One of the limiting factors of multiplayer Magic is the fact that being eliminated from the game is not fun. If you get taken out, there's nothing left to do but sit and watch, or maybe play a game of 1v1 with the other eliminated players. This ruleset attempts to address that: in Deathmatch, nobody is ever eliminated from the game. Deathmatch is designed to be played in tandem with other rulesets: it does not change the rules of the game, for the most part, but rather the victory conditions.
The goal of Deathmatch is to reach a set number of points. For a four-player game, I like to set it at 5 points. You may want to set it to a lower number if you're playing EDH. Making a player lose the game, be it by damage, Door to Nothingness, or other reasons, earns you a point. Resolving a "you win the game" condition earns you a point. If you make yourself lose the game, you lose a point. When you hit the set number of points, you win the Deathmatch, and the game ends.
Upon losing the game, players shuffle their hands, graveyards, exiled cards, and all nonland permanents into the deck. Lands are not shuffled into the deck, as losing everything will make the goal of building up resources again nearly insurmountable. They then receive their starting amount of life (usually 20) and a new hand of seven cards. A newly "respawned" player cannot be attacked and has hexproof until they have taken two turns after losing the game.
Advantages of the ruleset:
-Everyone is always playing Magic
-New strategies are opened for victory: do you take out the second most powerful player on the board, or focus on the newly respawned players?
-Early-game aggro decks are not unsporting to play here, as they can do more than simply eliminate one player and then die to midrange/Timmy/combo decks
Disadvantages of the ruleset:
-Works poorly with alternate victory conditions in many cases
-Defensive strategies are less valuable here, as opponents can ignore a virtually invincible player and kill the other players for points
I'm sure this format has come up before. Have you tried it, or a variant? What did you think?
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These days, some wizards are finding they have a little too much deck left at the end of their $$$.
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... as opponents can ignore a virtually invincible player and kill the other players for points
We tried something like this a while back.
In a large FFA multiplayer game, you end up with 2 or 3 players who end up ignoring each other and pouncing on whichever player just respawned.
Makes a long game last longer.
Makes losing early very unfun, as you just get whomped as soon as you've had a couple turns, as chances are you can't play anything meaningful.
If you're the *threat* player, you stand NO CHANCE IN HELL of ever doing anything meaningful, as respawned players have nothing to do but counter, until they get killed off (again).
We tried a few different variations, like letting the killed off players retain 6 lands on the field to restart with for example. Didn't help much, as whilst some decks can reboot quite easily, others take too long to recover in order to avoid getting blitzed over and over.
Eldrazi kills this idea badly with all the annihilator filth.
We gave up on the idea, considered drinking and smoking weed to be a better way to spend your time in between games.;)
We tried something like this a while back.
In a large FFA multiplayer game, you end up with 2 or 3 players who end up ignoring each other and pouncing on whichever player just respawned.
Makes a long game last longer.
Makes losing early very unfun, as you just get whomped as soon as you've had a couple turns, as chances are you can't play anything meaningful.
If you're the *threat* player, you stand NO CHANCE IN HELL of ever doing anything meaningful, as respawned players have nothing to do but counter, until they get killed off (again).
We tried a few different variations, like letting the killed off players retain 6 lands on the field to restart with for example. Didn't help much, as whilst some decks can reboot quite easily, others take too long to recover in order to avoid getting blitzed over and over.
Eldrazi kills this idea badly with all the annihilator filth.
We gave up on the idea, considered drinking and smoking weed to be a better way to spend your time in between games.;)
As the OP mentioned it is better for killed players to restart with all their lands, not just 6. In fact, I think they probably have an option to get more lands (say, as much as the average number of lands in play, or two more than they previously had) to protect against land destruction and Eldrazi shenanigans.
Also, I find it hard to believe it takes more than 2 turns recovering, especially with a full hand. I mean, it only takes a mass removal spell to clear the field and take you back into the game fully.
If it is still not enough, you could also experiment with additional bonuses for newly spawned players.
The only problem I see with this format is that combo decks can dominate, because when a combo goes off it may very well kill everyone at the table. But, as mentioned, chances are someone will be able to clear the board in the next two turns.
