Thanks for your feedback! I guess it gets this Dungeon Dice Monsters vibe at first, but in the games I played it felt more like a combination of mtg and chess or checkers
To keep track of your mana you use the extra land pile, where you simply take the lands you play and put it into your extra mana zone.
The cards obscuring the lands they are placed on is a thing, but I figured out it works if you don't obscure the lands name with the other cards as long as its possible and the battlefield isn't flooded with creatures. But when someone wants to destroy a specific space and wants to know which land that space is, you can always lift the card on top and show them.
Planeswalkers aren't necessarily that invulnerable, because even if they happen to be on a spot that is far away from opponents spaces, you can still kill them with burn damage and other effects. There should be enough options to get rid of them.
I tried this on paper and think it's possible. I'd love to discuss more issues if you want to
I'd like to introduce you to a new casual multi-player format that came to my mind last week.
Please notice me if something like this already exists, but I didn’t found it on the internet and so I’ll just go on:
Casual Format: Bridgebuilder
A new way to play Magic The Gathering with your normal cards.
What do you need?
Just your normal 60+ cards deck, but an additional pile with another copy of every land card in this deck. This format is possible with 2-8 players as long as you have enough space on your table.
How do you set up?
You put your library centered in front of you. This represents you or your base. Most important: Every players library has to be exactly 21 inches or 53 cm away from each other. This is the size of six cards in height.
Your extra land pile has to be somewhere in front of you, but in a zone behind your library as seen from your opponents. Your graveyard will also be in that zone, as well as your lands and general enchantments.
Then each player gets 20 life points as usual and draws seven cards with the possibility to make a mulligan.
What’s different now?
Every time you play a land, you put it in the zone between you and your opponents library and it works like an actual ground for your creatures, planeswalkers and artefacts. To use it for mana, you search for one copy of the land out of your extra land pile and put it behind your library to organise your mana.
You have to play your first land exactly in front of or at one of the sides of your library, touching it. You cannot place lands behind your library this way. Every further land has to connect to either one of these three sites of the library or another land you control. Lands not connecting to your library can be attached in any way to the other lands you played, as long as their borders touch each other to a minimum of an inch or 2,56 cm on any side. Land cards can never overlap other land cards.
This way you are building a board or metaphorically a bridge to your opponents deck or base.
Sometime in the game this has to lead to a land of you connecting to a land of your opponent. This way you connected your bridges.
Now every time you play a creature, planeswalker or artefact card, you have to place it on one of your free lands in play. This can be any land that doesn’t belong to your opponent and doesn’t contain another permanent.
On every land, there can be only one permanent. The only exceptions are enchantments and equipments attached to that permanent. This means you cannot play more creatures, planeswalkers and artefacts in total than you have lands.
Enchantments do not need a free space and are played in the mana zone behind your library as well. Sorceries, instants and everything non-permanent do not need free spaces, of course.
Every creature now has an additional ability:
Tap this creature: Move this creature to a land card that is connected to its present land. Use this ability only when you could play a sorcery.
A creature can only attack your opponents life points directly, when a monster of you is on a land card that is connected to its library. This cannot be blocked.
In the same way, a planeswalker can only be attacked, when the attacking creature is on a neighbouring land.
Creatures of different players fight each other, when they meet on connecting lands. The turn player taps the card to attack as normal, but it fights a creature on a connected land. When one creature wins the fight and the other one is defeated, the winning creature goes to the land of the defeated one.
Additional rules
To balance the game there are some more rules:
A player can lower its opponents life points below 10 only due to a direct attack on his library. This way burn damage is still a thing, but not a game winner. Please note that damage intentionally inflicted to yourself and paying life as a costs does lower your life points below 10!
Once a player has 5 poison counters, he can only add poison counters for himself or receive poison counters due to an attack on his library e.g. with Infect. 10 poison counters are needed to lose the game.
The lands spaces next to your library can contain any number of opponents cards. They always count as a free space for your opponents creatures, regardless if there is another permament on them. So you cannot block the opponents way to your life points completely and multiple creatures can still attack a player in one turn, if they got there.
Creatures with haste can move the turn they come into play. Untapping a creature can lead to another move it can make this turn.
