Designed by Anthony Castle
Additional Design by Sarah Mitchell
Original Magic Design by Richard Garfield
Copyright Wizards of the Coast 2015
Overview: Spellbook has been designed to address issues in MtGs core design that sometimes lead to stressful games with less perceived fun due to well know issues with the way the game is fundamentally played. Inconsistent landbases and not accessing the core cards in your deck have lead many of the games more popular metas towards aggressive strategies manipulating the RNG nature of the game to compensate for losses due to perceived bad luck. Casual players often do not play with sideboards because they lock up cards that could be used in other decks. Opening hand are often tossed due to too many or too few lands. Spellbook hope to address all of these design deficiencies.
Project Goals:
- Find a solution to inconsistent mana bases without relying on expensive lands
- Highlight use of staple magic cards
- Encourage the use of the sideboard mechanic for deep play
- Provide a flexible format that works with both budget and top-end card collections
- Challenge players to better their MtG abilities with games that rely more on meta-game analysis and proper resource management as opposed to RNG manipulation
Card Pool: The most common and recycled cards in recent MtG history can be found in the Core Sets. These cards represent the foundation of Magic and can be found in nearly every players collection. The Modern format represents the best cards MtG has to offer in recent years with a well regulated ban list to keep overpowered strategies in check. 2 sets of cards provide better feedback towards the validity of the format.
Core Sets Format: M10, M11, M12, M13, M14, M15
Spellbook: Any Common or Uncommon Instant or Sorcery
Deck: All Commons and Uncommons
Banlist: None
Spellbook Official Rules
Philosophy
1: Spellbook is an experiment in game design hoping to provide new and challenging
ways to play Magic with friends while stretching the limits of your imagination and card
library. Innovating and experimenting with the card pool is encouraged with the
expectation that some cards may be too aggressive to work with this format. As more
testing goes into the format ban lists will be provided in hopes of refining the play
experience, but always work with other players in setting up an enjoyable environment
free of exploitative play to encourage fun over frustration.
Deck Construction
2: Players choose 5 unique Instant and/or Sorcery cards for their Spellbook. These
cards may be restricted based on format. Cards chosen for the Spellbook may not be used in the Main Deck.
3: A players Deck is exactly 40 cards and can include no more than 4 of any card save for Basic Land cards.
4: Players separate their lands into a Land Board that is separate from their Main Deck. These land cards count towards the deck maximum of 40 cards.
5: Players may include up to 4 Signature Spell cards (use junk cards from boosters to represent these) in their Main Deck. These cards are used to cast spells from the Spellbook.
Play Rules
5: Players shuffle their Main Decks, determine the first player, and proceed with mulligans as usual before beginning play. Lands and Non-Lands may be drawn interchangeably. When drawing cards for starting hands, any land card may be chosen from the Land Board for opening hand compositions as long as the 7 card rule is met. The land board may then be reordered before the start of the first turn. The Land Board and the Spellbook are kept separate from the Main Deck. A player may look through their own Spellbook and Land Board at any time.
6: Players may choose to draw a card from the Main Deck or from the Land Board when called upon to draw a card.
7: Players may choose either the Main deck, the Land Board, or both when called upon to search a Players Library. Cards may be selected from both when tutored. Cards may be placed into both, such as effects that place a card on top or on the bottom of a Players Library.
8: At the beginning of each players end step, that player may search and re-order their entire Land Board as they see fit. Cards may only be manipulated within the Land Board. This triggered ability goes on the stack.
9: Signature Spell is a 0 cost Colorless Instant with the following ability: When casting this spell, you may reveal any number of Instant and/or Sorcery Cards from your Spellbook and pay their casting costs. Add those effects to this spell in order as it resolves. The spells revealed this way remain in the Spellbook facedown for potential future use.
10: A Search for the specific named card Signature Spell will always result in failure. When asked to name a card, Signature Spell may not be named. (Effects that do not specifically name Signature Spell, such as Diabolic Tutor, are not affected by this rule)
Please leave feedback! Curious to see what people think. The deck lists are far from perfect, but I think limiting the card pool to commons and uncommons in the core sets keeps this format fresh before moving on to more complicated blocks and cards.
