Hey guys. I wanted to share a format that we made up ages ago, though rules change slightly each time we play. We really haven't played regular magic in ages, we aren't into a local store and our playgroup is kinda dissolved. But when it's just me and my brother, we sometimes break out what we call 8-mana (named for reasons that will be obvious). I've been tempted to try creating a stack/cube for the format, I am curious if that would make it better or kinda kill the magic of the style.
It reminds me a little of Momir Vig. The core of the game is this: you share a library- a big randomized stack of cards, and you get 8 mana at the start of your turn that you keep and may use through your opponent's turn (used as any color when you use it, we just keep track of how much is left). Graveyards can be separate or shared, both ways create interesting interactions (and potential issues, though mostly it works okay to share a graveyard). I like starting with a couple cards and tossing in some minor balancing thing, like maybe first player doesn't draw but gets to scry to hurt his opponent's draw (since drawing seems better than going first in this format but I could definitely be wrong).
It's not a huge skill tester, though there are definitely little scenarios that can be, especially as you get more options with your 8 mana and activated abilities. A couple other notes: we generally restrict tutors to the top 15 cards of the stack, this makes them much less busted and sometimes underwhelming and could be tweaked. As long as you don't accidentally grab a zillion lands we leave them in and they just act normally. Last time we played we allowed land tutors and just grabbed them from the box. A card that is totally dysfunctional with the rules just get's a redraw and removed generally (though this is exceptionally rare).
I don't hate a rule that lets you discard two to draw a new card at any time. Scries are pretty fun here too. Screwing the other person with a land or bottoming some insane card just for them to draw something equally insane is amusing. It changes power levels of cards by quite a bit. We used his cube recently and it worked alright, though I don't know the cards in it as it's low powered. Historically we've just grabbed literally random stacks of cards for the chaos.
Anybody else have a personal little format like this? I really like how you never know what you'll get- games that look absolutely over can swing on a dime when you draw a weird card that you've probably never ever used anywhere because it's crap.
It reminds me a little of Momir Vig. The core of the game is this: you share a library- a big randomized stack of cards, and you get 8 mana at the start of your turn that you keep and may use through your opponent's turn (used as any color when you use it, we just keep track of how much is left). Graveyards can be separate or shared, both ways create interesting interactions (and potential issues, though mostly it works okay to share a graveyard). I like starting with a couple cards and tossing in some minor balancing thing, like maybe first player doesn't draw but gets to scry to hurt his opponent's draw (since drawing seems better than going first in this format but I could definitely be wrong).
It's not a huge skill tester, though there are definitely little scenarios that can be, especially as you get more options with your 8 mana and activated abilities. A couple other notes: we generally restrict tutors to the top 15 cards of the stack, this makes them much less busted and sometimes underwhelming and could be tweaked. As long as you don't accidentally grab a zillion lands we leave them in and they just act normally. Last time we played we allowed land tutors and just grabbed them from the box. A card that is totally dysfunctional with the rules just get's a redraw and removed generally (though this is exceptionally rare).
I don't hate a rule that lets you discard two to draw a new card at any time. Scries are pretty fun here too. Screwing the other person with a land or bottoming some insane card just for them to draw something equally insane is amusing. It changes power levels of cards by quite a bit. We used his cube recently and it worked alright, though I don't know the cards in it as it's low powered. Historically we've just grabbed literally random stacks of cards for the chaos.
Anybody else have a personal little format like this? I really like how you never know what you'll get- games that look absolutely over can swing on a dime when you draw a weird card that you've probably never ever used anywhere because it's crap.