You don't need to calculate the final PTs or score, just your individual results. The scoring conventions are outlined in the rules at the bottom of this post. If there are any difficult or controversial matchups, please highlight these in some way and provide a brief note in your post.
1. Overview
2. Game Rules
3. Deck Construction Rules
4. Entry
5. Perfect Hand Magic League
6. Scoring
7. Variant Format Rules
1. Overview
Perfect Hand Magic (PHM) is a competitive strategy game for two or more players. It can be played using pencil and paper; however, it's most commonly played via online forum. To play the game, each player secretly chooses a specified number of Magic cards which form that player's hand. Once all players have chosen hands, the hands are revealed and scored.
The object of the game is to choose the hand that will score the most points. The score for each hand is determined by the result that it would achieve if it were used to play two games of Magic – one match – against each competing hand; the rules for these theoretical games are covered in Section 2 – Game Rules. During each theoretical game, the theoretical player of each hand employs the strategy that will maximize the score for his or her hand, taking into account the strategy of his or her opponent.
A hand scores 3 points for each game that it would win, 0 points for each game it would lose, and 1 point for each game that would end in a draw. However, a hand scores only 2 points for any match that would have a symmetrical result, regardless of whether the result would be two drawn games or a win for each hand.
The composition of a hand is limited only by a short banned list and a few restrictions on the game states that it can enable; these restrictions are covered in Section 3 – Deck Composition.
2. Game Rules
2.1. Except for the changes described in these rules, games follow the rules for a normal game of Magic.
2.1a. Changes to the Comprehensive Rules or the Oracle text of a card take effect at the following times:
i. Changes that would take effect during the prerelease for a set take effect during the first round for which cards from that set may be submitted instead.
ii. Changes that would take effect at any other time take effect during the first round for which those rules have been in effect since the start of the round instead.
2.1b. Ignore any part of an instruction that isn't covered by these rules or the rules of Magic.
2.2. A player's opening hand contains that player's chosen cards.
2.3. Players' libraries begin the game empty.
2.3a. A player doesn't lose the game as a result of being unable to draw a card.
2.4. A cost or effect that would produce a random result produces the result that least benefits the player who paid that cost or the owner of the source of that effect instead.
2.5. Each player is the starting player for one game in each match.
2.6. Players know the identities of all face-down cards and cards in hidden zones, and players know which decisions have been made by other players.
2.7. If a game would continue indefinitely, then the game is a draw.
2.8. If a loop containing at least one optional action would be repeated indefinitely during a turn, then any player may propose a number of times for that loop to repeat instead. If a player does, then each other player may propose a different number and the loop is repeated for the greatest number of times proposed instead. No player is required to make a choice that would end a loop that crosses multiple turns.
2.9. Cards can't be brought into the game from outside the game.
3. Hand Construction Rules
3.1. A player may not choose an opening hand that could enable that player to achieve any of the following results before an opponent's second turn would begin, such that that opponent could make no sequence of decisions that would not result in at least one of these results:
i. win the game
ii. take an infinite number of turns
iii. cause a card to leave an opponent's hand.
Ignore this rule in the following cases:
3.1a. That player's hand would be legal if that player's opponents' cards had no rules text.
3.1b. That player's hand would be legal if that player's opponents had no maximum hand size.
3.1c. That player could achieve one of these results only during a game that was restarted after an opponent's second turn had begun.
3.1d. All cards that would leave an opponent's hand during the resolution of an effect would be put onto the battlefield by that effect.
3.1e. All cards that would leave an opponent's hand during the resolution of an effect would be in that opponent's hand once that effect resolved.
3.2. A hand may contain any number of copies of any card legal in Vintage.
3.2a. An unreleased card is treated as though it's legal in Vintage if it will become legal in Vintage upon release and if the release notes for the set that contains that card were published prior to the start of the round (See rule 4.1).
3.3. A hand may not contain any cards on the PHM Banned List.
4. Entry
4.1. A player plays a round of PHM by submitting a list of his or her chosen cards to the PHM moderator.
4.2. A player may change his or her hand until the posted deadline.
4.2a. If a player submits an illegal hand, then the moderator will try to notify that player to change his or her hand prior to the deadline. If the hand is discovered to be illegal after the deadline – or if the player does not submit a new hand – then the moderator may either disqualify that hand or replace it with a similar hand, in which any cards causing that hand to be illegal have been removed or replaced.
4.2b. The moderator also will try to notify a player if that player's hand doesn't enable that player to win the game against any possible hand.
4.3. A player may name his or her hand. If that player doesn't, then the PHM moderator may name it. The PHM moderator may also rename a player's hand at his or discretion.
5. Perfect Hand Magic League
5.1. PHM League play consists of four rounds of PHM.
5.2. Each round, a player earns League points according to the following formula:
League Points = Points Scored / Number of Opponents x 100 (rounded to the nearest integer)
5.3. The player with the most League points at the end of League play is the PHM League winner.
5.3a. If multiple players have the most League points at the end of the League, then the PHM moderator may allow those players to play additional rounds until only one of those players has the most League points or until a specified number of additional rounds have been played.
6. Scoring
6.1. A table of match results is posted at the end of each round. Each row lists one player's results against each other player. A player's points and League points are tallied at the end of his or her row.
6.2. A player may earn bonus League points as specified by the PHM moderator.
6.3. Each player is responsible for determining the match results for his or her hand.
6.3a. Players are encouraged to determine or verify additional match results.
6.3b. An undetermined match result is counted as a loss for both players in that match.
6.3c. A player may challenge any result until the moderator announces that the result is final.
7. Variant Format Rules
7.1. Perfect Hand Magic has been played with hands containing between one and seven cards. Additionally, the Game Rules and Deck Construction Rules have been adapted to create hundreds of variant formats. Five commonly-played variants are described in Sections 7.3-7.7.
7.2. The rules of a variant format overwrite any other applicable rules.
7.2a. Some variant formats generate continuous effects. A continuous effect generated by a variant format is treated as having the earliest timestamp within a layer or sublayer. If continuous effects generated by multiple variant formats would apply in the same layer or sublayer, assign timestamps to those effects in the order that the variant formats are listed in the rules or name of the round.
7.2b. Some variant formats require a player to make some number of decisions in addition to or instead of submitting a hand. A player's submission must comply with the Hand Construction Rules, taking into account any decisions made at this time.
7.2c. Some variant formats require players to make decisions "before the start of each game". For these decisions, follow the "Active Player, Nonactive Player order" rule, replacing "active player" with "starting player".
7.3. Land Rule Variant.
7.3a. This is the basic land rule (LR). Any player may play a basic land or basic snow land of the subtype of his or her choice from outside the game any time he or she could normally play a land. A hand may not contain any cards on the Land Rule Banned List.
7.3b. This is the extra land rule (ELR). Any player may play a basic land or basic snow land of the subtype of his or her choice from outside the game any time he or she could normally play a land. Any player may play an additional land on each of his or her turns from his or her hand. A hand may not contain any cards on the Land Rule Banned List.
7.3c. This is the draw land rule (DLR). If a player would draw a card from an empty library, that player puts a basic land or basic snow land card of the subtype of his or her choice from outside the game into his or her hand instead. The starting player doesn't skip the draw step of his or her first turn. A hand may not contain any cards on the Land Rule Banned List.
7.4a. Only cards contained in sets legal in the named format may be submitted.
7.5. Life Rule (LF).
7.5a. If neither player would win otherwise, then the player who maintains the higher life total wins the game.
7.5b. A player must choose an opening hand that enables that player to win both games of a match against at least one legal hand, irrespective of rule 7.5a.
7.6. Backbuild.
7.6a. Players exchanges hands before the start of each match. A hand must enable the player of that hand to win both games of a match against a specified hand or specified hands. Ignore rule 3.1.
7.7. Bonus Points.
7.7a. A player earns bonus points if his or her hand meets specified requirements.
PHM Banned List
The following cards are automatically banned in all Perfect Hand Magic League rounds unless otherwise specified by the round rules. Each round may have an additional banned list that extends beyond, but always includes, these cards.
Land Rule Banned List
"Land Rule" is the most common variant for PHM, and thus a separate ban list has been developed to allow for easier moderation. The following cards are banned in Perfect Hand Magic League rounds when a Land Rule is used. There will be a reminder of this on the round rules.
Also, to clarify "Basic (Snow) Land Rule", my understanding is that we can still choose to play either a snow land or a non-snow land. Is this correct?
I'm gonna be honest, I completely missed that Soldevi Digger was a card. Well this makes a lot of the matchups fairly simple.
01 | X 3 3 0 3 3 6 3 3 0 0 | 24
1v2: Counter Digger/Icefall/Ghoul/Denial on the play, Icefall/Swords recursion gets me on the draw. 3-3
1v3: Counter Digger/Snap on the play, recursion gets me on the draw. 3-3
1v4: Turn 1 opener is too fast. 0-6
1v5: Counter Diggers and Meteor Shower on the play, Meteor Shower recursion eats my tokens on the draw. 3-3
1v6: On the play: Counter Digger, force counter backup on Lore, give you Denial back, counter Pillage through counter backup. On the draw, recursion gets me. 3-3
1v7: Counter Farmer, Stormbind, and Cauldron. 6-0
1v8: Hey look, it's 1v6 again. 3-3
1v9: I counter the recursion engine or I don't. 3-3
1v10: Lose for the usual reason on the draw. No way to stop Icefall from eventually sticking. 0-6
1v11: Double Swords with one Denial backup creates just enough of a tempo advantage to win the race even if I'm on the play, provided that it's sequenced correctly. 0-6
3-3. Misery. Grindy, grindy misery. Person on the draw probably loses turn 1,000 or concedes. Piato, your take?
