I agree that the idea of getting mana from your opponent's damaging you is one of the things that made the format cool. Without it, it's just ar egular format with lower life totals and slightly altered methods of getting mana.
I suppose things can't get too crazy if mana appears when your opponent damages you, since it usually occurs during that opponent's turn. Its updated on the google docs link.
No Colors
Rather than pay the colored portion of the mana cost for a spell, its controller may pay {0}.
Spells can't be countered by spells or abilities.
This idea was inspired by Draco9's Deep Discount format - I just flipped the part of the spell that costs less.
Shared Starters - Enchantments
When submitting a deck, an entrant also chooses an enchantment card. Each player starts the game with a copy of each's player's chosen card on the battlefield.
Also, Clairval's Buy-a-Deck format is incredibly versatile, and I think it should be used again. My suggestion is to keep the number of points at 10, but do a block.
Shared Starters - Enchantments
When submitting a deck, an entrant also chooses an enchantment card. Each player starts the game with a copy of each's player's chosen card on the battlefield.
Although we'd want a good ban list.
We did something halfway similar before, and Planar Chaos broke it.
I'd also love to see some kind of pauper month.
Commons only, across 4 different formats.
(Maybe 1 Peasant week where we get 1 uncommon)
Color Wars (6CB)
Each entrant chooses a color as he or she submits their deck. Each nonland card he or she submits must be the chosen color, and no others. Ban:Chancellor of the Forge, Commandeer
Color Wars (3CB LR) (Light Version)
Each entrant chooses a color as he or she submits their deck. Each card that entrant submits must be the chosen color, and no others.
4CB LR Pack Wars
Each contestant must submit four cards that could be opened in a single booster pack.
This limits players (usually) to only being able to use cards from a single set. It also encourages players to research rarity distribution and foiling in the set of their choice.
Spells you cast cost W less for each Plains you control, U less for each Island you control, B less for each Swamp you control, R less for each Mountain you control, and G less for each Forest you control.
Random effects work in favour of the player including them in their deck, rather than the reverse.
Mana Clash seems pretty powerful with Mercadian Bazaar. Though the size of the format is pretty important: 4+ cards makes foil a powerful choice, which would solve that issue. (Alternatively, adding a land rule would make it always impossible)
3CH LR Growth Curves-
Players can't win or lose or draw the game. After each player has completed 1,000,000 turns, whichever player has taken the most damage loses (overriding the previous effect).
Decks may not have infinite damage combos. (Formal definition: Your deck is illegal if, for every number X, your deck can deal X or more damage to the opponent within the 1,000,000 turns)
--The basic idea is to force people to figure out what has the greatest growth curves in damage. I'd personally prefer to do outright infinite turns, but infinites are very confusing to some people. Giant Adephage, Spawnwrithe, and Mirror-Sigil Sergeant are obvious choices at 2^n per turn, but there are better combos out there (and players must keep in mind Leyline of Singularity, Obliterate, and Supreme Verdict, putting a major slowdown on the infinitely growing tokens plan)
edit: note that if you go above 3 cards, things start getting really broken with Opalescence+Doubling Season+Followed Footsteps being able to also play protection for the combo, and having what I'm 90% certain is the fastest growth curve... though I suppose the 4th card can really aid that curve as well.
2CH ELR Upwelling-
Mana pools don't empty as steps and phases end.
--Simple, clean, and letting players cast spells way ahead of schedule (T5 Emrakul). Make big spells' mana costs mean something. ELR to allow for significantly faster starts, at a significant cost (Ancient Tomb+Form of the Dragon T2)
XCH ELR Buy-a-Deck 7-
You have 7 points to buy your deck. Use the lowest rarity printed/released (includes online-only sets).
Basic = 1
Common = 2
Uncommon = 3
Rare = 4
Mythic = 5
Cards that have only been printed at Special, Promo, or Bonus rarity may not be bought.
--We've done point-buy decks for sets and blocks, why not try extending it to all of magic? Lowered the points to compensate for the increased power level. Alternatively replace ELR with just an extra couple of points, shouldn't really matter since I expect it to be a very combo-dominated round.
3CH+1 LR Draw First-
Choose an additional card as you submit your deck. If you are on the draw, that card begins the game in your library.
