I was just wondering because Pariah + Treacherous Link was used as an infinite damage loop back with Flesh Reaver I believe. Stuffy Doll can be used in the Reaver's place allowing you to tap it to hit itself, which deals 1 to your opponent, triggers the Link to deal you 1, which is redirected back to the doll which deals 1 to your opponent, then one to you, etc. The only thing is you need a way to break the loop via sacrifice or an instant like Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile for Stuffy Doll, or Disenchant for the Treacherous Loop.
Lashknife barrier is good, especially with the en-kor creatures since it changes any damage into 1-point bursts. There are plenty of ways to boost toughness in both Black and White if you want to run High Priest, but if you ever prevent damage he will never trigger.
As for Urza's Armor, 1 or 2 are going to be the most you run and you can always tutor for them. White gives you Lymph Sliver which has a built in Lashknife barrier.
Righteous War also can give your board pro-Pestilence, but if your opponent is playing white that might backfire.
Also, is the Pariah + Treacherous Link in there for Stuffy Doll?
I think you may want to look at dropping the Phylactery Lich with only six artifact in the deck. Back around Urza's Saga there was a BW preconstructed deck that had Worship + Protection from Black + Pestilence + Urza's Armor that was really fun to play with.
En-Kor creatures are also fun since you can choose where their damage is going to be going (may I suggest something with protection or indestructible?)
If you are looking to try other colors Pestilence + Rite of Passage or Fungus Sliver can make for some big armies.
After seeing some posts about "Behemoth" (4+ CMC) and "Tiny Leaders" (3 or less cmc) as variant formats, I just had a quick thought and I am sure something like this may have already been mentioned.
What if we just used cards with CMC = 4 only?
There are over 100 legendary creatures that fall into this category, and according to gatherer there are 2800+ cards with cmc = 4. And the best part for all the kiddies out there? I am willing to let the Nephilim be legal as commanders (might need to find some kind of play on the number 4 for the commander title *shrug*)
I'd say it follows the B&R lists, but cutting it down to 2800 cards might pretty much take care of the cards that are on that list.
Any cards you think might be too powerful?
I think it can be something done pretty quick and easily, but still be fun and let you play with some hidden gems that either cost just one too much for Tiny Leaders or are sometimes outshined by some really good 6-drops.
Recently with the influx of Tiny Leaders in my area, I was going through my binder and made a joke as I passed by Draco that someone should make a format called Gigantic Leaders so I can finally use it instead of just letting it sit there. Then I had an idea that has a pretty good base, but I would like some feedback on to see if there is anything that can be added or tweaked at all.
Here are the base rules:
1.) Draco begins the game in a shared Command Zone.
2.) Any player may cast Draco at anytime they could normally play it.
3.) If Draco moves anywhere except the battlefield, place it back into the Command Zone.
4.) If a player pays for it's upkeep cost, they gain a point for every mana spent.
Only the upkeep payment of the original Draco counts. Clones/Tokens can still be made, but are not tracked for scoring purposes.
5.) First one to set amount of points, or last person standing with highest point total wins the match.
If no one has scored any points and someone wins it will be a draw.
New Rules Added [3/24/2015]
So after playing some more, my friends and I have decided to add some more opportunities for points and to increase the incentive to be a bit aggressive with being the first to take possession of Draco.
Points will also be awarded for the following:
[3 points] Be the first person to resolve playing Draco from the command zone.
[2 points] Cause an opponent to lose control of Draco.
[1 point] Resolve casting Draco from the command zone afterwards.
[1 point] Begin the turn with control of Draco.
[1 point] Deal combat damage to a player with Draco.
This can be done 1v1 or Multiplayer variants.
Different strategies are all encouraged, as there are pros and cons to playing 1, 2, 3, or 4 colors. More types of basics will let you play it faster, but you will get less points for paying it's upkeep. Dual lands can play a big role during deck construction.
I was thinking of keeping things simple and setting the point total at 20, as it would take at least three payments to reach, but still rewards someone that wants to go the hard way with no basics and only have to pay twice.
My biggest concerns right now are people creating copies of Draco after someone has already played him, but that might just have to be for now [Edit 3/12: Added uniqueness suggestion below after getting to play a bit over the weekend.]