A tapped creature can be attacked. A tapped creature cannot attack or block, of course.
Trample works differently in this format. If a creature is attacked with it, that is on a space right next to another opponent creature that did not block it or next to a planeswalker or the opponents library, you can attach the leftover damage to that creature, planeswalker or even players library and this way to the player.
Blocking is in some way assigned by moving your creatures each turn in this format. But there has to be some special rules for this:
If one creature cannot be blocked by a neighbouring opponents creature due to flying, fear, unblockable etc., or because that creature is tapped, it can choose to attack the creature or to jump over it on the next free land that is connected to it. If there is a creature that can block it, it has to fight this creature. If there is another creature, that cannot block it, it can make an additional jump over this creature until there is a free space. Yes, this way a creature can make a huge jump over many unblocking creatures if they are placed in a line. So avoid lines of creatures leading to your library! If there are multiple spaces next to a creature that is jumped over, you have to prefer free spaces over those with creatures you would jump over. And if there are multiple spaces with creatures you would jump to, you have to prefer those with creatures you can attack over those you cannot attack.
If a creature cannot be blocked by your creature, you cannot attack it but instead doing the same jump. Please note that your creature has to fight a creature once it can be blocked by it or block it. And please note, that those creatures maybe still can attack your creature in your opponents next turn.
Examples: A flying dragon can jump over a goblin and does not have to attack it, but could. This goblin in return can jump over/dodge under the flying dragon but cannot attack it without reach.
If a creature of yours is attacked, but there are other creatures of yours on neighbouring lands, you can assign them as additional blockers just like in a regular game, but only if they are untapped. So Vigilance is still a thing. Only if all of them are defeated, the opponents creature moves onto their space, but can move on any space of its defeated creatures. If at least one blocking creature survives, the attacking one does not move on a new spot.
This way you can also deal with menace.
If there are two or more of your creatures neighbouring an opponents creature, they all can attack it if you want to. In this case, the opponents creature can assign its damage to only one of your creature unless it has a rule, that says it can block more than one creature. In this case it can assign its damage to as much creatures as it can block.
Creatures with menace cannot be attacked by a single creature but by two or more creatures.
If a creature cannot block any creature due to e.g. Unleash, it still can attack any creature it could normally attack. So this doesn't negate fly, fear, landwalk etc.
Indestructible creatures and those who prevent damage on them count as being unblockable in terms of being attacked, as long as it is a permanent effect. So you cannot block a way all the time with them, the creatures will jump over it. If it otherwise is an effect that ends on the same turn, they can completely block their path for this turn. It the creature is already fighting and then becomes indestructible or alike, it works the same for this turn.
Every time a creature or token is cast or created, that cannot be placed on a free land space of yours, it is destroyed.
When you gain control over an opponent creature or artefact, it doesn't change its space because of this.
If a creature reenters the battlefield after being exiled, it enters on the same space it was before. Is this by now occupied by another permanent, move it to a connected free space. If there is no such space, it is destroyed.
An equipment artefact needs a space on a land as long as it is unequipped. Once it its equipped and attached to a card, it no longer needs a space. It can equip any of your creatures anywhere on the field like normally. When the creature is destroyed, place the equipment card on the same land space, unless there is now another card like an opponents creature. In this case the equipment is destroyed. And if multiple equipments have to be placed this way, you have to discard them until only one is left to be placed.
Artefacts and planeswalkers cannot move, but they block the field they are placed on (unless it's a space connected to a library as stated before). However, they count as being unblockable as long as they aren’t creatures, so creatures can jump over them. Once they become creatures, they are treated the same way as other creatures are.
Whenever a land becomes a creature, it is not removed from your mana zone behind your library, but is no longer a space for another permanent and has to find a free space on a land neighbouring to it. If there is no space like this, it is destroyed.
Whenever a card becomes a land, it is placed as a space on the field unless it is also a creature. You may need a copy of it in your mana zone then.
If a land is destroyed while there is a permanent on it, the permanent is only destroyed as well when there are no free land spaces connected to that land. If there are free spaces, the permanent can rescue itself on the connected space and is moved there.