--While the rules don't prevent milling of that card, I doubt anyone will be able to exploit that. Should allow for some interesting T2 kills using the extra card. It starts in the deck to prevent people from using Gemstone Mine or Foil as effectively. Not sure on the LR here, but it's meant to make the play-first advantage more prominent to compensate for the card lost. If you chose non-LR, I'd probably go for 5CH+1 to make the extra card have a much smaller overall effect.
Soulmates
Each creature card in your deck is combined with a differently named creature card with the exact same cost. Combine those card's power, toughness, abilities, and types. (For example, a Llanowar Elves/Tarpan would be a 2/2 Horse Elf Druid that taps for G and gains you a life when it dies.) I recommend only a 3 card deck.
Tax Everything - 5CB
Spells cost more to cast.
Nonbasic land cards are now Artifacts.
Bans: Leylines, Chancellors
Note: Nonbasic land cards now have a printed mana cost of . If cast, it costs to cast.
Safety Dance - 5CB
Permanents enter the battlefield tapped.
Untap all permanents during each untap step.
Not a format per se, but an idea to make a 'patched' version of the game, where we determine what cards are too good or bad and adjust them like video game developers do with their games.
The intent of this 'patch' is to encourage diversity in the metagame through a number of methods.
* Weaken turn 1 'burst' mana generation and encourage slower, land based mana generation.
* Weaken permanent destruction.
* Weaken 'free' counterspells by making them conditional.
* Encourage creature 'aggro' strategies. Make anti-creature cards more conditional.
means a buff. means a nerf. means adjustment. means removed.
Ancient Spring cycle: No longer enters the battlefield tapped.
Dwarven Ruins cycle: No longer enters the battlefield tapped.
City of Shadows: First ability cost changed to " ".
Fountain of Cho cycle: First ability changed to "Enters the battlefield tapped with two storage counters on it."
Reito Lantern: Ability cost reduced to " ".
Sheltered Valley: First ability removed.
Dark Depths: Now enters the battlefield with five ice counters. Token reduced to 10/10.
Force of Will: Alternate cost changed to "Exile a blue card from your hand." Now only counters noncreature spells.
Chancellor of the Annex: First ability removed.
Foil: Now only counters noncreature spells.
Form of the Dragon: Last ability removed.
Iona, Shield of Emeria: Third ability changed to "noncreature spells of the chosen color."
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: Annihilator reduced to 1.
Rakdos the Defiler: Last two abilities altered to "sacrifice a non-Demon permanent".
Ajani Vengeant: First ability only affects a nonland permanent.
Beast Within, Necrotic Sliver, Vindicate: Now only destroys nonland permanents.
Frost Titan: Second ability only taps a nonland permanent.
Liquimetal Coating: Now only affects nonland permanents.
Blood Moon: Cost increased by .
Misguided Rage: Cost increased by .
Reanimate: Cost increased by .
Show and Tell: Cost increased by .
Magus of the Moon: Cost increased by .
Painter's Servant: Cost increased by .
Stronghold Gambit: Cost increased by .
All cards banned in PHM that are not listed here are still banned.
Ancient Tomb; City of Traitors; Mana Crypt: cost cards that can generate 2 mana without sacrificing on turn 1.
Black Lotus; Lion's Eye Diamond; Mishra's Workshop: cost cards that can generate 3 or more mana by themselves on turn 1.
Crack the Earth; Evil Presence; Lush Growth; Raze; Rishadan Port; Sea's Claim: Low cost land disruption cards.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn; Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Very strong creatures with too much utility.
Ensnaring Bridge; Glacial Chasm; Island Sanctuary, Karakas: Removed to encourage diversity with anti-creature cards.
Leyline of the Meek: Very strong when combined with Chancellor of the Forge.
Mana Vault: cost permanent card that can generate 3 or more mana by itself.
I also think Exact turn X is a neat idea.
4th place at CCC&G Pro Tour
Chances of bad hands (<2 or >4 land):
21: 28.9%
22: 27.5%
23: 26.3%
24: 25.5%
25: 25.1%
26: 25.3%
No Colors
Rather than pay the colored portion of the mana cost for a spell, its controller may pay {0}.
Spells can't be countered by spells or abilities.
This idea was inspired by Draco9's Deep Discount format - I just flipped the part of the spell that costs less.
Shared Starters - Enchantments
When submitting a deck, an entrant also chooses an enchantment card. Each player starts the game with a copy of each's player's chosen card on the battlefield.
