In This Very Ring
Drew “Darth Weasel” Barton
Raw Deal Staff Writer
darthweasel@hotmail.com

Correct information wins and loses games and bad information loses games of Raw Deal. This is true whether you are playing Tag Team, Steel Cage, Velocity, All Axxess, Afterburn, or Raw Deal Revolution. It is true whether you are playing in the final game of a World Championship or sitting in the living room with a few friends watching old ECW tapes and playing “friendly” games. Knowing if information is available is itself a valuable skill.

For example, the Ringside Pile is an area that is considered “Public Knowledge”. The cards in the Ringside Pile can be verified by your opponent whenever they wish. Additionally, it is illegal to prevent your opponent from discovering what card you are moving when you move a card from the Ringside Pile. This is an important point for when you are playing against a Rock or Undertaker player, for example. It is always good to know what order they are stacking their deck (in the case of the Rock) or what cards are in their hand (Brothers of Destruction, Undertaker, Dude Love, etc.) when they move them from the Ringside Pile. It is your right to know this.

One area of Public Knowledge that causes a great deal of confusion is the Ring Area itself. According to the Rule Book, the “Ring Area refers to the area on the table where your successful Maneuvers, Actions and Reversals go.” In other words, it is never defined as being to the right, left, bottom, or top of your Superstar card. It is not specified whether your cards are stacked, placed horizontally, vertically, or in some other orientation. No reference is made as to what should be covered and what should be uncovered.

I have seen Ring Areas of every description. I have seen people who place each card with the Fortitude revealed and the remainder of Fortitude generating cards stacked together with all other cards stacked one on top of the other, I have seen Ring Areas where Backlash deck cards were kept separate from all other cards, I have seen Ring Areas where every card was just placed one on top of the other regardless of origin, function, or importance, and so forth.

This is actually a fairly important issue. I have seen numerous games lost due to miscalculations regarding the Ring Area. For example, if you miscount your opponent’s Mid-Match cards in play it affects your game because you have to allow for what they can or cannot due from their Mid-Match. If you believe they have a slot left it can cause some conservatism on your part. Conversely, if you think they are out of slots and walk into a painful Reversal it can be game changing. Other times “hidden” Fortitude has allowed cards to be played an opponent thought were out of reach.

Hidden Fortitude I would classify in several ways. For example, several of our local players habitually clump Pre-match cards in one location, Mid-match in another and the Arsenal cards in yet a third. In the era of The Great American BASH Is Upon Us, this can result in having Pre-Match Fortitude in one location (often “covered” by Pre-match cards played AFTER TGABIUU), Mid-Match Fortitude in another location (Trevor Murdoch is gonna BASH Your Brains In) and more typical Fortitude. If you count just one or two areas and think it rules out his playing a certain card it can cost you. Here is an example from a recent game I watched.

“Let’s see, you have an Elbow, Kick (T)…5 Fortitude, so you can’t play a Manager Interferes. I will try the Dynamic Finisher.”

“Manager Interferes. You forgot these five from 3 The Great American Bash’s and my Mattitude Adjustment.”

The worst part is…the first player made a key playing error. He could have simply asked his opponent for a Fortitude count. The Fortitude status as being public knowledge, he would have been provided the correct number and could have attempted an alternate play.

But it is often yourself that is hurt by sloppy Ring Area organization. If you accidentally hide cards you need to use you can lose the effects. For example, if you bury JYD’s Chain, No Way Out, Inferno Match, an Enter the Stratusphere and so forth you might very well fall prey to the old “out of sight, out of mind” adage.

A minor playing tip you might find helpful is to place cards you KNOW you need to play prior to your next turn on top of your Arsenal. Then, before you can flip a card, draw a card, etc., the visual stimulation of seeing that vital card or effect you need to take advantage of is called to mind.

The ultimate goal of this article, however, is to ask the Raw Deal community for ideas as to how Ring Areas can best be plaid out to make sure important information that is Public Knowledge, specifically the contents of each Ring Area that have continual and important effects on the game, are always visible.

There are several things to consider. You need economy of space, you need ways of maintaining a certain amount of flexibility for cases where someone has a deck with several working parts, you need to make sure the total Fortitude is easily calculable, the total number of Mid-match played is easily calculable, and you need to make sure it works with the orientation of the cards.

If you have an idea for a Ring Layout that you believe would be helpful to the Raw Deal community I encourage you to send it to my e-mail address referenced in the header. I would ask you include a tag “Raw Deal Layout” as otherwise I probably won’t open the e-mail unless I recognize your name. I think it would be a pleasant opportunity for us to give the potential new players that might arrive with the advent of Raw Deal Revolution some direction in clean, easy to understand development of their Ring Area.

If I receive responses on this, particularly sharp looking photographs to illustrate the layout I will post them in a follow up article giving proper credit. Meanwhile, remember….the Ring Area is Public Knowledge, so make sure you know what is in your opponent’s Ring Area and let them know what is in yours. By making sure everyone has access to the correct information we will provide everybody the best Raw Deal experience possible. That can only be a good thing.