So not that long ago Rhystic Studies video on Dandân/Forgetful Fish spiked the popularity of shared deck formats in a number of Magic spaces.
There was a little mini-renaissance in creating microformats, with people posting little decklists with associated alternate rulesets which I found delightful.
There's the original Forgetful Fish, a mono-blue tempo mirror.
Ichorid, built around forcing discards and recursion of the namesake threat.
And plenty others, like setting up opportunities to Miracle a Thunderous Wrath while preventing your opponent from doing the same.
While I am interested in whether anyone on Riptide Lab has encountered these or others like them, what I'm actually after are suggestions for niche little cards that get more interesting in the context of a shared deck and graveyard.
Dandan recontextualizes Memory Lapse by having it set up your next draw, Ichorid lets Cabal Therapy turn creatures from your opponents hand into your reanimation targets. Misinformation, Brainstorm, Flameburst and Firecat, stuff like that.
Looking forward to seeing what you've got.
Edit:
Amending OP with a WIP list of cards and mechanics I've encountered or read of in various custom formats, had recommended in this thread, or found on my own. Hopefully it will gow into the sort of resource I've been after, to assist future builders of these sorts of MTG experiences.
While I fully intend to update it as I learn more, no promises. Also, goes without saying, but don't just jam stuff from this into a pile of cards and hope it will be a fun wizards tower or whatever. Have a high concept and work towards it - you aren't going to find Dandân in any of these spoilers. Come here for ideas or to fill gaps.
** Risky, think about the effect on your format carefully.
There was a little mini-renaissance in creating microformats, with people posting little decklists with associated alternate rulesets which I found delightful.
There's the original Forgetful Fish, a mono-blue tempo mirror.
Ichorid, built around forcing discards and recursion of the namesake threat.
And plenty others, like setting up opportunities to Miracle a Thunderous Wrath while preventing your opponent from doing the same.
While I am interested in whether anyone on Riptide Lab has encountered these or others like them, what I'm actually after are suggestions for niche little cards that get more interesting in the context of a shared deck and graveyard.
Dandan recontextualizes Memory Lapse by having it set up your next draw, Ichorid lets Cabal Therapy turn creatures from your opponents hand into your reanimation targets. Misinformation, Brainstorm, Flameburst and Firecat, stuff like that.
Looking forward to seeing what you've got.
Edit:
Amending OP with a WIP list of cards and mechanics I've encountered or read of in various custom formats, had recommended in this thread, or found on my own. Hopefully it will gow into the sort of resource I've been after, to assist future builders of these sorts of MTG experiences.
While I fully intend to update it as I learn more, no promises. Also, goes without saying, but don't just jam stuff from this into a pile of cards and hope it will be a fun wizards tower or whatever. Have a high concept and work towards it - you aren't going to find Dandân in any of these spoilers. Come here for ideas or to fill gaps.
| Fun, simple, or otherwise not obnoxious | Time consuming, unintuitive, or otherwise a hassle |
| Scry/Fateseal/Surveil/Topdeck Manipulation Bread and butter if you're building a shared deck format that focuses on the deck as a feature. Surveil has the added interest of "Is it more likely opponent has recursion, or card draw?", as there's a real decision around which will keep them further away from the card - but consider if that added layer beneficial in the context of what you want to achieve for your format Tuck/Top Surprise surprise, putting your opponents threat back into the library is much more interesting when you can redraw it yourself. This applies for both removal (Time Ebb, Chaos Warp, Condemn) and recursion (Footbottom Feast, Dwell on the Past, Mistveil Plains). That timing matters for the "Put on top" effects makes these spells modal - "Timewalk" by using in your turn, "Control Magic" by using during theirs. Shuffle An out for getting fatesealed by that scrying and surveiling from before, messing with your opponent setting up their draws, all that good stuff. A safety valve. Not needed, as scry/counterscry works too, but can happen with lower commitments in terms of cards or mana so it may be helpful all the same. Overabundance will slow play to a crawl however, so be mindful. Clash Most players know APNAP, which is the largest potential hurdle here, but assuming the presence of topdeck manipulation as a feature of the format Clash adds a mindgame while also being a form of topdeck manipulation in and of itself. That said, consider avoiding this one if you want an experience friendly to new players. Miracle Setting up Miracles has been a feature of a few shared library formats. The two pieces of targeted removal with the mechanic are also Tuck/Top effects, and the most popular inclusion forms the core of a sudden death format. | Tutors! Waiting for your opponent to finish searching so you can draw your card for the turn sucks. Shortcutting fetches in basically every format that has them is done for a reason, but it can't be done with a shared deck. Slowtrips! It might sound cool to have extra windows to mess with card draw before it happens but it's just adding mental load/memory issues to achieve what an instant speed scry effect could do in its stead. Sensei's Divining Top! The slowplay scourge of every format in which it's legal now features all that plus the issues caused by waiting on the deck to become available so you can start your turn and the degenerate back-and-forth disruption of any topdeck manipulation by a low opportunity cost card that trades ownership every activation (Excepting the use of other resources that would be better spent furthering the gamestate) and you get a massive massive waste of time much like this sentence. |
Threshold, Delirium that sort o' thing.
Under Construction.
Under Construction.
Last edited:
