Introduction
Do you remember a time where we played a thousand years after the Brother’s War resulted in the Golgothian Sylex blowing up the known world plunging us into eternal winter? Or maybe you just remember jamming Soundgarden and eating Cheez-It’s and Root Beer while cracking starters of Ice Age and you want that feel. Or possibly you just want to see what cracking Ice Age feels like. In all of these instances, you are invited to take part in our open play Ice Age sealed league for ante. As described below these rules use similar rules construction guidelines as other sealed leagues, except we are playing ante for spoils. Except for mana burn, this league will use the modern rules set. Please interpret this sheet as more of an invitation/guideline than rules.
Cost:
In order to keep it accessible, we are recommending you donate the equivalent of historical manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $13.20 ($7.95 for the starter and $1.75 for each booster) to a charity of your choice. If you are uncertain of a charity, please consider the Jaqueline Rush Foundation which is active in Lynch Syndrome research: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LTSRLS89DC4K6. There is no need to provide proof of donation, nor is anyone collecting receipts. If you were invited it is likely you are already a good person.
Legal Sets:
Decks may include cards printed that are in the attached Ice Age starter deck and three (3) Homelands booster packs. As such this means you will start with 62 non-basic land cards (38 from the starter and 24 from the boosters) and 22 basic lands So, in addition to lands in your starter, decks may include any number of ice age basic lands and/or snow-covered lands, so long as they are from the original Ice Age printing and are included at your own expense/sourcing. Please, for the purposes of this league, no proxies and/or playtest cards. If your non-land card count falls below 62 due to spoils antes you may include any common from Ice Age or Homelands expansion into your card pool.
Deck Construction:
Constructed decks must contain a minimum of 60 cards. If a player wishes to use a sideboard, it consists of the cards not played in the pool. Ante for spoils may target basic lands, so please retain all basic lands from your original starter in your sideboard. With the exception of basic land cards (Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest), a player’s combined deck and sideboard may contain more than 4 of any individual card, counted by its English card title equivalent because of cards won during ante and added due to pool depletion. All ante cards in Ice Age and Homelands are legal if opened in your pool and playable. This is an honors system league – there are no trophies, just an ever-changing card pool passed between players in perpetuity. The idea is to make some cards rumored and interesting again through scarcity.
Ante for Spoils:
The Quest for Ice league will use the ante for spoils system. Each player will play a best-of-3 match against their opponent. Before the match begins, the main decks presented are frozen and each player may select any card in the losing player’s sideboard (remaining card pool) to place into the ante zone face down. Ante for spoils may target basic lands retained from the starter deck in the sideboard. There is one ante per game, so the main deck may change after boarding and cards that were legal targets in the first game may not be in the second and vice versa. After losing an ante card, players are encouraged to sign their lost card or demarcate that it was not part of the winning player’s original pool in some way. Though we are not keeping track of the universe of playable pool cards, this is still part of the vibe of ante leagues and helps make cards individualized and special to the pool of players.
Frequently Asked Questions I Made Up Talking To Myself:
What is to prevent me from just opening my sealed pool and dropping? Nothing. We hope you play but if the whole fun for you is to crack the packs and shelve them or just grab the lands that’s cool. But we hope to peer pressure you into jamming with us.
Why ante for spoils? It’s a fun new way to play for ante and is less disruptive to maindeck builds. Plus, it gets cards that would not see play otherwise into play.
When does the league begin/end? It begins when you find a participant to play against. It never ends. It goes on and on my friends. The goal is to have people say “somebody started playing it not knowing what it was and it goes on and on forever just because…” What is the main point of all of this? To have fun. So be cool and have fun.
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