Charitable Charter

We believe that the joy we find in Old School Magic: The Gathering is a gift—and with that gift comes the responsibility to give back. Many of us are fortunate to enjoy fulfilling careers and the privilege of participating in this unique and passionate community. We channel that gratitude into action.​

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Our Mission: To invest in our communities, build goodwill, and grow friendships through the shared love of Magic and the generosity of its players. Each year, we select a charitable cause to support, raising funds through raffles, auctions, and community-driven initiatives.​​

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Our Inaugural Charity: Children’s Medical Center of Dallas

We are honored to support  Children's Medical Center of Dallas, a world-class pediatric hospital that saved the life of one of our community members' daughters who was born with severe birth defects. Every day, this institution delivers hope, healing, and life-saving care to children and families across Texas and beyond.​  Together, we play not just for fun—but for purpose. This is more than a gathering. It’s a movement of kindness, camaraderie, and community impact.

Children's Medical Center of Dallas

1935 Medical District Drive

Dallas, Texas 75235

Charity Raffle

We will also include a Charity Raffle to raise money for our charity as well.  If you have items you'd like to donate for the Charity Raffle, please let us know via the Chat on this web site and we will provide an address to ship the prize donations to if you are not bringing it in person.​

Featured Tournament Formats

Access:

We will provide custom collectible patches and participant lanyards to be worn by participants each day for event entry. Replacements will cost a $25 donation to our charity fund! This is a private event.  Only registered attendees will be permitted entry! 

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Security:

The STRAT Hotel, Casino & Tower will be provide Professional Security Staff for the safety and security of attendees throughout the event.  Given the many recent thefts and issues surrounding stolen collections, decks and related property, The STRAT Hotel, Casino & Tower monitoring and safety personell.  If someone steals or commits a crime at this event, they will be caught and criminally charged. If this is you, don’t come to this event or you will regret it.  Any individual who causes any safety issue, disrupts the event, or poses a security concern will be asked to leave the event immediately and escorted out by event The Strat Security staff.

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Deck Photos, Deck Lists & Tolaria.app Tournament Coordination

We will leverage Tolaria - https://tolaria.app/dashboard/ - for all Tournament registration, management, pairings, brackets, match results reporting, points tracking, rankings, seeds, and deck lists / deck photos registrations.

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• Tolaria.app

  • All tournaments players are required to register in Tolaria.app for each event they wish to play, both Main Event and "Scrub Out" Tournaments which will be managed in Tolaria.app.

•  Deck Lists & Deck Photos

  • All tournament players agree to have their deck photos shared publicly on the Internet

  • Deck lists and deck photos for all tournaments are mandatory for all players and are required to be submitted in Tolaria.app prior to the tournament start times outlined in the event schedule.

  • Decks and sideboards must be finalized prior to Tolaria.app submission and tournament initiation.  No alterations to decks are allowed once submitted and the tournament has begun.

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Additional Info on Tournaments Structure

This event is an “Open” participation event with numerous optional tournaments held throughout each day of the event over a 4-day schedule, with a half day on Thursday afternoon and a half day on Sunday morning. 
All tournaments are open and optional to all attendees.  Players are free to pick and choose whichever Old School Magic formats and tournament events they wish to play in, according to the attendee’s preferences.  Players can play in as few or as many formats and tournament events as they wish.  Multiple tournaments for different formats may be running consecutively on certain days to give players options and choices as to which they prefer to participate in.

For all days of the event, there is open casual gaming where any players are encouraged to grab pick up games in between tournaments.

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Swiss Tournaments Format

We will leverage Swiss tournament structure, where players compete in a set number of rounds where they are paired against opponents with the same or similar win-loss records, ensuring higher-skilled players face each other as the tournament progresses. 

Unlike single elimination, players are not eliminated after a loss and all continue to play the designated number of Swiss rounds. After the Swiss rounds, the top-performing players (typically the top 8) advance to a single-elimination playoff bracket to determine the final winner. 

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Tournament Structure Executive Summary:

• All Tournament Rounds will be 50-minutes.

• All Tournaments will be four (4) rounds of Swiss and then cut to Top 8.