Unless I'm missing something, two hands consisting of exactly the same cards can't possibly get a match result other than 3-3 (if going first is enough of an advantage to win) or 2-2 (if it isn't), since the two hands will make identical decisions.
Some thoughts on this. I picked meteor shower to protect against Kjeldoran Outpost, since I'm stuck at one card a turn, so swords isn't good enough to overcome the advantage they can accumulate before digger has mana to power it. Disenchant is clearly for the mirror, as well as possibly protecting digger. I didn't actually expect this many arcane denial, but I think it's still okay, on the play, digger beats denial.
1: On the play, digger gets me there. On the draw, everything I'd want to cast is countered. 3-3
2: This is hard. I don't know. I will try and figure out what's really going on here tomorrow. ??? I can stick both diggers on turn 6 on the draw, turn 3/4 on the play. I then get to upkeep disenchant digger disenchant draw step disenchant your digger to remove it, then work my way through the rest of your resources to win. 6-0
3: Disenchant > all that stuff, starting with digger. 6-0
4: Swords gets there, with digger backup. If you wait til turn 3 so you can denial the swords, I've already got down a digger, so I swords it again the next turn. 6-0
6/8: I've got no idea if either of us can destroy enough stuff to break up the recursion. If I never try to break it up, you clearly are able to win the race. If I try to break it up after you shoot me, there may be a window for me to (half) fireball. In the same category as 2 where recursion/counterspell loops could go round and round a long time.
7: I almost see what you're doing here, but don't quite see the details. But disenchant and swords disrupts it easily. 6-0
9: Swords upkeep -> Draw Swords -> Swords main removes the dude. Then the same thing with disenchant should get rid of your digger. Then I grind you down. 6-0
10: Disenchant upkeep -> Draw disenchant -> Disenchant main removes your digger. Then I mop up the rest of the things. 6-0
11: Double Digger gets through on the play and I can keep things clean. It takes a while on the draw though, so maybe outpost gets enough going fast enough to kill before things are cleaned up. Details:
Y1: Island
M1: Plains
Y2: Plains
M2: Plains Digger *($ for arcane denial, % for not)
$
Y3: Outpost
M3: Plains
Y4: Plains
M4: Plains Digger Activate digger. You can disenchant, but then I just get back the other digger.
Y5+ make some tokens, but I've got a digger on board, with another to follow, Meteor Storm keeps the board clear, and eventually pings you.
%
Y3: Outpost
M3: Plains
Y4: Plains
M4: Mountain (eot you make a dude, I swords it, and put swords back in my deck)
Y5: Plains
we repeat the cycle. You can't counter my swords, and I can swords every dude you play without missing any.
I get to 8 mana.
Then on my turn, I cast Digger. You want to take this opportunity to get rid of both, so you disenchant the one in play. I respond by activating the one in play twice, then disenchanting my own digger, then the activations resolve, putting back the digger. You can then counter the digger still on the stack or not. Then I get a digger in play the next turn, and clean up whatever's left.
6-0
*: I'll play with you bubblecat, even if you aren't currently on the list. You only have one piece of interaction for my two diggers, so I set up shop, and swords everything. 6-0
I wholeheartedly agree. The three way grindy nightmare of 2, 5, and 6/8 will take some figuring out. And you've got a mirror which you fortunately don't really have to figure out (2 points either way).
For such a simple round rule, this is one of the hardest computation rounds. (compare with previous 1 and 2-block rounds) Congrats moderator, I really like this round.
Orcish Squatters
An early Squaters is very threatening, since it'll just eat up all the lands. I just didn't find the full deck. Orcish Lumberjack lets it come down turn two and was probably the best route.
Necropotence/Soledevi Digger/Dark Ritual
I worked on this for a LONG time before I realized that it wasn't huge mana, just huge storm. Tried something similar with Thrumming Stone, but the trigger time doesn't quite work.
Anyway, definitely didn't wanna do all the Digging math, so I stayed away from it. On to the matchups.
