So why do we make homebrew and variant formats? What is most interesting to you about doing so?
I'm interested to hear from people. There's a lot of formats out there; what do homebrews and variants bring to you that the current ones that are sanctioned or more popular don't? What are the eternal struggles (that may have been a pun) of those sanctioned/popular formats for you?
I have a list of ideas as to what brings people here; I'm interested to hear more:
90% of my cards become worthless and/or unplayable within 24 hours of opening them.
Eternal formats always seem to have the same problem: Scarce, expensive older cards with set decks and few new ones entering.
Rotating formats have similar issues: Expensive, continual investment and the majority of playable cards become worthless when rotating out
Excitement and fun of trying out a brand new format
Lack of a "solved" meta in new formats
Nostalgia factor of playing many of aforementioned, otherwise unplayable cards
Feeling left out of a tryhard competitive meta when I would rather play what you find fun
I wonder if you are mistaking variants for metas? I think a person's issues with established formats has more to do with unfun and egotistical players and "optimal" cards than the actual format itself at worst, and just people who want to play more competitively at best. As such, people gravitate toward metas where the people more match their temperament, and play cards/formats that match that.
For example, in my group that's been playing together for about 25 years, we deliberately don't get into Standard and Modern because none of us can afford to have a rotating card supply. Well, all but one anyhow. Our decks are extremely non-optimized as a result because we don't keep up with trends. To us we're competitive, but posting several decks here make it obvious I am woefully behind the curve even as the best player in the group, and my decks look janky and terrible judging from a lot of the commentary. Lol, oh well. Nevertheless, variants we use are simply a way of correcting issues we have with a given format. I just posted my group's variant on Emperor games, which I hope you will try out, and simply helps to make all players feel more active and invested in the game. It was a reaction to the Emperors largely being buff spaminators while waiting for one of their wings to die (boring and morbid at the same time). Our 2HG variant doesn't adhere totally to that format, either. Having said that, we probably wouldn't play much different decks or cards regardless of whether we use the established rules or homebrew rules. We would still use janky underpowered cards either way.
It's possible I'm just misunderstanding you, and please forgive me if I did.
Something different and point five, to an extent. There usually are cards and decks that will dominate a meta but there are many ways around this.
Singleton forced more variety for less predictable games. Cube/Type 4 drafting negates (typically) the same player from using the same powerful card. Pauper forces players to take a second glance at chaff and has awarded me with a turn three casual win.
Then you have archenemy and horde, where a good opposing deck is either running those powerhouse cards or built with answers to them.
The next is the psychological shift. I've been playing for a long time, but I learned quickly that if a deck is the wrong type of powerful (or just outright annoying) the other players will focus on removing it from the competition first and foremost. This is removed in formats such as Star or Assassin and actually encouraged in games such as Horde, Archenemy, and to a lesser extent: Emperor.
Point four touches on it, but Magic, like all things, needs to be kept interesting otherwise we'd write it off as boring and old news. Sure, WotC carries much of the burden, but we as players have the ability to create and tweak the game we love into new exciting things to test our wits and share with our fellow players.
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I'm interested to hear from people. There's a lot of formats out there; what do homebrews and variants bring to you that the current ones that are sanctioned or more popular don't? What are the eternal struggles (that may have been a pun) of those sanctioned/popular formats for you?
I have a list of ideas as to what brings people here; I'm interested to hear more:
What else brings you here?
For example, in my group that's been playing together for about 25 years, we deliberately don't get into Standard and Modern because none of us can afford to have a rotating card supply. Well, all but one anyhow. Our decks are extremely non-optimized as a result because we don't keep up with trends. To us we're competitive, but posting several decks here make it obvious I am woefully behind the curve even as the best player in the group, and my decks look janky and terrible judging from a lot of the commentary. Lol, oh well. Nevertheless, variants we use are simply a way of correcting issues we have with a given format. I just posted my group's variant on Emperor games, which I hope you will try out, and simply helps to make all players feel more active and invested in the game. It was a reaction to the Emperors largely being buff spaminators while waiting for one of their wings to die (boring and morbid at the same time). Our 2HG variant doesn't adhere totally to that format, either. Having said that, we probably wouldn't play much different decks or cards regardless of whether we use the established rules or homebrew rules. We would still use janky underpowered cards either way.
It's possible I'm just misunderstanding you, and please forgive me if I did.
Singleton forced more variety for less predictable games. Cube/Type 4 drafting negates (typically) the same player from using the same powerful card. Pauper forces players to take a second glance at chaff and has awarded me with a turn three casual win.
Then you have archenemy and horde, where a good opposing deck is either running those powerhouse cards or built with answers to them.
The next is the psychological shift. I've been playing for a long time, but I learned quickly that if a deck is the wrong type of powerful (or just outright annoying) the other players will focus on removing it from the competition first and foremost. This is removed in formats such as Star or Assassin and actually encouraged in games such as Horde, Archenemy, and to a lesser extent: Emperor.
Point four touches on it, but Magic, like all things, needs to be kept interesting otherwise we'd write it off as boring and old news. Sure, WotC carries much of the burden, but we as players have the ability to create and tweak the game we love into new exciting things to test our wits and share with our fellow players.