The Maze of Ith

An Old School(-ish) Magic Event

Online One-Day Tournament

Saturday January 16, 2021

10AM-5PM Pacific (GMT-8) (end time could vary)

Rules Publication Date: Nov 20, 2020

The Maze of Ith Rules

Registration: $20, via Eventbrite. All proceeds go to Action Against Hunger, an international organization dedicated to fighting hunger worldwide.

Trailer hyyyype: Ith's Prophecy.

In a time of great pestilence and confusion, humanity's last hope lies in prophecy. Once, long ago, a great wizard known only as Ith, having wandered the wilds for four decades of silent introspection, returned to the world with a single message, delivered only to a small group of young mages:

And, upon delivering his prophecy, Ith fell to the ground, dead and covered in black sores.

More than 25 years later, it appears Ith's warning has come to pass. Pestilence reigns, and much of the Magic world we knew is in tatters. But there is indeed hope! A strange dream visited every mage who heard the prophecy, reminding them of Ith's words and giving them one small clue to find their way to the Maze. But with that clue also came a warning: they must prepare their most fearsome spells for should they choose to search for the Maze and explore its depths, for they will have to defeat all others doing the same to reach its center.

Maze of Ith Event Overview

Players compete in a specially structured Old School Magic tournament, seeking to best each other and be the first to discover the magical Incantation to defeat the pestilence, find the altar at the center of the Maze, and save the world!

Deck Construction Rules

Decks are constructed using PAC rules, with one addition: the Leyline of Ith, a powerful enchantment left on the Maze to aid those who battle there. Game rules are modified as follows:

• Leyline of Ith: at the start of the tournament, choose a color, or choose colorless.
• Any time you begin a game with a deck containing at least 12 cards originally printed in The Dark ("The Dark Cards"), all your The Dark Cards are modified as follows:
• If you chose a color, The Dark Cards of the chosen color cost {C} less to cast, and mana costs (abilities, upkeeps, etc.) on The Dark Cards spells or permanents of the chosen color cost {C} less to use ("{C}" is one mana of the chosen color). If {C} does not appear in such a cost, it may still be used to reduce the cost of a spell by {1} (one colorless mana) if applicable. This reduction only applies to costs in the official Gatherer text for the card.
• If you chose colorless, colorless The Dark Cards cost {2} less to cast, and mana costs (abilities, upkeeps, etc.) on colorless The Dark Cards spells or permanents cost {2} less to use ("{2}" is two colorless mana). This reduction only applies to costs in the official Gatherer text for the card.
• This effect may reduce the casting cost of a spell or activation cost of an ability to 0, but not below 0.
• Because this effect only applies to costs in the official Gatherer text of a card, spells or effects which would place additional costs on the card care unaffected by this effect. For example, if you are playing a colorless deck and your opponent plays an Energy Flux, this effect does not reduce the upkeep cost added to your card by Energy Flux. I.e., you do need to pay {2} for each artifact in your upkeep or else sacrifice it.
• Any time you begin a game with fewer that 12 The Dark Cards in your deck, all your spells cost {1} more to cast, and mana costs (abilities, upkeeps, etc.) on all your spells and permanents cost {1} more to use ("{1}" is one colorless mana). Note that this will NOT cause abilities on spells or permanents without mana costs (such as cards which only tap for their effect, like lands) to gain a mana cost for those abilities.
• Note: This effect is determined every GAME you play. So, if you sideboard into a deck having fewer than 12 The Dark Cards, you will be subject to the penalty version of the Leyline of Ith. Honor system, don't be a cheater.
• Note: Shahrazad subgames inherit the same Leyline of Ith behavior as their parent game, regardless of the contents of your deck in those subgames.

Tournament Structure

The Maze of Ith is a one-day online tournament. It is not a standard Swiss or other tournament structure. Instead, players complete in one-on-one, best-of-three matches in pursuit of two goals:

1. Collecting Clues to discover the magical Incantation needed to end the pestilence.
2. Finding the Center of the Maze and casting the magical spell at the altar

The first player to reach the Center of the Maze and cast the Incantation wins the tournament. Players accomplish both tasks simply by winning matches of Magic.

