Any Mission, Any Time

by Charlie Plaine, Chairman

10th November 2008

One of the first things that came up after this body was formed was the idea of allowing proxies - printed versions of physical cards - in sanctioned format tournaments. At the time, it seemed like it was too soon to address that issue, and it was deferred.

While it's still too soon to allow all cards to be used as proxies in the game, it is time to revisit the issue and to start to test the waters. With that in mind, we're putting a system in place to test the use of proxies in tournaments, in order to gauge player reaction and see how they work in a practical situation.

Effective as of Monday, December 1st, 2008, all Missions will be allowed as proxies for all TCC-sanctioned events.

The online deck builder will allow you to print any Mission card included in any deck you wish to print, so you will have a ready source and easy way to print proxies. This will be automatic after the 1st, and you won't have to do anything to print your Mission proxies.

Why Missions? First of all, Missions have the lowest collectible value - almost all of them are uncommon, and there isn't a large demand for them in multiples. Secondly, allowing the use of proxies for Missions widens deck options for recent players, returning players, and those with limited collections.

Finally, making Missions able to be proxied allows us to test the waters to see how proxies fare and are received in the player groups around the world. We need to know if people are going to accept them, dislike them, tolerate them, reject them, or anything in between. This provides a good opportunity to do that with minimal risk to the health of the game or the community.

We're asking all of you out there that play with proxies and those of you that play against proxies to report your experiences and your opinions on our game play forum for the duration of this experiment. Without feedback about this policy, we will have no information to gauge its success or failure, and any progress along these lines will just be a stab in the dark.