MTG Salvation

I don't think the current rules cover a minimum hand size, but I think I have an idea of how it would work. A minimum hand size would theoretically work opposite to maximum hand size. Instead of discarding down to a number if you have more, you would draw up to a number if you have less.

If a card said "You minimum hand size is 3.", I think what would happen is that when you would discard down to your maximum hand size if you had fewer cards in hand than 3, you would draw cards until you had three.

A card saying "You have no minimum hand size" would effectively do nothing since a player usually doesn't have one in the first place.

I hope that helps a bit.

Quote from Samyueru »

Would this not create an infinite loop if your minimum handsize was 8 (for example)?

I don't think. If a card would conflict with the rules, the card wins. So if a card or combination of cards would give you a minimum hand size of 8 or more, they'd win out over the game rules. I'd imagine an update to the comp rules would be necessary to clear this up, though I would assume Wizards would design the cards with this in mind and avoid that outcome. Partially to avoid rules headaches and partially because a minimum hand size of anything more than three would be degenerate. Even two or three is very potent for most speedy decks.

Most likely, minimum handsize would apply during the draw step and not during the discard step. The problems you're running into are related to the fact that the end of turn is when you decrease your handsize and therefore lends itself to enforcing a maximum, whereas the draw step is the right place for a minimum.
If you want your card to make sense, that is...

You would just draw until your handsize was at least the maximum handsize.

I was thinking of something very different. My idea basically, is for example, if you have minimum hand size three, you must always have three cards in your hand, and you can't play any cards, if your hand size would decrease to below three.

At first I was confused with what you meant, but I believe Mikey nailed it. A card like this would be pretty cool:

Tolarian Tome -
Artifact
Your minimum hand size is 2. (At the beginning of your discard step, if you have less than two cards in your hand, draw cards until you have exactly two cards in your hand.)

The trick is to add an entry to the rules (which, theoretically, is what we do whenever we come up with a new keyworded mechanic). That's what they did with Mindslaver and Time Stop

Quote from RickCorgan »

At first I was confused with what you meant, but I believe Mikey nailed it. A card like this would be pretty cool:

Tolarian Tome -
Artifact
Your minimum hand size is 2. (At the beginning of your discard step, if you have less than two cards in your hand, draw cards until you have exactly two cards in your hand.)

The trick is to add an entry to the rules (which, theoretically, is what we do whenever we come up with a new keyworded mechanic). That's what they did with Mindslaver and Time Stop

I think this is the logical way to go and it makes for a decent card idea. I still think it should take place in the draw step, since it requires less rules-creation and you can basically just modify how the draw step is already working.

All that aside,

Quote from KarmicNoose »

I was thinking of something very different. My idea basically, is for example, if you have minimum hand size three, you must always have three cards in your hand, and you can't play any cards, if your hand size would decrease to below three.

We can see that there's a completely different card idea here. I propose:

cost: sumpin'
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant player
Enchanted player can't play cards if he or she has three or fewer cards in hand.