Some comments from Vitas:
You have a very systematic and complete way of explaining the game, so your way would work. (I approve of that because a person can start thinking about strategy with all the rules in the open. It's why I advocate memorizing all the cards before a game, tongue in cheek.) I try to summarize enough of the rules to get into the game, and go into details if and when the questions come up. (This actually facilitates the surprise factor that you're fond of -- the surprise of discovering cards that will work well during the game, and the surprise of an opponents counter-measures. I don't approve of that, but I find most people don't like a complete rules explaination the first time they play.
In most games, a quick summary of the rules and then leaping into the game to handle any anomolies later is fine. Early missteps aren't usually too devastating. In fact, too much rule explanation before a game can kill off the interest, and is counter-productive as some people zone out or get distracted.
I feel an important element of my way of teaching magic was to get the players playing a valid (e.g. not skipping any rules) magic game as soon as possible. That's what the vanilla creatures + land decks were for.
One of the things I wanted to avoid was a new player upset and confused by all these unexpected rules coming from nowhere. An occasional, "Oh, I didn't mention bands-with-others because there are only 3 cards in the entire history of magic that refer to that ability" or even "Oh, I didn't mention split-cards because I didn't want to spoil the surprise of seeing them for the first time." is fine.
Surprises of the "You didn't know this rule, so now I'm going to beat you over the head with it" are no fun (:
That said, each rule or mechanic can be quantified by a) how often it comes up, b) how much of an impact it has on the game, and c) how difficult it is to incorporate into an otherwise incomplete understanding of the game.
In discovering what new players would need to know in order to play their first simple-yet-valid game of Magic, I was surprised at some of the rules that were more important then others, in the sense that you can't play a game without them. For example, that the starting player doesn't draw a card is, in this respect, more important to understand then activated abilites. You can't play a game without knowing how to start (:
Examples:
Flying
a) comes up often
b) has a big impact ("If I had known that flying creatures couldn't be easily blocked, I would have picked more of them.")
c) As Flying changes combat math ("We each have 3 1/1 creatures, so I'm safe - whoops! His creatures all have flying!"), it can be difficult to add to an existing strategy without flying.
Poison
a) not that common
b) Doesn't really have a big impact when first introduced. When you get your first poison counter, you've got 9 more to get before you lose the game.
c) Not to difficult, as it mostly just adds incentives to blocking creatures with poison.
Upkeep (:
a) In Onslaught, rather rare. Less then 3% of the cards refer to it. I'll grant you that overall, more cards refer to it.
b) I think that having a separate phase between untapping and drawing a card (during which phase, only instants were allowed) is important. For a while, I began to wonder if WoTC was considering phasing out this ability (no pun intended), but I don't think so. I think it's important to the game, despite the fact that most Onslaught-only duels will never encounter it.
c) Here's the rub. I believe that it's better to learn the game with an empty holder in place for Upkeep then to try to squeeze in a new phase when you thought that you already knew all of them. That's why I would change my way of teaching Magic to include the space-holder for upkeep, and then explain it after the new playes got comfortable with more common and important stuff (like combat, evasion, activated abilities, and the stack).
Session Report - Magic the Gathering Tournement.
There were seven players in the tournement: Sara, myself, Vitas, Shaun, Laurie, Vanessa, and Julianna. Liz and Leah stopped by, but didn't play magic (although they did play some Gran Turismo on the PS2). This wasn't a DCI-sanctioned event (I think the official rules prevent the organizer from playing, and I think most of the players didn't have DCI numbers anyway). It was a double-elimination draft tournement with the new Onslaught cards.
We started out by teaching Shaun and Julianna the basics of magic. I was looking forward to teaching the game to new players as much as I was looking forward to the tournement itself (: Sara and I have been playing Magic more or less since we met, and it'll be nice to have more people to play with. I wrote out all the things that I thought I should cover, in more or less the order in which I wanted to cover it, and also prepared a few simple decks to get them started. If we had more time, I would have had the new players play more initial games, adding more interesting mechanics one at a time. I think if I were to do this again, I would have all the new players come to a separate event before the tournement to make sure they understood the game completely.
In trying to explain the most important things in Magic first, I intentionally left out the upkeep step, planning on adding it to the mix later. I can't decide if it's more important to learn all the steps of a turn early on (Say it with me: "Untap, upkeep, main"), or to simplify things by omitting a step that doesn't impact the game 9 out of 10 turns. Of the 350 new onslaught cards, only 10 of them refer to upkeep, and most of the 10 are rare).
We then started drafting cards. For those unfamiliar with the process, it works like this. Each player opens a booster of 15 cards (1 rare, 3 uncommon, and 11 commons), and selects one card to keep. The remaining 14 cards are then passed to the player on the left. Each player then picks one card from the 14 cards passed to him/her, and the process repeats, until all the cards have been selected. At this point, each player has 15 cards, an equal number (more or less) from each booster that was originally open. This entire process repeats 2 more times, until each player has 45 cards. From those 45 cards, each player then creates a deck with at least 40 cards (adding as many land cards as they like, from my collection).
