leyline is a format that my playgroup came up with in the last couple months.
you play with a 59-card singleton deck.
you have one enchantment as your "commander". command zone and color identity rules apply.
the one exception to the above is that you have the choice to start the game wiht your enchantment on the field. ETB effects don't activate.
the format has so far proven to be high-power in a very broken sense. Oonly the most powerful decks stay around for long.
what jank can you guys come up with?
(P.S. eye of the storm, or anything else that takes a long time to resolve things, are highly discouraged)
there is a banlist, though we usually restrict enchanmtents, meaning they are not allowed to start he game on the battlefield. that list includes such things as barren glory and omniscience.
Huh... Judging enchantments for this format is kind of weird. While it can be tempting to bring out normal stax cards, effects like Stasis, Blood Moon, and Back To Basics may not hurt as much as normal if your opponent already starts the game with their key card out. Likewise, Sterline Grove and Starfield of Nyx aren’t the greatest picks as you are often better off having an enchantment that ends games over one that simply supports other game-ending enchantments. Even enchantments known for generating tons of value like Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, and Greater Good may not be the best plays… even if they can be quite good. As such, I wanted to go through the full list of enchantments on Gatherer to appraise which ones would be the most powerful and which may be powerful (or awkward) enough to ban.
Interesting/Dangerous Enchantments
Dismiss Into Dream (Seems like a pretty unique build-around card if having a free Hirobi appeals) Bounty of the Luxa (Better than it looks. Draw a card on turn 1 and get +3 mana on turn 2). Mirrormade (I feel that this card should work and would probably be cute for a clone deck but it’s realistically not worth the effort) From Beyond (not the most competitive but it is a free Eldrazi tutor on turn 1) Coastal Piracy (Flying Men Tribal) Deadbridge Chant (Random effect is a bit questionable but the effect is pretty great.) Heartless Act (While I’m sure that there’s a deck to be made here, I’m not sure that spamming a bunch of relatively cheap (or even free) creatures is a winning strategy in this format). Earthcraft (There has to be SOME way to abuse this) Archetype of Endurance (Really big creature that is hard to answer early on unless your opponents are sporting a stax enchantment) Eidolon of Blossoms / Enchantress’s Presence (Enchantress effect going super fast. While blossoms doesn’t replace itself, it does give a turn-1 target for creature auras like rancor) Sylvan Library (Believe it or not, this card is on the fair side of things. There are other enchantments that do card draw better and that cost less life. When mana cost isn’t as much of a factor, this Commander all-star loses a lot of its luster) Geaa’s Touch / Burgeoning (Great “balanced” options. The former for 1-on-1 and the latter for multiplayer). Frontier Siege (Adding 4 per turn is pretty great on turn 1-2). Waste Not (In multiplayer games, this card is probably good enough to get things done. The lack of actual wheels beyond Dark Deal is a notable problem but I could still see this deck going off.) Divine Visitation (Holy moly, this can be great) Assemble the Legion (Very quickly ramps up) Cathar’s Crusade (TOKENS!!!) Fires of Invention (essentially double your land… which would make this one of the less powerful mana doublers out there.) Shark Typhoon (An excellent leyline for a counterspell-heavy deck. Getting a small flier every time you shut down a card is a decent way to turn the normal 1-for-1s into value. A substantially better Talrand in my opinion). Aria of Flame (Without the ETB effect, this is a decent free storm enabler) Phyrexian Arena / Honden of Seeing Winds / Outpost Siege (When Necropotence gets the boost, these cards probably gets a spot at the table) Guardian Project (A pretty excellent card draw engine to start the game with). Aura Shards (Unless your opponents win out of the gate, you get to be the fun police. THIS is what stax looks like in this format. While this card isn’t too outwardly powerful, it’s the sort of leyline that I could imagine being too widely played…) Nature’s Revolt (Look… even without white adding in Elesh Norn or Linvala, there really aren’t many “innocent” uses or making all of your