You cannot remove lands connected to the library. They cannot be destroyed or bounced or anything. They have to be there to assure the game can be won.
Tipps and issues:
To prevent deck out strategies you should consider playing way more than 60 cards.
You can use your creatures to block your opponents free lands, not from producing mana, but from placing permanents there.
This format is not for horde decks and this is intended to be so.
Land destroying still works and those lands are discarded from both zones, of course. But it will draw hate for sure and you will need more of your lands to reach the opponents library. Armageddon will make the game longer.
I am considering making this a singleton/highlander format, too. So every card is allowed only once except for basic lands.
You should attach any specific enchantments and equipments to the card they are attached to, because they are moving along with the creature.
I would say walls should lose the ability to move, but there are decks that rely on them attacking. Maybe they should only be able to move if they are able to attack? Other Defenders like guards or dogs should be able to move nevertheless.
Yeah, bouncing and destroying creatures becomes crucial, so you should consider using hex proof and shrouded creatures. Or just many creatures. You can only win due to creatures, technically.
If a card says two creatures fight against each other, they don't have to be on connected spaces.
Maybe some cards can get an additional rule that fits the flavour, like Meteor Golem could first destroy a permanent and then be placed there, as long as it was something on one of your lands.
Shortest distance between two libraries would be six spaces, but a creature with haste casted on a space connecting to an opponents land space can be really threatening. But you can also lengthen the ways by arranging your lands in a certain way when playing them. Please do not change the way lands are placed in the battle zone in any way unless they are destroyed.
Maybe we will need a banned list like in commander for this format.
Especially for multi-player games you'll need big tables.
In terms of flavour, there is a big abyss between you and the other players with a lot of gravity, unless there is a land growing over it
I am considering naming this format Bridgebuilder or Magic: The Abyss.
_________________
This has to be heavily play tested, as I cannot consider any card and combination by now. Are you interested in trying this with your playgroup and friends? Then please tell me how it worked.
Does this not function at all or has heavy issues? Then please tell me, so that maybe we can improve it.
Do you have any improvements, was something especially fun? Again, please tell me!
Thanks for your feedback! I guess it gets this Dungeon Dice Monsters vibe at first, but in the games I played it felt more like a combination of mtg and chess or checkers
To keep track of your mana you use the extra land pile, where you simply take the lands you play and put it into your extra mana zone.
The cards obscuring the lands they are placed on is a thing, but I figured out it works if you don't obscure the lands name with the other cards as long as its possible and the battlefield isn't flooded with creatures. But when someone wants to destroy a specific space and wants to know which land that space is, you can always lift the card on top and show them.
Planeswalkers aren't necessarily that invulnerable, because even if they happen to be on a spot that is far away from opponents spaces, you can still kill them with burn damage and other effects. There should be enough options to get rid of them.
I tried this on paper and think it's possible. I'd love to discuss more issues if you want to
Hi guys,
I'd like to introduce you to a new casual multi-player format that came to my mind last week.
Please notice me if something like this already exists, but I didn’t found it on the internet and so I’ll just go on:
Casual Format: Bridgebuilder
A new way to play Magic The Gathering with your normal cards.
What do you need?
Just your normal 60+ cards deck, but an additional pile with another copy of every land card in this deck. This format is possible with 2-8 players as long as you have enough space on your table.
How do you set up?
You put your library centered in front of you. This represents you or your base. Most important: Every players library has to be exactly 21 inches or 53 cm away from each other. This is the size of six cards in height.
Your extra land pile has to be somewhere in front of you, but in a zone behind your library as seen from your opponents. Your graveyard will also be in that zone, as well as your lands and general enchantments.
Then each player gets 20 life points as usual and draws seven cards with the possibility to make a mulligan.
What’s different now?
Every time you play a land, you put it in the zone between you and your opponents library and it works like an actual ground for your creatures, planeswalkers and artefacts. To use it for mana, you search for one copy of the land out of your extra land pile and put it behind your library to organise your mana.
You have to play your first land exactly in front of or at one of the sides of your library, touching it. You cannot place lands behind your library this way. Every further land has to connect to either one of these three sites of the library or another land you control. Lands not connecting to your library can be attached in any way to the other lands you played, as long as their borders touch each other to a minimum of an inch or 2,56 cm on any side. Land cards can never overlap other land cards.
