Active draft tournament formats?

Greetings, In the beginning of June, I'm going to be running at least one constructed tournament and probably some form of sealed tournament. There was a Portsmouth Draft and a Michigan Draft floating around a while ago. I was curious as to what draft formats people have tried and would recommend as well as any advice. In order to make things quicker, I'm thinking of keeping vampire drafting shortened. Btw, anyone else extremely annoyed by DejaNews...errr, Deja.com's new design? Mike -- Mike Bohlmann, MAIP mboh...@shout.net http://www.shout.net/~mbohlman/ Linux...It just feels good.

Mike Bohlmann <mboh...@shout.net> wrote: > In the beginning of June, I'm going to be running at least one > constructed tournament and probably some form of sealed tournament. > There was a Portsmouth Draft and a Michigan Draft floating around > a while ago. *nods* Let me know if you need the run-down on the Michigan Draft again. I played in something called the Rochester Draft (I believe) at Origins and it totally sucked a$$. Give me a heads-up on time and location and I may show up. Eep. I just used "totally" in a setence. Valley-girl disease from the mid-80's has finally caught up with me. *wry grin* > Btw, anyone else extremely annoyed by DejaNews...errr, Deja.com's > new design? I'm absolutely pissed about it. The gold and avacado green color scheme is giving me flashbacks from living in a trailer park in the early 70's. If they add paneling and shag carpet, I'm going to sue for emotional distress. What I _am_ going to do is set up my news service from my ISP at home as soon as I have the time. At work, we're already working to add our own news service. In short, I'm getting away from Deja-Vu-News as soon as humanly possible. Noal -- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" -Plato --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- ---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.---

> > Btw, anyone else extremely annoyed by DejaNews...errr, Deja.com's > > new design? > > I'm absolutely pissed about it. The gold and avacado green color > scheme is giving me flashbacks from living in a trailer park in > the early 70's. If they add paneling and shag carpet, I'm going > to sue for emotional distress. > > What I _am_ going to do is set up my news service from my ISP > at home as soon as I have the time. At work, we're already > working to add our own news service. In short, I'm getting > away from Deja-Vu-News as soon as humanly possible. You may want to check out talkway. Many options for e-mail delivery and notification of new messages (or just responses to your messages) and filtering (Users, subjects, etc.) and post ratings (flames, spam, etc.) http://www.talkway.com -- LSJ (vte...@wizards.com) VTES Net.Rep for Wizards of the Coast. Links to revised rulebook, rulings, errata, and DCI rules: http://www.wizards.com/VTES/VTES_Rules.html -- Posted via Talkway - http://www.talkway.com Exchange ideas on practically anything (tm).

"vtesrep" <vte...@wizards.com> wrote: > You may want to check out talkway. Many options for e-mail > delivery and notification of new messages (or just responses > to your messages) and filtering (Users, subjects, etc.) and > post ratings (flames, spam, etc.) > > http://www.talkway.com Well..I just set up an account here and it sure is better for casual reading. I don't see any archives here, but that's not a big issue. I can set up that sort of thing on my own or suck it up once in a while and use deja. Thanks for the tip, Scott. Noal [ quoted text not captured ]

In article <7h9hga$4me$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>, dhar...@my-dejanews.com wrote: > Mike Bohlmann <mboh...@shout.net> wrote: > > In the beginning of June, I'm going to be running at least one > > constructed tournament and probably some form of sealed tournament. > > There was a Portsmouth Draft and a Michigan Draft floating around > > a while ago. > > *nods* > Let me know if you need the run-down on the Michigan Draft again. > I played in something called the Rochester Draft (I believe) at > Origins and it totally sucked a$$. Give me a heads-up on time > and location and I may show up. Are you talking about last year's Jyhad stuff at Origins? Cause I thought the draft we did was basically a Michigan draft. Though we might have done it a little wrong or something. Rochester draft (as far as I know) usually refers to a Magic draft format. I think the way it works is that you put some cards in the middle of the table, face up, and people take turns picking a card from the ones available. In Magic, you do that for each booster until you're done. I wouldn't think it'd actually be a *bad* format for Jyhad, except that it might take a while to do the drafting. (You going to Origins this year by the way? I'm planning to.) > > Btw, anyone else extremely annoyed by DejaNews...errr, Deja.com's > > new design? > > I'm absolutely pissed about it. The gold and avacado green color > scheme is giving me flashbacks from living in a trailer park in > the early 70's. If they add paneling and shag carpet, I'm going > to sue for emotional distress. "Deja.com" is kinda annoying to me too. I looked at Talkway and I dunno, it didn't really do anything for me. I liked the old old DejaNews format all right, and Talkway looks kinda like that, but it's still too web-based to make me want to switch from Deja - now that I've gotten somewhat used to Deja's new(er) interface(s) it'd take something more like 'tin' to lure me away. Josh mmm... forbidden donut... [ quoted text not captured ]

In article <nv%Z2.1943$xa.2...@c01read02-admin.service.talkway.com>, Dharzhak <dhar...@spam.b.gone.com> writes > >Well..I just set up an account here and it sure is better for >casual reading. It is, but unfortunately, some groups seem to be a little slow to update. :( -- James Coupe (Prince of Mercia, England) Vampire: Elder Kindred Network http://madnessnetwork.hexagon.net http://www.obeah.demon.co.uk

