Good point. That would make a cost of 1 to do it too easy for that deck. It would have to be 2. If this cost is too high (3) then it again favors low cc spells drawn off the cycling.
Some addendums: while priority is not passed for playing lands, priority is passed with free-cycling. It’s too advantageous to retain priority while being able to draw a card.
All lands exiled with free-cycling are exiled face down. The land is revealed upon activation of free-cycling before priority is passed. This way, no return of face up, exiled lands can occur.
I’ve played this game since Ice Age and probably have a solid level 1 judge level of rules knowledge. I currently play on MTGO due to COVID. After my third loss, mid but usually late(ish) game due to poor luck drawing 3+ lands in a row with a deck with 6 fetches and the proper land count, it made me stop and seriously think about how to make this game better.
We all know mana screw due to opening draw is a thing we’ve overhauled mulligans for; trying to reduce the number of non-games, particularly in televised MTG. It’s harder to make this game entertaining and expand it with boring, waste of time, non-games. If you get a god hand and the other guy doesn’t, tough luck. There’s only so much we can do with a game of chance. But what happens when your great game that goes long(ish) suddenly goes to crap bc of mana flood when you already have a solid operating mana base on the battlefield? You get another non-game, just late instead of early. If games of chance have too much chance, their rules need to tighten up.
New rule! You can cycle any land for 1 (or maybe 2 colorless) that doesn’t already have a cycling function once during your turn at instant (or sorcery depending on play testing) speed. Lands cycled this way are exiled and do not trigger cycling-triggered abilities. If you do so, you cannot play lands afterward during your turn. If you choose to play a land(s) from anywhere prior to this cycling function, you cannot choose to use this function till your next turn. This includes spells and effects that put lands into play during your turn from anywhere. It’s either play land(s) or free-cycle a non-cycling land. Cycling lands do not change. You can cycle a cycling land and your free-cycled land too.
I’ve play tested this some and I can’t find any major exploits that break the game. It eliminates more chance and more non-games.
if you wanted to get more clear on keeping track of when a player plays a land or free-cycles, the player must announce free-cycling (done when they have priority) and place a free-cycling completion token into play to be removed at cleanup.
Try this out. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. One player said to me, “will this make having more lands better?” I say no, bc you can freecycle only one land per turn, on your turn, can’t play more land afterward, and the land is exiled. This works. Try it out.
All lands exiled with free-cycling are exiled face down. The land is revealed upon activation of free-cycling before priority is passed. This way, no return of face up, exiled lands can occur.
We all know mana screw due to opening draw is a thing we’ve overhauled mulligans for; trying to reduce the number of non-games, particularly in televised MTG. It’s harder to make this game entertaining and expand it with boring, waste of time, non-games. If you get a god hand and the other guy doesn’t, tough luck. There’s only so much we can do with a game of chance. But what happens when your great game that goes long(ish) suddenly goes to crap bc of mana flood when you already have a solid operating mana base on the battlefield? You get another non-game, just late instead of early. If games of chance have too much chance, their rules need to tighten up.
New rule! You can cycle any land for 1 (or maybe 2 colorless) that doesn’t already have a cycling function once during your turn at instant (or sorcery depending on play testing) speed. Lands cycled this way are exiled and do not trigger cycling-triggered abilities. If you do so, you cannot play lands afterward during your turn. If you choose to play a land(s) from anywhere prior to this cycling function, you cannot choose to use this function till your next turn. This includes spells and effects that put lands into play during your turn from anywhere. It’s either play land(s) or free-cycle a non-cycling land. Cycling lands do not change. You can cycle a cycling land and your free-cycled land too.
I’ve play tested this some and I can’t find any major exploits that break the game. It eliminates more chance and more non-games.
if you wanted to get more clear on keeping track of when a player plays a land or free-cycles, the player must announce free-cycling (done when they have priority) and place a free-cycling completion token into play to be removed at cleanup.
Try this out. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. One player said to me, “will this make having more lands better?” I say no, bc you can freecycle only one land per turn, on your turn, can’t play more land afterward, and the land is exiled. This works. Try it out.