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Post by lefton4ya on Jun 24, 2016 14:31:22 GMT -6
Magic: Arena of the Planeswalkers will be at Gencon this year!
Events sponsored by Heroscapers and will be on Heroscape terrain and run simultaneously with Heroscape events. See Heroscapers Gencon 2016 thread for more info on all the events, including maps that Magic:AotP will be played on. Below is event details, post in this thread if you plan on going and if you have any questions or comments. GENCON EVENT BGM1690950TournamentDescription: 6-round. Bring a pre-drafted army and spell deck (500 point limit). Games will be played on 3-D hex maps (built using the same types of hexes found in the base game). Maximum Number of Players: 16 Start Date & Time: Thursday at 4:00 PM Duration: 4.5 hours End Date & Time: Thursday at 8:30 PM Experience Required: Some (You've played it a bit and understand the basics) Materials Provided: No, materials are not provided for this game. You must bring your own. (Maps are provided, but you need your own army, cards, markers, and dice) Location: ICC : Hall D : Heroscapers : HQ Cost: $8.00 GENCON EVENT BGM1690960Open Play (not a tournament)Description: Play on beautifully constructed 3-D hex terrain. Bring somebody to play with or find someone there! Maximum Number of Players: 12 (However up to 20 generic tickets may be used the day of the event between Magic:Arena and Heroscape open play) Start Date & Time: Friday at 9:00 PM Duration: 4 hours End Date & Time: Saturday at 1:00 AM Experience Required: Some (You've played it a bit and understand the basics) Materials Provided: No, materials are not provided for this game. You must bring your own. (Maps are provided, but you should bring your own army, cards, markers, and dice. However, if you need them we can provide if you ask ahead) Location: ICC : Hall D : Heroscapers : HQ Cost: $6.00
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Post by BeastMaster on Jul 3, 2016 11:19:38 GMT -6
I wonder why so few people reply d:(
Hope to see news about Shadows over Innistrad expansion there. An implemented Mana-system would fulfill my dreams.
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Post by Yawgmoth on Jul 3, 2016 14:19:00 GMT -6
Perhaps because most people don't attend Gencon?
Personally, the entire affair seems to that I must pay a ton of money, add stress to my life, for the privilege to be advertised to, and maybe get a few perks for the effort. But that's just my experience.
On topic, I hope a ton of people show up to the event so that Hasbro can get some first hand feedback about how the game plays competitively by consumers.
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Toshi Umezawa
Apprentice
Posts: 100
Title: Hyozan, Clan Umezawa
Mana: Black
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Post by Toshi Umezawa on Jul 3, 2016 16:41:26 GMT -6
I would go but 16 spots for tournament play seems very low to me. I know that the SOI stuff will probably be there and I wouldn't like going up against the new product on such short notice. Plus the fact that it is seven hours away and I only have one reason for going. (AOTP)
However I'd like to hear of your experiences if you care to post them. |
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Post by lefton4ya on Jul 15, 2016 9:17:53 GMT -6
Still spot left for both events, but also if the Friday night open play event fills up you can bring generic tickets. There are 24 total Heroscape 2-player maps to be used for both Heroscape and Magic:Arena, but on Friday at 9pm there are a potential 20 more players that can join any of the events. The organizers intentionally did this because they did not know which events would be more popular and wanted to allow generics as well as buffer in case all events don't sell out to not be penalized by Gencon. You could even play a little Heroscape and a little Magic:Arena in the 4 hour open play if you wanted to as well. Also, armies and cards can be provided if you need for either game, and we can do a "learn-to-play" round for you or a friend who has never played before. To add incentive, there will be prizes for at least the top 2 players in tournament, both official sets as well as Gencon exclusive surprises provided by Heroscapers. See All possible army combinations (500 points) for suggestion on what armies to bring. Also, with the game played on Heroscape terrain, none of the maps will have the new cryptoliths, but will be using the road rules found in the new set (+3 move if all your move is on road terrain). Other Heroscape terrain rules will be optional based on each game if both players want to allow then they will be in affect, but otherwise not. As a quick rundown of terrain rules: snow/ice/lava field will have no effect, lava forces a 20-sided die roll which only a 20 survives (so all but impassable), shadow gives +1  to all but the Eldrazi Ruiner, being next to a jungle tree/bush gives you +1 when attacked by a non-adjacent figure. However the maps have a lot more water, line-of-sight blockers, road, and terrain elevation changes than most Magic:Arena players are used too. But just trust that these maps have been highly tested for competitive use and should be great for a Magic:AotP tournaments. See the Heroscapes Gencon 2016 thread for maps if you are curious. We will be playing with Glyphs on some maps as well, and glyph locations are on the maps but obviously Magic:Arena glyphs from both master sets will be instead of Heroscape glyphs. |
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Post by tochas on Aug 5, 2016 1:28:45 GMT -6
Can anyone tell if the AotP tournament in gen con will pass on some web channel live?
