Idea to help attendance at modern tournaments
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Posted on July 29, 2014, 6:42 p.m. by kintighd
The store I go to for FNM has been trying to host a modern FNM once a month. The problem is, that people say they don't have modern decks, or that they don't have the money to participate in the tournament.
While I can't really fix people not having 5 dollars for a tournament, I did come up with an idea to help people not having decks. My idea is that the store would allow people to use proxied decks, but reward players who bring decks with all real cards by giving a "free" win to those players. So essentially if you bring a deck that is 100% real cards you start the night off 1-0 before you even play a match.
What do you guys think? Does this sound fair? Does it sound like a good way to create interest for a modern tournament? If you have any ideas to create more interest in a modern tournament feel free to share them!
I don't think giving a bye to those who have a deck is at all fair.
July 29, 2014 6:58 p.m.
maybe add an additional 5 or so to prizes for people who don't proxy? so hypothetical, first place gets 20, second gets 16, 3rd gets 12, and so on, but if you don't run proxies, you get an additional 5, which could make someone who owns cards do better than a proxiied deck
July 29, 2014 7:07 p.m.
kungfuturtle says... #5
One thing is my LGS has done as the player group is rather new to game, the store opened during Dragon's Maze standard and the players in that area had for the most part started playing then. Back to the point, we do "Limited Modern" meaning that it is not the full Modern in the sense that we play Modern Tribal, Modern Pauper, Modern Silverback, Once Ravnica 2 rotates out we plan on doing real modern but this has give people the chance to work on acquiring older cards, try doing Pauper for a while, then Silverback, then taking the reins off.
July 29, 2014 7:08 p.m.
And why exactly should we be rewarding players who just happen to be rich? Should we also reward people who were born on a certain month?
July 29, 2014 7:09 p.m.
kungfuturtle says... #8
Silverback is the same thing as pauper but the limit is Commons and Uncommons
July 29, 2014 7:14 p.m.
kungfuturtle says... #9
Maybe have a rogue deck modern event, create your own stores banned list.
July 29, 2014 7:16 p.m.
It is not rewarding rich people, as much as it is rewarding people who use alternatives to the expensive cards. You could run proxies goyfs, or you could run a different two drop that you own and start the night off with a win. I do, however, like the idea of a proxy limit, and I do think that is a better idea than giving people without proxies a free win.
July 29, 2014 7:16 p.m.
I think if you're going to allow proxies, there should be some kind of compensation for people who don't run them. Otherwise, why would anybody ever pay for cards? It's unfortunate that some cards are so expensive, and I get that it sucks for people who can't afford them, but those prices are what help support the game. Without that profit potential from expensive cards, the game would probably not be as expansive as it is today.
July 29, 2014 7:20 p.m.
Lol. The secondary market doesn't help support the game from Hasbro's perspective, as they make most money from uninformed players. This has been documented when they did things like future sight which were cool mechanically for us hardcores but not marketed well for the casuals and utterly bombed.
Anyway, most people proxying are probably proxying because they can't afford cards or havy a tiny card pool. You could give everyone that proxies one or two free booster packs when they enter. This will help them get new cards that they can either sell for new ones or help make better decks. The hardcore folks won't care too much because it's largely inconsequential but the guys who are a bit behind will welcome the possibility of getting something new.
July 29, 2014 7:34 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #13
I don't see how rewarding proxying would be a good idea. I would proxy basic lands into a deck to get the chance to open packs and maybe find a card that would pay for the event.
July 29, 2014 7:48 p.m.
My store doesn't sanction the modern tournaments and allows people to have up to 10 proxies. Lets people proxy their fetches or w/e if they can't afford.
July 29, 2014 8 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #15
A proxy limit of 15 or so is a good idea. There's one store in the area that does that to relative success.
Another idea would be to choose an alternative day (say, mondays), and run full proxy tournaments just to get people into the format, and then offer them cards (by keeping them in your case, etc) at a slight discount for the actual event on Friday. People will eventually want to convert over, but it will take some time.
July 29, 2014 8:37 p.m.
I agree with alot of points made here. In hindsight giving people playing without proxies a bye may be a little drastic, however, i think people should be rewarded for not playing with them. That way the guy that decided to finish his deck without fetches instead of proxying them gets something out of that decision. Maybe if you play a fnm without proxies the next one you attend is free? That way people have incentive to play without proxies but their reward doesn't affect the tournament at all.
I'm also liking the idea of a limit on the number of the proxies you can have. It will force people to be a little creative with their deck building. Thanks for the ideas guys!
July 29, 2014 8:41 p.m.
Named_Tawyny says... #17
@kungfuturtle I've always heard that format refered to as 'Peasant'.
@kmcree Why would people buy cards if proxies are allowed (or not punished)? The same reason people pay extra for foils - collections. If the goal is to get people playing, then it makes no sense to not allow proxies in casual tournament play - it's a win win for everybody.
July 30, 2014 2:51 a.m.
Just allow proxies and they will come, I should know, my lcs has Vintage once a month and we get huge attendance because you can have unlimited proxies. Of course we have the 3 guys who dont proxy(one of which has the most pimped out deck Ive ever seen #BetaPowerForLife). So just allow 100% proxies and people will come, over time bump it down to limited proxies.
July 30, 2014 2:55 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #19
Why would you want to reward people who don't proxy at all?
Where's the incentive for doing that, do you believe Mr Magicmoneybags needs a shove to enter a tournament, its their whole reason to exist. (they wouldn't have a modern deck if they didn't intend on using it.)
July 30, 2014 3:34 a.m.
TheRedDude says... #20
My store does raffles. Like, a couple extra promos that they have lying around that you give out at tournaments.
August 8, 2014 9:18 p.m.
I think unless your store really wants them to be sanctioned events do proxies.
I haven't gotten into modern yet for a couple of reasons. Firstly every time I watch experienced people play modern it never fails that one of them is playing Delver. People get sick of seeing the same decks. I don't know how your store is but if half the people are playing delver don't expect all of the first time modern players to return the next week.
Secondly if you want to play creatures that usually means birthing pod and even if not you'll want a lot of dual lands, preferably shock and fetches from zendikar. That's $$$ that a lot of folks don't want to hand over in order to play a deck they like (and not to beat a dead horse or anything) especially when they know half their foes will be playing delver. I know nothing can really be done about everybody playing delver but if there are a lot of proxies you could get some Johnny types to play.
A little warning about this. They may already have resigned themselves to the fact that they won't win but may try to upset the Spikes by bringing cards tailor made to crush whatever they are doing. An example of this is playing Land D in standard with four Slaughter Games
to rip apart / negate a Sphinx's Revelation
deck and render it useless. At some point players who don't want to copy what has been winning tournaments the most will make a deck specifically designed to piss off people who are playing those cookie cutter decks.
August 18, 2014 3:12 a.m.
Wat. Delver isn't a tier 1 deck and sees very little play other than on magic online. Nothing you said about modern is remotely accurate
August 18, 2014 3:21 a.m.
Delver is a fantastic, challenging, and fun archetype but is not all that competitive or widely played.
Shocks aren't $$$ at the moment. You can easily get entire play sets for $40 and under.
There are loads of creature based decks that aren't pod - rock (to some extent - bit of a hybrid), jund (to some extent - bit of a hybrid), BW tokens, hatebears, merfolk, affinity. Probably others I've forgotten
August 18, 2014 3:27 a.m.
It might have just been the shop I was going to then. Out of 7 or 8 players 2 were delver and the TV was playing some sort of tournament with 2 other delver players. I just got the impression that a lot of people play it.
August 18, 2014 3:27 a.m.
It's certainly a cheap and rewarding deck but it's not like widely played or successful. I love delver decks and wish they were more common in top 8s.
PasorofMuppets says... #2
If you have proxies in the event, it can't be sanctioned, in case you didn't know.
That said my lgs has modern tournaments every Monday with a 25 proxy limit, and that has worked out pretty well.
I don't know how I feel about giving a bye to the people with actual modern decks, I am guessing if they actually own a modern deck they will have more experience with the format than the people who are proxying, so they're already at an advantage.
July 29, 2014 6:49 p.m.