Alt PDC 1.05 Preview: Auction of the People and You

Come out this Saturday night at 7:00 pm EST to register and at 7:30 pm EST to bid (NOTE THE EARLY START TIME) for Alphabet decks created by all your favorite paupers: Boin, GravespwnGoddess, LulThyme, Khirareq, Kehmesis, KingRitz, This_Guy_Dan, and many, many more. Vote for your favorite, and its creator may win a rare prize: two Crowns of Convergence go to the most creative deck, and a Konda's Banner goes to the runner-up. Win with your favorite, and score far bigger rewards. Just surviving through the Swiss rounds without dropping gives you a random shot at one of four Boggart Harbingers! Beyond that, the Top 4 will be showered with goodies including a Moment's Peace, One Event Ticket, Ten Snow Swamps, and even a Sulfurous Springs!!!

Here are five things you might want to know:

1. Again, be aware of the earlier starting time -- registration at 7:00 pm EST, start at 7:30 -- to accomodate the Auction. Due to the nature of the format, late entries cannot be accepted once the auction is far underway.

2. Speaking of early starts, registration for this event will be capped at 30, and we hope to approach our cap so that we can use the whole alphabet. Come early to secure your spot.

3. Bring your cards, but fear not if you lack everything you need to build the Auction decks. The hosts will have a pool on hand including every card in all auction decks and will lend those cards out to every entrant in need.

4. Bring your deck lists, but fear not if you haven't copied every list into Magic Online: text lists and .dec files for every Auction deck appear in appendices to this article.

5. Most importantly, bring your auction skills. Here's an overview of what you can expect:

At 7:30, we will begin randomly choosing players one at a time to nominate a deck for bidding. Each nominating player will announce one of the Auction decks and provide a starting bid in cards and life. (Note that the "Leftover" decks will only be available in case of especially large turnout.) The "lowest" bid for any deck is 8 cards/25 life, and the "highest" bid is 0 cards/1 life. Furthermore, cards trump life; a bid of 6 cards/25 life beats a bid of 7 cards/15 life. After the initial bidder, any other player can make a "higher" bid (fewer cards/life points) for the same deck, until no more bids are heard. At that point, the final bidder will be awarded possession of the deck. That player should then download the .dec file, assemble the deck, and procure any needed cards. If necessary, that player may borrow cards from a host.

Meanwhile, the next player from the pool of remaining participants will begin a new round of bidding. Bidding will continue until every player has a deck. Every player, including the last to pick, will have a choice of decks (and nobody will be stuck with X or Y).

One all players have decks, the competition rounds will proceed as usual. The "allow starting handicaps" checkbox will enable use of the Auction results.

So what's the best strategy? Fight it out for a top choice? Play passive and take a "bargain" choice? Go bottom-of-the-barrel and try to ride big starting hand and life total with a deck like Q? Nominate a deck you want? Nominate a strong deck you don't want and hope to spark a bidding war? Who knows!?!?!

Just /join altpdc tomorrow at 7:00 and let's find out together.

Appendix 1: The Decks (text lists with AutoCard)

Alt PDC 1.05: Auction of the People (Alphabet Decks)

Appendix 2: The Decks (.dec files)

A: Azorius Rebels by This_Guy_Dan
B: Beats and Boosters by KingRitz
C: MB'C' by KingRitz
D: Dark Death by GravespwnGoddess
E: Echoing Control by BweeBwee
F: Fire, Frost, and Flowstone by Boin
G: Golgari Guys by KingRitz
H: H by LulThyme
I: Hybrid 'I's by Boin and KingRitz
J: Just Awful by Masathyr
K: K is for Torch by GravespwnGoddess
L: Lves by Kehmesis
M: Pauper Brokenness FTW!!! by Khirareq
N: Necromancer by GravespwnGoddess
O: O #$%& by GravespwnGoddess
P: P is for Probe by Boin
Q: Q Makes Me Queasy by KingRitz
R: Rancid Roots Run Deep by Hurriboy
S: Saprolings (and Slivers) by Polyjak
T: Tough to Beat by SillyMagician
U: Urborg Control by BweeBwee
V: Viashino by Boin
W: Wirewood Wins by Boin
X: X Directory, v.2 by JMason and KingRitz
Y: Y, Y, Y? by JMason
Z: Zombies and Zealots by Boin
ALL: ABC Freed by Cadaeic314
ALL: Alphabet Storm by Draco36

The Leftovers:

C: muC by Boin
F: F This by GravespwnGoddess
L: Lightning Attack! by SillyMagician
S: S by Kehmesis
ALL: Flying Letters by SillyMagician