If this is true it is the single-largest mistake in the history of POP/PLAY. Few of you seem to fathom the unfairness of removing the 4-prize rule. This means if you now win a very long Game 1, Game 2 can be called in the first few turns, meaning your opponent can take Game 2 in as little as three turns. Then, for Game 3? Sudden death again. Yeah, you can 6-0 someone Game 1, only to lose Games 2 & 3 by your opponent drawing a total of two prize cards: one per game.
Absolutely devastating. Do not underestimate this rule change. I will hope something got mixed up and this isn't the case.
I'm 100% with Jason on this one.
This rule is absolutely awful.
Think about why we have best 2 out of 3. It's so that the match outcome isn't decided by a single game.
We all know that two decks can perform very differently and still win. Some decks innately have a very strong ability to pull out the first prize really early, while other decks could be extremely good at winning a normal 30+3 round, but have little to no chance at getting the first prize.
We all know that getting the first prize and winning the game are hardly correlated in some matchups, and so a game that is decided on the first prize should be completely illegitimate.
What this ruling says is the following:
If Player A is playing Player B in the top cut of a tournament, and Player B's deck can't get an early prize
easily, Player A will no longer play to win game 1. He will play to make game 1 last as long as possible. When time is called at the beginning of game 2, Player A automatically wins games
2 AND 3. This is
beyond outrageous.
It was bad enough that game 3 gets decided in this manner. Not game 2 as well. That invalidates 2 out of the "best 2 of 3 matches".
I don't think this matters that much. I have had no game 1's go longer than 40 min.
You will have game 1's that go longer than 40 minutes if this ruling is for real. Your opponent will make sure of it.
Because the current metagame is how it is, I am convinced that this is singularly the most harmful procedural ruling that has ever been made in the history of the game.
If this ruling really is staying, consider the following advice if you are on the losing end of this ruling:
Firstly, make sure you win Game 1. This is a given. The problem with this new ruling is the fact that you can be screwed irrevocably EVEN IF you do win Game 1.
Secondly, win Game 1
at the right time. If you're deep into game 1, play to your opponent's pace. If your opponent is playing quickly and trying to leave time for game 2, play quickly, so that you don't get shut out by a short game 2.
On the flipside, if your opponent is slow playing you, slow play him back! What he doesn't want is for game 1 to end on time, because then he doesn't even get his game 2 with which to rob you of the match.
The most important thing is that you want a full game 2 or no game 2 at all, to mitigate the chance that this ruling can hurt you.
Of course, even if you get a full game 1 and game 2, but have little time for game 3, you still lose unless you win both of the first games. It's worth mentioning that if you are the deck with the slower curve, you WILL lose, unless you can do one of the following: (a) Win both games 1 and 2. (b) Make game 1 take the entire 60 minutes.
This is the same as it was before this ruling. The difference is, before this ruling, option (b) would have read: "Make game 1 take long enough that game 2 doesn't count by the 4 prize rule."
