Let’s Build Something #5: Seed 3 Pre-Release
Jun 12th, 2012 by Terence Jason Dorman
by Ken Pilcher, R&D Lead Designer
I wish I could give you guys a longer Blarg this week, but I am way too busy working on Shade of the Devoured Emperor to write an entry as long as Terence would like it to be. (Editor’s Note: I forgive you! -Terence) Since I am short on time, I’ll explain to you all how the Seed 3 Pre-Release events will work, how you can draft Seed 3, and I’ll even give some hints about what you can expect from Seed 3 cards in these events.
With the pre- release for Seed 3 being only two and a half weeks away, I figured I would give some insight into the direction we decided to go with the format. Seed 3 is a fixed thirty card set. This set was designed with ONLY constructed in mind. That being said, a pre-release event was not really in the picture. However, we decided that we needed to do it regardless as that’s what the players have been asking for. After a few test runs, we found that a three packs plus a Seed 3 box wasn’t so bad of a format. The format is not something we would officially support for any major events, but for a pre-release it will be fine. Two Seed: Children of the Lingamorph packs, a Seed 2 pack, plus the new Seed 3 box, gives enough of a card pool to build some interesting sealed decks.
With Seed 3 being fixed, everyone knows (or will know) what is available in that portion of the pool. This just leaves the first two Seed sets as the real determining factor of what trades you will play. While there are some obvious bombs in Seed 3, most of them are higher threshold and will require some dedication to that trade. The new Swords of Great Justice and Demon Knights were pretty much auto-includes during our testing (and to be honest, most of the “in trade” Seed 3 cards were), which means you will be seeing a lot of the new cards during the event (but isn’t that the whole point of a new set!).
We have also looked at ways to draft this set. Again, this is not an “official format,” but we know that people will be wanting exciting and fun ways to run Limited events with Seed 3, so we looked at options. We decided that the best way to draft Seed 3 would be one pack of Seed: Children of the Lingamorph, one pack of Seed 2, and half a pack of Seed 3. What I mean by half of a Seed 3 is that the draft organizer should have one box of Seed 3 for every 2 players. The Tournament Organizer will open them and give one of each resource to the two players and save the Epics and other goodies for “picks” at the end of the draft.” He (or she) will then randomize the 30 fixed cards and make two 15 card “packs.” The players will then use those “packs” to draft normally.
I want to give some hints to the Blarg readers out there for the pre-release weekend sealed. Port Manteau has two pretty obvious subtypes you will name if you are playing with it. There is a universal card that every deck will play (but every deck will use it differently). Warlord has a card that is almost completely unplayable in Limited. Pony Slaystation is not as you remember (although that card does still exist). And this card always feels good to play (even when it hurts).
Have Fun, Play Spoils!
(Oh, and let’s get out there and build something!)