There are many, many strategies to selecing the cards in this manner. It's a much different process from creating a deck from all the cards you own. You also have to keep in mind that the cards you draft are also the cards that you own, and will take home, at the end of the day. It's tempting to pick rare cards, or cards that will go well with another deck you have at home, at the expense of the deck that you will play with later that day.
Generally speaking, non-creature spells are more interesting then creatures. Thus, it's easy to end up with lots of cool spells, but not have any creatures to defend yourself with. likewise, the more (mana-)expensive cards are always more tempting, but in a quick game, it's the cards that you can play on turn 3 and 4 that win.
Sara, Vitas, and I drafted first. I felt that it would be more fair to have the less-experienced players draft separately. It's was also quicker that way, as Laurie hadn't arrived yet.
Vitas pointed out the advantage in drafting low mana-cost cards when we started drafting, and I kept that advice close in my mind while selecting my cards. In fact, it prevented me from picking
Silvos, Rogue Elemental when I opened my first booster. Instead, I selected
Mistform Wall. I knew that creature types would be important, so picking a relatively cheap, defensive creature card that could become any type seemed to be a good strategy. It also didn't lock me into a particular creature type right away.
I don't remember what the next card I selected was, but I do remember that it was white. At that point, I had committed myself to only selecting white and blue. It was a gamble that, I think, worked out to my favor.
At the start of our third booster (30 cards selected, 15 left to go), I opened a pack with
Ancestor's Prophet. At this point, I realized that I had the central card for my deck. With all the white cards, I knew I must have picked up at least a few clerics, and my mistform creatures (a few walls and the
Mistform Skyreaver, I believe) could become clerics at will. My hope was that, with 5 clerics (or potential clerics) on the board (including
Ancestor's Prophet, of course), I would not attack, wait until the end of my opponent's turn, and then tap all of the creatures to gain 10 life, and still have all my creatures untapped to block during the next turn. After a few turns of this, my opponent would, hopefully, conceed the game.
My only drafting regret was the way in which I ignored most of the more expensive cards. I didn't take into account the fact that expensive cards with Morph could come out in turn 3! In fact, in one match, I had to discard a card because I couldn't afford the printed mana cost of any of the cards in my hand, when I could have played a creature face down. I used morph a few times, but I think that this mechanic will really shine in constructed decks.
I would pick
Daunting Defender as the most valuable card in my deck. I can't believe that he is common! It made all my clerics (which I included for my
Ancestor's Prophet strategy) +0/+1 for each blocker, making them rather difficult to kill. Drafting again, I would have looked for more copies of this card.
If I had found
Ancestor's Prophet earlier, I may have been able to get more clerics. As it was, enough of my white creatures were soldiers to consider a two pronged strategy, based on soldiers in addition to clerics.
Pearlspear Courier and
Daru Encampment were my main soldier cards, and my mistform creatures would support either strategy. I selected copies of the blue and white charms (
Trickery Charm and
Piety Charm, respectively), and some cards with cycling (
Renewed Faith and
Lonely Sandbar), although I'm not sure that I used cycling effectively.
When Laurie arrived, she came with a surprise: Vanessa. Vanessa had never played Magic before (like the rest of us), and would be at a considerable disadvantage. Nevertheless, she opted to play, so the four of them (Shaun, Julianna, Laurie, and Vanessa) began drafting, with Vitas assisting Vanessa in selecting cards and simultaniously explaining the game.
After they finished drafting and constructing their decks, the tournement began. Each match was decided by the best 2 out of 3.
Double-elimintation is an interesting format, with some anomolies that don't seem fair at first glance. One useful way of thinking about it is as two pools: a winners pool, and a losers pool. Everyone starts in the winners pool. Matches only take place between people in the same pool. The first time you lose, you're moved to the losers pool. If you lose from the loser's pool, you are eliminated from the tournement. When there is only one person left in each pool, they fight for first place. The person from the loser's pool has to win over the undefeated person twice in order to win the tournement. Otherwise, the undefeated person wins.
To make this fair (and understandable), we use a bracket. I won't recreate it here, but it's in front of me as I write this. The first match-ups were
Vitas vs. Shaun
Chip vs. Laurie
Sara vs. Julianna
Vanessa vs. no one (Vanessa was declared the winner, and watched Sara vs. Julianna, as she would play the victor of that match).
Shaun, being a new player, was the underdog against Vitas, but he emerged victorious. I believe his
Foothill Guide was key, as Vitas had a number of goblins in his deck. I defeated Laurie after two duels, and Sara defeated Julianna.
The next set of matches were
Undefeated (1/0)
Shaun vs. Chip
Sara vs. Vanessa
Once defeated (0/1)
Vitas vs. Laurie
Julianna vs. No one
Shaun and I played two long good duels, both of which he won. The first duel took a long time as I started out with two
Mistform Walls in play, and he had a
Leery Fogbeast, which I would block to cancel all combat damage. Shaun had constructed a deck almost entirely of creatures, which worked very well for him. His
Whipcorder would keep my flying soldiers from attacking until he could get his
Silklash Spider in play. I was particularly proud of one moment: He used his
Silklash Spider's ability to kill off some of my flying creatures, and I reacted by giving one of his creatures (a
Daru Lancer, I believe) flying, thus killing that creature off, too.