Thank you all for taking the time to check it out and I look forward to hearing about it if you decide to test it out.
(I have also thought of introducing a similar version for more casual players or tiny leaders that uses Stratadon somehow with a fixed upkeep of 5 minus one for each basic land type)
At the pre-release I opened a foil Palace Seige and Crux of Fate, the watermark was on both. Did a quick google search about it right away and saw that people were getting the same results. It is on any of the cards with the Khans or Dragon choice, hence the Khans or Dragon expansion symbol depending on the light.
If an instant or sorcery would be turned face up it is exiled instead. "Turn face up" has a specific rules meaning; you reveal face down cards when they move to a different zone, but you don't turn them face up.
If you bounce a manifested instant or sorcery, it will return to your hand.
"A few older cards turn a face-down creature face up. If you manifest an instant or sorcery card, and one of these older cards tries to turn it face up, reveal the card and it stays on the battlefield face down."
That's correct, though I thought there was something about exile.
Either way, the point was that bouncing a Manifested instant or sorcery will return it to its owner's hand, which is true.
EDIT: Ah, it seems the article has already been edited. The first version that went up did say instants and sorceries turned face up would be exiled. It probably did exile at some point but was changed, and someone forgot to update the article.
Matt just answered in the affirmative on his Tumblr. The bounced card would go back to your hand. Now where did I put those Peel from Realities...
Just rechecked the Mechanics page and it looks like if something tries to turn it face up it, you reveal it and then turn it face down again.
"A few older cards turn a face-down creature face up. If you manifest an instant or sorcery card, and one of these older cards tries to turn it face up, reveal the card and it stays on the battlefield face down."
It will be nice once the FAQ comes out for Manifest. I am more worried about this opening the door for more morph/manifest cheatyfacing.
I think they said when a non-creature card is revealed/turned face-up it is exiled, and you would have to reveal it before you put it in your hand. So you would not be able to get the instant/sorcery back.
Managed to find a bundle of XXL at my nearby TrU. The employees were no help at all and it did take a bit of a scavenger hunt since there were 8 different islands throughout the store with randomly placed Pokemon/Yugioh/Magic/etc products. I found mine on the first one and a search of the others revealed five more bundles sizes L-XL.
I was horrified at the pricing of non-bundle Magic products though as they all had 20-25% markup, had I not seen this post I never would have gone there.
Got a pack of Khans and RTR, only thing that was neat was a foil Dutiful Return with very light grey lettering for the title.
I guess we will have to see how the "Time Travel" aspect goes. This would still be speculation, but if they go back in time I could see the clans changing to shards from wedges and then having them switch the fetches to enemy instead of ally. The last part is a big size block, and Fate Reforged sounds like it is going back in time rather than forward.
But you never know what they are thinking these days...
Increasing Savagery, Blessings of Nature, Noxious Revival, and Solidarity of Heroes. Sprinkle in almost anything you have always wanted to kill something with, because after you have done this to your play group once, you may never get the chance to do it again.
Went in yesterday to see if they had any of these, and found something very different. They had a repack, but the promo was hidden behind the first booster. Picked up two, and both were Innistrad, Dark Ascension, Innistrad, but the promos were just random Premium deck cards. Got grim lavamance, and a forest from slivers. :/
Wal-Mart/Target's vendors do this where they will take leftover premium series decks and put the 10 cards that are visible from the package in as random promos for the multipacks. The nice thing about this is when you see the 4 or 5 pre-cons for $30 in the plastic cases you can open the rest of the premium deck. I was able to pick up a few Jace/Chandra, Fire/Lightning, Venser/Koth, and Ajani/Nicol Bolas this way, but sadly was missing the good cards like the planeswalkers, Chain Lightning and Price of Progress.
Too be fair though, I did purchase some of the twin booster packs and open Chain Lightnings in both of them.
As for Urza's Armor, 1 or 2 are going to be the most you run and you can always tutor for them. White gives you Lymph Sliver which has a built in Lashknife barrier.
Righteous War also can give your board pro-Pestilence, but if your opponent is playing white that might backfire.
Also, is the Pariah + Treacherous Link in there for Stuffy Doll?
En-Kor creatures are also fun since you can choose where their damage is going to be going (may I suggest something with protection or indestructible?)
