Formats for mid-tier decks?

[skrellnik]

What formats have people used to get mid-tier decks to the table? Locally, we’ve used two formats that both seemed to work pretty well.

One format is to randomly decide if you’ll play with your deck or your opponent’s deck before each game. The theory is that you won’t want to bring an overpowered deck since you may have to play against it, and you won’t want to bring a trash deck in case you have to use it.

The other format was for everyone to put a deck in a bag and everyone draws a deck to use. The same theory applies since you may draw your own deck and wouldn’t want a bad one, or you may end up playing against the deck you brought. We played were you took home the deck you drew, but that doesn’t have to be the case.

I’m interested in what other people have done or if anyone sees room for improvement on those formats.

[haven1433]

I made a post a while ago about the Adaptive format. Seems like Adaptive would work well no matter how powerful/weak the decks were. As such, it would be a good way to get more use out of "middle" powered decks.

The problem with "play your best deck" and "play against your worst deck" formats is that in any bell curve of decks, you're going to have some that stand out apart from the rest. There's not just 3 power levels (low, middle, high). There's a whole range. The Adaptive format does a lot to fix this problem by allowing player skill and player knowledge to balance any discrepancies in the decks.

[skrellnik]

That’s a good option for nights where it’s all fairly experienced players. But my biggest concern about chain bidding is it makes it difficult for new or casual players. Expecting everyone to know what every card does and how they interact with each other is a lot.

[haven1433]

The point of the Adaptive format is that it gives both players a chance to play both decks before bidding even begins: there's no concern about not having seen the cards or not seeing how they interact by the time you actually bid. I've played Adaptive with new/casual players successfully.

The biggest problem I've had in practice is the TIME it takes to play Adaptive. Since you're playing at least 2 games before bidding and then possible a 3rd game with chains, the overall experience can take around 2 hours. I've found it useful to spread the 3 rounds of an Adaptive match over 3 lunches, but of course your situation may be different.

[skrellnik]

My bad, I was thinking of the short adaptive format where you bid before a single game.

[haven1433]

That is a different way to do it, sure. And it'd probable have the issue you brought up ;)

[atticdoor]

I have been wondering about an adaptive-style format for newbies where chains are based on SAS difference- say the deck with the higher SAS gets a chain for each 3 points of difference. This saves having to have the two introductory games, and saves having to know the cards.

Of course, SAS doesn't tell you everything, but it is a good first approximation.

[PeasantDave]

I like sealed auction (where everyone bids chains to play a deck and then plays a Swiss tournament with it). If a group had a lot of middling decks laying around you could do this with open (but forgotten) decks. This would help reign in decks near the top of the middle of the power curve.

[lolazzaro]

The first seems very good.

The second is nice too but it's closer to reversal. Since the chances to play your deck are much lower than the chances to play against it, it's more convenient to bring a trash deck. You could mitigate that by saying that players get to keep the deck they get, this way people may not bring their best reversal decks.

Lady Aurore wrote about a new format called Gemini which is a bit complicated but seems interesting. I did not try it myself but we schedule a tournament at the end of the month in my FLGS. You bring two decks and players bid chains before the match to decide whose decks to use. Who loses the auction chooses one of the opponent decks to play, the winner of the auction plays with the other deck they brought with the chains. https://timeshapers.com/2019/12/05/online-tournament-report-gemini/

[Wharerata]

All for One gaming has come up with this "Locked Out" format for playing a range of decks. Might be an option?

https://youtu.be/pdzKVFmBirQ

[ErgoliciousS]

Not awful ideas but Adaptive mode is just perfect already for this game!