• All tournaments are under “Thunderdome Rules”: "Two men enter, One man leaves." Ties will be determined by Chaos Orb/Falling Star Flips!

• Upon “Time in the Round”, it will then be an active turn, plus five turns remaining. Afterwhich, Chaos Orb/Falling Star Flips begin!

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How Swiss Rounds Work

• Pairing: In the first round, players are paired randomly or by a seeding system. In subsequent rounds, the pairings are based on cumulative match points (wins, losses, and draws). 

• Match Points: Wins award 3 points, losses 0 points, and draws 1 point. 

• Opponent Matching: The goal is to pair players with identical scores. For example, players with a perfect record will play each other, and players with one loss will play each other. 

• No Elimination: Players continue to play in every round, even if they have lost some matches. 

• Round Structure: Each round typically consists of a best-of-three match that lasts between 50 and 70 minutes. 

• Tournament Software: We will utilize https://tolaria.app/ to organize the tournament, do Swiss Pairings, manage Tournament match results and points, brackets and Top 8 Seed.

Moving to the Top 8 Quarter Finals:

• Cutting to the Top: After the final Swiss round, the top-performing players are ranked based on their match points and tiebreakers. 

• Single-Elimination Bracket: We will cut to Top 8 Quarter Finals based on seeds calculated from the points from match results.  The Top 8 players will then be placed into a single-elimination bracket. 

• Moving to the Top 8 Quarter Finals:

• Cut to Top 8: After the Swiss rounds, the top 8 players based on their final match points and tiebreakers are selected for the single-elimination bracket. 

• Single-Elimination Bracket: This bracket proceeds like a traditional playoff. The players are seeded 1 through 8. 

• Round Pairings: The pairings are set by seeds (1st vs. 8th, 2nd vs. 7th, etc.). 

• Advancing: The winner of each match advances to the next round (Quarterfinals to Semifinals, then Finals). 

• Best Two Out of Three: All playoff matches, including the semi-finals and final, are played as best-two-out-of-three matches. 

• Determining the Champion: Players in the single-elimination portion are eliminated after one loss of a best two out of 3 Games within the match. The top performing last player standing is declared the tournament champion for that Old School Magic format!   

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Key Differences from Single Elimination

• No Early Elimination: In a Swiss tournament, you won't be knocked out after a single loss. 

• More Playtime: Players get to play more games and match up against opponents with similar skill levels. 

• Fairer Outcomes: The system allows for more consistent ranking by giving more high-performing players the chance to play each other.

Thursday Night, April 30 Four Horsemen Old School Magic Block Draft Overview

@ 5:00 PM - Four Horsemen (4HM) Proxy Block Draft + Custom Player-Made with "Arabian Nights 2.0” Set

Playing in the Four Horsemen Block Draft special tournament will give you the Experience of what it was like to play Magic in a Draft format in 1994!  This will be an and Old School Magic Tournament using proxies as a cube draft. We have a printer lined up who will print special card backs with the Four Horsemen Logo and will print cards easily identified as proxies from the 93/94 expansions sets of Magic the Gathering including: Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends & The Dark, plus special basic lands and Duals Lands will be designed to look like Arabian Nights Lands.

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THU APRIL 30​​​​

• 5:00 PM Special Event - Four Horsemen (4HM) Old School Magic Block Draft

  • Block Draft tournament with the 93/94 expansions sets: Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends & The Dark, plus Basic Lands and Duals Lands. Experience drafting in 1994 with proxies emulating booster packs. 

  • All players keep their draft proxy desks as free prizes. First come, first serve until we run out of proxy boosters.

  • Four Horsemen Block Draft proxies provided to participants by event coordinators

Rumor has it that Richard Garfield allegedly privately confessed there is an unreleased "Arabian Nights 2.0" expansion set of cards which did not make it into the original Arabian Nights Expansion, composed of 88 unique, new and amazingly flavorful Old School Magic cards from the 1992 period of Arabian Nights development!  Dr. Garfield recently unearthed this brilliantly spicy and dynamic set, which we will be sprinkling into the Four Horsemen Expansion Sets Block draft!

To wet your whistle, here are a sample of just a few of these amazing "Arabian Nights 2.0" unreleased expansion set of cards!