Star Chamber

Leagues

A league is a multi-week competition that let you play for rewards in a less rigidly scheduled manner than a tournament.

Like tournaments, leagues have an entry fee (usually event passes and, in the case of a Sealed League, a Starter Deck), and you win rewards based on how well you do in the league. However, unlike tournaments, the play schedule is relaxed. Also, league play does not affect your online rating in any way.

You can join a League by going to the League Lobby and either signing up for a league that will form when enough players sign up, or you may join late into an existing League.

Requirements for Joining a League

Joining a League requires 10 Event Passes. In the case of Sealed Leagues, you must also bring a Starter of your choice (one that is legal for that particular block).

Games and Scoring

Each League has a Play Format such as Harbinger Block Sealed, etc. ALL Games that take place in that League will be of that type. You can play League games by going into your League's specific League Room (go to the League Lobby for access to all the individual League Rooms) and challenging other players to games. To challenge another player, find their name in the box on the lower right-hand side of the screen and right click on their name -- this will generate a drop-down menu and as long as that opponent is not busy in another game or in the League Deck Builder, there will be an option to challenge that player.

As you play games in a League you will score points: 3 for a win, 1 for a loss and no points for a draw. These points determine your standings. Some important basics on games and scoring...

You may play 5 games per week that count towards your score. Games played in excess of this count as tie-breakers (see point #4)
If you do not play all 5 games in a week, these games carry over to future weeks. If you played only 3 games in Week 1, you could play up to 7 games for points in Week 2.
If you join into a League late, you will be allowed to play games for the weeks you missed. So if you joined a League on Week 3 you would have 15 games you could play for points.
Games played in excess of this (or if you play a game against someone who has met or exceeded his or her number of scored games in that week) will be tiebreakers. In the event that you and another player have the same score, these games will contribute to a tiebreaker score (you get 3 tiebreaker points for winning, -1 for losing) that will determine who supercedes the other in the rankings. You may play an unlimited number of tiebreakers! Go nuts!
In most Leagues you may not play the same person more than once in the same week for points. In Leagues with a low number of players, this rule is relaxed since, depending on the schedules of the other people in your league, it may be impossible to find sufficient opponents to play your games.
- If your League has 24 or more players: You may only play a given opponent once per week for points (any other games with that opponent that week are tiebreakers).
- If your League has 13-23 players: You may play a given opponent twice per week for points.
- If your League has 12 or less players: You may play a given opponent up to three times per week for points.
If either player has exhausted all of their scored games for the week, all matches played count as tiebreakers for both players.
At the conclusion of the League (the end of the final week), standings are determined by score (all ties are settled by tiebreaker scores) and rewards are given out.

League Deck Builder and Adding Boosters

When you access a League Room for your specific League, clicking on the Deck Builder tab on the right hand edge of your screen will take you to a special League Deck Builder that behaves as the regular Deck Builder with one major change...

When you are playing in a Sealed League this is where you build decks for use in that League. You will need to make a legal deck before your first game in a Sealed League! In Sealed Leagues, the League Deck Builder contains ONLY the cards available for play in that specific Sealed League. If you are playing multiple Sealed Leagues, each one will have its own specific card pool.

In Sealed Leagues you will often have the option of adding Booster packs to your limited card pool as the weeks progress. In the League Room you will see a button at the top of the League Room screen saying "Add Booster" if the option is available. Pressing that will bring up a dialogue allowing you to purchase a Booster (with Event Passes) and doing so will immediately open a Booster and those cards will be added to your pool of cards available for that League (and the cards get added to your general collection as well, though as with all cards used in Sealed Leagues, these cards cannot be traded away until the League has concluded). You can usually only do this once per week (depending on the League). If a Sealed League offers adding Boosters as weeks progress, joining late does NOT prohibit you from taking advantage of this -- if a Sealed League allowed an additional Booster to be added on Weeks 2 and 4 and you joined on Week 4, you could add two Boosters immediately upon joining.