Also, Clairval's Buy-a-Deck format is incredibly versatile, and I think it should be used again. My suggestion is to keep the number of points at 10, but do a block.
BWTeysa, Orzhov Scion
GWRhys the Redeemed
GUKruphix, God of Horizons
GRXenagos, God of Revels
GThrun, the Last Troll
GStompy
Although we'd want a good ban list.
We did something halfway similar before, and Planar Chaos broke it.
I'd also love to see some kind of pauper month.
Commons only, across 4 different formats.
(Maybe 1 Peasant week where we get 1 uncommon)
No longer staff here.
As far the enchantments go,
Dovescape.
Decree of Silence.
Omniscience.
Aura Flux/Serenity/Seal of Cleansing effects seem against the spirit of the format.
Necropotence and Bargain seem dangerous.
Delusions of Grandeur and the Lich enchantments are banned by the rules.
4th place at CCC&G Pro Tour
Chances of bad hands (<2 or >4 land):
21: 28.9%
22: 27.5%
23: 26.3%
24: 25.5%
25: 25.1%
26: 25.3%
i dont mind modding the round, (though someone else can if you want) but im burned out on picking.
Each entrant chooses a color as he or she submits their deck. Each nonland card he or she submits must be the chosen color, and no others.
Ban: Chancellor of the Forge, Commandeer
Color Wars (3CB LR) (Light Version)
Each entrant chooses a color as he or she submits their deck. Each card that entrant submits must be the chosen color, and no others.
No longer staff here.
Each contestant must submit a deck that loses 0-6 to a given deck. XCB, optional LR.
5CB Alphabetized
Players cannot play each card with a name that do not come first alphabetically among names of cards in their hand. For example, Black Lotus/Conjurer's Bauble/Leyline of the Void/Thalia, Guardian of Thraben/Wipe Away would be a solid deck, because it plays its cards in alphabetical order.
CubeTutor Link
3 card: Each player begins the game with three copies of their deck in their hand. There is no maximum hand size.
Grave Mirror
Each player starts with a copy of their deck in their graveyard.
Players cannot cast spells without a white mana symbol in their casting cost.
All mana produced is white instead of any other color or colorless.
Players cannot activate abilities unless the mana cost (if any) includes a white mana symbol.
You can do this for any color, I'd be interested to see which colors have the highest/lowest power level.
Each contestant must submit four cards that could be opened in a single booster pack.
This limits players (usually) to only being able to use cards from a single set. It also encourages players to research rarity distribution and foiling in the set of their choice.
CubeTutor Link
Spells you cast cost W less for each Plains you control, U less for each Island you control, B less for each Swamp you control, R less for each Mountain you control, and G less for each Forest you control.
Bans: Nylea's Presence, Prismatic Omen
Random effects work in favour of the player including them in their deck, rather than the reverse.
Mana Clash seems pretty powerful with Mercadian Bazaar. Though the size of the format is pretty important: 4+ cards makes foil a powerful choice, which would solve that issue. (Alternatively, adding a land rule would make it always impossible)
Other potentially scary cards include Impulsive Maneuvers and, most scarily, Planar Chaos.
Anyway, some of my own ideas:
3CH LR Growth Curves-
Players can't win or lose or draw the game. After each player has completed 1,000,000 turns, whichever player has taken the most damage loses (overriding the previous effect).
Decks may not have infinite damage combos. (Formal definition: Your deck is illegal if, for every number X, your deck can deal X or more damage to the opponent within the 1,000,000 turns)
--The basic idea is to force people to figure out what has the greatest growth curves in damage. I'd personally prefer to do outright infinite turns, but infinites are very confusing to some people. Giant Adephage, Spawnwrithe, and Mirror-Sigil Sergeant are obvious choices at 2^n per turn, but there are better combos out there (and players must keep in mind Leyline of Singularity, Obliterate, and Supreme Verdict, putting a major slowdown on the infinitely growing tokens plan)
edit: note that if you go above 3 cards, things start getting really broken with Opalescence+Doubling Season+Followed Footsteps being able to also play protection for the combo, and having what I'm 90% certain is the fastest growth curve... though I suppose the 4th card can really aid that curve as well.
2CH ELR Upwelling-
Mana pools don't empty as steps and phases end.