> Are you talking about last year's Jyhad stuff at Origins? Cause > I thought the draft we did was basically a Michigan draft. Though > we might have done it a little wrong or something. Actually, there was both. I ran the Michigan Draft one last year, and I did munge it a bit. It's been tightened up a bit since then. > Rochester draft (as far as I know) usually refers to a Magic > draft format. Someone adapted it to Jyhad. It sucked. Bad. > (You going to Origins this year by the way? I'm planning to.) *nods* I'm planning on going with Bernie again. > "Deja.com" is kinda annoying to me too. I looked at Talkway > and I dunno, it didn't really do anything for me. It looks a little less noisy, so it's easier for casual reading. Talkway also allows fictitious names, which Deja does not. On the otehr hand, Talkway doesn't have archives. Deja's archives go back about 5 years or so....very important for us Unix admins trying to do some research on an issue before asking a question. [ quoted text not captured ]

In article <7hc2cp$4m7$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>, jt...@cornell.edu says... >Rochester draft (as far as I know) usually refers to a Magic >draft format. I think the way it works is that you put some >cards in the middle of the table, face up, and people take >turns picking a card from the ones available. In Magic, you >do that for each booster until you're done. I wouldn't think >it'd actually be a *bad* format for Jyhad, except that it might >take a while to do the drafting. If you are referring to the format where each person is given a finite amount of "draft points" to spend on cards, then I have to say that I really enjoyed that format. It is a little slow but it builds suspense (for example: will I be able to get a Backways for the Gangrel deck I'm building?). More importantly, it builds a more focused sealed deck. Sealed decks are always supposed to have a lot of randomness to them, but it's nice to actually plan a few cominations without having to depend on the luck of getting them in a starter. One drawback is that everyone else watches you as you draft (build) your deck. It leaves little surprise in the actual gameplay, which is fine if you are in a league (but bad for a tournament). On the other hand, watching other people draft allows you to "play spoiler" and draft the cards other players need (I like the spoiler part). The major problem I have with this format is that the seating is fixed and the person drafting directly in front of you could be trying to build the same deck as you. In that particular case, you are forced to choose an alternate strategy. Perhaps seating arrangements should be switched between boosters. Greg

jt...@cornell.edu (Joshua Duffin) writes: >Rochester draft (as far as I know) usually refers to a Magic >draft format. I think the way it works is that you put some >cards in the middle of the table, face up, and people take >turns picking a card from the ones available. In Magic, you >do that for each booster until you're done. I wouldn't think >it'd actually be a *bad* format for Jyhad, except that it might >take a while to do the drafting. Shawn Carnes ran a tournament of this format at Gen*Con '96. One starter and two boosters - you open and evaluate your starter and then draft the boosters. Each player takes one card from the top of their booster supply (still in the order it was in the pack) and puts it face-up on the table. Each player in turn then picks one of those cards. Repeat, reversing the order. Then repeat again, with the next player starting the draft. And so on. Build your deck (40 - 90 cards) from your starter and the cards you drafted. (60 card minimums are really only necessary for unlimited formats.) It worked pretty well, as far as I can remember. -- L. Scott Johnson (sjoh...@math.sc.edu) | We put up with being http://www.math.sc.edu/~sjohnson | surpassed more easily Graphics Specialist and V:TES Rulemonger | than with being equaled. [ quoted text not captured ]

In article <9Wr_2.1190$tP2.1...@typhoon.austin.rr.com>, gfau...@mail.austintx.net (Greg Faulkner) wrote: > In article <7hc2cp$4m7$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>, jt...@cornell.edu says... > > >Rochester draft (as far as I know) usually refers to a Magic > >draft format. I think the way it works is that you put some > >cards in the middle of the table, face up, and people take > >turns picking a card from the ones available. In Magic, you > >do that for each booster until you're done. I wouldn't think > >it'd actually be a *bad* format for Jyhad, except that it might > >take a while to do the drafting. > > If you are referring to the format where each person is given a finite amount > of "draft points" to spend on cards, then I have to say that I really enjoyed > that format. It is a little slow but it builds suspense (for example: will I > be able to get a Backways for the Gangrel deck I'm building?). More > importantly, it builds a more focused sealed deck. Sealed decks are always > supposed to have a lot of randomness to them, but it's nice to actually plan a > few cominations without having to depend on the luck of getting them in a > starter. I'm not familiar with the 'points' angle. The version I've heard of just has people take turns choosing a card from the array of cards in the center of the table. I agree that it's good to reduce the randomness of sealed somewhat; Michigan draft tries to do the same but with fewer cards in the draft (last I heard). > One drawback is that everyone else watches you as you draft (build) your deck. > It leaves little surprise in the actual gameplay, which is fine if you are in > a league (but bad for a tournament). On the other hand, watching other people > draft allows you to "play spoiler" and draft the cards other players need (I > like the spoiler part). I would think there could still be surprise in a tournament if you play against people you didn't draft with. And then, even though you draft things you want to use, I would expect that the decks built will probably be unfocused enough as to produce some surprises in gameplay. The "hate draft" aspect is cool too, yeah, although in sealed it's probably pretty often just as much to get the good card for yourself as it is to keep some particular opponent from having it. > The major problem I have with this format is that the seating is fixed and the > person drafting directly in front of you could be trying to build the same deck > as you. In that particular case, you are forced to choose an alternate > strategy. Perhaps seating arrangements should be switched between boosters. I think drafts like this often reverse the order of card selection each booster/each round? Although you're still sitting between the same people, yes. Sounds like Noal tried a version of this that he didn't like, and you and L Scott tried versions that you did like. Guess I'll just have to find out for myself. Josh I'm just looking for one divine hammer [ quoted text not captured ]