Dueling Brew Challenge #1: Hacked Devotion
Challenges and Articles forum
Posted on Oct. 9, 2015, 6:50 p.m. by sewellius
Preface
Howdy, fellow Tapped-Outers! I've been sorely missing some of the deckbuilding challenges we had in things such as 'Ye Olde Deckbuilding Challenge', 'Obscure Tribes' and the like, where the only real incentive was just to be able to hear about your deck's performance against the other entrants and eventually see one deck crowned as champion for bragging rights.
In order to ameliorate this gaping hole left in my heart by the dearth of challenges in this format, I've decided that I need to bite the bullet and host a few myself. So here goes. I can't promise any fancy formatting yet as a chunk of the write-up will be done in spare time at the office, but hopefully I can get a good method figured out by the end of this trial run.
I'd like to run this series by stating the deckbuilding and entry rules with the expected timeframe. Having followed several challenge series in the past here, I know it's important to stick with a set schedule in order to avoid a challenge dying in obscurity (We've lost just too darn many that way... sniff), aside from that it seems like a good idea to have as may ground rules up front so that everyone has the same expectations. Good luck to me and to those of you who choose to participate. Now.. On to the challenge!
Dueling Brew, First Challenge.
Tournament Format
As something relatively simple to start with, this challenge will be run in a round-robin format so all entrants will have a chance to face every other opponent once.
Deckbuilding rules
Please ensure any deck you submit complies with the following rules:
-All decks must be modern legal, per TappedOut (Meaning, if TappedOut says it is illegal, I won't take it).
-All submissions must be submitted by Monday, October 19th.
-All decks must have 60 cards, and sideboards will not be used (For this challenge, anyway).-Additonally, all decks must use no more than one color (colorless doesn't count against this, but ALL multi-color AND hybrid-color cards are considered illegal for this challenge). Color identity is what matters here, so as long as all casting costs only use one color, you can use it.
-Each participant may submit up to two decks for this challenge
-Finally, card pools are limited to the following blocks and sets:
Innistrad block
Return to Ravnica block
Theros block
Tarkir block
Core sets; M13, M14, M15 and M16 (Origins)
The single color restriction in these sets is likely to drastically change the viable types of decks available, but that's part of the point. Everyone has to Brew!
Submission rules
To enter, simply link your deck in the comment section below. I prefer large links, but I will not disqualify anyone for a normal deck link. Please ensure your set is not set as private, or otherwise unviewble, as I will not be able to use it in the challenge. Any decks that become deleted or unviewable during the course of the the challenge will also be removed from the competition. There's just too much hassle and holdup if stuff like that happens. The only exception is if I don't notice before you rectify the problem. :)
Reminder, I will take submissions starting now until Monday, October 19th. I will then copy decklists to a playtester and either play the decks against eachother by myself, or recruit a friend to play with me. If you have included tips on playstyle for your deck, I will try to keep those in mind during these matches. I will post writeups of the matches in the comments as I go, to allow everyone to follow the progress of the tournament.
My goal will be to complete the matches within two weeks of the October 19 start date. That means by November 2.
Feel free to offer suggestions or comments about the challenge itself. If I think it will make the challenge better in some way I will try to incorporate it. If you have a request for a future challenge, please leave it in the comments on this thread as well. Depending on the interest, I may start a separate thread just for upcoming suggestions.
Thanks for reading!
Edited for extra clarity on color requirements.
4-Rack Challenge? Playtest
Modern
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 1 VIEWS
Here you go!! Here is my submission.
October 9, 2015 7:33 p.m.
Excellent. We have our first submission. You are officially in the running, Scytec.
I also want to let everyone know that I will accept up to two submissions per player for the challenge. If I end up getting flooded this time, I'll just go down to one per player next challenge. Updating the thread to reflect this.
October 9, 2015 7:48 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #5
By M16, you mean Origins, right? Anyhow, seems very interesting, I'll take a look at it :)
October 9, 2015 7:52 p.m.
C'mon! At least make it so you can't build goblins!
Hacked Devotion Challenge Deck: Goblins! Playtest
Casual*
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 1 VIEWS
October 9, 2015 8:25 p.m.
nighthawk101 says... #7
Devotion to Aristocrats Playtest
Casual
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 1 VIEWS
I do feel like Goblins is going to stomp everything though.
October 10, 2015 1:01 a.m. Edited.
Sounds like the goblins have issued a challenge of their own. Who knows? Maybe we'll see a bunch of goblin decks duking it out.
October 10, 2015 2:34 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #9
What is the deal with cards that are one color but that include another color somewhere in the card? Are those banned too? I'm talking about things like Lingering Souls and Tasigur, the Golden Fang. Also, how about fetches?
October 10, 2015 8:02 a.m. Edited.
As long as the land is technically colorless (which I -think- is all of them) it is fine. Cards that are the single chosen color but contain extra effect/abilities with a different color are fine. It's just the primary color identity that's important to me.
That does mean you could technically bend the color boundaries by having land and artifact sources provide multiple colors of mana, but only as long as each non-colorless card is still just the one chosen color.
October 10, 2015 11:48 p.m.
Alright, we're at one week from the deadline. By this time next Monday I will have closed submissions. Still plenty of brewing time, and we've got 3 entries so far.
I'm pretty confident we'll get at least one or two more entrants, so I will not be making a backup deck to shore up the tournament numbers.
