And just like that, the war for Galactic Conquest draws to a close and the the universe draws calm, cool and collected again. The Republic has regained competency and control under new leadership. The Sith have drawn back into the shadows. The Empire is smoldering in ash. And the people are coming back out of their hovels, bringing their towns, cities, and planets back to swirling life.
Students had so much fun playing through this series, and working on different deck building strategies in a variety of play styles. We drafted, pulled sealed packs, played 1v1 standard style, and Two-Headed Giant and Commander-style variants. We played in teams, planetary outposts, with a variety of tribal decks. Many thanks once again to the creators of the Star Wars: the Gathering Magic set, and to the Frozen Ogre for loaning us the cube. Without further adieu, here are the final standings:
0 Comments
The Galaxy finds itself in peril once again. And this time, its fate rests in your hands...
The last two Gaming Groups were spent drafting cards and deck building, as you and other force-wielders amassed your troops and prepared for battle. The Dark Lords have ripped open the nexus of Time and Space, and multiple timelines have converged. Yoda is fighting alongside Qui-Gon Jin and Rey. Darth Maul, Darth Vader, and Kylo Ren are all working together. And the only one who can patch the rift and save the galaxy... is YOU. Will you support the Imperial troops? The legendary Jedi Knights? Or the almighty Credit, following the dollar as a bounty hunter? Whichever path you find yourself on, your battle begins this Friday, as you face off with other Force-Wielders in Star Wars: the Gathering - Galactic Conquest. The Conquest will take us through the next four weeks of Gaming Group, culminating on the final Friday before Thanksgiving break, where our Champion will be crowned. Each week, new rules and/or play variants will be introduced as the game escalates. Be sure to read through the initial iteration of the rules here before Friday. And may the Force be with you. Hey all! I am super excited to announce that our sponsor for Gaming Group this year will be none other than Franklin County's own FLGS, The Frozen Ogre!
Welcome back for another great year of learning and gaming together!
Welcome back to the new school year! Hey, quit groaning! That means it's time to get Gaming Group up and running again! I hope you guys have had an awesome summer (don't worry, it's not entirely over yet... VT Comic Con is this coming weekend, after all).
We'll meet the first week of school, at our usual time from last year, though slightly shorter in duration: Thursday, from 3-4pm. Please let your parents know, and spread the word to folks who might not see this. We will discuss when our regular meeting day and time will be for the remainder of the year at that point. We will also pass out new permission forms for the new year. See you next Thursday, September 1st! -H Every now and then, I get asked why we have a gaming group at a school. If you ask early education teachers, they would readily tell you that playing is learning. Yet, somewhere along the way, we lose that mentality, as parents and as educators, by the time our students reach middle and high school. By playing games like Magic: the Gathering, Dix It, Dungeons & Dragons (or Pathfinder), and the countless others we play, students are learning and growing together in more ways than most of us even realize. The game that first broke me into the gaming community back when I was in middle school was Magic: the Gathering. Twenty-two years after its release, Magic: the Gathering is still one of the most popular games in the world, and is the number one game our students here at BFA love to play. By playing M:tG, kids and adults alike engage and develop a wide range of life skills, including exercising literacy, short-term memory, problem-solving, and executive functioning skills. The first thing to learn are the very basics of the game, how to play at the most rudimentary level. What physical elements does the game consist of (cards, tokens, life counters, etc), what are the basic phases of play, how do you get cards from your deck and hand into play, etc. Players then go on to learn what the different specific keywords mean and do, and how they interact. After that, they learn how to build unique and original decks of their own, based on their preferred playing style, and taking into consideration the playing style and available card-pool of the local meta, or perhaps they build a deck specifically geared to take down the deck of another student or mentor, which may have proved difficult for them to challenge in previous exchanges. In our tournament events, deck-building is an integral component. At BFA, we run strictly sealed events. At these events, students are supplied with a set number of randomized card packs, which they open up at the start of the event, and then have a specified amount of time to choose cards from those packs to create a deck on the spot, which they will then go on to use throughout the event to challenge their opponents. This requires a vast amount of skill, and not a small portion of luck, as students assess the available card-pool, seek out effective and efficient color and card combinations, ensure that they have decent ratios of card types within their deck, etc. A sealed event can be run in various formats. At BFA, we have run two standard 1v1 sealed tournaments, and most recently, a Two-Headed Giant sealed tournament, where matches are played between two-player teams. Students are also learning how to deal with disappointment when things aren’t going their way. Maybe they didn’t get a particular card or a very good card-pool in the color schema they were hoping to run. Or, in our open gaming time, perhaps they just spent hours putting together a deck they thought was going to be devastatingly powerful, only to see it fall apart on turn two, thus having to go back to the drawing board. As advisors, Paul and I help our students to experiment and research why things may have gone awry, what their deck may be lacking, what card-type or ability they had too much of and got bogged down by, etc. And the best part, as students are learning all of these things, developing and exercising these thinking patterns and skills, and growing together, they don’t even realize it until it’s too late. They think they’re just having fun. The next time I mention I'm thinking about going to a midnight prerelease event, please, Please, PLEASE remind me that as a middle-aged man with two little kids who act as alarm clocks without snooze buttons, it's probably a bad idea.
