I've been playing this with friends and my brother for a couple years now and thought i'd share it. It is a different take on the online prismatic format.
Rules:
1) 250 Card minimum (no max)
2) 10% of the deck must be dedicated to each color (split/hybrid/gold cards count as only 1 color each)
3) Only 1 of any card other than basic or snow-covered land
4) Banlist
+anything that tutors anything (including land)
+anything that shuffles just for the sake of it (Myr Mindservant, Lantern of Insight)
5)Cards that shuffle back into your library such as beacons, zeniths, exile themselves and anything else they shuffle in instead of the shuffle. If there are known cards on the top of the affected player(s) library, the resolved card is still exiled along with the known card(s). This is a very rare occurrence. Cards like Deglamer just exile the card, no shuffling occurs.
The ban on shuffling is to eliminate shuffling times of 250+ card decks.
Gameplay adjustments:
1)When starting play for the first game, shuffle the entire deck. This is the only time the entire deck will be shuffled.
2)You are allowed any number of free mulligans in which you have 1, 6 ,or 7 lands in your opening hand. This might tempt you to just build your deck land light, but you still need to draw land throughout the game to fix all colors. Any mulliganed hand is put back in your box (more on that in a minute).
3)If the game is 3 or more players, all players draw on their first turn. If the game is 5 or more players, range of influence and attacking restrictions should be used.
4)If a card is put on the bottom of a players library, it is considered on the bottom of the library for cards like Cella Door, until the game ends. It is usually easiest to put them in their own face down and properly ordered pile.
5)When a game is complete, collect everything from the battlefield, graveyard, hand, exile zone, and any cards from the top of or the bottom of the library that are known(due to Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Future Sight, Sensei’s Divining Top, Bant Charm, Wheel of Sun and Moon, etc) and put all of those cards in the box.
6)Cards in the box will not be drawn again until the next play session or if you need to re-shuffle the entire deck to continue play.
7)When you start the next game, players just draw opening hands from the rest of the pre-shuffled library. This virtually eliminates the drag of shuffling.
Format pros:
1)You get to use tons of stuff, including things you wouldn’t normally use outside of draft. The huge variety of cards opens your eyes to new strategies and allows you to experience cards you never have before.
2)Games are extremely different every time. Interactions that you’ve never seen occur regularly.
3)After the up front shuffling, you have hours of zero shuffling.
4)No single strategy can be overly dominant because of high variance. So you won’t just get run over every game by aggro, or locked out by combo control over and over.
5)Can be a very skill testing format due to extremely complex board states, and the ability to set up, and and the need to avoid huge blowouts.
6)The format is slower. Instead of racing (like many formats have become), you work to chip away at opponents and gain incremental advantages (most of the time anyway…)
7)If your opponent(s) do not have deck(s), you can split your own so each player has a library.
Format Cons:
1)Can be expensive to build (even not foil). The larger the deck is, the better your manabase needs to be to remain consistent. Sleeves aren’t cheap either. You don't have to use the best cards though; you can be competitive at the table with virtually no rares because of high variance.
2)Sometimes you just draw a string of cards that would be relevant in many games, but not the current one and you just fall over dead.
3)Being color screwed happens more often than in any other format. Many color filtering and mana fixing cards shine bright in this format (Prophetic Prism, Mana Cylix, etc)
4)Constructing, molding, and updating the deck can be time consuming. The same could be said about most EDH decks though.
If there is some holes in the rules, it is likely an oversight on my part. I've played hundreds of games in this format and still encounter new interactions almost every time I sit down to play. I am interested in hearing thoughts, answering questions, and hopefully encouraging people to try this (what I consider) awesome format.
Rules:
1) 250 Card minimum (no max)
2) 10% of the deck must be dedicated to each color (split/hybrid/gold cards count as only 1 color each)
3) Only 1 of any card other than basic or snow-covered land
4) Banlist
+anything that tutors anything (including land)
+anything that shuffles just for the sake of it (Myr Mindservant, Lantern of Insight)
The ban on shuffling is to eliminate shuffling times of 250+ card decks.
Gameplay adjustments:
1)When starting play for the first game, shuffle the entire deck. This is the only time the entire deck will be shuffled.
2)You are allowed any number of free mulligans in which you have 1, 6 ,or 7 lands in your opening hand. This might tempt you to just build your deck land light, but you still need to draw land throughout the game to fix all colors. Any mulliganed hand is put back in your box (more on that in a minute).
3)If the game is 3 or more players, all players draw on their first turn. If the game is 5 or more players, range of influence and attacking restrictions should be used.
4)If a card is put on the bottom of a players library, it is considered on the bottom of the library for cards like Cella Door, until the game ends. It is usually easiest to put them in their own face down and properly ordered pile.
5)When a game is complete, collect everything from the battlefield, graveyard, hand, exile zone, and any cards from the top of or the bottom of the library that are known(due to Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Future Sight, Sensei’s Divining Top, Bant Charm, Wheel of Sun and Moon, etc) and put all of those cards in the box.
6)Cards in the box will not be drawn again until the next play session or if you need to re-shuffle the entire deck to continue play.
7)When you start the next game, players just draw opening hands from the rest of the pre-shuffled library. This virtually eliminates the drag of shuffling.
Format pros:
1)You get to use tons of stuff, including things you wouldn’t normally use outside of draft. The huge variety of cards opens your eyes to new strategies and allows you to experience cards you never have before.
2)Games are extremely different every time. Interactions that you’ve never seen occur regularly.
3)After the up front shuffling, you have hours of zero shuffling.
4)No single strategy can be overly dominant because of high variance. So you won’t just get run over every game by aggro, or locked out by combo control over and over.
5)Can be a very skill testing format due to extremely complex board states, and the ability to set up, and and the need to avoid huge blowouts.
6)The format is slower. Instead of racing (like many formats have become), you work to chip away at opponents and gain incremental advantages (most of the time anyway…)
7)If your opponent(s) do not have deck(s), you can split your own so each player has a library.
Format Cons:
1)Can be expensive to build (even not foil). The larger the deck is, the better your manabase needs to be to remain consistent. Sleeves aren’t cheap either. You don't have to use the best cards though; you can be competitive at the table with virtually no rares because of high variance.
2)Sometimes you just draw a string of cards that would be relevant in many games, but not the current one and you just fall over dead.
3)Being color screwed happens more often than in any other format. Many color filtering and mana fixing cards shine bright in this format (Prophetic Prism, Mana Cylix, etc)
4)Constructing, molding, and updating the deck can be time consuming. The same could be said about most EDH decks though.
If there is some holes in the rules, it is likely an oversight on my part. I've played hundreds of games in this format and still encounter new interactions almost every time I sit down to play. I am interested in hearing thoughts, answering questions, and hopefully encouraging people to try this (what I consider) awesome format.
All your Ice Age Foil Basics are belong to us
If you have any foil 7ED Island #334 I am very interested!