January 4, 2026
Present: Alvaro (Mordakai), Bruno (Bruce), Ethan (DamienX207), Felipe (fisilva1), Marc (sarma72), Miguel (Siraynad), Ralph (Goblin King),
1. Welcome!
It's good to be meeting again after some time apart for the running of the Worlds tournaments!
2. Review of agenda
3. Committee assignments and initial tasks
a. Rules Committee – Felipe (organizer), Bruno, Ethan, Miguel
Felipe volunteered to be the organizer of this committee. We’re working on new digests and finalizing a new CRF for 2025 rulings. We discussed potential ideas for lowering the power level of Fallen Radagast decks with the Council at large; currently a rule restricting the use of War-warg and War-wolf to 1 copy in a deck is being tested in the Fallen Wizards Challenge tournament, so we’re going to see how that plays out and then reevaluate.
- TASK: Continue working on digests.
- TASK: Continue discussing whether certain cards/alignments are overpowered in the current tournament environment.
b. Organized Play Committee – Marc (organizer), Ralph, Miguel
We have a full slate of tournaments scheduled so far this year, including alignment-themed tournaments for Fallen-wizards, Balrog, and then Light vs. Darkness, as well as the Rediscover Middle-earth series of tournaments. It’s been great to see more people hosting in-person tournaments around the world—but a reminder to be posting event announcements on the forum! We also discussed the following:
i. Spectating for 2026 – In the interest of promoting community engagement, we voted to have all CoE online tournaments be open to spectators this year, except for the Online Worlds tournament which will be closed to spectators during the Swiss rounds but open to spectators (except for the remaining players) for the Playoff rounds. Vote passed 6-1.
ii. Mulligan rule for 2026 – We have been hearing mostly good things about the mulligan rule that we tested in 2025, although some players have said it may be slightly too powerful. Committee will send a poll to Online Worlds participants for more feedback.
iii. Fairer point system for byes – In the interest of not penalizing players in the CoE tournament rankings when they get matched with a bye in later rounds of a tournament, we voted to update the tournament policies to have the “Points for Bye” for Round 5 and beyond go no lower than 3 points. Vote passed 7-0.
iv. In-person Worlds – We need to do a new poll for this. Please reach out if you are interested in potentially hosting for 2026!
- PREVIOUS TASK: Continue development of online CoE ranking database. – DONE!
- TASK: Marc and Miguel will poll participants in online Worlds for more data on mulligan rule.
- TASK: Alvaro will post request for proposals for in-person Worlds.
c. Public Relations Committee – Alvaro (organizer), Felipe
We have been talking to new forum members and learning about their interest in the game. There has been an issue with Discord members not being able to send invites unless they are an admin, so we’ll look into that.
- TASK: Alvaro will check to see if we can allow other people to send invites to the Discord.
d. Game Promotions – Ralph (organizer), Alvaro, Ethan, Marc
We’ve been talking to a patron of the game about his project to create deck lists for more common/uncommon decks, and then we’ll hopefully build more of those decks to recruit potential players at conventions. We’re planning to do more in-person outreach this year at conventions in Las Vegas and California, and also potentially a tournament in Baltimore—hopefully having North America/United States championships some day! “Saturday Night Live” (teaching time for new players) has been going really well, although we could use more hosts in the rotation.
- PREVIOUS TASK: Marc will reach out to volunteers about regular teaching times for new players.—DONE!
- TASK: Continue discussing global outreach efforts.
- TASK: Discuss updating or revamping the global player base map.
e. Web-Based Initiatives – Bruno (organizer), Ethan, Alvaro
The last big language that we’d like to add to play.meccg.com is German, so we’re trying to find someone who can help with that.
- TASK: Continue discussing how to create translated versions of as many web-based resources as possible (e.g. the new CoE tournament rulebook, the CoE website, etc.).
f. Administrative – Bruno (organizer), Felipe
Nothing to report.
4. Evaluate meeting
5. Adjourn
Next meeting: TBD