Why not just make it so that it's the first person to x-1 kills where x is the number of players and you don't get points for killing someone more than once.
So if there are 5 players you only win once you've personally killed all 4 once.
Why don't you run it where instead of restarting anything the "dead" player has 2 turns passed as penalty for dying. then, he just continues playing from where he was. 2 turns is enough to give other decks a bit of a lead on him and he wont be completely shut off. also, the respawned player may not be targeted at all but, to keep it fair he is affected by mass removal and may not respond to anything.
We've done something like this, but with no more than three players, the caveat being that a player only "wins" if they remove both opponents during the same turn.
Another method involved more players, but with three decks each. Each respawn got a set amount of turns where they cannot be targeted or even affected by others, and the winner was whomever made it to the end having decks left. While these made for longer games, the deck variety made up for it.
Cheers!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If in the area, check out Gamers N Geeks and Mini War Games in Mobile, Alabama and Underhill's Games in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
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The goal of Deathmatch is to reach a set number of points. For a four-player game, I like to set it at 5 points. You may want to set it to a lower number if you're playing EDH. Making a player lose the game, be it by damage, Door to Nothingness, or other reasons, earns you a point. Resolving a "you win the game" condition earns you a point. If you make yourself lose the game, you lose a point. When you hit the set number of points, you win the Deathmatch, and the game ends.
Upon losing the game, players shuffle their hands, graveyards, exiled cards, and all nonland permanents into the deck. Lands are not shuffled into the deck, as losing everything will make the goal of building up resources again nearly insurmountable. They then receive their starting amount of life (usually 20) and a new hand of seven cards. A newly "respawned" player cannot be attacked and has hexproof until they have taken two turns after losing the game.
Advantages of the ruleset:
-Everyone is always playing Magic
-New strategies are opened for victory: do you take out the second most powerful player on the board, or focus on the newly respawned players?
-Early-game aggro decks are not unsporting to play here, as they can do more than simply eliminate one player and then die to midrange/Timmy/combo decks
Disadvantages of the ruleset:
-Works poorly with alternate victory conditions in many cases
-Defensive strategies are less valuable here, as opponents can ignore a virtually invincible player and kill the other players for points
I'm sure this format has come up before. Have you tried it, or a variant? What did you think?
MTG finance guy- follow me on Twitter@RichArschmann or RichardArschmann on Reddit
We tried something like this a while back.
In a large FFA multiplayer game, you end up with 2 or 3 players who end up ignoring each other and pouncing on whichever player just respawned.
Makes a long game last longer.
Makes losing early very unfun, as you just get whomped as soon as you've had a couple turns, as chances are you can't play anything meaningful.
If you're the *threat* player, you stand NO CHANCE IN HELL of ever doing anything meaningful, as respawned players have nothing to do but counter, until they get killed off (again).
We tried a few different variations, like letting the killed off players retain 6 lands on the field to restart with for example. Didn't help much, as whilst some decks can reboot quite easily, others take too long to recover in order to avoid getting blitzed over and over.
Eldrazi kills this idea badly with all the annihilator filth.
We gave up on the idea, considered drinking and smoking weed to be a better way to spend your time in between games.;)
As the OP mentioned it is better for killed players to restart with all their lands, not just 6. In fact, I think they probably have an option to get more lands (say, as much as the average number of lands in play, or two more than they previously had) to protect against land destruction and Eldrazi shenanigans.
Also, I find it hard to believe it takes more than 2 turns recovering, especially with a full hand. I mean, it only takes a mass removal spell to clear the field and take you back into the game fully.
If it is still not enough, you could also experiment with additional bonuses for newly spawned players.
The only problem I see with this format is that combo decks can dominate, because when a combo goes off it may very well kill everyone at the table. But, as mentioned, chances are someone will be able to clear the board in the next two turns.
So if there are 5 players you only win once you've personally killed all 4 once.
Another method involved more players, but with three decks each. Each respawn got a set amount of turns where they cannot be targeted or even affected by others, and the winner was whomever made it to the end having decks left. While these made for longer games, the deck variety made up for it.
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.