One of the truly great things about Magic: The Gathering is its durability and flexibility as a game system. It’s flexible in that there are a great many ways to play with it, and it’s durable in the sense that very few of these ways strain the system to the point where it ceases to be playable or enjoyable. This naturally excites the variant designer in me, so today I’ll be outlining four new ways that you can play everyone’s favorite game.
#1: Magic Duels Rarity Restriction (Any Existing Format)
Last week I ‘rolled’ the Magic Duels: Origins game on Steam, by which I mean I completed the full collection of cards. At that point in the game, they don’t allow you to earn any more packs from that expansion. Before then, I hadn’t thought much about the composition of my in-game card collection. I simply made decks with the cards I had, and played my rounds with an eye to getting more coins, to get more cards, to keep the cycle going. Once the game informed me that no more collecting remained to be done, I analyzed my loot and I noticed a surprising pattern: although my collection was presumably complete, I had less than 4x of many of the cards. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the maximum number of particular cards corresponded perfectly with the rarity of the cards, in the following pattern:
| Card Rarity | Maximum # of card that can be used in decks |
|---|---|
| Mythic Rare | 1 |
| Rare | 2 |
| Uncommon | 3 |
| Common | 4 |
After some thinking on the subject, I realized that this was an interesting restriction on deckbuilding which could be applied to any existing format. Not only does it put the brakes down hard on power creep, it also reduces the amount of cash you need to invest to have a competitive deck in that format. It also makes the rarity of a card tie into its gameplay, which adds a new wrinkle to the game.
To try out this variant with a friend, simply take two existing decks you have in any format, rebuild them using the maximum card numbers by card rarity indicated in the table above, and then play them against each other. You’re sure to get a brand new play experience out of your old decks — those mythic rares really do feel mythic when they only pop up once a match!
#2: Reject Pack Draft
Let’s face it: Magic is a wasteful game. After almost every tournament, players rip into their prize packs, take the choice rares out, and leave the rest behind. I’ve seen huge piles of unused and unloved cards destined for the garbage bin, and thought to myself: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a format that could put all of those perfectly good cards to some use?’ Well, now there is — the Reject Pack Draft! Here are the rules:
- Make 3x Reject Packs with your cards, each with one unwanted rare (or mythic rare, or time-shifted) card, three unwanted uncommons, and 11 unwanted commons (any sets are okay, but no basic lands).
- Each Reject Pack must contain at least two cards of each basic color, and contain no duplicate cards (the other 5 slots can be anything you like… nonbasic lands, artifacts, multicolor, or extra cards of any color). Foils and tokens are optional, but each pack must contain no more than one each of these. When in doubt, remember that you’re trying to emulate the feel of a regular Magic booster pack.
- Wrap your boosters neatly in unmarked tin foil and put them in a bag with the other Reject Packs assembled by the other players. They will be mixed with the other players’ packs, distributed randomly, and then drafted and played as normal.
I organized four Reject Pack Drafts during my time in Dubai, and I have to say it quickly became one of my absolute favorite formats. It’s all upside: you get rid of cards you don’t want, occasionally find cards from others’ packs that you needed or find interesting, and get to have a good laugh with friends at a completely casual event. The best aspect is hearing players groan out loud about all of the terrible junk they’re sifting through, only to be surprised by the overall power and quality of the decks they are often able to draft despite the theme of the format.
#3: Bachelor’s Format
Three years is long enough to get a bachelor’s degree. My thought is that if you’ve been playing Magic long enough to have earned a degree in the time you’ve played, then you deserve to have a format that’s been designed just for you!
Currently, Wizards of the Coast releases four sets a year. Thus, any cards released in the most recent 12 sets are legal for Bachelor’s Format: [3 years] x [4 sets / year] = [12 sets]. As of Battle for Zendikar, this includes (1) GTC, (2) DGM, (3) M14, (4) THS, (5) BNG, (6) JOU, (7) M15, (8) KTK, (9) FRF, (10) DTK, (11) ORI, and (12) BFZ, with Return to Ravnica having just been pushed out. There will be a significant change to Bachelor’s Format four times each year, with the release of each new expansion. For example, Oath of the Gatewatch will push Gatecrash out of this format in January 2016.
