Casual Play / Fun Constructed Formats

[The Games Club]

There are a number of slots (4-8) in the Public Event Schedule for this year's Nationals that I want to fill with "fun" formats.

 

These formats have to be accessible - given the pool of cards that attendees are likely to have available - to the vast majority of players attending Nationals, with the minimal preperation / testing.

 

Current formats currently under consideration are:

 

STANDARD SINGLETON

Legal Sets: M10, M11, Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn, Zendikar, Worldwake and Rise of the Eldrazi

Card Limit: 1 (excluding basic land)

Deck Size: 60+

Sideboard: 15

 

100 CARD SINGLETON

Legal Sets: All M:TG card sets, any edition of the Core Set  and all promotional cards released by WotC

Card Limit: 1 (excluding basic land)

Deck Size: 100

Sideboard: 15

 

STANDARD PAUPER

Legal Sets: M10, M11, Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn, Zendikar, Worldwake and Rise of the Eldrazi

Restrictions: Cards must be (currently or previously) printed at the "Common" rarity.

Card Limit: 4 (excluding basic land)

Deck Size: 60+

Sideboard: 15

 

EXTENDED PAUPER

Legal Sets: 9th, 10th M10, M11, Mirrodin, Darksettl, Fifht Dawn, Championsof Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa, Ravnica: City of Guild, Guildpact, Dissension, Condsnap, Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, Future Sight, Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, Eventide, Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn, Zendikar, Worldwake and Rise of the Eldrazi

Restrictions: Cards must be (currently or previously) printed at the "Common" rarity.

Card Limit: 4 (excluding basic land)

Deck Size: 60+

Sideboard: 15

 

BRING YOUR OWN BLOCK

Legal Sets: All M:TG card sets, any edition of the Core Set  and all promotional cards released by WotC

Restrictions: Cards may only be from one Block format

Card Limit: 4 (excluding basic land)

Deck Size: 60+

Sideboard: 15

 

CORE SET CONSTRUCTED

Legal Sets: 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, M10 and M11

Card Limit: 4 (excluding basic land)

Deck Size: 60+

Sideboard: 15

 

5 COLOUR

Legal Sets: All M:TG card sets, any edition of the Core Set  and all promotional cards released by WotC

Restrictions: Deck must contain a minimum of 20W, 20U, 20B, 20R and 20G cards

Card Limit: 4 (excluding basic land)

Deck Size: 250

 

KALEIDOSCOPE

Legal Sets: All M:TG card sets, any edition of the Core Set  and all promotional cards released by WotC

Restrictions: All cards must be Mulitcoloured

Card Limit: 4 (excluding basic land)

Deck Size: 60

Sideboard: 15

 

STANDARD TRIBAL WARS

Legal Sets: M10, M11, Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn, Zendikar, Worldwake and Rise of the Eldrazi

Restrictions: One-third of every deck must be creatures which all share a creature type

Card Limit: 4 (excluding basic land)

Deck Size: 60+

Sideboard: 15

 

GRAND MELEE

Legal Sets: M10, M11, Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn, Zendikar, Worldwake and Rise of the Eldrazi

Card Limit: 4 (excluding basic land)

Deck Size: 60+

[Kieran Symington]

No love for EDH?

[Charlie Grover]

Build your own block? Or is that farrr tooo much effort?

Rainbow stairwell?
(1 card of each cmc 1-6 for each colour+artifact, 24 lands, any format)

Edit: I know highlander tournaments in europe are 1 game/round, hence no sb, but I have no idea why that should be, just a thought incase you run it.

[Simon Baldwin]

I may be missing something - what is grand melee? Some kind of free-for-all multiplayer?

Pauper sounds fun, extended gives more selection of cards so would be interesting, but I'm sure some awesome standards decks can be made too. Similarly, if there was an extended 'tribal wars' it would include Lorwyn and Morningtide for many tribal cards. How about extended-tribal-pauper? ;D

EDH would be quite cool too.

[Gary Lynch]

Not sure how much interest these would get. I know I would have no idea what I wanted to play in any of these formats.

Also people would have to go to the trouble of specifically building a deck just for these events as im sure most people dont have pauper decks ready to hand. I feel this may be a problem as it is often harder to get commons you dont have as opposed to rares. No one really carries commons with them to trade.

[Dan Barrett]

EDH
Standard Singleton
Standard/Extended Pauper
Grand Melee

Would be the formats i'd be interested in, in order of interest level. I really don't think you'll get any of the others on that list to fire.

[Thomas David Baker]

Do they have to be constructed formats?

From a getting-events-to-fire perspective, something "fun" where the organizer supplies the product or loans out the decks so no preparation in advance was required seems to be a winner. Or something you can play with an existing Standard deck that you've brought along anyway.

Then again there may be a fanatical Rainbow Stairwell (or whatever) community out there that will turn up en masse if you choose their pet format. I know that the EDH queues were firing pretty regularly at Grand Prix Oakland so if you pick a format people are into they will turn up and play.

Personally my ideal wacky side event is a draft with lots of different sets. Sure it's going to be seriously wonky but for a one-off bit of fun it would be cool. Small note: I wouldn't want to pay much more than a normal draft for it.

I also want to try Type 4 (all players start with infinite basic lands, anything that can deal infinite damage to players is banned) at some point but probably not Nats where there will be loads of other good stuff going on.

[Gary Lynch]

I remember something at nats one year where they had a points thing for each draft you did and the top 8 players got to play a sealed deck with a box of product as their pool.

Not sure if that's at all viable. But something along those lines coul be interesting. Perhaps not a box but a draft with different product or something to mix it up. Could also result in people doing more drafts.

[Antony Churchill]

Just as a suggestion, the Legacy banned list is probably necessary for any of the eternal-based of these, unless you want to go to the trouble of creating your own.
Pauper is awesome! I would almost certainly brew something for any of the pauper events.

[Simon O'Keeffe]

As I understand Build Your Own Block, it allows you to 'construct' a block that never was. You have to pick a first set, second set, and third set from different blocks (maybe you can choose from the same?) . E.g: Onslaught, Planeshift, Fifth Dawn.

The way you have it written Jason it looks like it is battle of the blocks. You have to build a block constructed deck, and play against other block constructed decks. E.g. Onslaught block Goblins, vs Mirrodin block Affinity.

[The Games Club]

sokeeffe said:

As I understand Build Your Own Block, it allows you to 'construct' a block that never was. You have to pick a first set, second set, and third set from different blocks (maybe you can choose from the same?) . E.g: Onslaught, Planeshift, Fifth Dawn.

The way you have it written Jason it looks like it is battle of the blocks. You have to build a block constructed deck, and play against other block constructed decks. E.g. Onslaught block Goblins, vs Mirrodin block Affinity.

I was thinking more of a "battle of the blocks" as you describe. Although your option is an option too.

[Gary Lynch]

I may infact go to th trouble of building a deck for the bring your own block.

I can play TEACHINGS!

One question though is it mentions core sets. Do you get to add a core set to your block?

[Thomas David Baker]

> One question though is it mentions core sets. Do you get to add a core set to your block?

There's "Build Your Own Standard" that lets you choose any two blocks and a core set to build your deck from.