There are a lot of tournament formats that have been invented for Shadowfist, and they all have names that sound cool, but aren't always as helpful as they might be. Here are how the official ones go:
Final Brawl
This is the mainstay format. Bring a deck. Play multiplayer. No fancy deckbuilding rules.
Who's the Big Man Now?
Dueling. No special deckbuilding rules.
Whirlpool of Blood
This is the draft format. Everybody gets a booster pack, opens it, picks a card, then passes the rest of the pack to the left. Repeat until you're out of cards in that pack, then start again with a new pack, reversing which direction you pass with each new pack.
Once you're done drafting, you build a deck from the cards you have, supplemented by one standardized pod of Feng Shui Sites, and two standardized pods of foundations from factions of your choice.
(There are a few variations on this format, but this is how it's run at the big conventions.)
Who Wants Some?
This is an experimental format we're trying out at the big summer conventions this year.
During the convention, whenever three or four people want to, they can go to the booth or the tournament area, pay for the packs, and play a one-round draft right then and there. The draft runs just as it would for the Whirlpool of Blood. You can play as often as you like, drafting a new deck each time.
Once the game is over, the winner returns the draft pods to the tournament organizer, and gets a special promo card.
The player who wins the most games over the course of the convention is the winner of the event.
Comrades in Arms
This is a multiplayer format where your deck must contain at least 23 cards with a single designator. Any designator is allowed, even Netherworld. (But remember that card types are not designators, so don't try to get away with Event.)
One Hundred Names
This is a multiplayer format where no two cards in your deck can have the same title. (Even if they're different cards.) Foundations are not exempt from this rule, which does make some factions hard to play.
Ritual of the Unnameable
Choose three letters. The first letter in the title of cards in your deck must be one of those three letters. Anything other than a letter is ignored, so $10,000 Man counts as an 'M'. Cards whose titles begin with 'The' count as 'T' cards.
The New Heroes
In this format, only cards from the sets published by Shadowfist Games are allowed. By the time we run an event with this format, that will be Critical Shift and Shurikens and Six Guns. All future sets will be legal for this format as well.
Is That All You Got?
This is basically a Final Brawl, but in this format, some of the most ubiquitous cards are banned. The list is below.
If a card on the list does show up in your deck, it cannot be played. You will have to discard it normally, but you can remove it from your deck between rounds.
The banned list, as of June 18, 2007:
- Ascended:
- Covert Operation
- Family Estate
- Mole Network
- Operation Killdeer
- Shadowy Mentor
- Architects:
- CHAR
- Expendable Unit
- Imprisoned
- Nerve Gas
- Dragons:
- Dirk Wisely's Gambit
- Final Brawl
- Golden Comeback
- The Golden Gunman
- Is That All You Got?
- Never Surrender
- Ting Ting
- Hand:
- Confucian Stability
- Iron and Silk
- The Iron Monkey
- Shield of Pure Soul
- Wind on the Mountain
- Jammers:
- Battlematic
- Entropy Is Your Friend
- Homemade Tank
- Payback Time
- Scrounging
- Lotus:
- Die!!!
- Evil Twin
- Flying Sleeves
- Tortured Memories
- Walking Corpses
- Monarchs:
- Avenging Thunder
- Brain Fire
- Butterfly Knight
- Fanaticism
- Ice Queen (foundation)
- Spirit Pole
- Purists:
- Dr. Celeste Carter (yes, we know she's technically an Architect)
- Entropy Sphere
- Glimpse of Brief Eternity
- Mutator
- Quantum Sorcery
- Seven Masters:
- Red Bat
- Unexpected Rescue
- Unaligned:
- Amulet of the Turtle
- Blade Palm
- Dark Traveller
- Discerning Fire
- Fusion Rifle
- Pocket Demon
- Pump-Action Shotgun
- Secret Pact
- Stand Together
- Violet Med
- White Ninja (7 Fighting)
- Feng Shui sites:
- Eagle Mountain
- Festival Circle
- Fox Pass
- Gambling House
- Kinoshita House
- Nine Dragon Temple
- Proving Ground
- Puzzle Garden
- Temple of the Angry Spirits
- Turtle Beach