Bachelor’s Format fills a niche spot between the ephemeral 1.5 year life-span of the current standard format, and the yawning abyss of Modern which includes every card that’s been printed in the past 12 years (since summer 2003). This gap used to be occupied by the intriguing Extended format, until its cancellation by Wizards in 2013, for the rather unconvincing reason that “too many formats can fracture a player base”. Contrary to this assertion, I believe that the proliferation of a wide variety of formats is a good indicator of the health of the game. This diversity allows each playgroup to indulge in their pet formats, while simultaneously encouraging individual players to experiment with novel ways to play the game. Bachelor’s Format, with its frequent rotations, would generate brand new deckbuilding challenges on a quarterly basis. What true brewer could resist?
#4: Power of 10
Finally, a variant for Vorthos! Fittingly, I’ll tell the tale of how this variant came to be, before discussing its ruleset.
While designing some of these variants, I was simultaneously reading Origins backstories on the Wizards website. This got me thinking: in lore of the Magic multiverse, people become Planeswalkers when something shocking happens to them, usually a near-death experience. In the game itself, the analog of a near-death experience for a player occurs when his or her life total becomes low. This flavorfully connects with an old mechanic from Innistrad, Fateful Hour, which I thought could be utilized in a new way.
A card with Fateful Hour triggers, or becomes active, when the life total of the player controlling that card drops to 5 life or lower. Now, the problem with this mechanic was that all-too-often, players would drop from 5 life to 0 (or lower) all in one phase of a turn, which meant that players didn’t reliably get the Fateful Hour trigger or static ability that they were waiting for, which was a bit of a let-down. Still, the basic idea was good… if only it could be set to trigger at a higher life total. Like 10, for example. Hmmm.
Also connected to the flavor of Origins was the idea of travelling between 10 different planes. In-game, at least in casual matches, this can be represented by using some of the old Planechase cards (although some of those planes hadn’t yet been represented in Planechase form). However, playing with the Planechase planes can also be an unsatisfying experience, in that there’s either too much Chaos Die rolling for little or no effect, or too many Planes travelled through in the course of one game to maintain a coherent game narrative. There seemed to be no golden mean wherein Planechase could really shine, at least as its rules stood, in fully capturing the flavor of becoming a planeswalker. It created chaos, but not meaningful story events. Still, the plane cards were brimming with interesting game potential.
Out of these musings came Power of 10, a flavor-driven variant that rehabilitates and unites Fateful Hour and Planechase, using the 10 Origins planes (most of which are adaptations from existing cards) as its setting. The rules are very simple:
- At the beginning of the match, roll a d10 and start the game in the plane below with the corresponding number. (Note: there is no Chaos Die used in this variant.)
- Once at least one player in a game reaches 10 life or less, roll a d10 and planeswalk to a different plane with the corresponding number until the game ends. (Reroll if identical to current plane.)
