Players: 2
Concept:
Hunt the Wumpus is a two-player Magic minigame you just shuffle up and play.
The goal is to find, resolve, and then swing with the single copy of Shivan Wumpus to instantly win the game.
Rules:
Other than the following, it's a normal game of Magic.
Players start with 5 life, a token copy of each basic land in their command zone, and a token copy of Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds in play.
The library and graveyard are shared between players.
Should the library run out of cards, shuffle the graveyard and turn it over - it becomes the new library.
The library has no lands. You can play the token lands from the command zone as though they were in your hand.
As they are tokens, any land that leaves the battlefield will disappear forever, permanently reducing the maximum mana and number of colours to which you have access.
If a player is ever in a position where they will never have the mana to cast the Wumpus, they lose. (No Mountain? You lose. Don't have access to 4 mana? You lose.)
Testing Rule - Creatures other than the Wumpus cannot attack, nor can they deal combat damage or damage to players.
Design Goals:
Hunt the Wumpus is a mini-project to entertain myself and (eventually) pull out to play with a friend when we're up for Magic but want something immediate.
As a result, it's quite small and kept to a very low budget.
It's also heavily themed around hunting for that one card that can actually end the game - ideally the only creature that can be used to reduce an opponent's life total to 0 is the eponymous Wumpus.
It would be great to keep it singleton, mostly for the design challenge. Likewise, keeping it to (non-UB) MTG cards rather than customs. It's a project and a process.
Gameplay is intended to be a battle for position and a war of attrition. You only get so many mistakes resulting in being forced to sac a land before you're at the minimum number of lands required to resolve a Wumpus yourself.
To enable that jockeying for position and encourage the Hunt for the Wumpus, it should be possible to hold the gamestate in your head and track card locations reasonably accurately.
You should also be able to narrow down the lines of play available to your opponent.
A single basic of each type means you're not going to see two spells of the same colour in the one turn cycle, there's heavy signposting of available lines in which lands you tap to pay for colourless costs, etc, etc.
The 'downside' of Wumpus should act as a sort of "lives remaining", and as you 'lose lives' you should be less free to act - losing access to colours of mana, the ability to resolve a Wumpus with mana up to help it resolve, etc, etc. The token Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds is a freebie way to stop the first Wumpus, but can also be cashed in to shuffle the deck at any time.
There should be no "objectively correct" choice of basics to sac to the Wumpus. If Forest is always the first to go, I'd rather cut Green entirely than hang onto a bunch of cards that are obviously the least valuable. (I'd also love to be in a position where I felt like cutting cards to substitute other colours was a valid approach but we'll get to that later!)
As such, the list should feature an equal number of cards for each colour, with the possible exception of red. (The Wumpus justifies holding onto the Mountain)
Colours should have an identifiable theme, so that the loss of a colour costs you a kind of effect or way to interact with the Wumpus Hunt.
To cement that war of attrition, there's no way of gaining card advantage - the goal is to not give it up in the first place. If you eat a discard effect or choose to double-spell during a turn cycle, you are down a card in hand until you skip a turn to draw back up naturally.
Despite attrition as a goal, I don't want games to stall - there should be constant jockeying and fighting over hands, deck and graveyard rather than "draw, go" or otherwise repetitive gamestates.
Should never get to a point where the game cannot be won, so no use of the exile zone. Might break this one but probably won't.
I am willing to allow for perfect information to be momentarily possible, as long as there are ways of disrupting that so individual games don't get too solved.
As a result, it's quite small and kept to a very low budget.
It's also heavily themed around hunting for that one card that can actually end the game - ideally the only creature that can be used to reduce an opponent's life total to 0 is the eponymous Wumpus.
It would be great to keep it singleton, mostly for the design challenge. Likewise, keeping it to (non-UB) MTG cards rather than customs. It's a project and a process.
Gameplay is intended to be a battle for position and a war of attrition. You only get so many mistakes resulting in being forced to sac a land before you're at the minimum number of lands required to resolve a Wumpus yourself.