7v1: Well, this certainly is a thematic first deck to face. Counters weren't all that great this week in my mind, since landing an early Digger invalidates them so much. Outpost was also a sneaky way around counters. Alas, I'm on the wrong end of the meta. None of my cards get past a Denial. 0-6
7v2: Killing Cauldron, Farmer, and Chasm does it. 0-6
7v3: Once I assemble Cauldron + Stormbind + Night, I never have lands on the battlefield for Cold Snap to punish. Glacial Crevasses was a similar card I liked for a deck like yours.6-0
7v4: Take your pick: Dragon locks down Famer; Denial counters Cauldron. It's all bad. 0-6
7v5: Dies to removal. 0-6
7v6: Denial, blah blah. 0-6
7v8: Dies to removal. 0-6
7v9: Dies to removal. 0-6
7v10: Dies to removal. 0-6
7v11: Dies to removal. 0-6
Had I know this week would be so boring, I would have played lands.dec. *sigh*
For such a simple round rule, this is one of the hardest computation rounds. (compare with previous 1 and 2-block rounds) Congrats moderator, I really like this round.
vs. 01 artscrafter: Icefall wins this matchup. 6-0
vs. 02 grumsh: I think Outpost wins this, but so many paths. 6-0?
vs. 03 HerziQuerzi: Icefall kills Digger, counter wins? 6-0
vs. 04 Mogg: Swords kills Dragon good. 6-0
vs. 05 nerdyjoe: ...I hate this format. too complex, will accept defeat rather than calculate. 0-6
vs. 06 piato: ...still hate it. too complex, will accept defeat rather than calculate. 0-6
vs. 07 Rush_Clasic: I think answers beat threats here. 6-0
vs. 08 SeeNamedPerson: ...still hate this format. too complex, will accept defeat rather than calculate. 0-6
vs. 09 tomsloger: Swords on Elves = you can't win. I think the land kill doesn't hurt too much. 6-0?
vs. 11 Xirek: I can kill his Outpost, he can't kill mine. 6-0
vs. 12 bubblecat: Outpost beats Allosaurus Rider. 6-0
It's at least somewhat feasible, but there's the line I used elsewhere, which is in response to your second pillage, active the digger in play twice, then disenchant my own digger, getting both back.
My suspicion is that this is a 2-2 matchup. I can keep up digger/disenchant pressure to force you to never have a draw-step window to spend redrawing incinerate.
Denial sets up a delayed trigger, "on next upkeep". Pillage is a sorcery, so this has to be in (either of) your main phase(s). So you don't get lore back into hand until your next turn, so you don't have denial back until your next turn, and i draw 3 for my turn, getting back the digger and disenchant in upkeep. I get to stick a digger and .. at this point graveyard/library order is really important. So i dunno.
The key error in this line (which just says it doesn't work as described, not that it doesn't work) is that Arcane Denial is not: Counter target spell, draw a card, the spell's controller draws two cards.
I vote that unless you (or someone else for you) can show a clean line of logic for a win, digger+denial/disenchant/pillage/icefall pairings are all 2-2.
Thanks for the great analysis of everything but 5 vs 6/8.
I'm slightly confused by your 5 vs 6/8 analysis. You have your own life increasing for no discernible reason:
t5: You Meteor Shower for 2 (17-17). we lore back digger, then incinerate. (19-14).
It looks to me like that line should end (17-14).
You may have also missed that meteor shower is 1+X damage, so all the damage is increased by 1.
Without doing any thinking of my own, a corrected line of play is:
t2: you digger, we incinerate. (20-17)
t3: you can Meteor Shower for 2 damage (18-17)
t4: you can return Meteor Shower. we digger, returning incinerate. You Disenchant digger.
t5: You Meteor Shower for 3 damage (15-17). we lore back digger, then incinerate. (15-14).
t6: You return and redraw Disenchant and can Meteor Shower for 1 (13-14). We play digger, activate twice, returning incinerate then lore.
t7: You return and redraw Meteor Shower, cast Disenchant, return Disenchant. We redraw incinerate.
t8: You can Meteor Shower for 4 damage. We denial. Lore back digger. Incinerate (13-11).
t9: You redraw Disenchant, and we counter Meteor Shower which you play for two, then return shower. We play digger. Return Arcane Denial, incinerate, lore.
t10. You can redraw Meteor Shower, then shower for 5 damage. (8-11) We redraw denial and hold it up.
t11: You redraw Meteor Shower. Can Shower for x=2, 3 damage (allowing Disenchant & return Disenchant in response to denial) or 4. If you Disenchant, shower for 2, we allow this to resolve (5-11).
[Showering for 4 gets denied, and we get card advantage and to incinerate faster.]
We redraw lore. Lore back digger. Play digger. Incinerate (5-8). Return Incinerate, Lore. In our end step you return Shower.
t12: Can Disenchant. **Departing from the above line here** Do so, you have to let it resolve, because otherwise Shower for x=4, 5 damage kills. Fire off the Shower for x=2, 3 damage(2-8). We shouldn't counter this. You put shower, disenchant back in library. We draw incinerate.
t13: Shower for x=1, 2 damage, gets denialed. Shower is put on bottom. In our upkeep you redraw disenchant and shower, we draw lore, then miss draw-step for turn. Lore has to get back denial to not lose next turn, but then our recursion is all gone, and we don't have enough burn in hand to kill.
Comes out in my favor in this line, I left my deviations using the same voice to not be confusing. We, our, us is 6/7, you, your is 5.
piato, I don't want to fight about digger mirrors either. I have nothing but appreciation and respect for everyone here. I think the easiest way is to practice a few games with paper cards, trading decks back and forth between the players and seeing what lines emerge.
Private Mod Note
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5 Card - White Christmas
Commentary
not gonna lie. didnt look at the sets before posting this round. enjoy all the arcane denials
Calculate Your Row Now
Please submit your score row in the following format:
X | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 | PT | Points
1 | X 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 |
You don't need to calculate the final PTs or score, just your individual results. The scoring conventions are outlined in the rules at the bottom of this post. If there are any difficult or controversial matchups, please highlight these in some way and provide a brief note in your post.
Deck Size: 5 cards
Basic (Snow) Land rule.
Additional Bans: None
The Entries
1artscrafter : Just Say No
Arcane Denial / Arcane Denial / Arcane Denial / Arcane Denial / Kjeldoran Outpost
resilient to arcane denial.
2grumsh : gutless and toothless
icefall / swords to plowshares / soldevi Digger / Arcane Denial / Gutless Ghoul
this is several of the best cards in the format
3HerziQuerzi : weathervane of death
Arcum's Weathervane / Cold Snap / Braid of Fire/ Undergrowth / Soldevi Digger
this deck is hilarious. i hope it works
4Mogg : AIR
Arcane Denial / Rimescale Dragon / Rite of Flame / Rite of Flame / Rite of Flame
comes down faster than arcane denial
5nerdyjoe : meteor craters
Soldevi Digger / Soldevi Digger / Swords to Plowshares / Disenchant / Meteor Shower
needs more arcane denial.
6piato : counterburn
Incinerate / Forgotten Lore / Pillage / Soldevi Digger / Arcane Denial
very straightforward.
7Rush_Clasic : ice caves
Glacial Chasm / Orcish Farmer / Stormbind / Winter's Night / Storm Cauldron
i dont really know what this deck does, not gonna lie to you. farmer is cool though
8SeeNamedPerson : counterburn2
Forgotten Lore / Arcane Denial / Incinerate / Soldevi Digger / Pillage
so weird that two people have the same exact deck.
9tomsloger : LD
Soldevi Digger / Arcane Denial / Thermokarst / Thermokarst / Fyndhorn Elves
second straight week ive had a lone 1/1 as my wincon
10WhammeWhamme : like a boss
Kjeldoran Outpost / Icefall / Arcane Denial / Soldevi Digger / Swords to Plowshares
all these cards are powerful. could be good.
11Xirek : control
Arcane Denial / Disenchant / Swords to Plowshares / Swords to Plowshares / Kjeldoran Outpost
again, these are amongst the best cards in the format. just a matter of matchups.
1. Overview
2. Game Rules
3. Deck Construction Rules
4. Entry
5. Perfect Hand Magic League
6. Scoring
7. Variant Format Rules
1. Overview
Perfect Hand Magic (PHM) is a competitive strategy game for two or more players. It can be played using pencil and paper; however, it's most commonly played via online forum. To play the game, each player secretly chooses a specified number of Magic cards which form that player's hand. Once all players have chosen hands, the hands are revealed and scored.
The object of the game is to choose the hand that will score the most points. The score for each hand is determined by the result that it would achieve if it were used to play two games of Magic – one match – against each competing hand; the rules for these theoretical games are covered in Section 2 – Game Rules. During each theoretical game, the theoretical player of each hand employs the strategy that will maximize the score for his or her hand, taking into account the strategy of his or her opponent.
A hand scores 3 points for each game that it would win, 0 points for each game it would lose, and 1 point for each game that would end in a draw. However, a hand scores only 2 points for any match that would have a symmetrical result, regardless of whether the result would be two drawn games or a win for each hand.
The composition of a hand is limited only by a short banned list and a few restrictions on the game states that it can enable; these restrictions are covered in Section 3 – Deck Composition.
2. Game Rules
2.1. Except for the changes described in these rules, games follow the rules for a normal game of Magic.
2.2. A player's opening hand contains that player's chosen cards.
2.3. Players' libraries begin the game empty.
2.4. A cost or effect that would produce a random result produces the result that least benefits the player who paid that cost or the owner of the source of that effect instead.
2.5. Each player is the starting player for one game in each match.
2.6. Players know the identities of all face-down cards and cards in hidden zones, and players know which decisions have been made by other players.
2.7. If a game would continue indefinitely, then the game is a draw.
2.8. If a loop containing at least one optional action would be repeated indefinitely during a turn, then any player may propose a number of times for that loop to repeat instead. If a player does, then each other player may propose a different number and the loop is repeated for the greatest number of times proposed instead. No player is required to make a choice that would end a loop that crosses multiple turns.
2.9. Cards can't be brought into the game from outside the game.
3. Hand Construction Rules
3.1. A player may not choose an opening hand that could enable that player to achieve any of the following results before an opponent's second turn would begin, such that that opponent could make no sequence of decisions that would not result in at least one of these results:
Ignore this rule in the following cases:
3.2. A hand may contain any number of copies of any card legal in Vintage.
3.3. A hand may not contain any cards on the PHM Banned List.
4. Entry
4.1. A player plays a round of PHM by submitting a list of his or her chosen cards to the PHM moderator.
4.2. A player may change his or her hand until the posted deadline.
4.3. A player may name his or her hand. If that player doesn't, then the PHM moderator may name it. The PHM moderator may also rename a player's hand at his or discretion.
5. Perfect Hand Magic League
5.1. PHM League play consists of four rounds of PHM.
5.2. Each round, a player earns League points according to the following formula:
5.3. The player with the most League points at the end of League play is the PHM League winner.
6. Scoring
6.1. A table of match results is posted at the end of each round. Each row lists one player's results against each other player. A player's points and League points are tallied at the end of his or her row.
6.2. A player may earn bonus League points as specified by the PHM moderator.
6.3. Each player is responsible for determining the match results for his or her hand.
7. Variant Format Rules
7.1. Perfect Hand Magic has been played with hands containing between one and seven cards. Additionally, the Game Rules and Deck Construction Rules have been adapted to create hundreds of variant formats. Five commonly-played variants are described in Sections 7.3-7.7.
7.2. The rules of a variant format overwrite any other applicable rules.
7.3. Land Rule Variant.
7.4. Sanctioned Magic Format Variant.
7.5. Life Rule (LF).
7.6. Backbuild.
7.7. Bonus Points.
PHM Banned List
The following cards are automatically banned in all Perfect Hand Magic League rounds unless otherwise specified by the round rules. Each round may have an additional banned list that extends beyond, but always includes, these cards.
Acceleration
Channel
Fastbond
Flash
Show and Tell
Disruption
Pact of Negation
Chancellor of the Annex
Force of Will
Leyline of Anticipation
Trinisphere
Lands
Ghost Quarter
Strip Mine
Wasteland
Win Conditions
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Barren Glory
Laboratory Maniac
Magus of the Moon
Meddling Mage
The Rack
Vampire Hexmage
Land Rule Banned List
"Land Rule" is the most common variant for PHM, and thus a separate ban list has been developed to allow for easier moderation. The following cards are banned in Perfect Hand Magic League rounds when a Land Rule is used. There will be a reminder of this on the round rules.
Acceleration
Black Lotus
Disruption
Balancing Act
Energy Field
Time Walk
Win Conditions
Beacon of Creation
Maralen of the Mornsong
Nezumi Shortfang
Red Sun's Zenith
White Sun's Zenith
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Also, to clarify "Basic (Snow) Land Rule", my understanding is that we can still choose to play either a snow land or a non-snow land. Is this correct?
BWTeysa, Orzhov Scion
GWRhys the Redeemed
GUKruphix, God of Horizons
GRXenagos, God of Revels
GThrun, the Last Troll
GStompy
No longer staff here.
i didnt actually know it existed...