Also, I'd like to encourage anyone to tag others that they know would be interested. Have a friend/rival that you want to compete against? Tag 'em here!
October 12, 2015 4:50 p.m.
The_dark_knight, vault, TheHroth, Hallowed_Titan, klone13, TheGamer...let's go guys, let's get brewing. I know you have the skills. Let's get it going! :p
October 12, 2015 7:25 p.m.
zephramtripp says... #15
All the Life Gains! Playtest
Standard
SCORE: 1 | 2 COMMENTS | 258 VIEWS
I already had this deck, so have fun! I'm lazy, but it fits the criteria.
October 13, 2015 4:57 p.m.
I see 4 confirmed entries. Thanks guys, keep it up. :)
October 13, 2015 7:39 p.m.
Probably sucks but:
Brew Challenge #1: Hacked Devotion Mono White Playtest
Modern
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 13 VIEWS
This feels less sucky:
Brew Challenge #1: Hacked Devotion Mono Black Playtest
Modern
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 1 VIEWS
October 13, 2015 11:06 p.m.
do you consider fetches to have a two color identity?
October 13, 2015 11:57 p.m.
Mono Blue Hacked Devotion Contest Entry #1 Playtest
Modern*
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 0 VIEWS
I still need to flesh out the sideboard. Also Mono-Blue is not the best color for this challenge. I do not expect to do well. Generaly the idea is to save your mana for counterspells, and bounce stuff you couldn't counter. Then, whelming wave and swing with mutavault and stuff. Repeat as necessary with snappy and Jace. Snappy gets bounced back to your hand if you flashback whelming wave which is really nice.
October 14, 2015 12:05 a.m.
@ojmandias: I do not consider fetches to be of any color. My thinking might be from old rules if it has officially changed in recent years, but to me any land is colorless regardless of the mana it produces, simply because no color of mana is used to play a land.
So for everyone else thinking about the color rules, my rule of the thumb is that the color of the card matches the color of mana used to play it. If there is no cost, there is no color.
The only exception I can think of are the Pacts, but they explicitly state an associated color on the card.
Bottom line, you can have all sort of lands in your decks, you just can't have any actual off-colored spells. So the only reason to have other sources of mana would be to fuel off-color abilities (like in Lingering Souls.
October 14, 2015 1:04 p.m.
Ok thanks. I was thinking of using fetches to fuel a delve build but I decided it wasn't worth.
October 14, 2015 1:15 p.m.
We're up to 7 entries, and it looks like we've got a deck from each color except for green now.
As a reminder, everyone is allowed up to 2 decks submitted if they want to try out something different, and I won't be using sideboards so keep that in mind as you design your decks.
October 14, 2015 2:05 p.m.
I'd be more than happy to make a 
deck if nobody else does. My white one could be pulled.
October 15, 2015 5:22 p.m.
@TheHroth: You are welcome to do so if you'd like, though we still have a weekend until submissions are closed. Maybe someone else is still brewing.
For everyone, the deadline is coming up. We've just got until Monday to submit decks. Depending on office schedule, I'll either officially close it up late Monday night, or early Tuesday morning.
October 16, 2015 7:51 p.m.
I'll make a deck, but only count it if nobody else makes a green one :)
We do need all colours represented!
October 17, 2015 7:01 p.m.
dragon_slayer says... #26
Here are my submissions (including a green one):
Hacked Devotion: Mono Black Control Playtest
Unformat
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 16 VIEWS
and for fun:
Hacked Devotion: Primal Surge Playtest
Unformat
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 7 VIEWS
October 17, 2015 7:24 p.m.
Thanks to everyone for submitting! I've counted a total of 9 submissions. Please take a moment to review your decks and make any last minute changes to them.
As it turns out, I won't be able to get back here until tomorrow morning, so submissions and edits are open until I get back in Tuesday morning.
October 19, 2015 8:11 p.m.
Alright! Time for updates and submissions are now closed! I apologize if I haven't been able to thouroughly check that everyone's decks are legal yet, but I haven't seen any red flags either.
Please refrain from making any other updates so I don't have to question your deck as I copy them over to a separate playtester. It'll still be a few days before the actual matches begin. Since we are going round robin, I will not bother with listing any brackets. I'll simply post thw writeups of each match as I go.
Thanks again and hang tight everyone. Now is the time to make your bets on who the top performers will be. :)
October 20, 2015 12:36 p.m.
Just as an update, I have the decks and expect to start getting out writeups this Monday.
October 23, 2015 4:18 p.m.
Games are going, but having chosen to do them round-robin it does make this a very large number of games. I'll have to keep that in mind for next challenge.
Anyway, still here and working on playing out the games. Sorry I'm pushing past my original deadline.
November 2, 2015 5:58 p.m.
No rush man. We're all eager, but we all have lives too. Tardiness is understandable and forgivable :)
November 2, 2015 6:21 p.m.
I agree. I am very excited but I do not mind waiting for quality material. That is much better than pushing out half-assed articles.
November 2, 2015 6:42 p.m.
So I didn't just miss a notification lol.
Judging by the lack of activity from sewellius, it seems unlikely we will get match results, unless someone steps up and runs some on their own. I'd be up for it now that exams are done!
canterlotguardian says... #2
hehehehe I'm going to start brewing right away.
October 9, 2015 6:57 p.m.