So, working with my playgroup on expanding our chill nights to possibly include casual (how we all started 4 years ago). More so to bring us back to our roots, but allow for some fun, chill play, instead of all tense and super serious Modern nights.
The big concern is money sink for what we will get out of it, and how often we will play.
My initial thought was to make it simple to reduce costs and say no shocks, fetches, get creative with mana-fixing. Maybe keeping deck concepts and creations to two-color rather than any amount (less all encompassing sideboards that can hose certain archetypes), and limit tutor use or not use any to make decks work for combo'ing out too early in games.
We aren't the type to just want to play broken stuff. We have a fair bit of Johnny. And while we wouldn't want to limit the innovation or ways to build decks, we do want to consider all factors to include that ugly "budget" word.
I'm sure others will point us to other possible formats, but we are really looking to play some powerful stuff that maybe isn't viable in Modern, or sift through older cards from non-Modern sets, creating unique builds not up to the par of legacy, but somewhere inbetween.
We don't have a particular budget for decks (maybe something that could be considered), but we probably wouldn't want to be breaking bank to play a casual, kitchen table type of Magic either.
My group has been operating under a gentleman’s agreement for about 25 years and going strong into a second generation. Especially if your group values friendship first, it can work well.
For us, we have a few general guidelines.
1. Minimize infinite combos and instant wins. Not saying we can’t play them at times and for certain decks, but we DON’T play cutthroat for a reason.
2. Very few budget constraints. You can essentially spend as much as you want on your cards. The group lets people know when a given archetype is too oppressive, or even just a single deck. This does sometimes result in overpowered decks, but people recognize them almost immediately and it’s you versus the group, on like Donkey Kong. Even so, as long as you are not playing that OP deck all night, there’s little risk of bad feelings.
3. We give those with limited budgets and/or less interest in many decks lattitude enough to play the same two decks repeatedly, even though that does get old. Still, we value friendship first.
4. We don’t limit by format, so most decks end up Vintage-light. Shoot, we don’t even religiously police restrictions. I played against a deck with four Sol Rings recently. We heckled them a bit in good nature, but we didn’t make it unfun or hate them out. After all, it’s tabletop and three of us learned Magic in the days when you could have four Sol Rings, four Demonic Tutors, and four Regrowths in the same 40 card deck! Talk about consistency when Sengir Vampires, Cockatrices, and Serra Angels, Mahamotti Djinns, and Shivan Dragons often hit the table in turns 2-3. Those days were fun in their own right, but that kind of stuff is why restrictions and 60-card formats started in the first place. We don’t fear the oddball deck that doesn’t adhere to a particular tournament build.
These guidelines allow the Johnnies to be Johnnies and the Timmies to be Timmies. Heck, one of the most successful and regarded decks in the group (and the oldest) is an all-creature/land elemental tribal and that’s about as far from competitive as you can get. The Spikes among us can still operate comfortably, too.
Yeah, we had a time period with our EDH decks where infinite was all the rage, and it has since tamed. We have one guy that runs an obnoxious Animar, Soul of Elements, and the protections make it kind of annoying for others removal suites. Usually goes off with Walking Ballista to kill everyone turn 5 or so every game. So he gets hated on quickly and often by the aggro decks like Krenko, Mob Boss and such.
I feel like if you limit that stuff (at least where it makes sense) and don't just jam 4 tutors in every deck or run T2/T3 combo all the time, it could be fun. At least with such a small group, you can dedicate SB's to the obnoxious decks and have various, very strong hate cards with the minimal restrictions.
It will mostly just be a balance issue up front as to what archetypes we settle into and how we each adapt. I still have no clue what I'd want to build. Messed around with a mono black demon sacrifice deck (zombie fodder) with Bridge from Below yesterday. Certainly nothing broken, but fun and fast with various win cons. Plus being able to Tragic Slip anything with the constant abuse of the GY mechanics is cool too.
If youre not looking to do EDH, a format my group quite enjoys is 60 card singleton. Similar to EDH in that there are no repeats of cards. You can play soft, if you want to use the same lands, but we have a no same art rule. It make the game much more interesting because you can play more games than EDH but they tend to be about just as unique.