opponents’ lands creatures) Smothering Tithe (Like Rhystic Study, this card pushes the boundary for how powerful an effect can be. While it’s powerful, however, it is not game-breaking in its own right. Simic Ascendancy (I’m of a mixed mind about this card. With this card as a general, pulling off this instant win seems painfully easy. If a lot of the more degenerate leylines are left in place, however, that’s kind of a moot point.) Athreos, God of Passage: …shadowborn apostle deck that gets the general out for free. Rhystic Study (If it wasn’t for other cards doing far more immediately broken things, I’d call for a ban. Ultimately, though, this isn’t on the same level as Necropotence Maelstrom Nexus (While this card doesn’t win the game automatically, its still on the high-powered end of “fair”) Greed / Mind Unbound / Thought Reflection : When you kick out Necropotence, these become the best option for raw card draw) As Foretold (if this lives for a couple turns, it is very easy to string together free counterspells) Cast Through Time (doubling your spells is pretty nuts) Recurring Nightmare (Any enchantment on the banlist for Commander is worth seriously examining in similar singleton formats. I think that this card is relatively safe here as the truly degenerate decks will be far more “leyline”-centric. Kiora Bests The Sea God (Depends on how sagas work at start of game. If they etb without lore counters or the first ability triggers, this is decent. If the first ability never triggers, forget it) Overlaid Terrain (The fairest asymmetrical mana doubler in this format. Still a bit risky but other decks can do terrible, terrible things) Vernal Bloom (A fairly fair mana doubler. It kind of shocks me that starting the game with your mana doubled can be considered any type of “fair” but this is an odd format). Debtors’ Knell (Pretty hard to beat the original). Mind’s Dilation (While you can’t quite “control” it, this card offers the potential for absurd card advantage and can cast high CMC threats off of a turn-1 play) Humility / Moat (Because some people want to watch the world burn. Painful Quandary (While this card doesn’t instantly end the game, it is one of the more annoying stax cards that could be shoved in at the start of a game.) Sunbird’s Invocation Reminds me of Maelstrom Nexus in what it can do, though it provides more choice and can trigger more than once per turn. An excellent and powerful deck. Primeval Bounty When you get this card out from turn 1, the value you get is intense. Mana Reflection (…Is this really fair? I can’t honestly say) Swarm Intelligence A better Cast Through Time that doesn’t require you to wait. Pretty decent in the aearly game where a simple ponder can get explosive card selection. Mirari’s Wake (double your mana plus big dudes. Arguably better than mana reflection for adding an additional color even though it doesn’t double rocks) Null Profussion / Recycle (I can’t think of any ways off the top of my head that this could be used to spam a deck filled with 0-cost artifacts onto the field and instantly win but I would still keep my eyes on this one. Food Chain (Starting the game with half of an infinite mana combo sounds decent) Zendikar Resurgent (A mana doubler that doubles as a card advantage engine. While it would take some convoluted combos to end the game in one turn with this card, it still seems to be a bit too much) Survival of the Fittest (As far as assembling turn 3-4 creature-based infinite combos, this card is still difficult to beat (even if it restricts you to just green). Jeskai Ascendancy (degenerate combo deck waiting to happen)
Good only in 1-on-1
Captive Audience (I assume this one still enters under an opponent’s control as it’s a passive ability instead of a triggered ability like a normal ETB ability). Ends 1-on-1 games pretty quickly unless the enemy enchantment is pretty degenerate. Overwhelming Splendor (While unimpressive in multiplayer games, this card can neuter some decks and even turn off the activated abilities of someone’s “leyline”)
Possible Restriction List
Cadaverous Bloom (simply broken to throw down with a full hand of cards in hand) Barren Glory (wins game if it starts out) Omniscience (wins game if it starts out) Divine Intervention (ends game too soon if it starts out) Doubling Season (might be acceptable but it seems like it has too many synergies and allows for instant ultimates with too much regularity)