Best regards
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Post by lefton4ya on Aug 9, 2016 20:50:39 GMT -6
@capsocrates won the tournament and slaughtered with Jace Beleren, Eldrazi Ruiner, mostly base spells, with one or two from Zendikar and 1 from the new master set. I was one of 3 that went 3-1 (all our losses were to the winner) and I had Arlinn, Pummelroots, the Mad Prophet, and a mixed spell deck. It was not the Ruiner, but Jace with his high attack and range and great  spell deck that won the games. He killed my summoner within 2 turns with his range and then used a spell to unsummon my squad to win the game in under 5 minutes. We played again "for fun", and my summoner got killed again within 10 min - Jace is just too good, I should have just ran away after summoning. Next year we should definitely have a 600 point army limit. Also, I would like to take up the way Heroscape (and now X-wing minis) has been running tournaments and have what we dubbed "Reverse-the-whip" where for the final round or two each match players switch armies to play with what their opponent that match brought to the tourney. It really opens up more variety in army and deck builds and instead of trying to bring the best army & deck, people bring a generally hard-to-play army but what you know how to play well. I know Magic the Gathering CCG players wound never do that in their tournaments, but it makes more sense in Magic:Arena. What do you think? |
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Post by Yawgmoth on Aug 9, 2016 21:36:14 GMT -6
It would be thematically appropriate. MtG players have been doing this for many years. The idea in mtg was based on an old unglued set card called "mirror mirror" I think is the name (which was a spoof of the card called "mirror universe". See both below in attachments), where the two players switch seats and continue to play the game using their opponents hand deck and graveyard. The idea turned into informal tourneys for the same reasons as you state, where the edge goes to the more complex and obtuse builds for the meta rather than the most obvious cut throat builds. Its a good format to mix it up.   |
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Post by coyote81 on Aug 10, 2016 22:12:16 GMT -6
@capsocrates won the tournament and slaughtered with Jace Beleren, Eldrazi Ruiner, mostly base spells, with one or two from Zendikar and 1 from the new master set. I was one of 3 that went 3-1 (all our losses were to the winner) and I had Arlinn, Pummelroots, the Mad Prophet, and a mixed spell deck. It was not the Ruiner, but Jace with his high attack and range and great spell deck that won the games. He killed my summoner within 2 turns with his range and then used a spell to unsummon my squad to win the game in under 5 minutes. We played again "for fun", and my summoner got killed again within 10 min - Jace is just too good, I should have just ran away after summoning. Next year we should definitely have a 600 point army limit. Also, I would like to take up the way Heroscape (and now X-wing minis) has been running tournaments and have what we dubbed "Reverse-the-whip" where for the final round or two each match players switch armies to play with what their opponent that match brought to the tourney. It really opens up more variety in army and deck builds and instead of trying to bring the best army & deck, people bring a generally hard-to-play army but what you know how to play well. I know Magic the Gathering CCG players wound never do that in their tournaments, but it makes more sense in Magic:Arena. What do you think? The main goal of standard AotP is kill the planeswalker, changing the rules to kill every model total changed the game, this made that jace/ruiner combo better then it should have been and hoestly totally changed how that game is played. -I was in the tourney as well, played Arlin with Phoenixes/Elradize vermin/Mad Prophet mono  sorcery spells. |
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Post by Gamjuven on Aug 12, 2016 10:30:25 GMT -6
I played in the tournament as well. I would have liked to have played the winner, I think I might have had a chance. I ran Sorin and the Ruiner and focused on tons of healing. However, I think playing on Heroscape maps also really changed the game and not for the better. The game is designed for limited terrain and height. Having Heroscape maps not only made for weird rule changes like Nahiri's terrain placement, and places where the Ruiner did not fit, but more importantly it made ranged units much, much better. This obviously made even better, especially the illusions. I understand there is limited space but I like AotP by its own merits and wished I could have played that game, instead of the amalgamation. I, too, was expecting to just kill the planeswalker and be done with it. I built my army around that and to find out that wasn't the case was annoying. Probably my fault, lol. |
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Post by Yawgmoth on Aug 12, 2016 10:45:22 GMT -6
I can see that, for a tourney setting to at least use an official scenario.
I don't share the sentiment about ranged units being overpowered by heroscape terrain, though they do become better.
But I agree that a tourney, especially on the scale of Gencon, should use official scenarios. Or at least use heroscape terrain to reconstruct the actual scenario maps to play on if heroscape terrain must be used on that scale.
I hear that killing the opposing planeswalker didn't grant a win. I know some scenarios dictate this, but walker kills seem to have become a default win condition. Shame.
Can you describe the scenario and maps used?
Who ran this tourney? Hasbro?
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caps
Neophyte
Posts: 38 
Mana: Blue
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Post by caps on Aug 12, 2016 15:33:30 GMT -6
I go by capsocrates on Heroscapers; I won the event.
Regarding event size, GenCon penalizes organizers for low attendance. They prefer to see a 10-person event sold out rather than a 50 person event have 25 players. As a response, the event organizers at Heroscapers have opted for smaller event caps with a leniency for allowing generic tickets to go over the cap. Considering only 11 people showed up, I think they made the right call.
Regarding the scenario, kill 'em all is the default rule. Kill the Planeswalker is a scenario rule, just as the own the most points by the glyph victory condition in one of the original scenarios is a scenario rule.
Hasbro has, to my knowledge, never run a tournament for Heroscape or planeswalkers and probably never will. Certainly for the last 8 years they have been run by the community (originally by some of the playtesters and designers, who have since passed the torch). It would be cool if Hasbro started offering prize support for Planeswalkers tournaments.
I don't think Heroscape maps *in general* are more broken for Planeswalkers than they are for Heroscape figures. Unfortunately the GenCon map pool included a map, Wendigo, that was super biased for fast range, but it was that way for Heroscape figures as well.
In my game with Lefton4ya, as I remember it, there was no incredible height difference going on. It could just as easily have been local height. But Jace's ability to summon a unit, then move up to his speed, then move that summoned unit to a space within 6 spaces, then teleport next to that unit made him really really fast and good at getting close to the other player or taking the important high ground. From there Jace's (totally broken; what were they thinking?) 7 range and 6 attack* can take out the other Planeswalker very effectively.
*with height
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Colorcrayons
Apprentice
On a bit of a hiatus, sorry. So busy
Posts: 110
Mana: Red
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Post by Colorcrayons on Aug 12, 2016 16:47:28 GMT -6
So Arena is just like the ccg afterall. A version of Jace is "teh borken" there as well. XD
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Post by lefton4ya on Aug 15, 2016 9:03:59 GMT -6
See the Heroscapers Gencon Thread (3rd post) for the maps we played on. Scenario was the generic rulebook default (Kill the entire army) which honestly I like better than kill the planeswalker only, as both in home games and at this tournament whoever kills the planeswalker first only wins about 2/3 of the time in my experience, and I think the strategy is different in that you plan for the long game in both the spells you bring and how you actually play, especially when you choose to summon. I agree with caps that Heroscape maps in general aren't overpowered in AotP, but one of the maps at this tournament was (although games can take about 5 min longer). If I have any say at Gencon next year (and I may try to run it at October 1 CinCityCon, Origins next year, and other events too) I will mix Magic:Arena and Heroscape maps, but again Gencon space is limited by past ticket sales and the time constraint of moving a Heroscape map off a table and setting up an AotP map (and then swapping back again) is hard unless there is time between tournaments and people willing to do it. It would be nice to get some Magic players involved in running and maybe do events in the Magic CCG area, but honestly there is more overlap with heroscape players at this point so that is why Heroscapers ran the events and used our Gencon hall space and had to share with Heroscape events. Again, I think 600 a point tourney will be a lot better and at that level you definitely need to do a kill-em all. Maybe if we have 2 events, we should do a 500 point kill the planeswalker and a 600 point kill-em-all, and I think at least one of them should be "reverse-the-whip" AKA "mirror mirror", where the last two games you swap armies/decks with your opponent and then swap back after the game before going to the next match and doing again. I would also hope to see at least 16 players, if not 24-32, and maybe have some official support. I also would have liked to see Gamjuven play caps , and with our 4-round swiss match-ups and only 11 players, I don't know how it got missed. |
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Toshi Umezawa
Apprentice
Posts: 100
Title: Hyozan, Clan Umezawa
Mana: Black
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Post by Toshi Umezawa on Aug 16, 2016 16:42:20 GMT -6
caps was there any prizes for winning?
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caps
Neophyte
Posts: 38
Mana: Blue
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Post by caps on Aug 16, 2016 16:50:24 GMT -6
The typical prize at GenCon events organized by Heroscapers is a set of custom dice. This year's dice used a crossed swords symbol similar to what you see on AotP dice for the attack side, the Heroscape fortress door for the defense side, and had "GenCon 2016" on the blank side. Unlike previous years, they were bone-colored instead of  . |
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to all but the Eldrazi Ruiner, being next to a jungle tree/bush gives you +1 
spell deck that won the games. He killed my summoner within 2 turns with his range and then used a spell to unsummon my squad to win the game in under 5 minutes. We played again "for fun", and my summoner got killed again within 10 min - Jace is just too good, I should have just ran away after summoning.
sorcery spells.
.