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I am restricted to the modern legal card-pool. (Unless it's EDH)
I think the most important thing is to pay attention to what everyone else likes and dislikes playing against (which...honestly, my group kind of sucks at). Beyond that, you could have some personal banned and restricted lists if you like. It might not be a bad idea to discuss deck ideas with your friends, provided that they're not the type who would immediately either plagiarize your ideas or design things specifically to hate on them. Perhaps have a communal pool of cards that you all know are cheap and that you can use in that setting (say, Shamanic Revelation or Scalelord Reckoner).
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The big concern is money sink for what we will get out of it, and how often we will play.
My initial thought was to make it simple to reduce costs and say no shocks, fetches, get creative with mana-fixing. Maybe keeping deck concepts and creations to two-color rather than any amount (less all encompassing sideboards that can hose certain archetypes), and limit tutor use or not use any to make decks work for combo'ing out too early in games.
We aren't the type to just want to play broken stuff. We have a fair bit of Johnny. And while we wouldn't want to limit the innovation or ways to build decks, we do want to consider all factors to include that ugly "budget" word.
I'm sure others will point us to other possible formats, but we are really looking to play some powerful stuff that maybe isn't viable in Modern, or sift through older cards from non-Modern sets, creating unique builds not up to the par of legacy, but somewhere inbetween.
We don't have a particular budget for decks (maybe something that could be considered), but we probably wouldn't want to be breaking bank to play a casual, kitchen table type of Magic either.
Thoughts for those that have done similar???
Decks:
Skred Red, Abzan Midrange, U/B Delver, Mono U Delver, Uril, the Miststalker
For us, we have a few general guidelines.
1. Minimize infinite combos and instant wins. Not saying we can’t play them at times and for certain decks, but we DON’T play cutthroat for a reason.
2. Very few budget constraints. You can essentially spend as much as you want on your cards. The group lets people know when a given archetype is too oppressive, or even just a single deck. This does sometimes result in overpowered decks, but people recognize them almost immediately and it’s you versus the group, on like Donkey Kong. Even so, as long as you are not playing that OP deck all night, there’s little risk of bad feelings.
3. We give those with limited budgets and/or less interest in many decks lattitude enough to play the same two decks repeatedly, even though that does get old. Still, we value friendship first.
4. We don’t limit by format, so most decks end up Vintage-light. Shoot, we don’t even religiously police restrictions. I played against a deck with four Sol Rings recently. We heckled them a bit in good nature, but we didn’t make it unfun or hate them out. After all, it’s tabletop and three of us learned Magic in the days when you could have four Sol Rings, four Demonic Tutors, and four Regrowths in the same 40 card deck! Talk about consistency when Sengir Vampires, Cockatrices, and Serra Angels, Mahamotti Djinns, and Shivan Dragons often hit the table in turns 2-3. Those days were fun in their own right, but that kind of stuff is why restrictions and 60-card formats started in the first place. We don’t fear the oddball deck that doesn’t adhere to a particular tournament build.
These guidelines allow the Johnnies to be Johnnies and the Timmies to be Timmies. Heck, one of the most successful and regarded decks in the group (and the oldest) is an all-creature/land elemental tribal and that’s about as far from competitive as you can get. The Spikes among us can still operate comfortably, too.
Tl;dr is yeah it can work. Cheers.
I feel like if you limit that stuff (at least where it makes sense) and don't just jam 4 tutors in every deck or run T2/T3 combo all the time, it could be fun. At least with such a small group, you can dedicate SB's to the obnoxious decks and have various, very strong hate cards with the minimal restrictions.
It will mostly just be a balance issue up front as to what archetypes we settle into and how we each adapt. I still have no clue what I'd want to build. Messed around with a mono black demon sacrifice deck (zombie fodder) with Bridge from Below yesterday. Certainly nothing broken, but fun and fast with various win cons. Plus being able to Tragic Slip anything with the constant abuse of the GY mechanics is cool too.
Decks:
Skred Red, Abzan Midrange, U/B Delver, Mono U Delver, Uril, the Miststalker