Custom MtG Ruleset

[SorO_Lost]

So I downloaded MtG's puzzle quest, it's FB gem swap for mana meets MtG with a constant Planeswalker out, and it got me thinking of a tabletop version that's more MtG than money scam. I'm calling it "Ten Card Walker" and since I'm too lazy to sign up for some MtG based forms I figured I'd pick your brain.

Deckbuilding
Choose ten non-duplicate, none-land, cards that are not on the ban list and one Planeswalker.
Colorless, artifacts, gold, and dual colored cards may be freely used but all colors used must match your walker.
You can use forms of mana generation provided it comes from a non-land card.

Play
* You start the game with two cards and 20 hp.
* On your turn draw a card, max hand size is three.
* After drawing roll a spindown counter (1d20) and divide by five, add the result to your mana pool (eg +1~4 mana/turn).
* Handle the main, attack, secondary phases as normal.
* At the end of your turn your mana pool isn't emptied, you can build it up over multiple turns.

Unique Rules
* You use your Planeswalker as your Commander and can choose to attack your opponent's as normal.
* If you would draw a card and have no library to draw from you do not lose the game.
* If you have no library to draw from, try to shuffle your graveyard and use it as your library if possible.
* If a card would be removed from the game it instead is placed in the graveyard.

Ban List
* All forms of counter spelling is banned because that'd be a dick move. 2 mana to wipe three turns of mana generation >.>
* Protection from a color is banned due to color lock.
* Cards cannot be played out of the graveyard (eg flashback) but permanents can be returned to to play (eg raise dead), see recycling the same ten cards over and over again.

Expectations
So I imagine play would center around a few creatures you like, or token swarm, and a lot of repetition from your favorite Spells. Themed decks will be very easy to build with very little cost (dude it's ten cards). But even through it's a small card list it's just as diverse as a full 60 card x4 copy deck without the need to pile in twenty lands plus you have the random factor of mana still as well as long term and short term planning of how you spend it. Tracking mana will basically boil down you needing three spindowns, hp, to-roll, and available. Cheap, quick, half the attraction of Commander in that you get to use all for favorite cards but without the 100 card random draw.

Thoughts? Tweaks? Suggestions? Did someone beat me to it?

[Amechra]

How does Mill interact with the whole mess?

Because Mill is what I do. It's what I be.

[SorO_Lost]

How does Mill interact with the whole mess?

Nothing but reshuffling. But like if you Srcy 3 forcing you to mill 2 would screw you over

Heck depending on the play you may not even have a library, like as it sits now you could just pick 10 creature cards and eventually have them all out. Of course, you could have nine permanents and one sorcerery thus allowing you to redraw and use the same spell over and over again (lightning bolt! lightning bolt! lightning bolt!). Well, assuming you could manage to keep nine permanents out. If you wanted mill=ftw, well mill is overrated and abused anyway. The Commander format it's self reduces milling effectiveness, both in draw chances of pulling a decent mill and the fact your opponent's deck has +75% more cards.

From my experiences with the format, it's main draw is for the poor suckers with a lot of useless cards to compete against people that have the money or had the time to build decks with copies while allowing you to play your absolutely favorite card over and over again. Within the meta through, due to the 100 card deck, assuming 33 or less lands, you have a one in sixty six chance of drawing any single card giving the decks a huge replay value since it isn't all to often you pull the same cards as a game before it. The increased starting life (40hp) and typical lack of high value cards also means the game's duration will last awhile.

My Ten Card Walker plays with the Commander set up, keeping some of the same thoughts in mind but plays with them a bit. Like it brings back the speed of play and uses the offset of being able to near-instantly being able to revamp or build a new deck to keep the replay fresh. It's cost conservative in that you still can't use duplicates but does a better job of rewarding owning good cards than Commander does (since you'd need 66 cards worth a damn) so it works as a nice step up.

It also redefines the mana screw, instead of being land trapped/populated making it impossible to play anything you have a guaranteed progression that can even be toyed with. Like if your deck as one card that costs {1} you have about a 1:7 chance to pull it and a +1/turn mana rate to play something better even on the lamest rolls ever. The game is primarily randomized through drawing and mana gain so even if the cards remain the same you can still play through a few hands without feeling like you played the same exact hand. So you have new a dynamic to handle much like Commander first introduced with it's creature repetition.

But the largest huge change up is while Commander lets you use your fracture creature or houseruled Planeswalker and it's extended duration penalizing short term rewards like single use Spells or effects, Ten Card Walker lets you use your favorite Sorcery & Instant cards at a much faster rate than normal and rewards quickies instead of long drawn out creature bashes. Commander also hates card combos, but 10W is perfect for it.

[SorO_Lost]

So report and the first run last weekend.

Math sucks balls. 1d20 for mana is gone, banking was a subject of discussion to simply drop. Next round will probably be gain 3 mana at the start of your turn and if you want to cast bigger spells then you'll need to use mana generators. My poorer friends are leaning towards allowing Lands in your deck.

Spell repetition is based on keeping permanents out. eg you had to pay for a few creatures, artifacts and/or enchantments to thin your drawing resource to reach the point where you can spam stuff like doom blade. And those permanents are typically pretty cheap to reduce, see also Doom Blade & Disenchant costing 2 mana. Lands would cost nothing allowing you to reach the point of cycling way to fast and land destruction is 3+ mana to use and has a much more limited focus. Like Disenchant hits two common card types but Stone Rain would only hit one rare card type.

Two fixes have been proposed, the no-land and 12 card walker where two cards must be land. It delays cycling by as much as it would speed it up, lets you use land-based enchantments, and makes stone rain more useful than a niche-counter-only card. Which in hindsight does sound better than total banning of them.

The was also very little incentive to summon your Planeswalker over using the cards. Due to Walker's costs they were typically a two turn investment and you never really had a chance to use their nuke ability since the games were over pretty quick. There is an idea of starting with them in play making them your first target to try to knock out else your opponent probably wins. I'll know more in the next round.

[Nanshork]

You could do something like Hearthstone does if you're getting rid of banking.  Every turn gain 1 more mana than the turn before with a cap (Hearthstone has a cap of 10).

[SorO_Lost]

You could do something like Hearthstone does if you're getting rid of banking.  Every turn gain 1 more mana than the turn before with a cap (Hearthstone has a cap of 10).

That's a nice out of the box thought that's certainly worth trying. Fit's the goals of lower cost & quick play too. 

[Nanshork]

You could do something like Hearthstone does if you're getting rid of banking.  Every turn gain 1 more mana than the turn before with a cap (Hearthstone has a cap of 10).

That's a nice out of the box thought that's certainly worth trying. Fit's the goals of lower cost & quick play too. 

I don't know if stealing ideas from another deck building game counts as "out of the box" thinking, but I'm happy to help!

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Oh darn. I thought this was going to be a 'So what's your MtG houserule?'

and I was going to be like "TARGETED ATTACKZZZZZZZZZZ!"