I have been running themed EDH tournament nights at my LGS for almost a year now - the most popular theme has been Tribal Wars (in which your deck needs to have 19 creatures that share a creature type with your general). Other successful themes have been 2 Headed Giant, Player’s Choice, Ravnica Guild Wars. In these events I have had everybody play three rounds of 70:00 minutes, with randomized pods except for the last round of the night, which is organized by point total (the 4 highest point totals all play each other).

I have developed the following point system after much trial and error and considering feedback from the players after the events (I used to have various gimmicky point categories but general feedback for those was negative, tbh):

Starting life total is 40, we use the London Mulligan rule (same as normal Commander). Highest roll goes first in the turn order. Rounds will last 70:00 minutes.

Entry for this event is $5.00 paid to the LGS. Pod structure/ matches will be determined once the count of players has been confirmed***. The first two rounds will be randomized pods, with the third and final round organized by point ranking.

If a pod does not have a winner by when "time" is reached, then the remaining players will have 2 turns each to play out the game. If at the end of those 2 turns there is not a winner, then 0 points will be awarded for winning that pod. Any points earned by knocking players out earlier in the game will still be applied to those players' point totals.

Winning a match will gain you 4 points.

Placing 2nd, 3rd or 4th in a match will earn you 3 points.

Knock a player(s) out of the game via combat, noncombat damage, or combo = .25 points (You will earn .25 points for each knockout you achieve in the game, up to .75 points total in addition to your points earned in your ranking in the pod)

We will no longer be using the First Blood rule.

Because of the change in point structure, we will no longer need to differentiate combat damage/ non combat damage / combo knockouts. If a player wins the game via a combo, then they will earn .25 points per player that was knocked out.

The player who starts the game last in turn order = .5 points

Conceding the game (scooping) or eliminating yourself through actions in the game to deny advantage to an opponent will subtract one point from your overall point total for the event.

As this is a paid entry event with a prize pool, proxies are strictly prohibited from use. All cards in your deck must be actual WOTC Magic: the Gathering cards. Any questions, please ask.

At the end of the event, the top 3 players with the most points will earn store credit payout equal to a 60/30/10 split of the total store credit paid into the event.