The Booster League

GET YOUR CARDS.
Your starting cards are 12 On the Edge boosters of any type. You may substitute a starter deck for 6 boosters, or two starters for all 12. You must get all your cards at once; you can't, for example, open Standard boosters one by one until you have your needed Resources and then get Arcanas for the remainder. Designate your pack before opening them. (You may start play without all your packs. For example, if you can't get Shadows at your local store but want 3 Shadows packs, you can start play with 9 boosters and get your 3 Shadows when you can. In this case, however, you can't change your mind later about which boosters to add in.) 

Each time an expansion comes out, each player will be able to purchase an extra 20 cards and add them to their Booster League set. 

Mark every card from your original purchase with your unique sign. (No peeing on the cards, though.) 

TRADE WITH FRIENDS & ENEMIES.
Bargain, barter, browbeat, and bamboozle! Trade via Swaps. Trade at cons. Get the deck you want. 

Don't put your special mark on new cards you get. They're going to be changing hands so easily, that there's little point in keeping track of who's had what. The special marks indicate the original owner. 

BUILD YOUR DECK.
Standard deck-building rules. I'm really tempted to say, "No VCEs," but this isn't tournament play. Will we face Message from Space? Yes. Will we face Deadly Inspiration? Yes. Tulpa Secret-Tulpa-Monique-Psychic Flux for free Influence? Yes, if someone's lucky enough or canny enough to put that deck together. 

The one hook in league play is Copyright Violation: the card comes from another game so it's unlikely to be part of the set you bought to start the league. Oh well, the Control Addict in me cringes, but: If you get CV, you can add whatever card(s) you want from other TCGs to your deck. 

PLAY FOR ANTE.
In this format, it makes sense to play for random ante. The top card from your deck is your ante. Look at it, show it to your opponents, and then put it aside (possibly leaving you with a 39 card deck, that's OK). 

"But what if I lose cards that I need and that my opponent doesn't want?" The biggest problem with random ante is that every card lost is a card you need and every card gained is not. But this is a trading league. If you lose your Disintegrator Ray to someone without Quislings or Pharaohs in their deck, trade for it back. 

I'm tempted to say that ante is mandatory because I'm afraid that otherwise no one will do it. But we're adults; we can decide for ourselves. Playing for ante is optional. 

CONQUER.
In addition to general games of deceit and destruction, wouldn't it be nice if Atlas sponsored Booster Tournaments at conventions? Since the number of cards you have in your set doesn't accurately represent your deck's record, we need tournaments of some type to frame the competition. It could be something simple, such as each Booster Leaguer comes by the Atlas booth and gets two tokens. These tokens are used for ante in each Booster game that weekend. Whoever has the most at the end of the weekend wins. (It would be easy to use different-colored tokens for a simultaneous Omni League tournament.) But I'll leave details to Trident. This is the first they've heard of my expectation that they're going to organize Booster League tournaments for us. 

NOTES.
In some ways, the Booster League is a good way to teach a *group* of people how to play On the Edge (whereas the Omni League is a good way to teach an individual). Trading helps people learn the relative (and subjective) values of cards and gives them enough cards to try different deck-building strategies. 

Local leagues could follow the Booster format, and after the league runs its course, the members would all have valid Booster sets. They could even play (but not ante or trade) with people outside their league without compromising that league's integrity. 

Sealed deck tournaments could run on Booster League format, leaving all the members with valid Booster sets when the tournament is over. 

So there it is. I've opened all my Shadows, so I can't start play yet, but it'll be happening soon. Have fun. 

-Jonathan [Tweet]