Magic Formats, Part IV

Fundamental Tweaks

Howevercomma beyond the reach of these safe variations, there are yet more ways to shake up a game. The first, of course, is multiplayer.

Booster drafts, by default are a form of multiplayer. The official rules assume you have four to eight friends that both play Magic and that you want to play Magic with (while I, personally, find the number to be closer to two and a half, depending on just what I've been drinking.), but that's surmountable. Drafting is great fun in that you're playing the game before you play the game. Trying to figure out who's pulling what, where that game breaking card went, and just who the hell is stealing all of your Black is usually as much fun as playing Magic itself, even if the format, as designed, eventually breaks down into a series of duels.

The simplest fix for this is Multiplayer Group Drafting, which is just drafting with a fourth booster pack per person to soften the edges of those times when you end up with some poor-quality late picks in the third round.

The best way to shake up your game in multiplayer is with “Plug and Play” multiplayer formats. While it’s certainly possible to optimize decks for these formats, for the most part, a regular 60-card duel deck can work in this format without major tweaking. Two-Headed Giant, Emperor, Archenemy, Ukatabi Kong, and Zero Sum are all multiplayer formats that work well with an existing deck, and fundamentally change much of how the game operates.

Two Headed Giant is probably one of the oldest variations on this theme. It features two teams of two players each who share a life total and work to reduce their opponents’ life total to 0. The players share a turn and attack together. Two Headed Giant is fun and lets two players work together without concern that the weaker link will be eliminated. However, its rules are sometimes complex due to the nature of players sharing life totals and turns.

Emperor is another venerable format in which six players form two teams. Each team consists of an Emperor flanked by two Generals. The Generals can only attack and target players adjacent to them and Emperors may cast spells on any adjacent player and any player adjacent to them. This means that the first General to fall exposes his Emperor, and the loss of an Emperor is the loss of a game. Allies can also transfer creatures to adjacent friends by tapping them. Once the range of influence and attacking options become familiar, Emperor is a fun and flavorful method of play.

Archenemy is one of the summer filler releases, designed to put focus on multiplayer formats and entice players to buy something during the summer. Archenemy doesn’t seem to have been successful in that respect, but it’s still a fun format. Instead of a free for all or team versus team match, a deck of Archenemy cards make one player powerful enough to take on all comers. A one-versus-all format, Archenemy is long on flavor, but short on actual innovation. Let’s face it though, if you read the flavor text on all of your schemes as you set them into motion, everyone wins!

Ukatabi Kong is an unusual format where one player is randomly (and secretly) selected to be Ukatabi Kong and the rest are hunters. If another player kills the Ukatabi Kong, they win the game and gets points for each other player eliminated before them. When the Ukatabi Kong is the last player standing or has a total of 20 power worth of creatures on the board, they win instantly and gain points equal to the number of players eliminated plus the number of players who started the game. After several rounds, points are totaled and winner declared.

Finally, Zero Sum is an interesting format where each player divides their life total between left and right sides, defaulting at 10 each (10/10). Whenever they take damage from a player immediately to their right or left, the corresponding side takes that much damage and their opposite side gains that much life. A player at full health who’s hit by a Serra Angel from the left would then have a life total of 6/14. A player is only killed whenever one of their life totals is at -10, representing twenty damage from a single player (and of course, poison, decking, concessions, Doors to Nothingness, etc.). Whenever a player takes damage from a player not directly to either side of them, the damage is applied equally to both halves of their life and nothing changes.