Decklists:
Red Burn http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/spellbook-red-burn/
Blue Control http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/spellbook-blue-control/
Green Ramp http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/spellbook-green-ramp/
Black / White Soldiers http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/spellbook-black-white-soldiers/
Esper Control http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/spellbook-esper-control/
Red / Green Aggro http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/spellbook-red-green-aggro/
Designed by Anthony Castle
Additional Design by Sarah Mitchell
Original Magic Design by Richard Garfield
Copyright Wizards of the Coast 2015
Overview: Spellbook has been designed to address issues in MtGs core design that sometimes lead to stressful games with less perceived fun due to well know issues with the way the game is fundamentally played. Inconsistent landbases and not accessing the core cards in your deck have lead many of the games more popular metas towards aggressive strategies manipulating the RNG nature of the game to compensate for losses due to perceived bad luck. Casual players often do not play with sideboards because they lock up cards that could be used in other decks. Opening hand are often tossed due to too many or too few lands. Spellbook hope to address all of these design deficiencies.
Project Goals:
- Find a solution to inconsistent mana bases without relying on expensive lands
- Highlight use of staple magic cards
- Encourage the use of the sideboard mechanic for deep play
- Provide a flexible format that works with both budget and top-end card collections
- Challenge players to better their MtG abilities with games that rely more on meta-game analysis and proper resource management as opposed to RNG manipulation
Card Pool: The most common and recycled cards in recent MtG history can be found in the Core Sets. These cards represent the foundation of Magic and can be found in nearly every players collection. The Modern format represents the best cards MtG has to offer in recent years with a well regulated ban list to keep overpowered strategies in check. 2 sets of cards provide better feedback towards the validity of the format.
Core Sets Format: M10, M11, M12, M13, M14, M15
Spellbook: Any Common or Uncommon Instant or Sorcery
Deck: All Commons and Uncommons
Banlist: None
Spellbook Official Rules
Philosophy
1: Spellbook is an experiment in game design hoping to provide new and challenging
ways to play Magic with friends while stretching the limits of your imagination and card
library. Innovating and experimenting with the card pool is encouraged with the
expectation that some cards may be too aggressive to work with this format. As more
testing goes into the format ban lists will be provided in hopes of refining the play
experience, but always work with other players in setting up an enjoyable environment
free of exploitative play to encourage fun over frustration.
Deck Construction
2: Players choose 5 unique Instant and/or Sorcery cards for their Spellbook. These
cards may be restricted based on format. Cards chosen for the Spellbook may not be used in the Main Deck.
3: A players Deck is exactly 40 cards and can include no more than 4 of any card save for Basic Land cards.
4: Players separate their lands into a Land Board that is separate from their Main Deck. These land cards count towards the deck maximum of 40 cards.
5: Players may include up to 4 Signature Spell cards (use junk cards from boosters to represent these) in their Main Deck. These cards are used to cast spells from the Spellbook.
Play Rules
5: Players shuffle their Main Decks, determine the first player, and proceed with mulligans as usual before beginning play. Lands and Non-Lands may be drawn interchangeably. When drawing cards for starting hands, any land card may be chosen from the Land Board for opening hand compositions as long as the 7 card rule is met. The land board may then be reordered before the start of the first turn. The Land Board and the Spellbook are kept separate from the Main Deck. A player may look through their own Spellbook and Land Board at any time.
6: Players may choose to draw a card from the Main Deck or from the Land Board when called upon to draw a card.
7: Players may choose either the Main deck, the Land Board, or both when called upon to search a Players Library. Cards may be selected from both when tutored. Cards may be placed into both, such as effects that place a card on top or on the bottom of a Players Library.
8: At the beginning of each players end step, that player may search and re-order their entire Land Board as they see fit. Cards may only be manipulated within the Land Board. This triggered ability goes on the stack.
9: Signature Spell is a 0 cost Colorless Instant with the following ability: When casting this spell, you may reveal any number of Instant and/or Sorcery Cards from your Spellbook and pay their casting costs. Add those effects to this spell in order as it resolves. The spells revealed this way remain in the Spellbook facedown for potential future use.
10: A Search for the specific named card Signature Spell will always result in failure. When asked to name a card, Signature Spell may not be named. (Effects that do not specifically name Signature Spell, such as Diabolic Tutor, are not affected by this rule)
Please leave feedback! Curious to see what people think. The deck lists are far from perfect, but I think limiting the card pool to commons and uncommons in the core sets keeps this format fresh before moving on to more complicated blocks and cards.