#magic format

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

Jenga Magic -- The Unofficial Unstable Format

You need:

Magic decks of your choice

5 or 6 assorted piles of cards, shuffled (one pile for each color, roughly 20 cards each, and 1 pile for colorless if you choose to have those)

A jenga set with colored blocks

You play normally except that at some point during your turn you have to play a turn of Jenga. If you successfully move a block and place it on top of the tower then you get to draw a card from pile of cards corresponding to that block’s color. Play your Jenga turn only any time you could cast a sorcery. You retain priority until the end of your Jenga turn, when a draw trigger for the appropriate color pile goes on the stack.

The above set is the one I have. Yellow is white cards and purple is black cards. Each pile has generally powerful cards that would be useful to just about any deck of those colors. So you want to draw a card from a pile that you could potentially play.

The catch is that if the tower falls and you were the last one to touch it then you lose the game immediately (alternatively you could just get a major set back, like discarding your hand, destroying all nonland permanents you control, losing half your life rounded up, etc. You could make a small chart and roll a dice for these if you want people to potentially stay in the game after the tower falls).

Get it? Unstable? The tower falls?

Alternatively (how I’m likely to play the first time I try this) ignore the colors and just have some booster packs handy. Successfully completing your Jenga turn means you get to draft one card from a booster to put directly into your hand.

Another alternative -- have the piles of cards in their own sleeves that are readily distinguishable from everyone else’s deck. Cards in those sleeves can be cast as using mana as though it were mana of any color. So the color isn’t a restriction but rather an indication of what kind of effects you have a chance of getting. Need a destroy creature spell? Try to draw from the black pile and hope for the best.

@flavoracle I think you’ll appreciate this and would also love input from you or anyone else. This seems pretty fun to me but if anybody thinks of something that might put it really over the top I want to hear it!

[drmothmaam]

Pauper Tiny Leaders

Tiny leaders deck of all commons with the commander being any uncommon or common creature with cmc of 3 or less.

[tanisfahr]

Alternate Formats: All Lands

I’m a big fan of alternate formats. It helps to keep my overall Magic experience from getting stale by introducing me to different gameplay and to new (at least to me) cards. It also causes me to explore different deck archetypes and to be creative in new ways.

If you’re not familiar with the All Lands format, it’s pretty straightforward: each player’s deck contains only lands. There are a few consequences to this format.

You never miss a land drop.

You play only one card during your turn.

You are unable to play any cards during your opponent’s turn.

There are a few exceptions to the last two rules. The cycling lands, Tolaria West, & Rustic Clachan all have abilities (you discard the card in exchange for an effect) that can be played any time you have priority. Terrain Generator has an ability that allows you to play an extra basic land from your hand. There are also the Hideaway lands which allow you to play a card (provided certain criteria are met) that you had previously exiled. Finally, there are fetch lands, some of which allow you to get up to two lands (either basic lands or specific types of land) onto the battlefield.

I played this format for the first time recently. I just wanted to see how it worked so I made two identical 42 card decks (they were identical because I didn’t have  time to make two decks; they were going to be 40 card decks but at the last minute I added two of Mishra’s Factory to each deck and didn’t want to waste time deciding what to pull out) with cards I had on hand and asked my spouse to play with me. Here are my observations from our game.

It’s a slow format. Being able to play only one card per turn does not a fast format make.

Your hand is always full. That’s what happens when you can only play one card per turn.

There are (almost) no surprises during combat. The lack of instants means there is no hidden information during combat (unless your opponent has a Rustic Clachan in hand or the possibility of playing a card exiled by a Hideaway land).

There are a surprisingly large number of options during your turn. From which of the 7-8 cards in your hand to play to what to do with the cards on your battlefield. Most every card on the battlefield can generate mana and most every card has some useful activated ability. That ends up leaving you with a bunch of mutually exclusive options.

Land destruction is obviously powerful. 

Token creatures are surprisingly powerful. There’s no mass creature removal and no target creature removal. Token creatures can be killed, but there are fewer options.

I enjoyed our game as did my spouse (though I suspect it was because I was skunked 20-0). I wouldn’t mind playing this format again though I doubt that will be any time soon. I definitely don’t see this format taking off but I know that it’ll be in the back of my mind as I evaluate the lands from future sets.