You play your stuff, I land drop. You swing for 4, I land drop. You swing for 4, I land drop morph. You swing for 3, I flip, kill the gargoyle, swing for 3. You swing for 1, I swing for 3, etc:
Life totals:
Me : 20 | 16 | 12 | 09 | 08 | 07 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3
You: 20 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 2 | -1
I win at 3 life on the draw.
Players start with one card in hand, any number of cards in library. All cards with cmc not 0 have cascade. Players can't draw cards. Players can only submit one card of each cmc. Basic Land Rule.
If a player would cascade for a value that would hit no cards in the rest of their deck, their deck becomes stacked in increasing cmc.
Ban list: Mindbreak Trap, Stifle, Trickbind (but not void slime).
Just a reminder, breaking//entering has cmc 8.
This admittedly just sets up a similar situation, with an arms race to the bottom. A lot of matchups become 3-3, since you have to wait for your land-drop to go off. But whatever. Hint: Alive // Well might be a good card.
Grumsh, the issue with instant speed interaction being a requirement is that everyone has to play at instant speed, but you only get one action per card (cast/cycle/ (channel lol)) so once you try and go for your thing, your opponent, who also is playing at instant speed goes for their thing, and all their stuff resolves first. Then they get the full lock and you lose. So instead, neither player plays, and every match is 2-2.
If you resolve any spell, you're going to win, so it doesn't matter that time stop is legal. If it resolves, you've already won. It could have been anything. even a Treasure Cruise boat.
I do like one card of each CMC, puts a nice little restriction. Not being able to draw cards is also interesting. Combining that with paying mana for casting could "normalize" the format to something metagamable.
If they don't have instant interaction, you flash in notion thief, cast entering, cast sky swallower, cast nevermore, cast Pithing needle, cast evermind. Evermind resolves, drawing you dust bowl. Needle resolves, you name the card in their hand. Nevermore resolves, name the card in their hand, entering resolves, does nothing, Swallower resolves, giving them nevermore and needle. Entering resolves, does nothing. Thief resolves.
They now cannot activate abilities of or cast the card in their hand. They can play a land, however. But the only land that is scary is Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind. So we have a wastelanddust bowl to take care of that.
If they do have instant speed something (mutually exclusive with useful cast triggers), then you wait for them to cast/activate their thing, and you do the thing anyway.
If anyone can find a gap in this, please let me know. It looks like this week, with free casting, will be a lot of 2-2s.
Another bit of madness that needs to be sorted out if we're allowed infinite libraries (which I'm in favor of, in general) is what happens when you hit evermind, and cascade for 0? you can't possibly hit a card with cmc less than 0, and then we go through the entire library, and then what? you get a shuffled library? I dunno. I'd propose an alteration to the rules that says that non-land cards you own without the lowest converted mana cost among non-land cards you own have cascade. So you never end up cascading for something that you can't hit with.
I didn't even stop to consider the "play nothing, don't lose" line that every opponent has. Fortunately, only bolt gets there. Everyone else requires 2 mana or a creature to stick around for a turn. So my score is 2*9 = 18 out of a possible 6*10 = 60. 180 points. It's too bad bouncing one of my own lands doesn't get me hellbent.
Sure, banned : thoughtsize :: AWOL : Path to exile
not banned = nevermore.
You can remove a single card from the opponent's submission, not you name a card and your opponent can't cast that card. I don't want exile, because then Misthollow griffin and a few other cards become extra warped.
Players submit a 4 card list,but before each game is played, one card from each deck is banned (is removed from the list, not even in exile). For the purposes of unstable configurations, the person on the play chooses first.
The first deck wins on the play and draw (bans edict, plays out a quick thurn or progenitus which races).
Example:
Exploration / Exploration / Thrun / Progenitus
vs
Gibbering Descent / Gibbering Descent / Diabolic Edict / Swords to Plowshares
Now the first deck loses on the play (they can take 1 piece of removal, but then their opponent can pick off the creature they can't remove) but wins on the draw (picks off the removal that can deal with whichever threat they're left with).
And I was considering 3 card for simplicity purposes, but with 4 cards, you can double up on the cards to garuntee you get at least one of each. Maybe 2x Exploration and 2x Thrun is something you really really want to do.
If a card would be put into your graveyard from anywhere, put it into your hand instead.
Each player has an emblem with: At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have no cards in your hand, each opponent loses 1 life.
I like this one better than the other 1 card format I suggested, as it has a lot less rules baggage and still leaves room for most strategies (creatures, prison, burn).
Relevant cards/decks: Nevermore/Runed Halo, Student of Warfare, Lightning bolt, Pride of the Clouds, Keldon Megaliths, Decree of Justice, Jund Sojurners, Grapeshot, Seismic Assault, Wild Mongrel
Players can only submit cards which are creatures whose power and toughness differ by at least two.
e.g. Vile Aggregate is legal, but Tarmogyof is not. Char Rumbler is legal, Aetherling is not. Giant Spider is legal, Hidden Spider is not. Shapeshifter is legal, Sutured Ghoul is not. Yavimaya Kavu is not legal.
