The Omni League

Rules by Jonathan Tweet
©1995 Trident, Inc. 

The Omni-League is a non-localized, international community of On the Edge players, all working with a limited number of cards. Meeting at conventions, stores, and anywhere else they can, League members skirmish in the shadowy wars of Al Amarja, amassing power and building reputations through slow, hard work. As time passes, Omni decks and players gain fame or infamy within the ranks of the LeagueÊ-- not by purchasing cards in bulk, but by returning to the basic format of limited power games. 

The League follows a few simple rules: 

1: You enter the Omni-League by setting aside a single On the Edge Starter Deck. Designate a starter as your Omni-League deck before you open it, instead of opening multiple starters and choosing the best. This guarantee of fairness depends upon the honor of the players.You may choose from the Limited, Unlimited, or Standard Version printings, but you should understand that the improved card distribution in the Standard Version tends to provide more balanced decks. If Standard is unavailable in your area, Unlimited is a better choice than Limited for the same reason. 

Once you've chosen your Starter Deck, open it to check out your initial League set. Your set is defined as all the cards you have available for Omni-League play. Your League deck, on the other hand, is the forty or more cards you chose to play with at the start of any game. Cards left out of your deck form your reserves. You can swap cards from your deck to your reserves and back as often as you wish (except while a game is in progress, of course). 

2: Omni-League games are played using the Standard Version Rules of Play, found in Standard Version Starter Decks. All errata are in effect. You can read the current errata and rulings by picking up a copy of Surviving On the Edge, the player's guide to On the Edge (AG2600, ISBN 1-887801-22-7). Up-to-date errata and rulings can also be found on Atlas Games world wide web site (www.atlas-games.com). 

3: Omni-League games may be played anywhere, at any time, with any number of League members. You may even play with teams, as long as the teammates agree on how to divide the stakes. 

4: Omni-League games are played for stakes -- one card which each player offers as ante for the match. Stakes are the only way that you may alter the composition of your Omni-League set. In games with more than two players, all players must agree beforehand how the stakes will be divided up. Each player has the power to decide which cards to risk and which to keep hold of as useful parts of their deck. The best strategy is to offer cards out of your reserves, since they are not worth as much to you as they may be to your opponent. The best stakes are those that benefit all players. This avoids tedious exchanges of marginal cards and instead improves the winner's deck in the majority of games. As a result of the system of stakes, the number of cards in a set offers a rough estimate of the deck's strength. 

5: Each League member puts a distinctive mark on every card in his set, whether they were part of the original set or were won later as stakes. You can be as creative as you want in marking your cards, but be sure to mark the card face, not its back. Omni-League marks identify the previous owner(s) of the cards in the League, making cards with many marks valuable trophies. These marks also serve to keep your Omni-League set separate from your regular On the Edge collections. 

6: Trading cards (except in stakes), bringing cards in from other decks or boosters, playing for stakes against non-League decks, and so on are not allowed. The only way to change your League set is by playing for stakes against other League players. Intentionally throwing games in order to facilitate the exchange of cards is effectively trading and is not allowed. Players are bound by their honor to change their sets only though fair wins in legal games. 

7: When your League set drops below fifty cards, you may choose to retire the set and begin again with another Starter Deck. If you drop below forty cards, you must retire your set because it can no longer field a legal deck. 

8: To repeat the obvious, the Omni-League is an honor-based system. Play for fun and be honorable. 

9: Players may play without stakes, use house rules, or utilize other variations of standarad On the Edge, as long as all participants agree on them beforehand. 

10: The Omni-League is composed entirely of players. It has no rules other than those found here, and has no central administration. 

Some comments: 

Rare cards are rare. Some might not be in the Omni-League at all. You may have to search for players who have the rare cards you want a shot at getting. Imagine someone with Monique D'Aubainne asking around to find someone with her Secret so they can play. Maybe they'll each offer the D'Aubainne card as stakes, so that whoever wins has a substantially stronger deck. 

You can alter your deck between games, so you can come back at someone who beat you before with cards from your reserves that may help you against that player's deck. 

Players traditionally name their decks. With the On the Edge e-mail discussion list, the Edge folder on America On-line, and other media, League members can brag about their decks and conquests. At conventions, players can meet like gunslingers to duke it out. 

Thanks to the choose-your-own-stakes system, losing cards doesn't hurt too much. Most stakes come from the players' reserves. Decks generally get stronger through play, as opposed to random ante, from which they generally get weaker. 

In short, the Omni-League gives On the Edge players a common ground when they meet at conventions, and allows total newcomers to join easily, even in games with the world's best players.