[c]Limited Resources[/b] (...not sure if restricting it would really make a different if it only costs 1 mana. May need banning like it does in commander) Lurking Predators (Probably needs to be restricted as it promotes very counterintuitive deck design. Zero lands in library, just 59 huge creatures) Quest for Ula’s Temple (While doing would be a bit risky, this card promotes counterintuitive deck design as you could pack a library with nothing but beaters and start flooding out on turn 3) Land Tax (May need to be restricted as it promotes very counterintuitive deck design/play, packing an artificially low land count (9-12) and choosing not to go first.) Mind Over Matter (Probably too degenerate to go out on turn 1) Eye of the Storm (Probably needs to be restricted for slow play reasons) Mirror March (Probably needs to be restricted for slow play reasons) Necropotence (needs to be restricted) Nyxbloom Ancient (I feel that this is officially enough mana acceleration to warrant restricting this card. Coming with its own 5/5 body has its own pros and cons but the fact that it triples mana, including mana from rocks, is just too much.) Oath of Druids (If any opponent plays a creature, I get a free Emrakul. While other decks are better at shutting down creature-based decks, the efficiency of this one and the linearity of games makes me feel this one should be restricted) Presence of the Master (While it won’t actually stop leylines, it may be worth restricting this card just to discourage the obvious and oppressive Mono-White Disenchant Decks that would result) Song of Creation (While it’s a bit of a risky play, this is a card that I could easily imagine letting Storm decks go off on turn 1. Might be a bit too strong unless you want storm and turn-1 wins to be the norm in this format.) Whirlwind of Thought (Intense Storm Fodder. May actually be too much for the format to handle unless you want those turn-1 wins). Thousand-Year Storm (Needs to be restricted. Things get far too efficient when you start with this out) Yawgmoth’s Bargain (Better Necropotence. Nuff said.)
i really like some of the leylines you pointed out, a lot of them, i hadn't thought of. However, there are two things. sagas, enchantment creatures, and the rest are not allowed. only straight up enchantments, unforutnately. also, passive ETBs do not trigger. they never entered, so they never happened. but i really like your suggestions. funnily enough, i built maelstrom nexus with slivers, and it was balanced compared to other players' decks, surprisingly. first time i've ever seen slivers be fair. thank you for spending so much time replying to my question! just went through your restricted section, and a fair bit of those cards are actually unrestricted in our group. i did build an eye of the storm deck, and people hated me for it, along with a possibility storm deck. i'm actually interested in why you put cadaverous bloom on your restricted list. it doesn't seem even close to game-breaking to me.
Cadaverous Bloom is just too explosive on turn 1 as you can effectively add 12 mana. The ability to, for example, throw down a Blightsteel Colossus or Genesis Wave where X=9 on turn 1 is just a bit too much. While using the bloom in this way is a sizeable risk if your opponent has a free counterspell or something similar, it allows for plays that would otherwise be impossible in this setting without Omniscience.
Speaking of which, I just realize that I missed Dream Halls as another card that should probably be restricted. Even with card disadvantage and symmetry, an Omniscience effect is really too good for any format that doesn't want to end games on turn 1.
Ah, i missed that point. i've been discussing things with the rest of my magic club, and it looks like weres till stress testing the format, which means building as many degenerate decks as you can. i appreceiate the insight to cadaverous. one that i noticed oyu hadn't gotten on the list is havoc festival it's hilarious, and in a burn deck, it could probably outpace most everyone but the t1 decks. Quick thing, your i think you typed in the wrong card in the heartless act entry. also, one of the club members posted about this format on reddit when we started it ,if you wanted to see, the thread is at https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/e2s1m8/introducingleyline/ thanks for putting so much time into this!
Whoops, meant heartless summoning. While the singleton format prevents you from doing degenerate things with myr retriever, I'm sure there are still combos out there...