Collecting Clues

Whenever a player wins a match, they demonstrate their worth and magically receive a Clue. Players who win a match will receive a Clue from the TO at the time they report their result (or as soon as the result is received by the TO if another player reports it). The Clues are traces of information or magic left behind by Ith to aid mages in defeating the pestilence.

Each Clue provides information which will help the player learn the magical Incantation needed to end the pestilence. There are many different Clues, and perhaps even a few red herrings (false Clues) hidden among them. Players will not be able to figure out the Incantation with fewer than six Clues, and even if a player, whether through wits, luck, or combining efforts with other players, figures out the Incantation early, they will not be declared winner if they don't also have at least six match wins.

Navigating the Maze

The structure of the tournament simulates players wandering around a Maze, dueling any other mages they happen to encounter along the way. This Maze is not a simple 2-D maze like you might have solved as a kid. It is a magical Maze whose twists and turns are not clearly bound by walls. Think of it more as if you were lost in deep mists, wandering around and following paths whose windings you only barely comprehend.

When two mages meet in the Maze, they must duel not only to try and gain Clues through showing their power, but also to continue searching the Maze. The winner of each duel may continue on Left or Right through the Maze as they see fit; the loser must take the path the winner declined.

Our mages begin outside the vast Maze staring at two doors, with another mage beside them also about to enter the Maze. At the start of the tournament, players are paired randomly for their first match (representing their first entry into the Maze). After that match, the winner chooses Left or Right, and they enter the Maze through that door. The loser takes the other door.

After this first match, players report their match results, including indicating which player is going through the Left door and which is going Right. Players then wait for their next match pairing. In all subsequent matches, the winner again chooses Left or Right (representing a direction they choose to go in the Maze) and the loser takes the other path. Be sure to report these directions along with match results.

By making a series of Left and Right turns, players can arrive at a door to the Center of the Maze. Note that there is no single path through the maze that reaches the Center, and there are multiple doors into the Center of the Maze. Players may discover many paths to reach the Center, and while you can record your twists and turns to find the Center, the construction of the maze is such that it's highly likely you will discover it within 6-8 moves purely by chance (if you find it early but still need more Clues, do keep track of how to get back!).

If you win a match at one of the doors to the Center of the Maze, and you know the Incantation, you may recite the Incantation to open the door and enter the Center of the Maze, ending the pestilence and winning the tournament! To recite the Incantation, report to the TO that you have won a match at the door to the Center of the Maze and know the Incantation. Provide the correct Incantation to the TO and you win! If you provide the incorrect Incantation, you show you are not worthy and are vaporized (and thus out of the tournament).

This tournament does not have rounds, per se. Instead, new rounds fire randomly, and all players who are waiting for their next match will be paired based on their navigation of the maze (players will not play each other more than once in the tournament). The random element is designed so that, at any given moment in time, you expect the next round to kick off in 10 minutes (math people: Poisson process with 1 arrival expected every 10 minutes). This emulates you wandering around the Maze after each match, unsure when or if you will encounter your next challenge. Nonetheless, this setup means, ON AVERAGE, players will play more matches the faster they play, and thus progress towards the victory conditions for the tournament faster -- it is a race to the Center of the Maze, after all!

The random element is structured like this so as to eliminate incentives for doing things like scooping if you lose game 1, pressuring your opponent to play faster, or rushing to try and finish by some specific moment in time. There is no advantage to such tactics -- no matter what you do, you always expect to need to wait 10 minutes between your matches. You might wait more or less, but the average wait time will be 10 minutes. You might play a very fast deck, rush through a match, and then end up waiting 45 minutes before your next match. Or, you might play slowly in a tense matchup, finish after 45 minutes, and have to start your next match 1 minute later. It is random, averaging 10 minutes of waiting time, no matter what you do. If you aren't sure how that works, google Poisson processes and why they are memoryless. I promise you, nothing you do in a single game will change the fact that you expect your next match to start 10 minutes later.