Season 9 will have 16 players. Each regular season show will feature a random group of 4 competitors who play round robin (aka 3 matches each – one versus everyone else). Anyone with a 6-0 record at the end of the season goes straight to the final show. 5-1 earns a berth in the semifinals and 4-2 is the minimum required to make the playoffs.

Exact playoff formats will vary depending on how many players wind up at each record.

 

Season 8 will be a team season airing at 6pm pt on Thursdays from April 19 through July 19. It features:

“CONQUEROR” FORMAT

Whenever a player wins a match, they keep playing (with the same deck) until somebody knocks them off. First team to win 4 matches takes the overall team series. Once a player loses, they are out until everyone on the team has a loss. (In other words, everybody plays until they lose once, and then one person gets a second chance. Functionally, it will play out as best 4 of 7.)

Teams submit 6 different* Vintage decks, which are published ahead of time. The opposing team gets to ban one of your decks.  Once a deck loses, it is eliminated. When choosing who plays next, you can send them up with any of your remaining decks. (Yes, with the exception of the first match, you’ll know what you’re playing against.) Note that one deck on the losing side will go unplayed and unbanned. As far as the winning side goes, it could in theory be one player winning 4 straight with the first deck.

*The current definition of “different” deck we are working with is as follows: two decks may not overlap by more than 12 total non-land*, non-sideboard cards. There are no constraints on lands or sideboard cards. (Note: For Vintage we are counting any artifact that taps and/or sacrifices for mana as a “land” … aka you can have all the Moxes in all your decks and it does not count as overlap.)

ROSTERS

(Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl0nmlhAolk)

The Academy – Rich Shay, Brian Kelly, Andy Markiton

So Many Insane Plays – Stephen Menendian, Kevin Cron, Jason Jaco, (alternate: Andy Probasco)

Scottsdale Foundation – Paul Rietzl, David Williams, Matt Sperling, (alternate: Bob Maher)

Cardsphere.com – Reid Duke, Eric Froehlich, Randy Buehler

Hornet Queens – Rachel Agnes, Erin Campbell, Athena Froehlich

ChannelFireball – Luis Scott-Vargas, Josh Utter-Leyton, Matt Nass, Sam Pardee

Blue Crab Club – Seth Manfield, Jarvis Yu, Ari Lax

Snapcardster.com – Andreas Petersen, Michael Bonde, Thomas Enevoldsen, (alternate: Julian Knab)

SCHEDULE

April 19 – ChannelFireball vs Snapcardster

April 26 – So Many Insane Plays vs Hornet Queens

May 3 – The Academy vs Cardsphere.com

May 10 – Blue Crab Club vs Scottsdale Foundation

Season 8 Round 2:

{Will use Swiss pairings based on the results of Round 1}

Season 8 Playoffs:

The two 2-0’s will get byes into the Top 4

The four 1-1’s will play for the other two spots in the Top 4

Special thanks to our primary sponsor CoolStuffInc.com for putting us over our funding goal for this season!

 

Season 7 will have 12 players:

Three times during the regular season the 12 players will be randomly divided in groups of 4 players each. All 12 players will submit decks at the same time and without knowing who is in their group. Each show will consist of one group playing a full round robin (aka 3 matches per player, 6 matches total).

At the end of 9 weeks, everyone will have played 9 matches. (The schedule won’t be symmetrical, and some players are likely to have easier/harder schedules than others, but that’s just a feature we’ve all agreed to accept.) The Top 4 records advance to the playoffs, with ties broken by playing more matches of Magic (format TBD based on the size of the tie).

The Playoffs will have the 3-seed versus the 4-seed, then the 2-seed versus that winner, then the 1-seed (aka the best record from the regular season) versus that winner. Each playoff round is best 3 out of 5 *matches* with players bringing 3 different decks.

We’re approaching this season as a “Brewer’s Challenge” and so there is no “relegation” and players have agreed not to play the same deck twice (during the regular season).

 

Season 6 Format:

Season 6 will have 12 players. They will be divided into groups of 4 that will play a full round robin during a single show. Those results will be used to form new groups of 4 including, eventually, a playoff group. Players will submit new decks for each night they play.

 

Previous Format:

10 players

Round Robin schedule with everyone playing one match per week (for 9 weeks).

Games are played one at a time on Tuesday evening, starting at 5pm pacific time.

Players can change decks every 3 weeks. (So decklists will be submitted before weeks 1, 4, 7, and each round of the playoffs. They will be published after that week’s games.)

Top 4 players make the playoffs.

Ties will be broken through playoff matches.

The playoff format is as follows: #4 plays #3. The winner plays the 2-seed. The winner of that plays the #1 seed in the finals. All matches are best 3 out of 5 matches where each player brings 3 decks, playing them in a preset order and then choosing whichever deck they like for match 4 and match 5 (if necessary). The higher seed gets to choose play/draw in the first match. After that the loser of the previous match gets the choice.

1st place will win a foil set of Vintage Masters while 2nd place gets a foil Black Lotus, 3rd is a regular Black Lotus, and 4th is a regular Mox Sapphire (all on Magic Online, of course).

Last place (including everyone tied for last place) will not be automatically invited back to play the next season, but will instead be demoted to a play-in tournament. (Note that the number of invites at stake in the play-in tournament will be equal to the number of players who wind up tied for last in the previous season.)