This way you are building a board or metaphorically a bridge to your opponents deck or base.
Sometime in the game this has to lead to a land of you connecting to a land of your opponent. This way you connected your bridges.
Now every time you play a creature, planeswalker or artefact card, you have to place it on one of your free lands in play. This can be any land that doesn’t belong to your opponent and doesn’t contain another permanent.
On every land, there can be only one permanent. The only exceptions are enchantments and equipments attached to that permanent. This means you cannot play more creatures, planeswalkers and artefacts in total than you have lands.
Enchantments do not need a free space and are played in the mana zone behind your library as well. Sorceries, instants and everything non-permanent do not need free spaces, of course.
Every creature now has an additional ability:
Tap this creature: Move this creature to a land card that is connected to its present land. Use this ability only when you could play a sorcery.
A creature can only attack your opponents life points directly, when a monster of you is on a land card that is connected to its library. This cannot be blocked.
In the same way, a planeswalker can only be attacked, when the attacking creature is on a neighbouring land.
Creatures of different players fight each other, when they meet on connecting lands. The turn player taps the card to attack as normal, but it fights a creature on a connected land. When one creature wins the fight and the other one is defeated, the winning creature goes to the land of the defeated one.
Additional rules
To balance the game there are some more rules:
A player can lower its opponents life points below 10 only due to a direct attack on his library. This way burn damage is still a thing, but not a game winner. Please note that damage intentionally inflicted to yourself and paying life as a costs does lower your life points below 10!
Once a player has 5 poison counters, he can only add poison counters for himself or receive poison counters due to an attack on his library e.g. with Infect. 10 poison counters are needed to lose the game.
The lands spaces next to your library can contain any number of opponents cards. They always count as a free space for your opponents creatures, regardless if there is another permament on them. So you cannot block the opponents way to your life points completely and multiple creatures can still attack a player in one turn, if they got there.
Creatures with haste can move the turn they come into play. Untapping a creature can lead to another move it can make this turn.
A tapped creature can be attacked. A tapped creature cannot attack or block, of course.
Trample works differently in this format. If a creature is attacked with it, that is on a space right next to another opponent creature that did not block it or next to a planeswalker or the opponents library, you can attach the leftover damage to that creature, planeswalker or even players library and this way to the player.
Blocking is in some way assigned by moving your creatures each turn in this format. But there has to be some special rules for this:
If one creature cannot be blocked by a neighbouring opponents creature due to flying, fear, unblockable etc., or because that creature is tapped, it can choose to attack the creature or to jump over it on the next free land that is connected to it. If there is a creature that can block it, it has to fight this creature. If there is another creature, that cannot block it, it can make an additional jump over this creature until there is a free space. Yes, this way a creature can make a huge jump over many unblocking creatures if they are placed in a line. So avoid lines of creatures leading to your library! If there are multiple spaces next to a creature that is jumped over, you have to prefer free spaces over those with creatures you would jump over. And if there are multiple spaces with creatures you would jump to, you have to prefer those with creatures you can attack over those you cannot attack.
If a creature cannot be blocked by your creature, you cannot attack it but instead doing the same jump. Please note that your creature has to fight a creature once it can be blocked by it or block it. And please note, that those creatures maybe still can attack your creature in your opponents next turn.
Examples: A flying dragon can jump over a goblin and does not have to attack it, but could. This goblin in return can jump over/dodge under the flying dragon but cannot attack it without reach.
If a creature of yours is attacked, but there are other creatures of yours on neighbouring lands, you can assign them as additional blockers just like in a regular game, but only if they are untapped. So Vigilance is still a thing. Only if all of them are defeated, the opponents creature moves onto their space, but can move on any space of its defeated creatures. If at least one blocking creature survives, the attacking one does not move on a new spot.
This way you can also deal with menace.
If there are two or more of your creatures neighbouring an opponents creature, they all can attack it if you want to. In this case, the opponents creature can assign its damage to only one of your creature unless it has a rule, that says it can block more than one creature. In this case it can assign its damage to as much creatures as it can block.
