General CBS

[Brad]

My only real thought around trying to reduce spiking in an "open" format (i.e. not cube or battle box etc.) would be to maybe have some concept of forced rotation. Oh you're playing a bunch of expensive powerful cards? They're now banned or restricted! To encourage constant brewing. Maybe the cards get unbanned after a while (maybe on a league basis?).

I've heard of people doing budget challenges, but it still requires a playgroup of sufficient size where it's worth spending $20+ on a deck specifically for that playgroup.

Spiking is inevitable in a game where there's a winner, but you can change the context if you don't want to buy a $500 deck. That's why I bring the whole format with me.



I should also say that Jumpstart is really cool and would probably let me play Eldrazi more successfully, but I enjoy drafting more than playing.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

That's why I bring the whole format with me.

See, people keep mentioning this in this thread but I think that's a different thing entirely. I like cubing and other "closed" formats, but I think there's a lot of fun for a group to open boosters and start making a collection and putting that collection to use. If I bring the entire card pool then that very fun aspect is lost.

Limited budget formats can be fun, but one draw back of limited budgets is that you can't play a rare you opened even though it might not be too oppressing with just a single one. The cost of a card is also not always an indication of its power level, so it's somewhat blunt of an instrument.

I'll keep pondering about some kind of "organized" school ground magic. I'm leaning strongly towards the idea of "anything initially goes, then develop a local ban list". Biggest obstacle is just to get people I know to put together casual decks to play with lol.

 

[MilesOfficial]

I just (re-)added a small discard sub-theme into my Cube with the following cards, and I'm so happy I did. Feels like a reasonable contender and the cards are totally fine in a variety of decks, even at my relatively high power-level.



All of these cards had been in my Cube previously sans Tinybones Joins Up.

Here's the first test deck I drafted on CubeCobra after adding them in, without feeling like I even forced it!

 

[Brad]

See, people keep mentioning this in this thread but I think that's a different thing entirely. I like cubing and other "closed" formats, but I think there's a lot of fun for a group to open boosters and start making a collection and putting that collection to use. If I bring the entire card pool then that very fun aspect is lost.

Limited budget formats can be fun, but one draw back of limited budgets is that you can't play a rare you opened even though it might not be too oppressing with just a single one. The cost of a card is also not always an indication of its power level, so it's somewhat blunt of an instrument.

I'll keep pondering about some kind of "organized" school ground magic. I'm leaning strongly towards the idea of "anything initially goes, then develop a local ban list". Biggest obstacle is just to get people I know to put together casual decks to play with lol.

I think there's potential for some kind of league where you open N packs per session or something with a larger initial card pool. $50 starting cost and $15 every session (or something) and you can slowly accumulate a card pool, trade, whatever. That's how I started. I think I had the elf starter deck and a few packs and did what I could from there.

 

[Velrun]

I think there's potential for some kind of league where you open N packs per session or something with a larger initial card pool. $50 starting cost and $15 every session (or something) and you can slowly accumulate a card pool, trade, whatever. That's how I started. I think I had the elf starter deck and a few packs and did what I could from there.

Stuff like that is always fun.

Like a major Rogue-Like, Deck-Builder Slay the Spire variant!

 

[Humpty_Dumpty]

I think there's potential for some kind of league where you open N packs per session or something with a larger initial card pool. $50 starting cost and $15 every session (or something) and you can slowly accumulate a card pool, trade, whatever. That's how I started. I think I had the elf starter deck and a few packs and did what I could from there.

There used to be something like this on MtG online: it started off like a sealed pool then you added another pack each week or something like that. It was quite fun.

The challenge with such a league in paper magic is policing it. For small stakes and with people you trust it will be fine. As soon as prizes get bigger and the player pool widens it would be easy for someone to introduce a couple of extra cards to strengthen their deck.

 

[Seeker]

Stuff like that is always fun.

Like a major Rogue-Like, Deck-Builder Slay the Spire variant!

"Shandalar" was right there

 

[Velrun]

"Shandalar" was right there

Hehe #DeepRegrets

But also not many people know Shandalar anymore.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I spent many, many, many hours collecting the best cards and hunting doppelgangers! There’s a modern variant floating around the internet somewhere!