This post has been been floating around in my head for months now, I've got a lot of ground to cover, and it ultimately may not be something I follow through on. But I wanted to get the idea out there.
In the past I dabbled in the WoW TCG. The game is comparable to Magic in many ways, but the standout difference for me is the resource system. There aren't "colors," but you do select a hero who places restrictions on what cards you can include in your deck (generally, spells are restricted by class, creatures are restricted by faction). Every turn, you may put a card from your hand face down as a resource. Also, quest cards can be played face up as a resource, and at any point in the game you can complete the quest (usually by paying mana) and getting a small reward (usually up to a card's worth of value). After the quest is completed, it is turned face down and remains an available resource.
This system isn't perfect: selecting the proper card to play as a resource is a difficult skill; also the presence of cards that are "better" at being resources makes for feel-bad when you have to play your spells as resources now and potentially draw dedicated resources later.
Still, I want to experiment with altering Magic's rules for lands to be similar to WoW TCGS - you can cash in any card in your hand for a land. My plan is to take my long dormant "normal" cube and convert it to best make use of these alternate land rules.
I've thought some different ways to implement such a radical change. Here are my initial thoughts:
- Any time you could play a land and have a land play, you may exile a card from your hand. If you do, you may put a basic land from outside the game onto the battlefield (possibly tapped, more on that later).
- Any time you are instructed to search your library for a card, if that card could be a basic land, you may find a basic land of your choosing from outside the game. This is so things like Rampant Growth are still playable.
- Players may not put basic lands into their deck during construction, and all basics should be removed from the deck between games. However, the basics are not tokens; gameplay may put basics into zones other than the battlefield (graveyard and exile are probably obvious, but things like Upheaval and Plow Under can get them to other zones).
Those are the base level rules. I think they are pretty intuitive, and most players won't have trouble "getting" it, even if finding the optimal strategy takes some adjusting.
So far, what have we accomplished? Let's count:
1) Players will never draw too many or two few lands (assuming there's only a limited selection of non-basics).
2) Deck-building time is drastically reduced: just review your picks, and make a few cuts. Initially, I was thinking you play every card you draft, but being able to cut your worst few picks allows for some streamlining.
3) When playing, players are always "drawing live," and can't brick with a land draw. This also makes card draw much more powerful, so care must be taken in cube construction. Conversely, card selection is somewhat weaker, as you don't need to ensure skipping land draws.
4) Any cards that would be sideboard-only can now stay in the main deck and be pitched for lands if they are unnecessary.
5) Players are only keeping track of their deck and basics are communal, so there is only one pile of cards for them to keep track of - makes it easier to combat theft when playing at public events.
Now, for the important issue: If you can always get any color of land, how do we prevent drafters from simply always taking the best card in a pack and just jamming a rainbow deck?
Well, I suppose that's always going to be a risk - but perhaps part of the fun, if kept within reason. If a game goes long, the fact that anything could happen is going to make for quite the spectacle. In cube design, the risk can be mitigated by avoiding having too many powerful spells that only have a single C in their casting cost. This might leave a lot of cube "staples" on the bench, but keeps the focus on 2 color decks with splashes. This isn't to say I want to avoid the inclusion of single C spells entirely, but there should be a noticeable bump in power level from a 5C card to a 4CC card, or even a 1C card to a CC card.
The other way to encourage staying in colors is by placing restrictions on how basics can enter the battlefield untapped. I've thought up a system, and I'm looking for some feedback on it:
0) Assumptions: Nonbasic land in the cube that can produce colored mana all enter the battlefield tapped. Lands that only fix mana are not put into the cube. Artifact based mana fixing is very weak, if available at all. Overall power level of artifacts would also be down a notch or two.
1) Pre-Game, players select and announce their primary and secondary colors. Players may change their selections between games/matches, but not after seeing their opening hands.
2) Basic Lands for your primary color always enter the battlefield untapped.
3) Basic Lands for your secondary color enter the battlefield tapped unless you pay 1 life.
4) All other Basic Lands enter the battlefield tapped unless you pay 3 life.
5) Each player skips the first 3 points of life they would pay for lands to enter untapped.
6) Basic lands that are physically in hand (due to Cultivate, Boomerang, Demonic Tutor, etc) enter the battlefield untapped.
I wanted the life-loss to feel roughly equivalent to a mana base that contained fetches and shocks. Limit yourself to two colors, and you pay almost no life over the course of the game and have your lands enter all untapped. More than that requires either the tempo-loss of lands that ETBT or significant life loss.
I know this post is a lot to digest, but I'd really appreciate some critical feedback: what do you think would work, what wouldn't work, what other considerations would have to be made for cube construction, etc.
In the past I dabbled in the WoW TCG. The game is comparable to Magic in many ways, but the standout difference for me is the resource system. There aren't "colors," but you do select a hero who places restrictions on what cards you can include in your deck (generally, spells are restricted by class, creatures are restricted by faction). Every turn, you may put a card from your hand face down as a resource. Also, quest cards can be played face up as a resource, and at any point in the game you can complete the quest (usually by paying mana) and getting a small reward (usually up to a card's worth of value). After the quest is completed, it is turned face down and remains an available resource.
This system isn't perfect: selecting the proper card to play as a resource is a difficult skill; also the presence of cards that are "better" at being resources makes for feel-bad when you have to play your spells as resources now and potentially draw dedicated resources later.
Still, I want to experiment with altering Magic's rules for lands to be similar to WoW TCGS - you can cash in any card in your hand for a land. My plan is to take my long dormant "normal" cube and convert it to best make use of these alternate land rules.
I've thought some different ways to implement such a radical change. Here are my initial thoughts:
- Any time you could play a land and have a land play, you may exile a card from your hand. If you do, you may put a basic land from outside the game onto the battlefield (possibly tapped, more on that later).
- Any time you are instructed to search your library for a card, if that card could be a basic land, you may find a basic land of your choosing from outside the game. This is so things like Rampant Growth are still playable.
- Players may not put basic lands into their deck during construction, and all basics should be removed from the deck between games. However, the basics are not tokens; gameplay may put basics into zones other than the battlefield (graveyard and exile are probably obvious, but things like Upheaval and Plow Under can get them to other zones).
Those are the base level rules. I think they are pretty intuitive, and most players won't have trouble "getting" it, even if finding the optimal strategy takes some adjusting.
So far, what have we accomplished? Let's count:
1) Players will never draw too many or two few lands (assuming there's only a limited selection of non-basics).
2) Deck-building time is drastically reduced: just review your picks, and make a few cuts. Initially, I was thinking you play every card you draft, but being able to cut your worst few picks allows for some streamlining.
3) When playing, players are always "drawing live," and can't brick with a land draw. This also makes card draw much more powerful, so care must be taken in cube construction. Conversely, card selection is somewhat weaker, as you don't need to ensure skipping land draws.
4) Any cards that would be sideboard-only can now stay in the main deck and be pitched for lands if they are unnecessary.
5) Players are only keeping track of their deck and basics are communal, so there is only one pile of cards for them to keep track of - makes it easier to combat theft when playing at public events.
Now, for the important issue: If you can always get any color of land, how do we prevent drafters from simply always taking the best card in a pack and just jamming a rainbow deck?
Well, I suppose that's always going to be a risk - but perhaps part of the fun, if kept within reason. If a game goes long, the fact that anything could happen is going to make for quite the spectacle. In cube design, the risk can be mitigated by avoiding having too many powerful spells that only have a single C in their casting cost. This might leave a lot of cube "staples" on the bench, but keeps the focus on 2 color decks with splashes. This isn't to say I want to avoid the inclusion of single C spells entirely, but there should be a noticeable bump in power level from a 5C card to a 4CC card, or even a 1C card to a CC card.
The other way to encourage staying in colors is by placing restrictions on how basics can enter the battlefield untapped. I've thought up a system, and I'm looking for some feedback on it:
0) Assumptions: Nonbasic land in the cube that can produce colored mana all enter the battlefield tapped. Lands that only fix mana are not put into the cube. Artifact based mana fixing is very weak, if available at all. Overall power level of artifacts would also be down a notch or two.
1) Pre-Game, players select and announce their primary and secondary colors. Players may change their selections between games/matches, but not after seeing their opening hands.
2) Basic Lands for your primary color always enter the battlefield untapped.
3) Basic Lands for your secondary color enter the battlefield tapped unless you pay 1 life.
4) All other Basic Lands enter the battlefield tapped unless you pay 3 life.
5) Each player skips the first 3 points of life they would pay for lands to enter untapped.
6) Basic lands that are physically in hand (due to Cultivate, Boomerang, Demonic Tutor, etc) enter the battlefield untapped.
I wanted the life-loss to feel roughly equivalent to a mana base that contained fetches and shocks. Limit yourself to two colors, and you pay almost no life over the course of the game and have your lands enter all untapped. More than that requires either the tempo-loss of lands that ETBT or significant life loss.
I know this post is a lot to digest, but I'd really appreciate some critical feedback: what do you think would work, what wouldn't work, what other considerations would have to be made for cube construction, etc.
