I don't see in anyway how it prevents cheating. Hell, if the guy really wanted a card from the packs, he would have just switched it.

I think the system there is implemented to piss players off, that and waste mass amount of time.

In case you haven't realized, my luck with this "swap" was horrible.

First half of 10K NY, opened and swapped away:

(keep in mind, before this, I needed most if not all herald affil rares.)

I Must Obey
Attilan
Terrax - The Tamer FOIL
Drax the Destroyer
Ego the Living Planet

got:

Reality Gem FOIL
Karnak
The Infinity Gauntlet
Klaw - Sonic Construct
Taa II

I really wanted the Terrax and I Must Obey, but NO, I have to get an freaking ANOTHER Infinity Gauntlet. Taa II meh and another RG. My friend during this time gave away half decent stuff and ended up blessed with everything I need, EA Galactus, Terrax - The Tamer, Time Thief, Absorba Shield, and...Inspiring Demise...freaking wow.

Second half, opened:

Drax the Destroyer FOIL
Thanos 8
Thanos 6
Doomstadt
Creation of a Herald FOIL

I got:

Bron Char - Lunatic Legion
Armageddon
Syphonn - Energy Leech FOIL
Unthinkable
Rougue - Total Transformation

Come on now, foil creation and a thanos 8 and I get THIS.

Ah well.

So take your opened packs and drop.

Deck swapping prevents you from cheating because unless the schmuck registering the deck really screws up it's kinda hard to add cards and not get caught blatently cheating.

-Mike

Quit complaining, you got good cards for limited.

yes. the point of a deck swap is to prevent cheating.

since someone else registered your list, if you add cards it will be blatantly obvious as someone else wrote out your pack contents.

I don't see how you can add cards to a card list that you have no control over.

You can't open your packs then drop, you got to do one round I believe.

What I mean was that if someone really wanted to keep the cards before hand, swap and just change the deck registration sheet. They would have what they want, your opponent won't. Also, I didn't see any deck checks being done at $10K NY, guessing only for tops.

not true, you can drop at any point, even before the deck swap. you will also get your second 5 packs as well.

During the end of the first half, they specifically announced that if you stay to open your packs, they must do at least one round, so wouldn't that be after the swap?

I'm pretty sure they can drop out anytime and they'd get their packs but if they open it there and go through it, they'd have to swap first.

You can drop and keep your packs. Say your have 10 players and one drops and keeps his cards, well you get 9 decks turned in and 9 turned out so it doesn't hurt the tournament if you drop. They usually mention this like constantly during deck reg. You can drop, go get your other packs and be done. At the PCSF 10K we lost like 20 players that way.

And yeah, if you're cheating a sealed deck you're probably gonna be in the upper quarter - upper half anyway and they DO run deck checks around there.

-Mike

and at least that many after the swap

Like, there is no way for us to judge whether the swap was good for you or not given we don't know the rest of your cards. I guess what you're saying is that you opened 5 packs and wanted to keep the cards, but those cards were never technically yours at all if you had any intention of playing in the tournament. All you're doing is opening packs and noting down the cards for someone else. There's no reason to feel any sense of ownership over what you open; you knew when you entered the tournament that you wouldn't be keeping it.

Also, don't judge a cardpool in a tournament by its rares, as invariably you will only ever be able to play two of them at most in your deck. The meat is in what you get in the common and uncommon slots.

Just comparing your rares though, it looks to me like you either ended up pretty even or ahead on both counts. You got Karnak in the first swap, who is a bomb in limited, and Armageddon in your second lot (again, huge). I mean the cards you opened in the first set were pretty bad, and the ones in the second deck were mediocre at best, unplayable at worst. 3 poor characters and two cards that are entirely dependent on the rest of your cardpool (both could potentially be good, but without seeing the rest of the pool we can't judge). Depending on your commons and uncommons you might not play any of those cards (though you'd probably end up playing one of the characters to fill your curve, likely Drax, and Creation is playable if you have high-end Heralds drops). However, you would easily trade these for what you got in the exchange. You got a card that enables you to swing two spots up the curve (three in some situations), plus a huge and versatile pump for a team you likely have at least some support for, and a good solid character at the 5 spot.

If you're looking to do well in the tournament and either win more money or more packs (and/or an EA that you can easily trade for whatever card you want in the set), you should be very happy with your two exchanges IMO.

if u wanted the cards, drop and presto, but as the above poster said, u swapped many dependant cards sealed play-wise and got 1 bomb in each swap, which i see WAAAAAAAAAAAY more important than getting 3 needed cards....

When I first read that I thought your bad luck was going to be the other guy misregistering the cards and you receving a game loss or something.

Were you playing in the tournament so you could get 10 packs cheaper than normal? If that was the case you might as well have conceded your first 4 games and dropped after you got your next set of packs. Were you banking on the free top 24 rare draft?

Yes most people complain about receiving pack that have nothing usable in limited. You hardly got that.

Quit complaining.

I had a similiar situation in a pcq yesterday. I opened up TWO Haywires (RE: WTF?!), Armegeddon, and Live Kree! I was crying on the inside, and worse passing it to a competent vs. player that I thought would 7-0 the swiss.

Then I saw what I got. Absorba Shield, Inspiring Demise, Terrax, among other amazing winners. I actually had to cut out 1 of 2 Power Struggles to slim it to 31 cards. I went 5-2 and my seemilngly godly pack got the other person not even close to the cut.

The fact is, ignore the stuff you see at first and just concentrate on the current one. Sealed is random, but skill isn't.

Okay, I can understand complaining if you don't get stuff you can use in the sealed competition, but complaining that you didn't get the rares you needed for other stuff, please.

Just buy some boxes if you need cards or go on eBay and buy the particular rares you need or trade. This mostly annoys me because I drew into some crap in the sealed 10k for deck building purposes and could care less if I got some rares I didn't need.

Karnak was an awesome draw for sealed in that first set of packs, that guy can win games. I Must Obey and Terrax both suck for sealed.