Havoc Festival is odd. The symmetry to the effect theoretically allows other aggressive decks take advantage of it (a sigil of the empty throne deck or sandwurm convergence deck -huh, that's another one I forgot- would likely overpower it, for example) as well and I'm not sure how consistent a singleton burn deck would really be. I can see it being a bit overwhelming, though.
just finished building an online version of havooc festival, most of the cards in it either boardwipe completely, or can target either creatures or players. most of the main deck is going to be holding off creatures, and doing minimal amounts of damage so my opponents die first. we actually have a person who build both sigil of the empty throne and fable of wolf and owl and they dominated the table before weverybody went home for quarantine. token generators seem to be up there for sure. however, i honestly think sandwurm convergence, as weird as this might sound, would be a bit slow for this format. the first effect helps, but it only counters specific decks, as flying doesn't matter much unless you're facing the two decks i mentioned before. the format is broken in a way ive never seen before, so that only the most degenerate decks see play, aside from t1 win decks.
here's the link to the deck i built for havoc festival: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/havoc-festival-leyline/?cb=1589208339
you play with a 59-card singleton deck.
you have one enchantment as your "commander". command zone and color identity rules apply.
the one exception to the above is that you have the choice to start the game wiht your enchantment on the field. ETB effects don't activate.
the format has so far proven to be high-power in a very broken sense. Oonly the most powerful decks stay around for long.
what jank can you guys come up with?
(P.S. eye of the storm, or anything else that takes a long time to resolve things, are highly discouraged)
R lovisa goes berserk R
G sachi big mana G
[/spoiler]
GU vannifar's eye UG
URG xyris group hug/politicsGRU
[spoiler=modern/pioneer]URG The feral dawn GRR
WG selesnya proliferate G W
R lovisa goes berserk R
G sachi big mana G
[/spoiler]
GU vannifar's eye UG
URG xyris group hug/politicsGRU
[spoiler=modern/pioneer]URG The feral dawn GRR
WG selesnya proliferate G W
Interesting/Dangerous Enchantments
Dismiss Into Dream (Seems like a pretty unique build-around card if having a free Hirobi appeals)
Bounty of the Luxa (Better than it looks. Draw a card on turn 1 and get +3 mana on turn 2).
Mirrormade (I feel that this card should work and would probably be cute for a clone deck but it’s realistically not worth the effort)
From Beyond (not the most competitive but it is a free Eldrazi tutor on turn 1)
Coastal Piracy (Flying Men Tribal)
Deadbridge Chant (Random effect is a bit questionable but the effect is pretty great.)
Heartless Act (While I’m sure that there’s a deck to be made here, I’m not sure that spamming a bunch of relatively cheap (or even free) creatures is a winning strategy in this format).
Earthcraft (There has to be SOME way to abuse this)
Archetype of Endurance (Really big creature that is hard to answer early on unless your opponents are sporting a stax enchantment)
Eidolon of Blossoms / Enchantress’s Presence (Enchantress effect going super fast. While blossoms doesn’t replace itself, it does give a turn-1 target for creature auras like rancor)
Sylvan Library (Believe it or not, this card is on the fair side of things. There are other enchantments that do card draw better and that cost less life. When mana cost isn’t as much of a factor, this Commander all-star loses a lot of its luster)
Geaa’s Touch / Burgeoning (Great “balanced” options. The former for 1-on-1 and the latter for multiplayer).
Frontier Siege (Adding 4 per turn is pretty great on turn 1-2).
Waste Not (In multiplayer games, this card is probably good enough to get things done. The lack of actual wheels beyond Dark Deal is a notable problem but I could still see this deck going off.)
Divine Visitation (Holy moly, this can be great)
Assemble the Legion (Very quickly ramps up)
Cathar’s Crusade (TOKENS!!!)
Fires of Invention (essentially double your land… which would make this one of the less powerful mana doublers out there.)
Shark Typhoon (An excellent leyline for a counterspell-heavy deck. Getting a small flier every time you shut down a card is a decent way to turn the normal 1-for-1s into value. A substantially better Talrand in my opinion).