--Simple, clean, and letting players cast spells way ahead of schedule (T5 Emrakul). Make big spells' mana costs mean something. ELR to allow for significantly faster starts, at a significant cost (Ancient Tomb+Form of the Dragon T2)
XCH ELR Buy-a-Deck 7-
You have 7 points to buy your deck. Use the lowest rarity printed/released (includes online-only sets).
Basic = 1
Common = 2
Uncommon = 3
Rare = 4
Mythic = 5
Cards that have only been printed at Special, Promo, or Bonus rarity may not be bought.
--We've done point-buy decks for sets and blocks, why not try extending it to all of magic? Lowered the points to compensate for the increased power level. Alternatively replace ELR with just an extra couple of points, shouldn't really matter since I expect it to be a very combo-dominated round.
3CH+1 LR Draw First-
Choose an additional card as you submit your deck. If you are on the draw, that card begins the game in your library.
--While the rules don't prevent milling of that card, I doubt anyone will be able to exploit that. Should allow for some interesting T2 kills using the extra card. It starts in the deck to prevent people from using Gemstone Mine or Foil as effectively. Not sure on the LR here, but it's meant to make the play-first advantage more prominent to compensate for the card lost. If you chose non-LR, I'd probably go for 5CH+1 to make the extra card have a much smaller overall effect.
Each creature card in your deck is combined with a differently named creature card with the exact same cost. Combine those card's power, toughness, abilities, and types. (For example, a Llanowar Elves/Tarpan would be a 2/2 Horse Elf Druid that taps for G and gains you a life when it dies.) I recommend only a 3 card deck.
Spells cost more to cast.
Nonbasic land cards are now Artifacts.
Bans: Leylines, Chancellors
Note: Nonbasic land cards now have a printed mana cost of . If cast, it costs to cast.
Safety Dance - 5CB
Permanents enter the battlefield tapped.
Untap all permanents during each untap step.
The intent of this 'patch' is to encourage diversity in the metagame through a number of methods.
* Weaken turn 1 'burst' mana generation and encourage slower, land based mana generation.
* Weaken permanent destruction.
* Weaken 'free' counterspells by making them conditional.
* Encourage creature 'aggro' strategies. Make anti-creature cards more conditional.
means a buff. means a nerf. means adjustment. means removed.
Ancient Spring cycle: No longer enters the battlefield tapped.
Dwarven Ruins cycle: No longer enters the battlefield tapped.
City of Shadows: First ability cost changed to " ".
Fountain of Cho cycle: First ability changed to "Enters the battlefield tapped with two storage counters on it."
Reito Lantern: Ability cost reduced to " ".
Sheltered Valley: First ability removed.
Dark Depths: Now enters the battlefield with five ice counters. Token reduced to 10/10.
Force of Will: Alternate cost changed to "Exile a blue card from your hand." Now only counters noncreature spells.
Chancellor of the Annex: First ability removed.
Foil: Now only counters noncreature spells.
Form of the Dragon: Last ability removed.
Iona, Shield of Emeria: Third ability changed to "noncreature spells of the chosen color."
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: Annihilator reduced to 1.
Rakdos the Defiler: Last two abilities altered to "sacrifice a non-Demon permanent".
Ajani Vengeant: First ability only affects a nonland permanent.
Beast Within, Necrotic Sliver, Vindicate: Now only destroys nonland permanents.
Frost Titan: Second ability only taps a nonland permanent.
Liquimetal Coating: Now only affects nonland permanents.
Blood Moon: Cost increased by .
Misguided Rage: Cost increased by .
Reanimate: Cost increased by .
Show and Tell: Cost increased by .
Magus of the Moon: Cost increased by .
Painter's Servant: Cost increased by .
Stronghold Gambit: Cost increased by .
All cards banned in PHM that are not listed here are still banned.
Ancient Tomb; City of Traitors; Mana Crypt: cost cards that can generate 2 mana without sacrificing on turn 1.
Black Lotus; Lion's Eye Diamond; Mishra's Workshop: cost cards that can generate 3 or more mana by themselves on turn 1.
Crack the Earth; Evil Presence; Lush Growth; Raze; Rishadan Port; Sea's Claim: Low cost land disruption cards.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn; Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre: Very strong creatures with too much utility.
Ensnaring Bridge; Glacial Chasm; Island Sanctuary, Karakas: Removed to encourage diversity with anti-creature cards.
Leyline of the Meek: Very strong when combined with Chancellor of the Forge.
Mana Vault: cost permanent card that can generate 3 or more mana by itself.