I had this idea of a edh capture the flag variant.
Basically each player has a set number of flag emblems and whenever a creature controlled by an opponent deals combat damage to a player it can steal a flag emblem from the defending player. At the beginning of the stealing player's upkeep he put the emblem to his emblem pool. After (idunno) 30 turns the player with the most flag emblems wins the game. Players can't lose via normal means (eg. life drops to zero or have no cards in library doesn't prevent the player still playing the game).
What do you think?
I mean "turn" as in "turn cycle".
edit:
More specific rules:
-CTF has a special entity called "No Man's Land" which can be attacked and it has "whenever a creature deals combat damage to NML the attacking player may steal a flag-emblem if NML has a flag-emblem". NML is not a player nor a planeswalker. Abilities that trigger from dealing combat damage to a player won't trigger and NML will never declare blockers.
-Stealing is a new ability that says:
"whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player/NML it's controller may have the defending player/NML lose control of a flag-emblem control and attach it on to the creature." and
"At beginging of your upkeep unattach all flag-emblems from this creature and gain control of them"
If a creature would leave the battlefield unattach all flag-emblems and NML gains control of them.
-Game begins with X flag-emblems under NML's control , where X is the total number of players multiplied by five plus one. Game lasts X turn cycles. When game ends the player with most flag-emblems wins the game. Having zero flag-emblems always counts as a loss. Each player can control up to Y flag-emblems, where Y is X-(the amount of poison counter this player has)/3 (rounded down)
-Each flag-emblem has
"tap: If you have most life or are tied for most life lose 3 life, If you control most creature or are tied for most creatures sacrifice 1/3 of your creatures rounded up. Draw a card"
-If a player would lose the game for the first time they instead lose control of a flag-emblem and put it under NML's control. Any subsequent losses are ignored. If player would win for the first time instead they may gain control of up to one flag-emblem from each player and NML. Any subsequent wins are ignored. If a player would leave the game all flag-emblems under that player's control are put under NML's control.
Seems like a format where everyone would play evasive creatures or swarm with tokens and damage prevention (no flag stealing in fogs!). As a "format", I think deck diversity would suffer, and if you just do it with regular EDH decks I think you'll soon find that some deck types (voltron and swarmers) would always win whereas others (combo?) would always fail completely.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe! "At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted." [Click here for the articles!]
I kinda agree but I don't think it as dire as you think.
Even if you have infinite tokens and are able to steal all the flags each time you go to combat you still need to hold that position for a long time (30 turns is a long time, I think it's little too long) while one cyclonic rift can turn the game around during that crucial last turn. Depending on the nature of combo it can be extremely devastating. eg. if you are milled out and you can't reuse your gy it means the only cards you will ever get are the ones in your hand.
I kinda agree but I don't think it as dire as you think.
Even if you have infinite tokens and are able to steal all the flags each time you go to combat you still need to hold that position for a long time (30 turns is a long time, I think it's little too long) while one cyclonic rift can turn the game around during that crucial last turn. Depending on the nature of combo it can be extremely devastating. eg. if you are milled out and you can't reuse your gy it means the only cards you will ever get are the ones in your hand.
I say milling would still be a game loss but poison doe snot kill you ad neither does life=0 that way you either do not win or you get milled out.
Basically each player has a set number of flag emblems and whenever a creature controlled by an opponent deals combat damage to a player it can steal a flag emblem from the defending player. At the beginning of the stealing player's upkeep he put the emblem to his emblem pool. After (idunno) 30 turns the player with the most flag emblems wins the game. Players can't lose via normal means (eg. life drops to zero or have no cards in library doesn't prevent the player still playing the game).
What do you think?
I mean "turn" as in "turn cycle".
edit:
More specific rules:
-CTF has a special entity called "No Man's Land" which can be attacked and it has "whenever a creature deals combat damage to NML the attacking player may steal a flag-emblem if NML has a flag-emblem". NML is not a player nor a planeswalker. Abilities that trigger from dealing combat damage to a player won't trigger and NML will never declare blockers.
-Stealing is a new ability that says:
"whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player/NML it's controller may have the defending player/NML lose control of a flag-emblem control and attach it on to the creature." and
"At beginging of your upkeep unattach all flag-emblems from this creature and gain control of them"
If a creature would leave the battlefield unattach all flag-emblems and NML gains control of them.
-Game begins with X flag-emblems under NML's control , where X is the total number of players multiplied by five plus one. Game lasts X turn cycles. When game ends the player with most flag-emblems wins the game. Having zero flag-emblems always counts as a loss. Each player can control up to Y flag-emblems, where Y is X-(the amount of poison counter this player has)/3 (rounded down)
-Each flag-emblem has
"tap: If you have most life or are tied for most life lose 3 life, If you control most creature or are tied for most creatures sacrifice 1/3 of your creatures rounded up. Draw a card"
-If a player would lose the game for the first time they instead lose control of a flag-emblem and put it under NML's control. Any subsequent losses are ignored. If player would win for the first time instead they may gain control of up to one flag-emblem from each player and NML. Any subsequent wins are ignored. If a player would leave the game all flag-emblems under that player's control are put under NML's control.
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe!
"At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted."
[Click here for the articles!]
Even if you have infinite tokens and are able to steal all the flags each time you go to combat you still need to hold that position for a long time (30 turns is a long time, I think it's little too long) while one cyclonic rift can turn the game around during that crucial last turn. Depending on the nature of combo it can be extremely devastating. eg. if you are milled out and you can't reuse your gy it means the only cards you will ever get are the ones in your hand.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist