EHI - An Overview and Predictions
by Trent Boneau

Fletcher asked for site input in regards to the upcoming Event Horizons Invitational, so here goes. Last year I played in the limited PTQ that coincides with the Invitational weekend. I'm sure the fact that a lot of good players were in the Invitational helped me win. That got me to Barcelona and got my rating up high enough to get an invite this year. Which is good. Of course, now I have to find another way to requalify. I'm thinking Albuquerque has to be nice in March…….when a man's not good enough to get to the PT, he's got to cut some corners. Oh well, back to the EVT Invite. It's going to be a good time. Don James and Tim Weissman put a tremendous amount of thought and effort into this event. Like the big Invitational, this is a 16 person round-robin tourney with five unique formats. A summary of the formats and my thoughts (or lack thereof) on each are listed below.

Format 1

The first format is called something like Fantasies and Nightmares. For this format, each person has to make a T2 deck using 13 cards from each legal expansion plus 10 basic lands. You can have more land via nonbasics or use your 7th/Inv/Od slots for extra basic lands. 

The first game you get to pick your hand. Apparently that is the Fantasy. I guess Don and Tim have never heard of Alyssa Milano, a quart of sesame seed oil, and a spatula. But I digress. If you are going first, you only get to pick the 1st 6 cards. So, there is going to be some gas coming out of the gates. You: Peek, Meddling Mage, Meddling Mage, Meddling Mage…. Opponent: Frown. 

2nd game, your opponent gets to pick your hand. That, like seeing Fletcher in a thong, would be the Nightmare. They do have to give you 3-4 lands, so you can't be totally hosed. Still, expect to get 4 plains and 3 Peeks if you are playing the aforementioned deck. 

3rd game: Normal rules apply.

This looks like it will be interesting. Try building any of the "Tier1" T2 decks using the 13 of each rule. Ok, I'll admit….I haven't tried it, but I'm going to the night before the event. I'm guessing you'll have a hard time coming up with enough Planeshift, Apoc, or 7th cards. Then you need to insure the deck can either have or withstand an explosive start game 1, can avoid a horrible hand game 2, and then can actually play a real game of magic. It seems the sideboard can be used either in its traditional role (cards that help to beat various decks) or to morph the deck from a game 1 deck (fast start) to a game 2 deck (fewer hard to cast cards). 

I'll be interested to see what people come up with. I have a plan for this format, but I've always been a good planner. Implementation though….never been a strength.

I'm not expecting much. Prediction 1-2.

Format 2

The second format is a silent auction draft using Invasion Block. Apparently you get 200 pts to bid on cards. We'll be seated in tables of 4, we'll be given forms with #'s 1-15 on them, a pack will be open face-up, and we'll fill out the forms with bid amounts for the 15 cards. Whoever bids the most on each card gets that card and the amount they bid is subtracted from their total. Rinse, lather, repeat for 12 packs. 

This will be nutty. I don't think they are going to provide any info on how much anyone bid for the cards, so it will be very tough to know if you are spending too much or too little. I guess if you have nothing but 2 opts and a Quirion Sentinel by pack 5, you may want to consider loosening the purse-strings. I just think about all the Rotisserie baseball drafts I've done and how often you end up at the end in a bidding war for Jose Vizcaino because you didn't want to pony up an extra dollar for A-Rod. So, I'm thinking the way to go is bid high at the start to establish your colors, and then hope to pick up some bargains from then on. It would probably help if I remembered anything at all about Invasion block draft. All I know is that I miss saying "wit da kicka". I also remember someone saying Flametongue Kavu is only good against decks with creatures in them.

I usually only play limited, so hopefully this will be my big hurrah. Prediction 2-1.

Format 3

This format is constructed using Don and Tim's homemade set. Talk about two guys with too much time on their hands. Holy cow. With flavor text, no less. A complete listing of the set spoiler in available on Tim's website (evthorizons.com). I've seen some of the artwork, and I must say, someone likes throwing random naked ladies into the pictures. Not that I'm complaining, but expect to hear comments like this:

Kid: I'll trade my Finkel for your grey ogre with three butt-ass naked nymphs on it
Invitee: Sure
Kid's Mom: Son, are you looking at your Magic cards in the bathroom again?

All kidding aside, the card set is really good. It's a little overpowered compared to the WOTC cards, but has some good mechanics. The gold cards are all nuts.

I'm embarrassed to say I actually entered some of these cards into Apprentice and tested decks. Unfortunately I tinkered with my deck so much that changed it from something focused and aggressive into a big pile. Now it has aggressive creatures, but can't play them early. It has removal spells, but has the wrong color land for them. Its really bad. If you ever need deck construction advice, I strongly suggest you talk to Boxcar Willie over a lukewarm bottle of lemon-lime MD 20/20 before asking me. 

I usually only play limited, so this is going to be total #$*(#$#. Prediction 0-3.


Format 4

This format is a double booster draft. Apparently we will draft with 5 packs of Odyssey. The "double" part refers to the fact that you will have to make 2 decks out of your cards. Hmm….. You play a game with each of your decks versus each of their decks. First to win 3 games wins the duel. If you need a 5th game, your opponent chooses which deck you use.

I didn't read the fine print on this one. I was just planning on drafting one bomb deck and one pile of crap, go 2-2, and then drop the bomb deck on them again. Curses on Tim and his "opponent chooses" tricks. Now I have no clue how to do this. One theory will be to just take the best card in every pack. It seems like if everyone does that, it will be total chaos. Screw your neighbors non-stop. Another theory would be to just stick to 2 (or 3) colors and hope you can push your neighbors into something different. With 5 packs it seems like you could really get rewarded down the line if you are able to cut off a color (or 2) both ways. I would expect to see a lot of people skip out on one color and try to put together some combination of the U-B, G-R, or U-W decks that seem to be most prevalent in Od/Od/Od draft. With 5 packs, I must say I'm looking forward to busting out Shrine Technology on all those multiple card players.

I usually only play limited, so hopefully after I screw up format 2, this will be my big hurrah. Prediction 2-1.

Format 5

This is my favorite format so far. It's a scavenger hunt. You have to build a T1 deck using 55 cards (plus 20 basic lands). There are 55 categories ranging from "Legend" to "Gold Card" to "Gray Ogre" to "Card with Artist equal to So-and-So". Each card in your deck has to be a one-to-one fit with one of those categories. You can play multiple copies of a card only if it fits multiple categories. The full list of all of the categories is on the website.

Some of my favorites are:

Card that contains two words that rhyme in the flavor text
Card that contains an E, H, and I
Card with triple colored casting cost

I've toyed around with this format quite a bit. I don't know some of the older cards very well, but the categories definitely restrict your ability to make a good deck. As far as I can tell, you can't get remotely close to an all-restricted, kick your teeth-in, Type 1 deck. Frankly, I think you'd be lucky to make a competitive T2 deck. You have to play creatures, you have to play expensive spells, you have to play lots of land, and some of the categories (Licid?) are just unplayable. I've kind of narrowed it down to a couple decks, and I can say without a doubt…they are disappointingly bad. Anybody who knows a rhyming card that lets target player win the game, let me know.

Have I mentioned I only usually play limited? Prediction 1-2.



In summary, I'm really looking forward to playing. Its nice to see the local TO put this kind of effort back into the MtG community with very little to gain personally. I do think Don and Tim have at least as much fun as anybody else, but its still very cool.

I fully expect to get outplayed by the really good players, out-funned by the guys who truly love playing, outweighed by Fletcher, and outdressed by Lan Ho. One thing I do guarantee. I will be making poor decisions at least twice as slowly as anyone else at the event. 

Cheers

Trent Boneau
tboneau@houston.rr.com