Well I do very much like to not be absolutely wrong so I'll try and clear this up. I'm a US based player at the moment and this is where a good deal of my tournament expertise comes from but I've also played in quite a few of the UK tournaments as well, where I began playing eighth, although not NOVA or ETC, which are often considered the top hardcore tournaments. Most tournaments, and most tournaments the majority of people are likely to participate in, do not have this ruling. Perhaps I'm out of the loop when it comes to the UK circuit and what's being accepted now but there is enough of the case to support either side that I'd doubt they'd formed a hard opinion specifically on Flames.Axiem is absolutely wrong. I know the organisers of nearly every major tournament in the UK, and not a single one allows past edition spells such as FotP to be cast into combat unless it is allowed in the spell description (Such as Vaul's Unmaking). It's also not allowed in ETC games, so we're talking about the majority of tournament gamers in the UK, rest of Europe, and also players in other countries (Such as Australia and USA) who play by this ruling. This is from casual gamers who simply go to tournaments for a few fun games to the most hardened tournament players in the land, and everyone in-between.
I'm not saying that their word is law or you should change how you play because of it (Although I would, obviously ), but if anyone's looking to say, "Most tournaments allow it", they are very wrong.
As for my post, I suppose my statement should have been "most tournament do allow Flames in combat," rather than "I haven't heard of a tournament," and it was poor of me to word it so. I was aware that ETC comped this, but when discussing for the majority of players, who will never go to ETC, I was pointing out that most of them do not comp Flames. The ones that do restrict flames, usually are those which have other specific rules comping magic phases (most notably ETC) to try and reduce the effectiveness of all magic (often times by stating unless a spell specifically allows it to be cast in combat), which is done at the discretion of the organizing committee and usually affects our spells. Often times however, this is in the form of "Gateway and Thirteenth cannot be cast into combat," but unless they give specific reference also to Flames, which most do not, this doesn't include it (unless, again they've made overarching changes to how the magic phase operates). This is because you don't use old edition rules to enforce old spells; you use new edition rules to enforce old spells and then make exceptions for those it obviously breaks (Gateway and Thirteenth). It's a gentlemen's game and at the end of the day it depends on what kind of gentlemen you have organizing the tournament; I always make a point of asking about this and other questionable rules that the new edition has created before the tournament starts and it's usually not a problem.
Summed up, if you're talking about the top tournament scene then you are correct. If you're talking about "most," then my statement still holds water as "most" is not only UK's top tournaments.
You are correct there, I had gotten that one wrong. I would however appreciate you holding back some of your fervor when trying to prove me wrong.Also Axiem is wrong on turn order determining combat reform- it's a straight dice-off as per the main rulebook. Funny how important a simple roll off can be sometime
Axiem