The Wheel of Fortune and the Hermit from the Renaissance Tarot, published by Lo Scarabeo.

All along we have been tweaking our method for doing the draws without changing the essentials. Early on we adopted a system of “guide cards” - a pair of cards that we pull before doing any of the draws for the matches. We view these as a kind of index about the week in general, or perhaps about the energy we’re bringing to the event.

After drawing the guide cards (sometimes referred to as ‘game wardens’) we return them to the deck. This week we decided to withhold the cards from the deck so they would not be available to be drawn as a card representing a team.

The guide cards for Week 9 - November 4 - are the Wheel of Fortune and the Hermit.

The draw for Week 9 saw the first appearance of the Tower. Hard to believe : In over 100 matches the Tower has never appeared even once. This week it arrives with a vengeance - four appearances. Strength also shows up four times, and the Magician shows up three times, as does the World.

From the guide cards we get the feeling that several of the matches will involve outcomes that hinge on chance and that some teams might end up exhibiting unexpected resourcefulness.

The prominence of the Tower and Strength suggest low scoring games due to robust defensive play, but also a significant possibility that some teams will be forced to go back to the roots of their strategy (throw away the playbook), possibly due to catastrophic injuries.

Now that we’re half way through the season we’ll take some time to look at overall trends - in another post.