That being said, BfZ is an awesome set, and I did have a lot of fun playing and building with the new cards last night (or should I say this morning?) at Brap's Magic in Burlington. I went in with my usual heart of gold, intending to fight for the fate of Zendikar with an army of allies. Alas, the cards were against me, and the power of the Eldrazi was overwhelming and drew me to the dark side. I ended up going with a predominantly black and blue deck with a splash of red, which seemed to work out really well. I lasted three rounds before I was just utterly exhausted and had to start paying attention to being awake enough to drive safely home. Of those three rounds, I left in a pretty happy 2-1 state. I pulled a few fun lands, including Sanctum of Ugin, Fertile Thicket, and Prairie Stream. Even though Fertile Thicket and Prairie Stream weren't keyed toward the colors I was focusing on, Fertile Thicket's ability on entering play was extremely helpful, and the ability to access white mana from the Prairie Stream as well as the green mana from the Fertile Thicket helped me to kick up some converge presence. Roilmage's Trick won me a game more than once with the extra mana colors hanging around. As far as creatures go, the Herald of Kozilek, Barrage Tyrant (my promo card, which was also a game changer), and Sire of Stagnation were the ones that really drew me to basing myself in black, blue, and red. My top pulls for pure, colorless Eldrazi were Conduit of Ruin, Bane of Bala Ged (well, I heard they did say they were never printing "Annihilator" again as a keyword...), Deathless Behemoth, and an Eldrazi Devastator. Now, come on, admit it... with a pull like that, you would have gone to the dark side, too. In fact, you probably did. In such a limited format, it did seem that the Eldrazi side of the battle was a little overpowered. All three of my opponents' decks were Eldrazi decks. The allies seems like they have some awesome synergy potential, but they seem more difficult to get to gel in a sealed format. My first two rounds were pretty tight matches, and really fun. All three of us were running tri-colored decks with a significant Eldrazi board presence, and both rounds went to third matches for the win, which I was able to scrape by on with some split second decision making that just ended up falling in my favor. My third round was my least fun, and left me wondering why I didn't pack it in after my first two rounds (though with a 2-0 record at that point, of course I had to at least stick around and give it a shot in round 3), when I started getting high enough in the ranks to play against a less casual player. This guy was a rules lawyer, the guy you feel uncomfortable even asking about the possibility of changing a minor decision even half a second after you make it and realize it wasn't what you meant to do. Transgress the Mind won this guy games. That is a crazy, common card. If you pull one today, do yourself a favor and play it! It was annoying when he wrote down my hand upon using it though. Intense tournamenting is just not my scene. I'm looking forward to some more BfZ games this week though, so keep your card pools and decks together after the weekend to play with on Thursday. We can throw together a mini, one-off tournament at Gaming Group this week if enough folks are interested. What about you? What was your BfZ Prerelease experience like? Write up a post and email it to [email protected] and we'll post it up on here! Game on! -H. By Kieran Shea Things you may need to know if you're new to the group:
by Eldrazi Harold It was great to see folks again yesterday. We collected nominations for officer positions, including Wardens of the Middle School and High School (Co-Chairs/Presidents), Banner to the Wardens (Vice President), Master of Coin (Treasurer), and Ministerial positions for Magic, D&D, Pokemon, etc.
If you weren't able to make it last night, or if you were there and you've thought more about it and decided you're interested in running for a position, please either message me on Schoology or email me at [email protected] and let me know by the end of the day today. I will be posting the ballot this weekend. by Eddie Stowe I have always been a Commander junky. I was first introduced to it by a friend a year or two ago. Ever since, I have been building funky and occassionaly effective decks. Along this path I have become quite the builder. Today I will talk about some of the basics to building and playing Commander.
|
Submit a PostGot something you want to write about? Do it! And then email it to [email protected], and we'll get it up on the blog! Archives
November 2017
Categories |