To enable that jockeying for position and encourage the Hunt for the Wumpus, it should be possible to hold the gamestate in your head and track card locations reasonably accurately.
You should also be able to narrow down the lines of play available to your opponent.
A single basic of each type means you're not going to see two spells of the same colour in the one turn cycle, there's heavy signposting of available lines in which lands you tap to pay for colourless costs, etc, etc.
The 'downside' of Wumpus should act as a sort of "lives remaining", and as you 'lose lives' you should be less free to act - losing access to colours of mana, the ability to resolve a Wumpus with mana up to help it resolve, etc, etc. The token Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds is a freebie way to stop the first Wumpus, but can also be cashed in to shuffle the deck at any time.
There should be no "objectively correct" choice of basics to sac to the Wumpus. If Forest is always the first to go, I'd rather cut Green entirely than hang onto a bunch of cards that are obviously the least valuable. (I'd also love to be in a position where I felt like cutting cards to substitute other colours was a valid approach but we'll get to that later!)
As such, the list should feature an equal number of cards for each colour, with the possible exception of red. (The Wumpus justifies holding onto the Mountain)
Colours should have an identifiable theme, so that the loss of a colour costs you a kind of effect or way to interact with the Wumpus Hunt.
To cement that war of attrition, there's no way of gaining card advantage - the goal is to not give it up in the first place. If you eat a discard effect or choose to double-spell during a turn cycle, you are down a card in hand until you skip a turn to draw back up naturally.
Despite attrition as a goal, I don't want games to stall - there should be constant jockeying and fighting over hands, deck and graveyard rather than "draw, go" or otherwise repetitive gamestates.
Should never get to a point where the game cannot be won, so no use of the exile zone. Might break this one but probably won't.
I am willing to allow for perfect information to be momentarily possible, as long as there are ways of disrupting that so individual games don't get too solved.
Cards:
This was the hard part.
Like absurdly hard.
Like it's been so so long and I'm still not done.
There are only 20 cards other than the Wumpus in order to select, how hard could it be to find 20 cards?
Here's how hard:
| R: (1) 1 Shivan Wumpus W: (5) 1 Oust 1 Clockwork Drawbridge 1 Not Forgotten * 1 Lapse of Certainty 1 Cathedral Membrane U: (5) 1 Brainstorm 1 Mental Misstep 1 Dress Down 1 Memory Lapse 1 Telling Time B: (5) 1 Thoughtseize 1 Misinformation 1 Omen of the Dead 1 Harsh Scrutiny 1 Infernal Grasp G: (5) 1 Noxious Revival 1 Natural State 1 Serene Rememberance 1 Adventure Awaits 1 Clinging Mists (0) |
There's also an (In-progress) multiplayer module! Its a little heavier on creatures and ways to interact with them, but keeps the Wumpus killing to a minimum.
For each player beyond the 2nd, add 2 cards of each colour from the follwing:
| W: (4) 1 Boon of Safety 1 Holy Day 1 Visions 1 Impeccable Timing U: (4) 1 Dazzling Lights 1 Fading Hope 1 Curate 1 Sigiled Starfish B: (4) 1 Barrier of Bones 1 Nameless Inversion 1 Sinister Starfish 1 Transmutation G: (4) 1 Saruli Caretaker 1 Once upon a Time 1 Regrowth 1 Split the Spoils (0) |
Cards marked with an asterisk have errata as follows:
Not Forgotten - Makes a 0/1 Spirit with flying
There are a few cards I have reservations about.
Oust, Infernal Grasp: Alter life totals and add to the density of ways to deal with a resolved Wumpus. I prefer the Grasp, as it turns the limited available life into a resource to be husbanded. Oust gets rid of the Wumpus and gifts life to the opponent, both of which move the game away from ending, and I worry that might lead to unfun states.
Not Forgotten, Cathedral Membrane, Castle Drawbridge: Creatures that aren't the Wumpus. Not Forgotten is the only other card like Noxious Revival, plus it can bottom things too so I love it, but the 1/1 spirit is a pain and makes me want to include an ugly additional rule. Its simultaneously one of my favourites, and one of the most irritating. I like the Membrane as it only kills the Wumpus if it attacks, and leaks 3 damage into the bargain, so its more interesting than a white Seal of Doom would be. Soul Snare would be great if it's activation didn't cost
and it didn't exile. Would replace Membrane with a white Pit Trap in a heartbeat.