Creatures with menace cannot be attacked by a single creature but by two or more creatures.
If a creature cannot block any creature due to e.g. Unleash, it still can attack any creature it could normally attack. So this doesn't negate fly, fear, landwalk etc.
Indestructible creatures and those who prevent damage on them count as being unblockable in terms of being attacked, as long as it is a permanent effect. So you cannot block a way all the time with them, the creatures will jump over it. If it otherwise is an effect that ends on the same turn, they can completely block their path for this turn. It the creature is already fighting and then becomes indestructible or alike, it works the same for this turn.
Every time a creature or token is cast or created, that cannot be placed on a free land space of yours, it is destroyed.
When you gain control over an opponent creature or artefact, it doesn't change its space because of this.
If a creature reenters the battlefield after being exiled, it enters on the same space it was before. Is this by now occupied by another permanent, move it to a connected free space. If there is no such space, it is destroyed.
An equipment artefact needs a space on a land as long as it is unequipped. Once it its equipped and attached to a card, it no longer needs a space. It can equip any of your creatures anywhere on the field like normally. When the creature is destroyed, place the equipment card on the same land space, unless there is now another card like an opponents creature. In this case the equipment is destroyed. And if multiple equipments have to be placed this way, you have to discard them until only one is left to be placed.
Artefacts and planeswalkers cannot move, but they block the field they are placed on (unless it's a space connected to a library as stated before). However, they count as being unblockable as long as they aren’t creatures, so creatures can jump over them. Once they become creatures, they are treated the same way as other creatures are.
Whenever a land becomes a creature, it is not removed from your mana zone behind your library, but is no longer a space for another permanent and has to find a free space on a land neighbouring to it. If there is no space like this, it is destroyed.
Whenever a card becomes a land, it is placed as a space on the field unless it is also a creature. You may need a copy of it in your mana zone then.
If a land is destroyed while there is a permanent on it, the permanent is only destroyed as well when there are no free land spaces connected to that land. If there are free spaces, the permanent can rescue itself on the connected space and is moved there.
You cannot remove lands connected to the library. They cannot be destroyed or bounced or anything. They have to be there to assure the game can be won.
Tipps and issues:
To prevent deck out strategies you should consider playing way more than 60 cards.
You can use your creatures to block your opponents free lands, not from producing mana, but from placing permanents there.
This format is not for horde decks and this is intended to be so.
Land destroying still works and those lands are discarded from both zones, of course. But it will draw hate for sure and you will need more of your lands to reach the opponents library. Armageddon will make the game longer.
I am considering making this a singleton/highlander format, too. So every card is allowed only once except for basic lands.
You should attach any specific enchantments and equipments to the card they are attached to, because they are moving along with the creature.
I would say walls should lose the ability to move, but there are decks that rely on them attacking. Maybe they should only be able to move if they are able to attack? Other Defenders like guards or dogs should be able to move nevertheless.
Yeah, bouncing and destroying creatures becomes crucial, so you should consider using hex proof and shrouded creatures. Or just many creatures. You can only win due to creatures, technically.
If a card says two creatures fight against each other, they don't have to be on connected spaces.
Maybe some cards can get an additional rule that fits the flavour, like Meteor Golem could first destroy a permanent and then be placed there, as long as it was something on one of your lands.
Shortest distance between two libraries would be six spaces, but a creature with haste casted on a space connecting to an opponents land space can be really threatening. But you can also lengthen the ways by arranging your lands in a certain way when playing them. Please do not change the way lands are placed in the battle zone in any way unless they are destroyed.
Maybe we will need a banned list like in commander for this format.
Especially for multi-player games you'll need big tables.
In terms of flavour, there is a big abyss between you and the other players with a lot of gravity, unless there is a land growing over it
I am considering naming this format Bridgebuilder or Magic: The Abyss.
_________________
This has to be heavily play tested, as I cannot consider any card and combination by now. Are you interested in trying this with your playgroup and friends? Then please tell me how it worked.
Does this not function at all or has heavy issues? Then please tell me, so that maybe we can improve it.
Do you have any improvements, was something especially fun? Again, please tell me!