As a number of standard players (especially those on Arena) have noticed, playing in a standard environment is often not conducive to casual play or deck-brewing. When players are incentivized to maximize their win rates and consistency, the card pool is small enough to quickly “solve” a format, and information on the meta (including top decklists) is readily available online… That kind of pushes out a lot of potential options. While the singleton nature of Brawl allows for a wider variety of cards to see play, players still tend to gravitate toward the best cards.
While the combination of a singleton format, larger deck-size, and tremendous card pool (and multiplayer focus, depending on who you ask) has made EDH a decent space for more casual or homebrewed decks, Magic doesn’t have much else in the way of casual play. I wanted to see if I could create a brand new casual format. A format that pushes the sort of casual battlecruiser magic Commander is known for. A format that actually benefits from (and in fact relies upon) the restrictions of a standard card pool. What I came up with is a work in progress currently labeled “Ban-X”
The Rules:
Ban-X uses all rules of standard play, except as otherwise noted.
Cards can only be sided or removed from the sideboard immediately prior to game 1 of a match.
Ban-X ignores the standard ban list
At the beginning of the game (after sideboarding but before hands are drawn), each player names 5 cards other than basic lands. For each card chosen, all cards with the same name that the opponent owns (regardless of what zone it is in) is banned for that game.
Rather than being removed from a deck or causing a game loss, all banned cards have all of their characteristics replaced. Banned lands become Wastes while other banned cards become 2/2 colorless creatures with “You may have any number of cards in your library named Remnant” and a mana cost of named Remnant.
Remnant
Creature
You may have any number of cards in your library named Remnant.
2/2
Design Questions
The format is currently called “Ban X” instead of “Ban-5” as I am not certain whether 5 is the right number. I believe that the number needs to be somewhere before 4 and 6 to be meaningful without being completely overbearing and I am willing to hear opinions.
I am not certain whether turning lands into Wastes is appropriate. I don’t want this format to ever develop a stable ban list of its own and letting players choose nonbasic lands gives the format a natural pressure valve against cards like Lotus Field or Field of the Dead. On the other hand, allowing players to ban shock-lands or check-lands could make multicolor decks a much bigger risk… though I’m not necessarily sure that’s a bad thing. Thoughts?
While I personally feel that this format pushes interesting design decisions on opponents (such as disincentivizing automatic “4-ofs” in deck design or forcing decks to diversify threats), I acknowledge that banning has the potential to start each game with a pretty notable “feels-bad moment” for both players. I feel that it might be worth it but I may be barking up the wrong tree altogether.
Of course, let me know if I accidentally stumbled into any other rules-awkwardness that I may not be familiar with.
Explanations/Expected Outcomes
Each player only bans cards from the opponent’s deck to avoid the awkwardness that would otherwise ensue in mirror matchups.
Instead of using a sideboard to counter specific cards, Ban-X allows decks to specifically bypass specific cards. Plays can't sideboard between games of a match to keep players from playing a super consistent deck in game 1 of a match before siding in 15 different threats in game 2. The sideboard only exists to help counter the disadvantage that players would suffer in a multi-match event where spectators could see the contents of your game in earlier matches.
This format naturally leans toward aggro and midrange. The ability to ban combo pieces prevents combos from taking over and the ability to ban all standard-legal wraths (or to ban all highly resistant beaters like Uro or Trawler) makes traditional control decks less prevalent.
As mentioned above, the central mechanic of this format is only possible thanks to the relatively small size of the standard card pool. As there are only a limited number of boardwipes, combo pieces, control finishers, or gamewinning planeswalkers in any given format, players are given the ability to proactively protect their deck from their worst match-up in game 1 before trying to hose an opponent in game 2.
The presence of bans makes the format a bit more difficult to solve. Even if the best cards are well-known, there is also a better chance that they will be banned proactively in game 1. Conversely, rogue decks may actually enjoy a small bump in game 1 against “meta darlings” as their key cards a bit less likely to be blindly targeted, though the size of this advantage is hard to calculate. Further, the pressure not to put 4 copies of each powerful card into your library may also increase variety among builds of the same popular archetype.
As a number of standard players (especially those on Arena) have noticed, playing in a standard environment is often not conducive to casual play or deck-brewing. When players are incentivized to maximize their win rates and consistency, the card pool is small enough to quickly “solve” a format, and information on the meta (including top decklists) is readily available online… That kind of pushes out a lot of potential options. While the singleton nature of Brawl allows for a wider variety of cards to see play, players still tend to gravitate toward the best cards.
While the combination of a singleton format, larger deck-size, and tremendous card pool (and multiplayer focus, depending on who you ask) has made EDH a decent space for more casual or homebrewed decks, Magic doesn’t have much else in the way of casual play. I wanted to see if I could create a brand new casual format. A format that pushes the sort of casual battlecruiser magic Commander is known for. A format that actually benefits from (and in fact relies upon) the restrictions of a standard card pool. What I came up with is a work in progress currently labeled “Ban-X”
The Rules:
Remnant
Creature
You may have any number of cards in your library named Remnant.
2/2
Design Questions
Explanations/Expected Outcomes