Cactus Game Design Message Boards

One of the projects we recently finished was a badly needed update of the Tournament Host Guide. Because there are still some items under discussion that may change for next season, we are going to wait until after Nationals to release the fully updated version.

However, there have been many things that have been announced at one time or another that were never added to the guide (a good example being Rob's recent announcement that proxy cards are not legal for tournament play).

Below is a list of things that are official for this tournament season which will be reflected in the new host guide.

•   Sealed deck: Hosts may offer three foil packs and/or two box packs for Sealed deck
•   Sealed deck: If only G & H decks were distributed then one non-rainbow site per deck is allowed. If any player received an I or J deck, only rainbow sites are allowed to be added to the deck.
•   Closed deck categories (Sealed and Booster): These categories do not use the Reserve.
•   Multi-player categories: must not exceed five players per game
•   Multi-player categories: no player draws during the first round.
•   TEAMS: If a choose the blocker ability is used prior to the defending team choosing which player will block and neither teammate has permanent control of the blocking character, the defending team may still choose which player controls the blocking character.
•   TEAMS: “Opponent” can refer to either opponent unless one of the opposing players controls a character in battle, in which case that player is the opponent.
•   Byes (due to an odd # of players): a player given a bye is awarded a game score of 3 points and lost soul score of 0 for that round
•   Penalty for being late to a round: If a player is missing when a round is to begin, they will receive a five minute grace period and a warning. After five minutes, the Judge will award 1 Lost Soul (taken from the late player’s deck) to the opponent, and will continue to do so every five minutes thereafter until the player arrives.
•   Sleeves: Each card in a player’s deck (and Reserve) must be sleeved in identical opaque (not see through) unmarked sleeves. If a sleeve is found not to be identical or is marked in such a way that a player could identify it from other sleeves, the judge may ask the player to replace that card sleeve and if necessary re-sleeve the deck.
•   Proxy cards: Only official Redemption cards published by Cactus Game Design will be legal for tournament play. Proxy cards (regardless of how closely they might resemble a true Redemption card) are not legal for tournament play.
•   Beginning the game: The player who draws the most lost souls in the opening draw of 8 determines which player’s lost soul abilities activate first. Lost soul abilities then complete in a clockwise direction (in the case of a tie, a coin flip or dice roll should be used).
•   Determining who goes first: The player with the most lost souls in his Land of Bondage after all abilities from lost souls have completed decides who will go first. In the case of a tie, a flip of a coin or a dice roll will determine who will choose the player to go first. Play then proceeds in a clockwise direction.

It stays in the owner's LoB until ability activation order is determined.

Yes the player who takes the first turn does draw on his second turn.

I know it was talked about for Sealed at Nationals, but with the above rules, if I pulled Babylon/the Harlot, I can't play it because it's not rainbow?

Players can choose 3 foil packs or 2 box packs. As a host you can offer both options or just one of them.

Players can choose 3 foil packs or 2 box packs. As a host you can offer both options or just one of them.

But it says and/or. It makes it sound like they can use a combination of foil and box. So which is it, a combination of the two or just one type of the two?

That line is simply referring to what hosts can offer. There is a separate line (in the actual guide) that refers to what players can choose: 2 box packs or 3 foil packs. The guide will be finalized in the coming weeks and posted on the Cactus website.