I don't know any of the details of Sara and Vanessa's match, except that Sara won both duels. I believe at one point Sara had a 8/5 creature out, while Vanessa had a 6/6.
Vitas won twice over Laurie, eliminating her from the tournement.
The next set of matches were
Undefeated (2/0)
Shaun vs. Sara
Once defeated (1/1)
Vitas vs. Chip
Julianna vs. Vanessa (no winner)
Unfortunately, before Julianna and Vanessa had a chance to compete, they had to leave. It was pretty late by this point (around 9 or 10 o'clock).
I defeated Vitas twice to win the match. Our second duel ended interestingly. He had three creatures in play, a 1/1, 1/2 and a 2/2, and I had a flying 3/3 (
Aven Soulgazer, I believe) which was tapped. I have only 3 life left. He attacked me with all three creatures, but I played
Chain of Silence, targeting his 2/2 creature, which left me with 1 life remaining. The next turn, I untapped my only creature and attacked with it, which took his last remaining life point. It's great to be involved in such a close game, and it's even better to win (:
Shaun's winning streak was finally brought to an end by Sara's deck. It was getting late by this point, so we agreed to play only one duel each match, rather then taking the best 2 out of 3.
As this was Shaun's first defeat, he was not eliminated, but instead had to play against me for a second time. It was even later by this point, and neither of us was playing his best. I won, but I think it was more luck then skill.
As I had only been defeated once, I had an opportunity to win the tournement by defeating Sara twice. We waited until the next morning to play out this duel, and she absolutely crushed me. Her deck, which went through the entire tournement undefeated against 4 of the 6 other players, was by far the best deck there. And what was one of the key cards in her deck?
Silvos, Rogue Elemental. The first rare that I opened at the very beginning, and passed on, as it was "too expensive". Looking back now, a converted cost of 6 for a trampling, regenerating 8/5 legend wasn't really such a bad deal. Especially with the multiple copies of
Explosive Vegetation that she included in her deck. Sara's victory was well-deserved.
The tournement took a lot more time then I had planned on. I think that next time I will either use a single elimintation format, or stick with the double elimination, but make each match a single duel, rather then best 2 out of 3.
I don't have the full results of the Magic the Gathering tournement with me, so that will have to be another post. In the meantime, some thoughts on hosting a gaming session, and the problem of food.
First off, I'd like to thank my wife Sara, for co-hosting with me, and John Montagu, for being an addicted gambler.
You see, John was such an avid gamer that he was loathe to stop long enough to eat. So he would, instead, have someone bring him some meat between two slices of bread. Montagu, for those who haven't seen the punchline yet, was the fourth Earl of Sandwich. The sandwich was key to this tournement, as it allowed me to run and participate in the games as well as make sure that all of my guests were well-fed. Bear with me as I list the qualities that make this type of food perfect for all-day gaming situations:
Hosts like sandwiches because:
* It requires no utensils, only paper plates and napkins.
* The host doesn't have to keep checking the oven.
* Nothing to prepare ahead of time, or during the gaming session.
* It's inexpensive, generally speaking.
* No haggling over the bill (figuring out who had what to eat, who owes who food, how much the tax is, how much the tip should be, etc.)
Guests like sandwiches because:
* Each gamer can server him or her self.
* Satisfies different tastes easily.
* Individual servings.
* Games can be played while people eat.
* People can eat when they want - no waiting for everyone to be equally hungry.
Sandwiches are generally great because:
* Goes well with other snacks (chips, nuts, popcorn, fruit, etc.)
* No messy bits to spill onto cards or game boards.
* Instant food (not need to wait for delivery)
* No need to go anywhere.
Now, I would like to be able to provide different sources of nutrition on gaming sessions, as to avoid sandwiches becoming routine. But what? Going out to a restaurant isn't really feasible, as that takes time which reduces the time spent gaming. Pizza and Chinese can be delivered, although Chinese food usually requires utensils, and can't be consumed while gaming. Pizza comes the closest, I would guess, but that involves getting everyone to agree on the type of pizza each person would like.
Another option is to make a fast food run. This has almost all of the same advantages as sandwiches, except that it requires at least one person to stop gaming, collect everyone's orders and money, and run out to the fast food place, stand in line, recite the order, wait for the food, bring it all back, and then figure out who gets what.
Drinks. Sara and I have four different types of glasses, and, with almost everyone drinking apple cider (kindly provided by Vitas), it was impossible to tell whose glass was whose. There are tokens that you can buy that distinguish otherwise identical wine glasses, but, as far as I am aware, no such system for regular drinking glasses. Next time: red plastic cups and a magic marker for each person to uniquely decorate their cup.
Speaking of food, I'd also like to thank Vitas for bringing a dessert bread and apple cider, both of which were enjoyed by everyone.
Feedback is welcome.
