2000 Magic Invitational Formats Announced

Mark Rosewater

The preliminary rounds of the Magic Invitational will consist of fifteen matches (best two out of three) with each player facing off against every other player once. The two players with the best record at the end of the fifteen rounds will meet in the finals. The finals will consist of three matches (best two out of three games each) with the two finalists playing each of the three constructed formats. The winner will be the first player to win matches in two formats. Order of these final matches will be determined by blind voting submitted by the players at the player meeting.

The fifteen preliminary rounds will consist of five different formats: three constructed and two limited. Each format will be used for three matches.

Constructed Formats

You will need to construct the following three decks for the Invitational:

1) Standard - The following sets will be used for this format: Sixth Edition, Nemesis, Mercadian Masques, Urza's Destiny, Urza's Legacy, Urza's Saga. This format will follow the banned list as of January 1, 2000:

Banned

Fluctuator

Memory Jar

Time Spiral

Tolarian Academy

Windfall

2) Classic - All tournament legal expansions will be used for this format. This format will use the banned and restricted list as of January 1, 2000:

Banned

Any ante card

Channel

Chaos Orb

Falling Star

Mind Twist

Tempest Efreet

 

Formerly But No Longer Banned

Divine Intervention

Shahrazad

 

Restricted

Ancestral Recall

Balance

Berserk

Black Lotus

Black Vise

Braingeyser

Crop Rotation

Demonic Tutor

Doomsday

Dream Halls

Enlightened Tutor

Fastbond

Fork

Frantic Search

Grim Monolith

Hurkyl's Recall

Library of Alexandria

Lotus Petal

Mana Crypt

Mana Vault

Memory Jar

Mind Over Matter

Mox Diamond

Mox Emerald

Mox Jet

Mox Pearl

Mox Ruby

Mox Sapphire

Mystical Tutor

Recall

Regrowth

Sol Ring

Strip Mine

Stroke of Genius

Time Spiral

Time Walk

Timetwister

Tinker

Tolarian Academy

Vampiric Tutor

Voltaic Key

Wheel of Fortune

Windfall

Yawgmoth's Bargain

Yawgmoth's Will

 

Formerly But No Longer Restricted

Ivory Tower

Mirror Universe

Underworld Dreams

3) Block Party - Decks for this format may be from any previous block constructed format. All cards banned in a block constructed format are banned in this format. The following blocks are legal:

Ice Age block (Ice Age, Homelands, Alliances)

  Banned: Amulet of Quoz, Thawing Glaciers, Timmerian Fiends, Zuran Orb

Mirage block (Mirage, Visions, Weatherlight)

  Banned: Squandered Resources

Tempest block (Tempest, Stronghold, Exodus)

  Banned: Cursed Scroll

Urza's Saga block (Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy, Urza's Destiny)

  Banned: Gaea's Cradle, Memory Jar, Serra Sanctum, Time Spiral, Tolarian Academy, Voltaic Key, Windfall

Mercadian Masques block (Mercadian Masques, Nemesis)

Limited Formats

All limited events will have a forty card deck minimum size restriction. The following are the limited formats used at the 2000 Magic Invitational:

1) Duplicate - All competitors will receive an identical card mix from which to construct their deck.

2) Solomon Draft - This is a two player draft format. A randomly selected player begins by flipping up eight cards from the top of the card pile. He divides the eight cards into two piles (the piles need not be of the same size) allowing the other player to chose which pile to draft. The two players alternate dividing and drafting until all the cards have been selected. Each match will have a new draft involving different cards.