If you are looking to try other colors Pestilence + Rite of Passage or Fungus Sliver can make for some big armies.
What if we just used cards with CMC = 4 only?
There are over 100 legendary creatures that fall into this category, and according to gatherer there are 2800+ cards with cmc = 4. And the best part for all the kiddies out there? I am willing to let the Nephilim be legal as commanders (might need to find some kind of play on the number 4 for the commander title *shrug*)
I'd say it follows the B&R lists, but cutting it down to 2800 cards might pretty much take care of the cards that are on that list.
Any cards you think might be too powerful?
I think it can be something done pretty quick and easily, but still be fun and let you play with some hidden gems that either cost just one too much for Tiny Leaders or are sometimes outshined by some really good 6-drops.
Thank you for your time,
KKZero
Recently with the influx of Tiny Leaders in my area, I was going through my binder and made a joke as I passed by Draco that someone should make a format called Gigantic Leaders so I can finally use it instead of just letting it sit there. Then I had an idea that has a pretty good base, but I would like some feedback on to see if there is anything that can be added or tweaked at all.
Here are the base rules:
1.) Draco begins the game in a shared Command Zone.
2.) Any player may cast Draco at anytime they could normally play it.
3.) If Draco moves anywhere except the battlefield, place it back into the Command Zone.
4.) If a player pays for it's upkeep cost, they gain a point for every mana spent.
- Only the upkeep payment of the original Draco counts. Clones/Tokens can still be made, but are not tracked for scoring purposes.
5.) First one to set amount of points, or last person standing with highest point total wins the match.New Rules Added [3/24/2015]
So after playing some more, my friends and I have decided to add some more opportunities for points and to increase the incentive to be a bit aggressive with being the first to take possession of Draco.
Points will also be awarded for the following:
[3 points] Be the first person to resolve playing Draco from the command zone.
[2 points] Cause an opponent to lose control of Draco.
[1 point] Resolve casting Draco from the command zone afterwards.
[1 point] Begin the turn with control of Draco.
[1 point] Deal combat damage to a player with Draco.
This can be done 1v1 or Multiplayer variants.
Different strategies are all encouraged, as there are pros and cons to playing 1, 2, 3, or 4 colors. More types of basics will let you play it faster, but you will get less points for paying it's upkeep. Dual lands can play a big role during deck construction.
I was thinking of keeping things simple and setting the point total at 20, as it would take at least three payments to reach, but still rewards someone that wants to go the hard way with no basics and only have to pay twice.
My biggest concerns right now are people creating copies of Draco after someone has already played him, but that might just have to be for now[Edit 3/12: Added uniqueness suggestion below after getting to play a bit over the weekend.]Thank you all for taking the time to check it out and I look forward to hearing about it if you decide to test it out.
(I have also thought of introducing a similar version for more casual players or tiny leaders that uses Stratadon somehow with a fixed upkeep of 5 minus one for each basic land type)
I was very impressed.
Matt just answered in the affirmative on his Tumblr. The bounced card would go back to your hand. Now where did I put those Peel from Realities...
"A few older cards turn a face-down creature face up. If you manifest an instant or sorcery card, and one of these older cards tries to turn it face up, reveal the card and it stays on the battlefield face down."
It will be nice once the FAQ comes out for Manifest. I am more worried about this opening the door for more morph/manifest cheatyfacing.
I was horrified at the pricing of non-bundle Magic products though as they all had 20-25% markup, had I not seen this post I never would have gone there.
Got a pack of Khans and RTR, only thing that was neat was a foil Dutiful Return with very light grey lettering for the title.
But you never know what they are thinking these days...
Wal-Mart/Target's vendors do this where they will take leftover premium series decks and put the 10 cards that are visible from the package in as random promos for the multipacks. The nice thing about this is when you see the 4 or 5 pre-cons for $30 in the plastic cases you can open the rest of the premium deck. I was able to pick up a few Jace/Chandra, Fire/Lightning, Venser/Koth, and Ajani/Nicol Bolas this way, but sadly was missing the good cards like the planeswalkers, Chain Lightning and Price of Progress.
Too be fair though, I did purchase some of the twin booster packs and open Chain Lightnings in both of them.