Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Received a check in the mail today taking out total to $600.

I was grateful to play competitively in both categories being at the final tables in both categories.

Yeah, you played great all 3 categories (including the B-ball tourney)!

Hope to make it to Nats and have more to announce by then but this is a quick update. 

Got to see Matt at the OH state tourney which was great (along with seeing the rest of you)!  It sounds like their is a mix of blessings from God and continuing challenges they are going through.  Things are not as bad for Micah as some kids experience by now but they are starting to see signs of muscle scarring, etc.  They are hoping to get the trial medication by next spring.

Still expecting a fall date but not sure which week yet. 

We currently have 2 boxes of Disciples packs, 2 boxes of Texp packs, 2 sets of new tins, and 2 other boxes anonymously donated for extra prizes for the tourney.  Anyone that wants to can add donations.  We'll see what we have by fall! 

God Bless

P.S.  We've had a Faithful Servant promo,  a complete set of Womens, a 2013 season pass to Kings Island, and a toolbox added as prizes.

P.S.S.  If we get enough packs and there is interest then maybe we'll add super booster or something. 

Ok, I updated the first post with the basic information for this year's tournament.   


I've been trying to figure out how to best use the packs that have been donated for the prize pool.  Would people prefer to use some of those for a booster draft, add extra to the sealed teams category, keep them as 1st-3rd prizes, or something else?

Should we do the basketball competition again?  Any other ideas, requests or questions?

Ok, I updated the first post with the basic information for this year's tournament.

I noticed that you posted starting at 6pm.  Can we move that back a couple hours to 8pm?  For people who are traveling, it will be hard to get there by 6pm, and more people will be traveling to this tournament than most.  And since there is free lodging at the church Fri night, people can just crash there afterwards so it doesn't really matter how late it goes, right?

I've been trying to figure out how to best use the packs that have been donated for the prize pool.  Would people prefer to use some of those for a booster draft, add extra to the sealed teams category, keep them as 1st-3rd prizes, or something else?

It was really fun doing the amazing booster draft at Nats this year using all the packs possible except Warriors.  I'd like to see using the donated stuff to make Booster as cool as possible first.  Adding more to Sealed makes it less like Sealed and more like Booster, so I wouldn't recommend doing that.  The people who win tournaments like this already have a ton of cards, so adding to the 1-3 prizes also seems unnecessary (although maybe adding a bit would be OK).  Therefore I'd also do some significant door prizes or even a free pack or two to each person who attends.

Should we do the basketball competition again?

This was a really fun side event last year (as KY beat NC/OH, just like normal in college basketball) and would be fun to do again.  I also could bring Shadows Over Camelot to play late Fri, since that was a big hit at Nats.

I'm in circleville Ohio I'm about 2 hours away from the tournament location

Travis I hear your point on booster my being apart of the original offering. however, I am with mark in this one and believe that a booster would be a great draw and would encourage extra players to come.

I personally don't like that idea. Sealed Teams is a lot of fun when it is done like Sealed. I think adding a draft element changes the event completely. I am all for adding more packs to the Sealed format but drafting would result in the same colors will be drafted by both teams. And the idea that the players build their decks separately changes the teams element as well. The teams building their decks together is half of what makes teams fun.

Ok, to clarify the categories listed in the OP which are the same as last year are definite categories for this year.  I know multiple people enjoyed sealed Teams and we didn't want to get rid of that. 

I don't think that adding extra packs to Sealed would make it like Booster.  One key difference is that you don't have to pick 1 of each expansion.  There might be a different strategy if you get more total packs from a set; it might make Priests or Angel Wars more desirable because you'd have better odds of significant Teal or multiple Panic Demons, etc.

I was talking about doing Booster Draft but I meant the possibility of adding that as a 4th category.  I was looking for feedback on what people would like.  I agree that combining sealed and booster would make it a less fun category.  However Booster Teams could be fun.  Alternatively we could do something like Type Ban, Type 3, Type 12, or others. 

It seems that currently Booster would be the leading choice and thats perfectly fine.  I will just point out that our ability to do booster could be affected by how many people show up for the category.  If we have 8 people then it will be no problem but if we get 40 people then we might need some more people to chip in to do that.  Whether or not we'd have enough to also add to sealed teams and prizes would obviously depend on the same thing. 

For the start time I'm certainly willing to consider the 8:00 time but I'm not sure yet.  In the past there have been people who would like to participate but need to start and end earlier.  If we add a 4th category then maybe we start one at 6:00 and the next category after latecomers show up.  I'd personally prefer the official categories to not go until 3:00 A.M. so i'd like to start sooner. 

Agreed on all account gentlemen.

I believe that allocating the packs as door prizes for those making the trip will be our best option. As Mark alluded to, it will be a nice bonus for everyone who took the time and resources to be at the tournament.

but if the cons of trying to fit in the category outweigh the benefits then I'm fine with sticking to the original categories and probably a later start time.   

I think this would be my preference as I would really like to try this Sealed TEAMS idea that you guys run up in OH, and if you started it early then I'd miss out again.

Exciting news for TEAMS at the Redemption for Micah tournament.  It looks like Brian Jones will be returning to the 2nd annual event after winning last year and coming in 5th place in TEAMS at Nats this past summer.  He is currently available and looking for a partner, and hoping to repeat his victory from last year.  If there are players who are interested in teaming up with Brian, please send me a PM and I'll communicate with him to work things out there.

On a personal note, I'm really looking forward to playing Sealed TEAMS with my daughter Katrina, so I'm just wanting to confirm that it'll be starting late enough in the evening for us to be able to get there