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Pyroblast// Arcane Denial// Elvish Spirit Guide// Brown Ouphe// Allosaurus Rider
Could you please double check your pms. Thanks
01 | X 3 3 0 3 3 6 3 3 0 0 | 24
1v2: Counter Digger/Icefall/Ghoul/Denial on the play, Icefall/Swords recursion gets me on the draw. 3-3
1v3: Counter Digger/Snap on the play, recursion gets me on the draw. 3-3
1v4: Turn 1 opener is too fast. 0-6
1v5: Counter Diggers and Meteor Shower on the play, Meteor Shower recursion eats my tokens on the draw. 3-3
1v6: On the play: Counter Digger, force counter backup on Lore, give you Denial back, counter Pillage through counter backup. On the draw, recursion gets me. 3-3
1v7: Counter Farmer, Stormbind, and Cauldron. 6-0
1v8: Hey look, it's 1v6 again. 3-3
1v9: I counter the recursion engine or I don't. 3-3
1v10: Lose for the usual reason on the draw. No way to stop Icefall from eventually sticking. 0-6
1v11: Double Swords with one Denial backup creates just enough of a tempo advantage to win the race even if I'm on the play, provided that it's sequenced correctly. 0-6
Unless I'm missing something, two hands consisting of exactly the same cards can't possibly get a match result other than 3-3 (if going first is enough of an advantage to win) or 2-2 (if it isn't), since the two hands will make identical decisions.
Soldevi Digger / Soldevi Digger / Swords to Plowshares / Disenchant / Meteor Shower
Some thoughts on this. I picked meteor shower to protect against Kjeldoran Outpost, since I'm stuck at one card a turn, so swords isn't good enough to overcome the advantage they can accumulate before digger has mana to power it. Disenchant is clearly for the mirror, as well as possibly protecting digger. I didn't actually expect this many arcane denial, but I think it's still okay, on the play, digger beats denial.
X | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 | PT | Points
5 | 3 6 6 6 X 2 6 2 6 6 6 | 50 | 500
1: On the play, digger gets me there. On the draw, everything I'd want to cast is countered. 3-3
2:
This is hard. I don't know. I will try and figure out what's really going on here tomorrow. ???I can stick both diggers on turn 6 on the draw, turn 3/4 on the play. I then get to upkeep disenchant digger disenchant draw step disenchant your digger to remove it, then work my way through the rest of your resources to win. 6-03: Disenchant > all that stuff, starting with digger. 6-0
4: Swords gets there, with digger backup. If you wait til turn 3 so you can denial the swords, I've already got down a digger, so I swords it again the next turn. 6-0
6/8: I've got no idea if either of us can destroy enough stuff to break up the recursion. If I never try to break it up, you clearly are able to win the race. If I try to break it up after you shoot me, there may be a window for me to (half) fireball. In the same category as 2 where recursion/counterspell loops could go round and round a long time.
7: I almost see what you're doing here, but don't quite see the details. But disenchant and swords disrupts it easily. 6-0
9: Swords upkeep -> Draw Swords -> Swords main removes the dude. Then the same thing with disenchant should get rid of your digger. Then I grind you down. 6-0
10: Disenchant upkeep -> Draw disenchant -> Disenchant main removes your digger. Then I mop up the rest of the things. 6-0
11: Double Digger gets through on the play and I can keep things clean. It takes a while on the draw though, so maybe outpost gets enough going fast enough to kill before things are cleaned up. Details:
Y1: Island
M1: Plains
Y2: Plains
M2: Plains Digger *($ for arcane denial, % for not)
$
Y3: Outpost
M3: Plains
Y4: Plains
M4: Plains Digger Activate digger. You can disenchant, but then I just get back the other digger.
Y5+ make some tokens, but I've got a digger on board, with another to follow, Meteor Storm keeps the board clear, and eventually pings you.
%
Y3: Outpost
M3: Plains
Y4: Plains
M4: Mountain (eot you make a dude, I swords it, and put swords back in my deck)
Y5: Plains
we repeat the cycle. You can't counter my swords, and I can swords every dude you play without missing any.
I get to 8 mana.
Then on my turn, I cast Digger. You want to take this opportunity to get rid of both, so you disenchant the one in play. I respond by activating the one in play twice, then disenchanting my own digger, then the activations resolve, putting back the digger. You can then counter the digger still on the stack or not. Then I get a digger in play the next turn, and clean up whatever's left.
6-0
*: I'll play with you bubblecat, even if you aren't currently on the list. You only have one piece of interaction for my two diggers, so I set up shop, and swords everything. 6-0
For such a simple round rule, this is one of the hardest computation rounds. (compare with previous 1 and 2-block rounds) Congrats moderator, I really like this round.
Shield Sphere/Coldsteel Heart/Enduring Renewal/Thermopod/Lava Burst
Four turn infinite damage combo. Felt way too fragile, though.
Orcish Squatters
An early Squaters is very threatening, since it'll just eat up all the lands. I just didn't find the full deck. Orcish Lumberjack lets it come down turn two and was probably the best route.
Necropotence/Soledevi Digger/Dark Ritual
I worked on this for a LONG time before I realized that it wasn't huge mana, just huge storm. Tried something similar with Thrumming Stone, but the trigger time doesn't quite work.
Anyway, definitely didn't wanna do all the Digging math, so I stayed away from it. On to the matchups.