Aria of Flame (Without the ETB effect, this is a decent free storm enabler)
Phyrexian Arena / Honden of Seeing Winds / Outpost Siege (When Necropotence gets the boost, these cards probably gets a spot at the table)
Guardian Project (A pretty excellent card draw engine to start the game with).
Aura Shards (Unless your opponents win out of the gate, you get to be the fun police. THIS is what stax looks like in this format. While this card isn’t too outwardly powerful, it’s the sort of leyline that I could imagine being too widely played…)
Nature’s Revolt (Look… even without white adding in Elesh Norn or Linvala, there really aren’t many “innocent” uses or making all of your opponents’ lands creatures)
Smothering Tithe (Like Rhystic Study, this card pushes the boundary for how powerful an effect can be. While it’s powerful, however, it is not game-breaking in its own right.
Simic Ascendancy (I’m of a mixed mind about this card. With this card as a general, pulling off this instant win seems painfully easy. If a lot of the more degenerate leylines are left in place, however, that’s kind of a moot point.)
Athreos, God of Passage: …shadowborn apostle deck that gets the general out for free.
Rhystic Study (If it wasn’t for other cards doing far more immediately broken things, I’d call for a ban. Ultimately, though, this isn’t on the same level as Necropotence
Maelstrom Nexus (While this card doesn’t win the game automatically, its still on the high-powered end of “fair”)
Greed / Mind Unbound / Thought Reflection : When you kick out Necropotence, these become the best option for raw card draw)
As Foretold (if this lives for a couple turns, it is very easy to string together free counterspells)
Cast Through Time (doubling your spells is pretty nuts)
Recurring Nightmare (Any enchantment on the banlist for Commander is worth seriously examining in similar singleton formats. I think that this card is relatively safe here as the truly degenerate decks will be far more “leyline”-centric.
Kiora Bests The Sea God (Depends on how sagas work at start of game. If they etb without lore counters or the first ability triggers, this is decent. If the first ability never triggers, forget it)
Overlaid Terrain (The fairest asymmetrical mana doubler in this format. Still a bit risky but other decks can do terrible, terrible things)
Vernal Bloom (A fairly fair mana doubler. It kind of shocks me that starting the game with your mana doubled can be considered any type of “fair” but this is an odd format).
Debtors’ Knell (Pretty hard to beat the original).
Mind’s Dilation (While you can’t quite “control” it, this card offers the potential for absurd card advantage and can cast high CMC threats off of a turn-1 play)
Humility / Moat (Because some people want to watch the world burn.
Painful Quandary (While this card doesn’t instantly end the game, it is one of the more annoying stax cards that could be shoved in at the start of a game.)
Sunbird’s Invocation Reminds me of Maelstrom Nexus in what it can do, though it provides more choice and can trigger more than once per turn. An excellent and powerful deck.
Primeval Bounty When you get this card out from turn 1, the value you get is intense.
Mana Reflection (…Is this really fair? I can’t honestly say)
Swarm Intelligence A better Cast Through Time that doesn’t require you to wait. Pretty decent in the aearly game where a simple ponder can get explosive card selection.
Mirari’s Wake (double your mana plus big dudes. Arguably better than mana reflection for adding an additional color even though it doesn’t double rocks)
Null Profussion / Recycle (I can’t think of any ways off the top of my head that this could be used to spam a deck filled with 0-cost artifacts onto the field and instantly win but I would still keep my eyes on this one.
Food Chain (Starting the game with half of an infinite mana combo sounds decent)
Zendikar Resurgent (A mana doubler that doubles as a card advantage engine. While it would take some convoluted combos to end the game in one turn with this card, it still seems to be a bit too much)
Survival of the Fittest (As far as assembling turn 3-4 creature-based infinite combos, this card is still difficult to beat (even if it restricts you to just green).
