So the really busy VS players have already been testing the new Alter Ego format and preliminary results seem to favor a few of the Egos.

I was thinking that the format should do what Raw Deal does and reward the top decks from each Ego.

It doesn't necessarily have to be that they automatically go to Top 8 but it would be cool if UDE sent an oversized or EA card of each Ego in the HL kit and then at the end of Swiss, each Ego with the best Mantis record would receive that card. The Top X would still playoff or get prized out as usual but this would reward the only 0-4 Goblin Ego deck for at least trying that Ego out.

We can go a step beyond and do the real Raw Deal way where only the top deck from each Ego goes to the playoffs but that might not go over as well.

Please forgive me if you think this is a "Change the Game" thread. It's not... I'm just thinking of ways to make the game more casual and creative because usually more people will only play the better Egos which takes away from the format in my opinion.

Thoughts?

It seems that there would need to be a fairly large number of players to be able to run the elimination rounds like that. If it was a big event, I would be in favor of the Raw Deal deal.

Even if there are only two or three commonly played Egos in a small local pool, there will be a large measure of challenge in devising decks to metagame against them.

Yeah... the top 8 Egos playoffs would only be for larger tournaments... but some places (not mine) get like 20+ people at these Marquee events.

Another thing would maybe make participation cards that match the Ego you are playing so that people would be influenced to play different Egos at each event to collect a copy of each Ego card.

I love this Idea. I played Raw Deal for a little over 3 years and its best feature was the Diversity rule, allowing tier 2 decks into the top cut. It makes innovative deck design something thats really sought after, because only 1 top tier deck will make it.

I think the intention behind this is sound, but don't other games that use the diversity rule (Raw Deal, and I think UFS used it as well) have something that ties the Alter Ego to the deck? Special cards that can only be played by a particular wrestler/fighter and such? In the case of Vs, you could wind up with one top deck and people playing that same deck under different Egos depending on the expected turn-out.

For example: if Spider-Stall is the "deck du jour" for a particular event, you could wind up with Spider-Stall as the top deck for every Ego. Changing Egos doesn't affect your card pool, so people might play the same popular decks with "sub-standard" Egos just because it increases their chance of a prize finish.

I think it could work, but there would have to be some Alter Ego-based card pool restriction to encourage variety in deckbuilding.

Have a good one!
Jay

Not a bad idea in theory . . . but couldnt that mean that for just turning up you get the same thing that other people are playing for...

otherwise...would be good

If the AE cards are made tournament legal, then I definitely hope they'll adopt this approach.

While on one hand it means even more T8 decisions as a result of tie breakers, it also means you're nearly guaranteed to see a relatively diverse metagame. Furthermore, it may seem unfair to have someone squeak in because of their ego/superstar choice and not so much as a result of their win/loss record, but this is precisely the incentive to be creative and not just show up with spike's latest deck for every event (assuming that the future ego's incorporate control requirements for decks they're played in, like Raw does).

It should also be noted that just showing up with a different ego wouldn't be enough to ensure a T8 spot. As long as the number of egos legal for a given tournament/age is controlled, you're bound to have repeats. (Especially if the incentive I mentioned above is in place). Thus you would still have to beat all the other players who showed up with the same ego as you to T8.

I think that'd be perfect. Under 40 people? A special prize for the top finishers with each Ego. Like maybe an EA of the card the Ego art is from! Or just an oversized Ego card would be cool too. Maybe an Ego Playmat! It can use the art and have the rules text at the top and bottom so each player can read it! That'd be really cool. Have the endurence total in one corner with a series of boxes big enough to fit a coin to use as a life counter in casual games.

If you have 40+ people, that's when I think you'd start seeing enough Ego's represented to make a Top 8 cut based on best finishers with different Ego cards. And you could still do the special prize for top Ego finishers then, you just add a Top 8 spot to them.

-Mike

I think this would be a step backwards, restricting things rather than encounraging players.

The 'challenge' of Diversity Rule is basically two fold:

(A) It rewards a player for being the best with that particular Ego

(B) It means that playing the 'best' Ego isn't necessarily enough

As far as diversity, I'd say if you are cutting to a top FOUR ... you could go with the diversity rule ... at that point, even THEN, you aren't getting into the top 8 just by choosing a 'bad' Ego ... you still have to do decent with it as well.

Ultimately, it is probably better to have 'rewards' for best in swiss of each ego ... and leave it at that. Raw Deal is able to do it because there are enough different superstars that even at large events, a top 16 or top 32 cut will still leave some superstars that were played out in the cold. And, there are more 'distinctions' between superstars, etc.

One of the elements is a strategy of good matchups/bad match ups and thus a darkhorse designed to go after the 'top' decks and get into the top cut and then start giant slaying the top tier decks.

If future Egos [for example, if they go with Egos in the Legend sets to build up to a Modern Age with Egos as part of it] have more influence on deck construction [i.e. put limits on what teams you can play, have special cards they can play, similar to superstar specifics, or perhaps, class system in WoW, or some sort of "you are playing this ego, therefore you can play these special cards, but you can't pack those normal cards, etc] then you can work on a diversity rule. Until then though, door prizes for 'best in ego' should be good. Especially if there are multiples of the oversized cards to give out. That also means that someone gets some choice in which Ego they get. If they want Mephisto's card ... they need to play his Ego and do well with it ...

Let's wait until a couple of AE events have actually happened before we start trying to trick up the format.

On the other hand, a rule like that would be interesting for a PC...

I love the
Alter Egos, each and every one. I'm gunning to collect a set of each in the big hard card form instead of computer print outs.

I'd love to see the diversity rule applied to the AE events as well as a fun as heck 10k in the future.

I think that if the first BAY AREA 1K is a hit, we'll use them for the second one in the future. With the diversity rule in effect. :)