Dress Down: My reservations are due to a lack of testing - It has interesting interactions with Cathedral Membrane and Wumpus (Can turn off the 'sac a land' ability, stops Membrane killing Wumpus at the cost of trample), it's never dead (Just cycle it lol) and justifies the presence of other artifact and enchantments and ways to interact with them. Just don't know if it plays well yet.
Thoughtseize: I prefer Harsh Scrutiny for hunting Wumpii, as it can only hit the Wumpus (Or Membrane...) but also interacts with the deck. Two pieces of hand attack has felt right though, and I can't run Cabal Therapy if it can be flashed back. Thoughtseize feels like the next most interesting, as it sets a limit on how small you can get your opponent's hand unless your opponent goes crazy on the Ousts.
Natural State: Only hasthree four targets, and only three of those are 'good' targets. Would love if it had Cycling, but is the 2 mana for Wilt is too much to ask? Is it more interesting to dodge or get hit by Mental Misstep? Like Dress Down, only testing will tell.
Oust, Infernal Grasp: Alter life totals and add to the density of ways to deal with a resolved Wumpus. I prefer the Grasp, as it turns the limited available life into a resource to be husbanded. Oust gets rid of the Wumpus and gifts life to the opponent, both of which move the game away from ending, and I worry that might lead to unfun states.
Not Forgotten, Cathedral Membrane, Castle Drawbridge: Creatures that aren't the Wumpus. Not Forgotten is the only other card like Noxious Revival, plus it can bottom things too so I love it, but the 1/1 spirit is a pain and makes me want to include an ugly additional rule. Its simultaneously one of my favourites, and one of the most irritating. I like the Membrane as it only kills the Wumpus if it attacks, and leaks 3 damage into the bargain, so its more interesting than a white Seal of Doom would be. Soul Snare would be great if it's activation didn't cost
and it didn't exile. Would replace Membrane with a white Pit Trap in a heartbeat.Dress Down: My reservations are due to a lack of testing - It has interesting interactions with Cathedral Membrane and Wumpus (Can turn off the 'sac a land' ability, stops Membrane killing Wumpus at the cost of trample), it's never dead (Just cycle it lol) and justifies the presence of other artifact and enchantments and ways to interact with them. Just don't know if it plays well yet.
Thoughtseize: I prefer Harsh Scrutiny for hunting Wumpii, as it can only hit the Wumpus (Or Membrane...) but also interacts with the deck. Two pieces of hand attack has felt right though, and I can't run Cabal Therapy if it can be flashed back. Thoughtseize feels like the next most interesting, as it sets a limit on how small you can get your opponent's hand unless your opponent goes crazy on the Ousts.
Natural State: Only has
Pull from Eternity - When there was flashback in here this was a thing and I was excited to give this card a home. Then I thought about moving the Wumpus into and out of exile to justify it's inclusion beyond "Badly recur a spell that's already been recurred" in a format where the GY shuffles back in. Then I realized if the Wumpus was exiled and a player didn't have access to white mana, they couldn't get the Wumpus back and could be held hostage by their opponent, so you could never sac a Plains to Wumpus. Goodbye Pull from Eternity.
Unexpectedly Absent - I managed to play an entire test game with this without noticing it was double-pipped. I am a fool.
Stream of Conciousness, Stream of Thought, Whirlpool Whelm - Let U solo the Wumpus no matter where it was (Deck, Hand, GY, Play) and stole Green's shuffle+recursion thunder. They did interesting things but I wasn't feeling it.
Cabal Therapy - Would be running this over Thoughtseize if it weren't for the white creatures letting you flash it back. If I lose the dudes entirely, it'll go back in.
Inner Struggle, Chaos Warp, Breaking Point - Too many answers for a resolved Wumpus made for boring games. Also Breaking Point is double-pipped, I am again a fool.