Jeskai Ascendancy (degenerate combo deck waiting to happen)
Good only in 1-on-1
Captive Audience (I assume this one still enters under an opponent’s control as it’s a passive ability instead of a triggered ability like a normal ETB ability). Ends 1-on-1 games pretty quickly unless the enemy enchantment is pretty degenerate.
Overwhelming Splendor (While unimpressive in multiplayer games, this card can neuter some decks and even turn off the activated abilities of someone’s “leyline”)
Possible Restriction List
Cadaverous Bloom (simply broken to throw down with a full hand of cards in hand)
Barren Glory (wins game if it starts out)
Omniscience (wins game if it starts out)
Divine Intervention (ends game too soon if it starts out)
Doubling Season (might be acceptable but it seems like it has too many synergies and allows for instant ultimates with too much regularity)
[c]Limited Resources[/b] (...not sure if restricting it would really make a different if it only costs 1 mana. May need banning like it does in commander)
Lurking Predators (Probably needs to be restricted as it promotes very counterintuitive deck design. Zero lands in library, just 59 huge creatures)
Quest for Ula’s Temple (While doing would be a bit risky, this card promotes counterintuitive deck design as you could pack a library with nothing but beaters and start flooding out on turn 3)
Land Tax (May need to be restricted as it promotes very counterintuitive deck design/play, packing an artificially low land count (9-12) and choosing not to go first.)
Mind Over Matter (Probably too degenerate to go out on turn 1)
Eye of the Storm (Probably needs to be restricted for slow play reasons)
Mirror March (Probably needs to be restricted for slow play reasons)
Necropotence (needs to be restricted)
Nyxbloom Ancient (I feel that this is officially enough mana acceleration to warrant restricting this card. Coming with its own 5/5 body has its own pros and cons but the fact that it triples mana, including mana from rocks, is just too much.)
Oath of Druids (If any opponent plays a creature, I get a free Emrakul. While other decks are better at shutting down creature-based decks, the efficiency of this one and the linearity of games makes me feel this one should be restricted)
Presence of the Master (While it won’t actually stop leylines, it may be worth restricting this card just to discourage the obvious and oppressive Mono-White Disenchant Decks that would result)
Song of Creation (While it’s a bit of a risky play, this is a card that I could easily imagine letting Storm decks go off on turn 1. Might be a bit too strong unless you want storm and turn-1 wins to be the norm in this format.)
Whirlwind of Thought (Intense Storm Fodder. May actually be too much for the format to handle unless you want those turn-1 wins).
Thousand-Year Storm (Needs to be restricted. Things get far too efficient when you start with this out)
Yawgmoth’s Bargain (Better Necropotence. Nuff said.)
R lovisa goes berserk R
G sachi big mana G
[/spoiler]
GU vannifar's eye UG
URG xyris group hug/politicsGRU
[spoiler=modern/pioneer]URG The feral dawn GRR
WG selesnya proliferate G W
Speaking of which, I just realize that I missed Dream Halls as another card that should probably be restricted. Even with card disadvantage and symmetry, an Omniscience effect is really too good for any format that doesn't want to end games on turn 1.
R lovisa goes berserk R
G sachi big mana G
[/spoiler]
GU vannifar's eye UG
URG xyris group hug/politicsGRU
[spoiler=modern/pioneer]URG The feral dawn GRR
WG selesnya proliferate G W
Havoc Festival is odd. The symmetry to the effect theoretically allows other aggressive decks take advantage of it (a sigil of the empty throne deck or sandwurm convergence deck -huh, that's another one I forgot- would likely overpower it, for example) as well and I'm not sure how consistent a singleton burn deck would really be. I can see it being a bit overwhelming, though.
here's the link to the deck i built for havoc festival: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/havoc-festival-leyline/?cb=1589208339
R lovisa goes berserk R
G sachi big mana G
[/spoiler]
GU vannifar's eye UG
URG xyris group hug/politicsGRU
[spoiler=modern/pioneer]URG The feral dawn GRR
WG selesnya proliferate G W