Home Again League

E

Ephraim

Guest
You Can Go Home Again

In his article today, Aaron Forsythe talked about a casual format that's become a hit around the office at Wizards of the Coast. He called it 'You Can Go Home Again' and it sounds like something that we could do around here if we really wanted to.

The gist of the format is that every member of the league opens up a booster box. Those cards and only those cards form the league pool. Players are allowed to trade, but only with cards in the league pool. Periodically (presumably when a new set is released) there would be an infusion of new cards into the pool, but otherwise, the league pool is static and each player's pool changes only as the player trades.

We could do something like this using Magic Workstation. Obviously, the honour system would be involved. If I trade a card away, there's no system in place to ensure that I actually delete it from my pool. On the other hand, even with paper cards, the honour system prevails, since it would be trivial to sneak cards in.

The league rules are open to scoring, but it isn't necessary. In the WotC league, nobody's been keeping score. They've been playing just for fun. To keep things organized, we could have a trading thread and a scheduling thread (ie: somebody posts that they want to play a game Saturday at 8:00 and somebody else takes them up on it.)

Is there anybody else who would be interested in playing in such a format? (I think that we'd need a minimum of 8 to establish a large enough league pool and a diversity of play styles.)
 
E

Ephraim

Guest
It's a free download isn't it? (Not that Apprentice isn't also. Have they polished up the rough edges on Apprentice?)
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Beats me. I assume that if we're just opening a booster box, those programs are good enough.

But I thought it was one booster box for the league total and divided among the players, not one booster box for each player...
 
E

Ephraim

Guest
From the article:
Everyone in the league will open 1 entire booster box of 9th edition (you provide the box...there is a helpful, friendly product store just for this purpose)
Later in the article, he notes that there are enough cards floating around for there to be approximately 9 of each rare in the set, so I'm sure that he meant one booster box PER PERSON.
 
E

EricBess

Guest
Interested. Just not sure about the time commitment. And I don't have any of those programs...
 
D

DarthFerret

Guest
I did somethin similar once with some friends, we opened a starter and 4 boosters though, and then played for Ante, with just that card pool, infusing a booster every 2 weeks...made it interesting playing for ante...Our only rule was that if you moved a card from this pool into your card set, you could not move it back (In case you got that rare that you had to have).

I would be interested in this as well, but my time committment is pretty small right now. Also, what would you think of each game being played for ante?
 
T

train

Guest
I'd be up for this one... pick a booster box huh?... I'd have to go with... something from the Saga block...
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Well, I imagine this will be an ongoing thing, so as long as you can post a turn in a day when you play games, then it should be okay (at least by me). Of course, trading will take some time too... :)

Someone neutral can probably generate a booster box for you, EricBess.

And I like the idea of playing for ante, but will go with the group concensus...
 

Mooseman

Isengar Tussle
Ephraim said:
a scheduling thread (ie: somebody posts that they want to play a game Saturday at 8:00 and somebody else takes them up on it.)
Do you want to play live, using workstation?
 
E

EricBess

Guest
The main thing I don't like about ante is that it tends to break down if it goes on long enough where someone loses an important card and then they just can't get out of a downward spiral.

If you are going to allow trading (which they suggested), then I think playing for ante sort of defeats the purpose.
 

Melkor

Well-known member
I would also be interested in something like this. As for the ante question, I tend to agree with EricBess, but am open to trying it out.
 
B

BigBlue

Guest
I like this idea... but how about an alternative format...

Each Player begins with a box of boosters, the first person opens a pack. This pack becomes an auction item, with each subsequent player bidding a number of packs to the opener, if no one bids, the opener keeps it. The opener can outbid another person by paying them in packs. There's only one rotation of bidding... Then the next player opens a pack and does the same thing... A player can keep unopened packs for the next box if they want to.

I'd start with Alpha... after 1 month we'd add a box of Arabian nights, and so on each month. Basic Lands would be "free".

Trading is allowed. Ante is optional (if both players want to play for ante they can). If you aren't playing for ante, Ante cards are banned.

I think a moderator would open the packs and keep track of how many packs each person has... as far as card pools, that's up to the owners and their honor...

I can moderate these if you'd like... or if you want to play the Forsythe version, I can hand out a box to each player. I really think everyone should start with the same box though (even if you don't want to start with Alpha and move up from there, but I think that'd be fun). Someone else could open my packs or send me my box...

I like it... I'm up for whatever.
 
D

DarthFerret

Guest
I can try it, and will probably have to redownload workstation
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I'd like to try the original first, and maybe do BB's variant in later sets...

If Workstation is being used to play online, I can't do that, so that's moot for me... if it's being used to generate cards, I have Apprentice and Suitcase to do that... and I can do it for BB...
 
B

BigBlue

Guest
I think it's only being used to generate cards... as far as I know, it doesn't play games...

Do people think we should use the same set, or player's choice?
 
Top