyone get the final count for number of players?

[bactgudz]

Agreed, this was loads of fun.  Did anyone get the final count for number of players?

16..3 unpowered I think, could've been 4.

[Demagoguery]

First time attending one of these and it was a blast. I hope to make future events, though the distance makes it a little challenging for me.

I was the person who won first Unpowered, coming in 6th overall, and there were 4 people playing Unpowered as far as I know. I was on Mono-White, another guy had his legacy Omni-Tell, a guy had Mono-Black which had some cool tech, and the last guy played something blue that I didn't quite catch but I know he was unpowered as he was in contention for best unpowered with a record of 2-1 going into round 4.

Edit: My round one games against ErtaiAdept were amazing, there were a lot of crazy plays made.

[DubDub]

another guy had his legacy Omni-Tell

Did you guys let him play with 4x Brainstorm?   

[Demagoguery]

another guy had his legacy Omni-Tell

Did you guys let him play with 4x Brainstorm?   

We let him play mono-Brainstorm and no other spells. He had 45 Brainstorm 15 Island.dec.

I played him round 3 and I got to place a Relic-Warder down off his Show and Tell to eat his Dream Halls and keep him from casting an Enter the Infinite off his last blue card. Surprisingly the Hate Bear plan did really well against Show and Tell as I could usually guess which creature to place on the field to counteract their play. I did misplay against ErtaiAdept game 3, getting greedy and trying to play a Stony Silence instead of replaying Relic-Warder to take his Oath because I had a Cage in play. I didn't think it out as it let him basically use the Oath to Tutor Griseldaddy to the top and then Show and Tell it into play with no Revoker in my hand.

[ErtaiAdept]

another guy had his legacy Omni-Tell

Did you guys let him play with 4x Brainstorm?   

We let him play mono-Brainstorm and no other spells. He had 45 Brainstorm 15 Island.dec.

I played him round 3 and I got to place a Relic-Warder down off his Show and Tell to eat his Dream Halls and keep him from casting an Enter the Infinite off his last blue card. Surprisingly the Hate Bear plan did really well against Show and Tell as I could usually guess which creature to place on the field to counteract their play. I did misplay against ErtaiAdept game 3, getting greedy and trying to play a Stony Silence instead of replaying Relic-Warder to take his Oath because I had a Cage in play. I didn't think it out as it let him basically use the Oath to Tutor Griseldaddy to the top and then Show and Tell it into play with no Revoker in my hand.

One of my favorite plays against cage.  A lot of people won't see it coming.