A Decent Proposal

All right, this’ll be a short one since I’m not exactly sure how much I have to say on the subject.

Also, I’ve only got an hour left at work for today.

I think it’s about time to get the Hero Zone involved in the Vintage scene. It has a good location, being accessible from both Michigan and Ohio, and is a good-sized and well-managed venue. There’s a good selection of Vintage staples in the case and the binders, which is always nice when you realize you’ve left your playset of AKs in your other deck. They even have candy, snacks, and pop available so you can be in it for the long haul and have the chance to spill root beer all over somebody’s moxes.

Really, I just kind of want to play in a well-attended tournament with a good prize that’s not too far away and is in a nice store.

I’m sure you do too, even if you don’t play Vintage. Well-run tournaments are well-run tournaments.

Plus, you can have Dave sign a playset of Brainstorms.

He and I have already discussed the feasibility of holding a Vintage tournament at Da Zone. Of course he doesn’t mind. What’s the sense in owning a store with a lot of playing room if no one plays in tournaments there? We even talked a little about what the terms could be as far as prizes, payments, and income go, but I forget what they were.

Basically it would be a similar setup to the one run at the Soldiery back in May: full proxies and relatively cheap entry, hopefully $20. That means you can own zero cards and still be competitive as long as you know somewhat how to play!

And if you don’t know how to play, pay Oath!

I remember when I first heard about full proxy tournaments. I thought it was stupid. Why should anyone be allowed to play Magic if they don’t actually own Magic cards?

Now I realize it’s just good sense. Most people are deterred from Vintage because they don’t want to invest time, effort, or money in playing a format that they don’t think they can afford anyway. With full proxies, that takes the money out of the equation entirely. It’s now easy to read some primers, pick a deck, and go to town! Plus, if you win Power, you’re just that much more likely to keep playing.

Either that or you sell the mox immediately and pimp your Extended Tooth and Nail (or whatever) with the proceeds.

What I’m trying to say is that we have the location and the potential player base.

The only thing we’re missing to secure the player base is a good prize.

Therefore, I humbly request that anyone who owns any sort of Power or otherwise Vintage-worthy prize contact me so we can maybe discuss payment or terms or something. If we use your prize, I will try to get you a fair value for it, either buying it myself before the tournament or using the income from the tournament to pay you back.

I know that an Unlimited mox or beat Ancestral Recall or Time Walk would bring players from a decent distance, but we’d probably also have to charge more for the tournament. I’m thinking we might get better turnout at the Hero Zone with a smaller (but still worthwhile) prize like a playset of Force of Wills or a Library of Alexandria. Come to think of it, we might get an even better turnout with a prize that’s relevant in both Standard or Extended and Vintage, like Pithing Needles. With those we could charge less and hope to draw more of the local crowd plus the few who would come to play anyway.

I’m totally serious about all of this and will plan on talking to Dave this weekend about terms, so if you have any prize options, drop me a line. Hopefully we’ll be able to host an event that everyone can enjoy sometime before school starts again.