7v2: Killing Cauldron, Farmer, and Chasm does it. 0-6
7v3: Once I assemble Cauldron + Stormbind + Night, I never have lands on the battlefield for Cold Snap to punish. Glacial Crevasses was a similar card I liked for a deck like yours.6-0
7v4: Take your pick: Dragon locks down Famer; Denial counters Cauldron. It's all bad. 0-6
7v5: Dies to removal. 0-6
7v6: Denial, blah blah. 0-6
7v8: Dies to removal. 0-6
7v9: Dies to removal. 0-6
7v10: Dies to removal. 0-6
7v11: Dies to removal. 0-6
Had I know this week would be so boring, I would have played lands.dec. *sigh*
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vs. 02 grumsh: I think Outpost wins this, but so many paths. 6-0?
vs. 03 HerziQuerzi: Icefall kills Digger, counter wins? 6-0
vs. 04 Mogg: Swords kills Dragon good. 6-0
vs. 05 nerdyjoe: ...I hate this format. too complex, will accept defeat rather than calculate. 0-6
vs. 06 piato: ...still hate it. too complex, will accept defeat rather than calculate. 0-6
vs. 07 Rush_Clasic: I think answers beat threats here. 6-0
vs. 08 SeeNamedPerson: ...still hate this format. too complex, will accept defeat rather than calculate. 0-6
vs. 09 tomsloger: Swords on Elves = you can't win. I think the land kill doesn't hurt too much. 6-0?
vs. 11 Xirek: I can kill his Outpost, he can't kill mine. 6-0
vs. 12 bubblecat: Outpost beats Allosaurus Rider. 6-0
(...STUPID SOLDEVI DIGGER)
My suspicion is that this is a 2-2 matchup. I can keep up digger/disenchant pressure to force you to never have a draw-step window to spend redrawing incinerate.
The key error in this line (which just says it doesn't work as described, not that it doesn't work) is that Arcane Denial is not: Counter target spell, draw a card, the spell's controller draws two cards.
I vote that unless you (or someone else for you) can show a clean line of logic for a win, digger+denial/disenchant/pillage/icefall pairings are all 2-2.
I'm slightly confused by your 5 vs 6/8 analysis. You have your own life increasing for no discernible reason:
It looks to me like that line should end (17-14).
You may have also missed that meteor shower is 1+X damage, so all the damage is increased by 1.
Without doing any thinking of my own, a corrected line of play is:
t2: you digger, we incinerate. (20-17)
t3: you can Meteor Shower for 2 damage (18-17)
t4: you can return Meteor Shower. we digger, returning incinerate. You Disenchant digger.
t5: You Meteor Shower for 3 damage (15-17). we lore back digger, then incinerate. (15-14).
t6: You return and redraw Disenchant and can Meteor Shower for 1 (13-14). We play digger, activate twice, returning incinerate then lore.
t7: You return and redraw Meteor Shower, cast Disenchant, return Disenchant. We redraw incinerate.
t8: You can Meteor Shower for 4 damage. We denial. Lore back digger. Incinerate (13-11).
t9: You redraw Disenchant, and we counter Meteor Shower which you play for two, then return shower. We play digger. Return Arcane Denial, incinerate, lore.
t10. You can redraw Meteor Shower, then shower for 5 damage. (8-11) We redraw denial and hold it up.
t11: You redraw Meteor Shower. Can Shower for x=2, 3 damage (allowing Disenchant & return Disenchant in response to denial) or 4. If you Disenchant, shower for 2, we allow this to resolve (5-11).
[Showering for 4 gets denied, and we get card advantage and to incinerate faster.]
We redraw lore. Lore back digger. Play digger. Incinerate (5-8). Return Incinerate, Lore. In our end step you return Shower.
t12: Can Disenchant. **Departing from the above line here** Do so, you have to let it resolve, because otherwise Shower for x=4, 5 damage kills. Fire off the Shower for x=2, 3 damage(2-8). We shouldn't counter this. You put shower, disenchant back in library. We draw incinerate.
t13: Shower for x=1, 2 damage, gets denialed. Shower is put on bottom. In our upkeep you redraw disenchant and shower, we draw lore, then miss draw-step for turn. Lore has to get back denial to not lose next turn, but then our recursion is all gone, and we don't have enough burn in hand to kill.
Comes out in my favor in this line, I left my deviations using the same voice to not be confusing. We, our, us is 6/7, you, your is 5.
piato, I don't want to fight about digger mirrors either. I have nothing but appreciation and respect for everyone here. I think the easiest way is to practice a few games with paper cards, trading decks back and forth between the players and seeing what lines emerge.