Magic Formats, Part V

Detailing

There are also a number of ‘formats’ which can be easily applied on top of most normal games of Magic—multiplayer or duel—to change how the game plays.

Planechase is the best of these. Ideally, each player has their own deck of double-sized plane cards, but I’ve found that pulling from a common pile tends to make things more interesting. None the less, Planechase requires a few special cards, but otherwise works with any other format. It isn’t an alternative way to play so much as a way to infuse additional randomness into how you’re already playing. In a nutshell, there’s a plane card that gives a regular effect for as long as its face up. As a special action, a player can roll a planar die (1D6). If they get a Planeswalk symbol (1), they can put the current plane on the bottom of the planar library and reveal the next plane from the top of that library. If they roll Chaos (6), they activate a special ability of that plane instead. Other results do nothing.

House Rule: In order to (partially) circumvent the unreliable planeswalking system, my group uses two planar die, with a player having the option of choosing which applies. This makes walking away and activating chaos abilities more reliable, instead of leaving players at a hobbling plane on a streak of bad luck with no hope of egress (though that certainly still happens).

Respawn Magic is a multiplayer variant where a player may reenter the game once they’re eliminated. They lose a point for being eliminated (or conceding) and whichever player controlled the effect that eliminated them gains a point. Whenever they reenter, they get three immediate, free turns and then resume playing in the main game. Respawn Magic is fun and flexible, allowing latecomers and players who’ve been eliminated by a run of bad luck to enter the game and come up to speed. It also helps prevent stalemates and allows kamikazie runs on winning players to break their hold on the board. Respawn Magic doesn’t work so well with formats where eliminating other players matters (Archenemy, Ukatabi Kong, Star [see Monday's article]), but it’s great for any other sort of running game.

The Rumble Rule is a helpful rule to keep multiplayer (or even some duels) games from bogging down. It is only good in limited format games, or games where all players have a sideboard. Whenever a player deals damage to another player or gives them a poison counter, they get a rumble point. Whenever a player has twenty rumble points, they may immediately take a card from their sideboard/unused card pool and exile it. They may cast that card at any time they could normally play it from exile without paying its mana cost (though any non-zero values of “X” must actually be paid for.). It encourages players to be aggressive and to attack, even when the board state might not be optimal.

Assassins can spice up almost any multiplayer game. Players are given the name of another player to eliminate. That other player is their mark. Whenever you eliminate your mark, you get a point and that player’s mark. If you were their mark, gain a point and discard that mark without getting another one. If someone else removes your mark, you get no points. The last player standing gets 1.5 points.

House Rule: Colorbind Assassins: Alternatively, each player can choose a basic land to represent them. A basic land corresponding to each player is shuffled into a pile and dealt to each player. This game proceeds just like a regular game of Assassins, except that your mark can be any player with a basic land of that type in play. Whenever you eliminate a player who controls that basic land type, you gain one point and may switch your mark for his. A player with no basic land types may be anyone’s mark. Last player standing earns 1.5 points.