Temporary Insanity - Intended as "Counterwumpus" that only Wumpuses when you let your opponent Wumpus. In practice, actually the safer way to go for the win, so it discourages Wumpus from being cast in the first place and leads to stalls if you can't isolate the Threaten in your hand before casting the Wumpus.
Mindclaw Shaman, Reversal of Fortune - One's a dude, one's double-pipped. Both are too much mana considering the curve of this deck. Lame, as I really wanted this effect in here.
Yeah red just struggles with this style of game. Can't burn face, can't burn dude, can't exile to draw, threaten effects too stronk. There's a reason it's 21 and not 25 cards. I would run Bitter Reunion though.
Krosan Reclamation - Don't run instants with flashback if you're going to have a shared graveyard. Just don't. Also, y'know, flashback - I wanted to avoid the exile zone entirely, there's no way I'm running Runic Repetition or Pull from Eternity (again), and Riftsweeper is a dude and you know my stance on those by now.
Unexpectedly Absent - I managed to play an entire test game with this without noticing it was double-pipped. I am a fool.
Stream of Conciousness, Stream of Thought, Whirlpool Whelm - Let U solo the Wumpus no matter where it was (Deck, Hand, GY, Play) and stole Green's shuffle+recursion thunder. They did interesting things but I wasn't feeling it.
Cabal Therapy - Would be running this over Thoughtseize if it weren't for the white creatures letting you flash it back. If I lose the dudes entirely, it'll go back in.
Inner Struggle, Chaos Warp, Breaking Point - Too many answers for a resolved Wumpus made for boring games. Also Breaking Point is double-pipped, I am again a fool.
Temporary Insanity - Intended as "Counterwumpus" that only Wumpuses when you let your opponent Wumpus. In practice, actually the safer way to go for the win, so it discourages Wumpus from being cast in the first place and leads to stalls if you can't isolate the Threaten in your hand before casting the Wumpus.
Mindclaw Shaman, Reversal of Fortune - One's a dude, one's double-pipped. Both are too much mana considering the curve of this deck. Lame, as I really wanted this effect in here.
Yeah red just struggles with this style of game. Can't burn face, can't burn dude, can't exile to draw, threaten effects too stronk. There's a reason it's 21 and not 25 cards. I would run Bitter Reunion though.
Krosan Reclamation - Don't run instants with flashback if you're going to have a shared graveyard. Just don't. Also, y'know, flashback - I wanted to avoid the exile zone entirely, there's no way I'm running Runic Repetition or Pull from Eternity (again), and Riftsweeper is a dude and you know my stance on those by now.
Colour Themes:
White - The colour that gets to interact with the Wumpus after it resolves. Oust, Cathedral Monument and Not Forgotten create ways for Wumpus to not be a one-shot by mitigating damage or increasing life-totals.
Blue - Can dig for the Wumpus, yes, but more importantly can dig for answers for the Wumpus while messing with opponent's draws beyond what a Scry 1 can salvage. Also stays card neutral much more easily.
Black - Can't guarantee you're the first to find the Wumpus, but you can rip it out of their hand and recur it to yours!
Red - Wumpus
Green - If the Wumpus is in the deck, Green will get it out. If it's in the 'yard, Green will put it back. If the order of the deck or the presence of a certain card in the 'yard matters, Green will mess that up.
You might have noticed some overlap/bleed between colours. That's fine - you get worse at doing a given thing when you lose access to a colour, but you don't totally lose that axis of interaction.
What's less fine is the little niggly annoyances like Oust gaining life and Not Forgotten creating creatures, and other such ways that reduce the elegance of "Find Wumpus, Resolve Wumpus, Win With Wumpus." Would love to smooth those over.
Very much welcome any input or feedback, of any kind at all.
Cube Link:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/327cc30c-4db9-4bcf-954e-0714d6e767c9
Thanks:
ravnic - Feedback and ideas
Inscho - Feedback and ideas
StrionicAdventurer - Feedback and ideas
LadyMapi - Feedback and ideas
Last edited:
