2017 - GenCon50 PEZ tourney
Peasant Magic: “A tourney you can win on a budget.”
Midnight Magic: Tournament of Peasants
This will be an ongoing sheet. as people ask questions (via email at: todd@toddgalley.com ) they will be answered and posted below in chronological order -- please read all the way thru before asking a question so we might avoid duplication. check back periodically for updates.
this page is ‘official’ for the GenCon50 Peasant (aka: PEZ)Tourney.
Q - is the prize ‘real’?
A- yes, winner will receive $100 U.S. dollars in cash and his/her name will be physically printed in the GenCon Event catalog the next time our PEZ tourney takes place (which is not necessarily every year.) a Ben Franklin and your name printed in the Gamer Grail over 50,000 times? that’s “Fortune and Glory” fellas...
Q- where can i find deck construction rules that will be in effect for this tournament? For example: the current ban list?
A-
* Cards from any published Magic set wherein cards were assigned a rarity value by WotC. This includes Starter and Portal.
* No more than five (5) uncommon cards. Since a 15 card sideboard is permitted, these cards may be present either in the deck or in the sideboard.
* No (zero, 0, nada, zilch, empty-set) rare cards.
* At least 55 common cards.
* There may be no more than four (4) copies of any single card except basic land. (snow-covered land counts as a basic land)
If a card is listed with two different rarities in two different editions, use the most common rating for calculating rarity. For example, Wyluli Wolf is Rare in Fifth Edition, but Common in Arabian Nights, therefore the Wyluli Wolf is considered a common.
All planes, schemes, conspiracies, ante cards and other non-authorized Type 1 cards are not allowed. In addition, the following cards are NOT ALLOWED:
Restrictions on other formats do not apply to the Peasant.
Example: vintage limitation to 1 card does not apply in peasant.
If you are wondering if your deck is legal we suggest using the Validator at http://mtg-peasant.com/valideck/ this should help keep everything kosher at the event. *But as we can see with the question below the deck validator isn’t fool-proof...
Q- The deck validator says my deck is fine but the FAQ says it shouldn't be. Tangle is only common online. Should we not use the deck validator? -Travis
A- Hey Travis- it looks like the deck validator also includes the card rarities from MTG Online. Since Tangle was never printed as a common it can’t be granted ‘common’ status for our PEZ tourney. If you want to use it you will have to slot it as an uncommon. Same ruling will apply to any other cards which are only available as commons in the virtual world.
Q-
I was interested in playing in your midnight peasant magic tournament at Gen Con, and I had a few questions. First, will the same comprehensive and floor rules be used that would be used in a sanctioned tournament? I realize the format is unsanctioned, but it would be convenient for me to reference the comprehensive rules while testing decks so I can be sure of how cards will interact during the tournament. Speaking of floor rules, will there be a time limit? Some decks are much quicker than others, and it would be helpful to know if I need two actual wins or if it's possible to get the first win and then draw when time runs out.
I also had a couple questions about the banned/restricted cards. There are some rare/foreign/misprint cards that show up as common when they're actually uncommon (example: Goblin Recruiter is treated as an uncommon in peasant magic, but you can find a common listing for it on the SCG site). I'm assuming these are still treated as uncommon? Finally, will you be updating your banned list before the tournament? There are some pretty nasty cards, such as cranial plating, frantic search, invigorate, skullclamp, etc. that I've seen banned in other peasant magic tournaments. I wanted to make sure the banned list was finished before I started throwing those cards in my decks.
A-
this is a pretty casual tourney. the rules you see are the rules you get, there are is no 'comprehensive' set. everybody is on the same playing field and ultimately it is for FUN, we have never needed a time limit and hopefully nobody will purposely build a deck that will waste time (ie. most PEZ players like to 'get it done!")
We peasants are 'gathering' to have FUN (and $100) but most of the 'rules police' always seem to skip our unsanctioned tourney. We suggest that everyone try to be cool and not try to stir up 'stuff' that will require lots of judging (at least I hope not as I am the only one) so try and use common sense and fair play in both deck creation and the actual tourney.
Finally, YES- the banned list above is complete, so do your darndest. Welcome aboard.
UPDATED 5/15/17 - We have updated the Ban List to fall in line with the most current format standards.
Q- Hey Todd,
I am trying to tune up the Brute Squad prior to the tourney, and I have a couple of questions for you.
What mulligan rules will be used? I.e., upon mulliganing, will the player draw six cards and have unlimited return mulligans (down to hand size zero), or is it a one-and-done mulligan where you redraw seven but can only do it once?
Will the first player draw a card on his first turn, or play with seven?
Will we be printing our decklists? If so, should we plan on bring the list with us or will you provide sheets on site?
Thanks in advance,
Rob “The Peasants Are Revolting!” Baranowski
A- Hey T.P.A.R.-
Good questions, and bonus point for fitting in a Princess Bride reference. (bonus points will be used only in case a tie-breaker is needed-- which will be NEVER! ha!)
Mulligan/Draw Rules: players will determine who goes first (i don’t care how you guys choose this) each player will draw 7 and look at them -- then in turn, decide to play or mulligan. if mulligan: then draw one less card than the time before, look at them and decide again (option to repeat down to 0 cards). first to play skips first draw step. loser of previous match chooses whether to draw or play first the next match.
Decklists- (great question cause i didn’t think of this) yes, please bring a decklist (include your 15 card sideboard) we will have sheets of notebook paper for those that don’t get this memo.. we will allow deck auditing. meaning after a match is concluded players are allowed (and encouraged) to go thru each other’s deck and sideboard to make sure the deck indeed is a legal deck (no banned cards, no more than 5 UC and no Rares).
“You are the brood-squad!”
Q- Hello! Looking forward to the tournament. I had a question about rarity. You had mentioned that if a card was ever printed common, it is considered common for this tourney. Does this count for online sets too? MTGO has a pauper format, and there's cards on there that are common in Vintage Masters and Master's Edition that aren't common in paper, but they're legal for the MTGO pauper format. Would these cards count as common for this tourney?
A- Hi Jeremiah. The card(s) in question must have at some point been actually printed as a common to be considered as common for this tourney. online stuff will not qualify. thanks for your question and good luck in your deck construction.
Q- Looking at the rules, in one part it looks like Unglued/unhinged are legal and in another part it says they are not legal. Are they legal or not? Thanks, Jason.
A- EDITED 3/10/2017 - Unglued and Unhinged are NOT allowed in the Peasant Tournament.
Q- Hi Todd,
I came to your event last year. I was the guy who left half a hot box pizza for everyone cause I got bumped in the second round. I don't remember there being a banned list last year, but maybe I just didn't know about it. I have a couple questions: "other non-authorized Type 1 cards are not allowed."
What exactly does that mean? If this just encompasses the listed banned cards, then I understand but if it means something else, I need clarification.
Also what does: "Virtual sets are permitted. (all cards virtual editions exist on paper)" mean? I don't really care as much about the second question, but since I'm emailing you I may as well get that clarified as well.
Thanks, Chris
A- Hi Chris! Thanks for the Pizza!
I only attend GenCon every second year and this year Josh has offered to run midnight PEZ magic. I am including him in this response.
As you your first question... there was a banned list last year and this year it has expanded... Josh will hopefully be able to answer your specific "and other non-authorized Type 1 cards are not allowed" question.
As to your follow-up question: i have NO IDEA what a 'virtual set' even is and Josh will (hopefully) answer that one as well. I hope you have a great GenCon and hopefully we'll meet again in 2017. -Todd
Hey Chris! Last year was a blast right! I am excited to be switching off with Todd and keeping this a yearly thing! As to your questions. In an effort to streamline this event I was going to be using the current peasant mtg ban list. Type 1 cards would be anything that could be played legally in vintage/legacy that applies to the common uncommon rule. Banned card's are banned and there will be no restricted cards. ante cards and such are typically banned for obvious reasons and those are the cards that are not type 1 legal. We still may do and adjusted ban list, which could include some unhinged and unglued cards as long as they don't jeopardize positive gameplay. From mine and Todd discussion last year this was started as a casual event and evolved to a semi casual competitive event. i would love to see the event reach 100 people. I think if we hit 100+ we could look at expanding the prizes but that is something me and Todd would want to work out.
As for the virtual sets clause it is in regards to a card that exist on paper form being printed at common in a online set that maybe it was not in any current paper set. It is also just a statement to cover any type of online play for the format. Here are a couple of references for banned cards in vintage in legacy
http://magic.wizards.com/en/gameinfo/gameplay/formats/bannedrestricted
http://mtg-peasant.com/rules/ Can't wait to host this event this year. I am excited to see how many people show up! -Josh
Q-- Hey Todd. This is Jeremiah Hunley. I won the peasant tourney last year. Is my name going to be in the Gen Con book this year? If it is, you spelled it wrong in the event description on the website. I'm assuming it's too late to do anything, but if you could get it changed, it'd be appreciated.
A- Hey Jeremiah,
That is certainly not the kind of glory prize we intended... to spell your name wrongly. Quite sorry. I do not know if it is too late or not but we will correct it at the website and IF the hard copy programs have not been printed yet it just might turn out OK> (let's hope) anyways, I am not running the event this year. I only attend in 'odd' numbered years and this year Josh has volunteered to host the midnight PEZ tourney. I will forward this info to him. I know he is a stickler for details and am confident he will do his best to get your proper name printed. Good luck this year and look forward to meeting you one day again. Cheers, -Todd
(turns out Jeremiah won the tourney again the following year and his name will be listed again in the GENCON50 Event Catalog! Somebody stop this guy!)