I.e.
Ire Shaman
Swords to plowshares
Path to exile
You play your stuff, I land drop. You swing for 4, I land drop. You swing for 4, I land drop morph. You swing for 3, I flip, kill the gargoyle, swing for 3. You swing for 1, I swing for 3, etc:
Life totals:
Me : 20 | 16 | 12 | 09 | 08 | 07 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3
You: 20 | 20 | 20 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 2 | -1
I win at 3 life on the draw.
Makes the format at least playable.
I think the format becomes not (stupid) broken if you're restricted to one card at each cmc.
Players start with one card in hand, any number of cards in library. All cards with cmc not 0 have cascade. Players can't draw cards. Players can only submit one card of each cmc. Basic Land Rule.
If a player would cascade for a value that would hit no cards in the rest of their deck, their deck becomes stacked in increasing cmc.
Ban list: Mindbreak Trap, Stifle, Trickbind (but not void slime).
Just a reminder, breaking//entering has cmc 8.
This admittedly just sets up a similar situation, with an arms race to the bottom. A lot of matchups become 3-3, since you have to wait for your land-drop to go off. But whatever. Hint: Alive // Well might be a good card.
If you resolve any spell, you're going to win, so it doesn't matter that time stop is legal. If it resolves, you've already won. It could have been anything. even a
Treasure Cruiseboat.I do like one card of each CMC, puts a nice little restriction. Not being able to draw cards is also interesting. Combining that with paying mana for casting could "normalize" the format to something metagamable.
All spells gain cascade, and players may cast spells without paying their mana cost.
Here is the optimal deck-list:
In hand: Notion Thief
Breaking // Entering
Sky Swallower
Nevermore
Pithing Needle
Evermind
Dust Bowl
If they don't have instant interaction, you flash in notion thief, cast entering, cast sky swallower, cast nevermore, cast Pithing needle, cast evermind. Evermind resolves, drawing you dust bowl. Needle resolves, you name the card in their hand. Nevermore resolves, name the card in their hand, entering resolves, does nothing, Swallower resolves, giving them nevermore and needle. Entering resolves, does nothing. Thief resolves.
They now cannot activate abilities of or cast the card in their hand. They can play a land, however. But the only land that is scary is Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind. So we have a
wastelanddust bowl to take care of that.If they do have instant speed something (mutually exclusive with useful cast triggers), then you wait for them to cast/activate their thing, and you do the thing anyway.
If anyone can find a gap in this, please let me know. It looks like this week, with free casting, will be a lot of 2-2s.
not banned = nevermore.
You can remove a single card from the opponent's submission, not you name a card and your opponent can't cast that card. I don't want exile, because then Misthollow griffin and a few other cards become extra warped.
4 Card Land rule Banned list.
Players submit a 4 card list,but before each game is played, one card from each deck is banned (is removed from the list, not even in exile). For the purposes of unstable configurations, the person on the play chooses first.
Example:
Exploration / Exploration / Thrun / Progenitus
vs
Diabolic Edict / Counterspell / Inkmoth Nexus / Emrakul
The first deck wins on the play and draw (bans edict, plays out a quick thurn or progenitus which races).
Example:
Exploration / Exploration / Thrun / Progenitus
vs
Gibbering Descent / Gibbering Descent / Diabolic Edict / Swords to Plowshares
Now the first deck loses on the play (they can take 1 piece of removal, but then their opponent can pick off the creature they can't remove) but wins on the draw (picks off the removal that can deal with whichever threat they're left with).
And I was considering 3 card for simplicity purposes, but with 4 cards, you can double up on the cards to garuntee you get at least one of each. Maybe 2x Exploration and 2x Thrun is something you really really want to do.
1 Card Draw Land rule
If a card would be put into your graveyard from anywhere, put it into your hand instead.
Each player has an emblem with: At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have no cards in your hand, each opponent loses 1 life.
I like this one better than the other 1 card format I suggested, as it has a lot less rules baggage and still leaves room for most strategies (creatures, prison, burn).
Relevant cards/decks: Nevermore/Runed Halo, Student of Warfare, Lightning bolt, Pride of the Clouds, Keldon Megaliths, Decree of Justice, Jund Sojurners, Grapeshot, Seismic Assault, Wild Mongrel
3 Card Land Rule
Players can only submit cards which are creatures whose power and toughness differ by at least two.
e.g. Vile Aggregate is legal, but Tarmogyof is not. Char Rumbler is legal, Aetherling is not. Giant Spider is legal, Hidden Spider is not. Shapeshifter is legal, Sutured Ghoul is not. Yavimaya Kavu is not legal.
Thanks for that, I didn't know that.