So, I run the Keyforge events at one of my LGS's and we recently scheduled an event to be the Sealed Auction format. I was pretty excited and had received good feedback from our regulars about the interest in doing this. Here is what we found:

We looked at the official rules for how to run this kind of event:

"Auction Compatible Format(s): Sealed Description: Like with a normal Sealed event, each player buys and opens a deck before the start of the event. Unlike a normal Sealed event, after all players have opened and registered their decks, each deck is placed on a table. Players are arranged in a random order around the table. The event organizer then randomly selects and calls out a deck. That deck’s owner must start by bidding 0 chains. Then, in clockwise order, other players may bid higher than the current bid, or pass on bidding further for that deck. When all players have passed, the highest bidder wins that deck to use for the duration of the tournament and passes bidding on all other decks. Repeat the process for each deck. If a deck is randomly selected and its owner has already won the bid for another deck, the next player in clockwise order must place the initial bid of 0 chains for that deck. Players start each game in that tournament with chains equal to their highest bid for the deck they are using. At the end of the event, each deck returns to the person who originally purchased and opened it."

"Philosophy: The Sealed format is less appealing to some players because they have little control over the houses or cards they play with. The Auction variant allows players to still have some control over what they use for the tournament. Similar to the Adaptive variant, the bid chains also serve as a balancing mechanic to bring decks in line with each other."

Now, let me tell you how this went. First we only ended up with 4 players (not our best turnout and I was a bit surprised but non the less we wanted to try it out). So Immediately we all had a very good idea which deck was going to be the worst and the other 3 were fairly comparable but 1 or 2 of them might have been picked as "the best". So, we randomly chose one of the decks to begin bidding (it was a deck that was 3rd best in my book) and we began. The owner bid 0, next person bid 1, then the third person bid 2 and then no other bids so it went for two chains. So, then we moved on and randomly chose the next deck to bid on. Well, the next one up was the poor deck! The person who owned this "poor deck" was the person who won the last deck at two chains. Normally the person who owns the deck auto bids 0 chains on it to start the bidding but since he had a deck already, the auto bid of 0 chains went to me (as I was next at the table). So I was forced to begin the bid at 0 chains. Well, surprise surprise, no one wanted it so I got stuck with it at 0 chains.... That isn't the part that is upsetting just wait. So then we move on and we select another random deck of the 2 decks left (which are the best ones in my opinion, and most there agreed). So the owner of the deck bids 0 and the other person without a deck yet passes, so the deck went to it's owner for 0 chains. Then the last deck goes to the last person without a deck for 0 chains....Does anyone else see anything wrong here? In essence, I was forced to bid on the worst deck at 0 chains and the two best decks get picked up for 0 chains also and the only deck with any chains (2 in this case) was the only one even bid on really.

I realize that 4 people isn't a great number to begin with for a format like this but honestly I don't see more people adding much more depth because there will always be a really poor deck out of the group (maybe 2) and someone is going to get stuck with that one while the other decks could easily also get 0 chain bids! If the point of this format is to apply chains to decks that are just better in a sealed format, why is it I feel like someone will always get shafted with a terrible deck and other good decks can get swooped up with 0-2 chains. As it is, The tournament went exactly as I predicted for the decks. The 1st and 2nd place was the two decks (other than the crappy one I was stuck with) that had 0 chains, and 3rd place was the deck with 2 chains and I of course came in dead last, lol.

As a conclusion, I feel like this format is not a good one (in case I didn't make that obvious, lol). I have played in many events, both locally and in a vault tour and this was by far my worst experience playing the game. I would not suggest this format unless you can come up with a better way to auction the decks than what is proposed by FFG at this point.

Would love to hear other people's experiences with this format for those who have tried it and any ideas from anyone who thinks they might know hoe to improve it.

Thank you!

We've run it at our local store but there's a better way to run it: You start with a random player who gets to nominate a deck to bid on. Then you go around till someone wins the deck, if the player who started it won it, you go clockwise from there. Otherwise that player picks another deck to start bidding on.

Forcing certain decks up for auction by random chance doesn't make for an interesting auction because of stuff like what happened to you, where a bad deck comes up early and no one bids on it. Where as if you got to pick your deck, the bids always happen. Most of our decks went for 5-6 chains (no one really wanted to push into that 7) one went for 3 and obviously the last one for 0.

Also, with 4 people the bids won't get too heavy anyways. Either way auction while taking a bit longer of a set up will always be better than pure sealed, since you remove a bit of the random chance element.

To be fair I haven't participated in this format for a tournament but I also feel the rules strongly hint that players should not know the contents of each deck, just the one they opened. That keeps the sealed theme more honest and if a player doesn't want to bid on their deck other players will know not to too. For other decks you are bidding only knowing the houses, and if you see the "owner" bid higher you know it might be a deck worth going for. An interesting bluff game could come out of this!

I would personally also add 2 chain minimum bid for the owner if everyone (including them) passes. That way no one gets a deck for 0 chains and everyone is impacted by chains somewhat.

Just some thoughts. I don't know if my FLGS would ever run this format but I would be interested in it for sure!

2 hours ago, TheSpitfired said:

To be fair I haven't participated in this format for a tournament but I also feel the rules strongly hint that players should not know the contents of each deck, just the one they opened. That keeps the sealed theme more honest and if a player doesn't want to bid on their deck other players  will know not to too. For other decks you are bidding only knowing the houses, and if you see the "owner" bid higher you know it might be a deck worth going for. An interesting bluff game could come out of this!

I would personally also add 2 chain minimum bid for the owner if everyone (including them) passes. That way no one gets a deck for 0 chains and everyone is impacted by chains somewhat.

Just some thoughts. I don't know if my FLGS would ever run this format but I would be interested in it for sure!

I strongly disagree. The point of sealed auction is to test peoples ability to judge a deck from a card list before playing it. Imagine bidding like 5 chains on a deck that struggles to win with 0 because you only saw the houses? You'd feel miserable the entire event, I know at least myself (and based on their play style and bid style from the last auction event, likely the others in my area) wouldn't actively try to bid for any deck unless they deemed theirs utter crap and even then, since you don't know what you're getting you could just be handicapping a deck that needs the handicap in their favor.

5 hours ago, niarBaD said:

I strongly disagree. The point of sealed auction is to test peoples ability to judge a deck from a card list before playing it. Imagine bidding like 5 chains on a deck that struggles to win with 0 because you only saw the houses? You'd feel miserable the entire event, I know at least myself (and based on their play style and bid style from the last auction event, likely the others in my area) wouldn't actively try to bid for any deck unless they deemed theirs utter crap and even then, since you don't know what you're getting you could just be handicapping a deck that needs the handicap in their favor.

Well I will agree to disagree, as there is nothing in the description of philosophy of the sealed auction format that says you get to see all the decks, just that it is a sealed event and as we all know in sealed events you only get to look at your deck before a match.

However, the beauty of this is that it is a variant and you are welcome to do it the way you want, just as I can do it the way I want. I actually like your variant of the sealed auction deck as well. I'd be interested in trying both the way you suggested and the way I did. I'll play and have fun either way, win or lose. That's just me though, others can be more competitive and that's fine.

To avoid one person being stranded with the worst pile, how about the house cracks one box too so that there would be N+1 decks available for auction and noone is left with the obvious bad one if such a deck happens to exist?