*update: All the dates have been pushed back by 1 week to allow for more time designing/naming your deck.
The Judging:
Deck building challenge: Decks should be competitive but focus on fun and innovation. Decks deemed by Wizards of the Coast to be creative and interesting are more likely to win than decks crammed with tournament staples. Wizards of the Coast will make its decision based on a combination of theme and playability.
Deck naming challenge: Deck names should be fun and evocative. Wizards of the Coast will make its decision based on the name it feels captures the decks theme the best. Deck names that match the name of any existing Theme Deck, Intro Pack, or Magic: The Gathering card cannot be considered.
The Timeline:
Deck building challenge: All decks must be submitted by Monday, September 21 at 9:00AM PDT. Submissions after that time cannot be considered. The winning deck will be announced no later than Friday, September 25.
Deck naming challenge: Begins after the deck building contest winner is announced. All deck names must then be submitted by Wednesday, September 30 at 9:00AM PDT. Submissions after that time cannot be considered. The winning deck name will be announced no later than Friday, October 2nd
Prizes for each contest will be delivered when Exodus releases in Magic Online.
The Rules:
Pauper Deck:
- The deck must be exactly 60 cards
- The deck must be 2 colors
- The deck must contain Blue as one of it's colors
- The deck can only contain commons
- The deck may only not include more than 3 copies of any given card (excluding basic lands)
- The deck may only include 3 cards that have more than 2 copies
- The deck may not contain more than 15 total copies of cards from Tempest and Stronghold (excluding basic lands)
How To:
Send your entries to puremtgocontest (at) gmail.com. If you have any questions please leave them in the comments section of this article. Good luck!
Prizes:
Deck Creation:
4 Copies of the Deck
1 premium foil set of Exodus
1 premium foil Tempest Release Card
1 premium foil Stronghold Release Card
1 premium foil Exodus Release Card
Deck Naming:
4 Copies of the Deck
1 standard set of Exodus
1 standard Tempest Release Card
1 standard Stronghold Release Card
1 standard Exodus Release Card
Winners must provide their name, email address, and Magic Online user name to validate their Magic Online accounts before receiving their prizes. Employees of Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, and puremtgo.com are not eligible to win.
26 Comments
Can people who have contributed articles for PureMTGO participate or are we disqualified as being PureMTGO employees?
Puremtgo.com writers can participate.
Very nice prizes , buy why does it have to have blue color...
Because those are the rules WotC sent us.
is there a non-pauper deck too, or just a pauper version?
classicquarter.com hosts a non pauper version of the contest on their site.
Are spoiled zendikar commons legal to use? i doubt it but figured I'd ask.
Well it's a Tempest block deck so ... no.
guess i missed the block theme..
Can we submit more than one decklist and do we give names to our own decks?
I see "The deck may not contain more than 15 total copies of cards from Tempest and Stronghold". What are the rules on cards from other sets? There's nothing specific that the deck must only be built from Exodus block cards.
Does the Magic Online account validation part mean that if we are in a state (like Texas) where recieveing prizes is not allowed, that we cannot win the contest? I know most people click "yes" to the prize elligibility even if they are in one of those states, but will we get into trouble for winning?
The Exodus Deck Challenge is for the Exodus release, there for it can only use cards from the Tempest Block. The restriction on Tempest and Stronghold cards is to ensure that the Exodus theme decks focus on Exodus cards. This means that cards from sets other that Tempest, Stronghold, and Exodus cannot be used.
Wizards of the Coast has not placed a restriction on the number of decks that a player can submit, though as the host for this challenge PureMTGO is free to limit the number of decks. The Challenge is split into two parts, deck building and deck naming. To have the best chance of winning the naming challenge, you would typically want to wait to see which deck wins so you can try to match the theme of the deck.
Prize eligibility for this challenge follows the normal MTGO rules.
Hope that clears things up. Have fun and good luck,
Chris
6 days notice isn't much time to build a deck if you want it to be creative, original and not totally bad. :p
I can do that. But to clarify:
* zero "4x" slots allowed
* up to three "3x" slots allowed
* any number of 1x and 2x slots allowed
And you said two colors, one of which must be blue. But you didn't say exactly two colors. So is UBR okay?
EDIT: Is (Cartographer) legal? It's common, and from Rath Block. But not common in Rath Block.
Here's the Gatherer query that everyone wants: http://beta.gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&block=|[%22Rath%20Block%22]&rarity=|[C]
Hehe I went and decided that it wasn't but I can see the argument for it.
That is correct Katastrophe, zero 4x, three 3x, and any number of 2x.
The main requirements are you must have Blue and be at least 2 colors. Three, four, and five color decks are all acceptable, if you can make them work.
Card legality is based off of the rarities in the Rath Cycle, so no Cartographer.
Finally, I know that the timeline is short. I have a meeting Monday to discuss extending the deadline until the end of the week. I will let you all know.
Have fun,
Chris
At LEAST 2 colors? too bad the rules didn't actually state that.
Wow that is some important information there...two days after I submitted my decklist.
Eh it's a good list anyway :)
Does anyone else have a problem with a precon being more than two colors?
It just doesn't give that feeling of a precon, that includes some semi-bad cards as fillers that actually work from game to game.
i don't own a Magic Online account.
can i still participate?
It says the winner will be announced no later than yesterday, so was it? Where will it be announced (here, wizards.com, some as of yet unknown to me site)? Thanks!
Congratulations to Weta, the PureMTGO Exodus Deck Challenge winner. Here is the winning deck list:
White Creatures
3 Soltari Visionary EX
2 Soul Warden EX
2 Soltari Lancer * TE
2 Soltari Trooper *TE
2 Spirit en-Kor * ST
Blue Creatures
3 Merfolk Looter EX
2 Thalakos Scout EX
2 Wayward Soul EX
2 Thalakos Mistfolk * TE
White Spells
2 Shackles EX
2 Pacifism * TE
Blue Spells
3 Fade Away EX
2 Æther Tide EX
2 Theft of Dreams EX
2 Volrath's Curse * TE
2 Capsize * TE
1 Mind Games * ST
Land
13 Island
11 Plains
Remember, deck names should be fun and evocative. Wizards of the Coast will make its decision based on the name it feels captures the decks theme the best. Deck names that match the name of any existing Theme Deck, Intro Pack, or Magic: The Gathering card cannot be considered.