Orbital Shift - a new tournament format

This House-Rule was build by openCards user KaiserK.

The Orbital Shift tournament is first and foremost intended to be fun. In this format, winning is secondary to having a good time and playing as many players and decks as possible over the course of a 3-round tournament.

Every player brings a regular constructed deck to the tournament, and the first-round pairings will be determined at random, as usual.

During each round, an “orbital shift” will be announced about every 10-20 minutes. Once the tournament director calls out a “shift”, all games are immediately suspended, and each player moves one table to the left, where he will jump immediately into the game that is being played there. While the players move, the cards and decks stay where they are.

Naturally, you will be a little confused as to what is going on in the game you suddenly find yourself in now. The good thing is that your new opponent will be just as unfamiliar with the situation as you, so don’t worry and try to find out how your new deck works, and see if you can win the before the next shift is called. If the person who played the deck before you has left you with only small hopes of winning the game, try to make the best of it and stand your ground for a couple of turns – maybe you survive just long enough to be saved by the next orbital shift. At the next table, you might find yourself in a much more favourable position!

Once a match is finished, the player who is currently playing the winning deck will receive 3 victory points (even if he jumped into the game only seconds before the last dilemma of the final mission attempt was revealed!). In addition, the winning deck will also receive 3 victory points.

At the end of each match, players take the deck they just played and uses it as his starting deck for the next round. The winner of the tournament is the player who has the highest combined total of “player victory points” and “deck victory points”.

Rules:

1. Before the tournament begins, players fill in two PADDs/scorecards: one for themselves, another one for their deck.
2. A deck list is not required, though players should provide a deck box and list the total number of cards in their deck/dilemma pile on their deck PADD.
3. When an orbital shift is called, all decks and deck PADDs are left on the table. The players PADDs are taken to the next table.
4. When a match ends, players hand their player PADD to the tournament director, and keep their current deck and deck PADD for the next round.
5. When a match ends, players are asked to immediately collect their current cards and leave the table as quickly as possible.
6. When an orbital shift is called, all games are immediately suspended, even if the game is in the middle of a mission attempt.
7. When a shift is called, players have to give the next player the following information:
- the number of counters left to spend this turn - the current score
- which missions have already been solved
- any actions which must happen (example: if Ikat’ika has increased his attributes, he must be killed at the end of the turn)
- any actions that may not be used (example: “once-per-turn” abilities that have already been used this turn)
Any non-vital information, e.g., the opponent’s deck type, holes in the skill matrix, number of ships in the deck, etc., may not be disclosed!

Some suggestions:

• Don’t take this tournament too seriously! The format is simply too unpredictable to worry too much about winning or losing; just try to have a good time!
• (unintentional) scouting of your next deck is sometimes hard to avoid, but it takes away a good part of the fun if you already know what’s waiting for you at the next table.
• naturally, a straightforward solver deck will be the most player-friendly deck in this format, but don’t let that keep you from bringing a very complex or interactive deck to the tournament!
• when you are at the far left table in a row, you will move to other side of your current table when the next shift is announce, which means you will end up playing against your current deck…

Please remark this notes from the author when you try this House-Rule out!

• This House-Rule could be used in both ST2E scenarios ("Standard" and "Traditional")!
• Finally this House-Rule should only be used in a Constructed enviroment.