| 1 One-Eyed Pass [Theros] |
|---|
|
No more than one creature can attack each combat. No more than one creature can block each combat. |
| When you planeswalk to One-Eyed Pass, each player with 10 life or less exiles a target nontoken creature he or she controls and then returns it to the battlefield under his or her control. |
| 2 Trail of the Mage-Rings [Vryn] |
|---|
| Instant and sorcery spells have rebound. (The spell’s controller exiles the spell as it resolves if he or she cast it from his or her hand. At the beginning of that player’s next upkeep, he or she may cast that card from exile without paying its mana cost.) |
| When you planeswalk to Trail of the Mage-Rings, each player with 10 life or less may search his or her library for an instant or sorcery card, reveal it, put it in her or her hand, then shuffle his or her library. |
| 3 Otaria [Dominaria] |
|---|
| Instant and sorcery cards in graveyards have flashback. The flashback cost is equal to the card’s mana cost. (Its owner may cast the card from his or her graveyard for its mana cost. Then he or she exiles it.) |
| When you planeswalk to Otaria, each player with 10 life or less takes an extra turn after this one. |
| 4 Aether Market [Kaladesh] |
|---|
| Whenever a player casts a spell from his or her hand, that player exiles it, then exiles cards from the top of his or her library until he or she exiles a card that shares a card type with it. That player may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Then he or she puts all cards exiled this way on the bottom of his or her library in a random order. |
| When you planeswalk to Aether Market, each player with 10 life or less may play all non-land cards in their hand as if they had flash until end of turn. |
| 5 Murasa [Zendikar] |
|---|
| Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield, its controller may search his or her library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle his or her library. |
| When you planeswalk to Murasa, each player with 10 life or less chooses a target land. Those lands become 4/4 creatures that are still lands. |
| 6 Bant [Alara] |
|---|
| All creatures have exalted. (Whenever a creature attacks alone, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each instance of exalted among permanents its controller controls.) |
| When you planeswalk to Bant, each player with 10 life or less puts a divinity counter on a target green, white, or blue creature he or she controls. Those creatures have indestructible for as long as they have divinity counters on them. |
| 7 Prahv [Ravnica] |
|---|
|
If you cast a spell this turn, you can’t attack with creatures. If you attacked this turn, you can’t cast spells. |
| When you planeswalk to Prahv, each player with 10 life or less gains life equal to the number of cards in his or her hand. |
| 8 Nephalia [Innistrad] |
|---|
| At the beginning of your end step, put the top five cards of your library into your graveyard. Then return a card at random from your graveyard to your hand. |
| When you planeswalk to Nephalia, each player with 10 life or less returns target card from his or her graveyard to his or her hand. |
| 8 Nephalia [Innistrad] |
|---|
| At the beginning of your end step, put the top five cards of your library into your graveyard. Then return a card at random from your graveyard to your hand. |
| When you planeswalk to Nephalia, each player with 10 life or less returns target card from his or her graveyard to his or her hand. |
| 9 Crater’s Edge [Regatha] |
|---|
| Whenever a permanent is put into a graveyard from play, Crater’s Edge deals 1 damage to each creature and each planeswalker. |
| When you planeswalk to Crater’s Edge, each player with 10 life or less destroys a target permanent. |
| 10 Goldmeadow [Lorwyn] |
|---|
| Whenever a land enters the battlefield, its controller puts three 0/1 white Goat creature tokens onto the battlefield. |
| When you planeswalk to Goldmeadow, each player with 10 life or less puts one 0/1 white Goat creature token onto the battlefield. |
By making the one-time move between planes trigger when any player reaches 10 life or less, it takes the Chaos Dice out of Planechase, and thus removes that needless diversion, while making the moment of ‘ignition’ more flavorful and dramatic via gameplay. Setting the switch at 10 life means that players will get to spend roughly equal time in both the first and second planes on average, so the second plane won’t get skipped over as frequently as the old Fateful Hour triggers did. Lastly, limiting the use of planes to 2/10 per match makes the jump between them more meaningful in terms of maintaining a cohesive game narrative, and creates a much greater strategic role for life management than it has in regular games, especially since any players at 10 or less life when the planeswalk resolves are awarded powerful in-game advantages. If you like your games to tell a good story, then try out Power of 10. I’ve extensively playtested the set with my playgroup, and can personally attest to its fun factor.
Wrap-Up // League Reminder
Whether it’s Power of Ten, Bachelor’s Format, Reject Pack Draft, Magic Duels Rarity Restriction, or a variant of your own concoction, I hope that you have the chance to play Magic in a whole new way this coming week. If you’re a fan of the kind of casual play formats I’ve discussed today, but also enjoy the structured drama of the tournament experience, be sure to join the BFZ Punishment League, which kicks off at 2pm this Sunday, October 18th, 2015, at Face to Face Games in Montreal. I’ll be there in person to help initiate the bloodsport, so I look forward to seeing you then.