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by Jeffery Stylos Why we need a new tournament type and what should be kept in mind, and avoided when creating one The number of magic players exploded around the time Fallen Empires came out (1994). However, about that time the average power of the cards had been scaled back compared to the days of Time Walk, Black Lotus, and Library of Alexandria. This was done by removing many of the most powerful cards from of the regular set, and by creating less powerful expansion sets, such as The Dark and Fallen Empires. The noble purpose behind the change was to make Magic less a game of luck and more a game of skill. If a single card, or combination of two or three cards, could kill a player before they had sufficient time to react, the game would be won by whoever drew this powerful combination first; if no card was powerful enough to kill a player before they had time to react, the game could be won by whoever had build their deck and played their cards more efficiently. But the large numbers of new players, without the earlier power cards, could not fairly compete with the older players, so a new tournament type was created for these players: Type 2. Cut to 1997. Type II now only includes 4th edition and the most recent several expansion sets, excluding all of the Fallen Empire, Ice Age, and Homelands cards bought by the all the 'second generation' of magic players. A Type 1.5 has been created, allowing all non-restricted, non-banned cards to be played, but this too has its flaws. This tournament type is dominated by Juzams, Abyss's, Moats, Mana Drains, and Nether Voids - all cards that were made before most of the large influx started playing. And for many players, simply not letting them play with any of their few prized possessions, such as the Demonic Tutor they were lucky enough to get a hold of, was enough to discourage them from playing 1.5. There was a experimental "point system", but it never caught on, for several reasons. Besides being easily abused with Stasis's, Juggernauts and many other cards, it forced players not just to remember what set a card was in for them to know if they could play with it, but to know exactly how many points it was worth, and to calculate how many points they had left to use in their deck. In my opinion, the point system ended up being the most complicated, and the least fair of all the tournament types. With so many magic players who can no longer play with most of their cards, there is an obvious need for a new set of deck building rules, a new tournament type that will enable the second generation of magic players to play with their cards but not be dominated by the minority of players who have the earlier, more powerful cards. But how can you make a tournament type that will foster deck diversity, let new players be competitive, and become popular enough to be able to hold national-level tournaments? Clearly, this is impossible without a large federal program to accomplish it. No, seriously, you can make this "Type 3" yourself if you keep in mind a few commonsense rules. First, it cannot be too complicated. You should be able to know instantly whether a deck is Type 3 legal, and not have to add up all the 'points' in the deck like with the point system, or know the rarities for all the cards as some players experimental deck building rules would make you do. Perhaps there could be a limit to the number of cards in certain sets you could play with. For example, there could be no more than 4 cards from the Legends expansion allowed in a deck. I'm not saying this would necessarily be a good idea; it's just some thing to think about. Most important of all I believe, you must work with Wizards of the Coast, and let them know what we want. Without their help, it will be impossible to create a successful tournament type. Along with holding many tournaments, they also design the cards themselves, which should compliment the tournament type. For example, if you are going to set a limit of four to each individual card per deck, Plague Rats are not going to be powerful enough to ever be played with. Likewise, if you do not want to have any restricted or banned lists, you need to have none of the current cards be overly powerful. It will be impossible to build a tournament type alone; you must have WotC's help. So, next time you feel trapped by constraints of Type 2, or the inability to compete in Type 1, remember: deck building rules aren't built by unseen gods, they can be built by anyone. And with the need for a new tournament type so great, if you apply yourself, follow some commonsense rules, and work with WotC, even you can prevent forest fires. Whoops! What I meant to say is this, even you or your small magic group can create the next big magic type that will be played around the world. There is a need for it, someone has to create it, why not you? Editor's Note : According a recent post by Jason Carl (the Director of the DCI) WotC and the Convocation are indeed working on a new tourney type which will allow older cards. The problems inherent in such a Type are many, so I assume they want to work out the bugs before they produce it. - Kevin McLaughlin
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