So this weekend James and I tested a prototype 2-man format that actually proved to be much more fun than expected.
Basically you give each player a pool of 100 nonland cards from the cube, then build decks of exactly 15 cards and smash them against each other. The winner keeps his deck, and the loser has to retire the cards from their deck and build a new one from their pool. After every game you can side out (and retire) up to 3 cards from your deck. If a deck wins 2 matches in a row, it is forced to retire. Best of 7 matches.
As an instant (any time they have priority), the players have access the the following ability:
Pay 3 Life: Shuffle your graveyard into your library.
The format centers around quick deckbuilding, but I wanted a set of lands that allow for quick deckbuilding but also have some decision making and a good, clear, risk / reward dynamic.
Here was my first take. Each player gets:
6 of each basic
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Grand Coliseum that ETB untapped
and 3 Evolving Wilds that fetch from your "collection" instead of your library
It worked fine, but I wasn't quite happy with it. I guess ETB untapped Coliseums are strictly better than City of Brass, which is maybe too aggro heavy? Using them and managing life loss felt quite good though. I had one zombie deck where I got to 1 life off my own lands and had to make some real difficult resource allocation problems.
The Evolving Wilds were fun because they allow you to get more lands than are in your deck, and you can choose whether to crack them or not at different times based on your shuffles, and has interesting interactions with cards like Bloodghast, Crucible of Worlds, Sphinxes Revelation, etc.
The Ghost Quarters were basically never used. That didn't really work as desired.
Abstractly, I want a dynamic that keeps you in check for overloading on nonbasics, or some tension there, but I don't have great ideas on what lands to use to make it better. They played pretty well, but it doesn't feel perfect. Does anybody have better ideas?
Basically you give each player a pool of 100 nonland cards from the cube, then build decks of exactly 15 cards and smash them against each other. The winner keeps his deck, and the loser has to retire the cards from their deck and build a new one from their pool. After every game you can side out (and retire) up to 3 cards from your deck. If a deck wins 2 matches in a row, it is forced to retire. Best of 7 matches.
As an instant (any time they have priority), the players have access the the following ability:
Pay 3 Life: Shuffle your graveyard into your library.
The format centers around quick deckbuilding, but I wanted a set of lands that allow for quick deckbuilding but also have some decision making and a good, clear, risk / reward dynamic.
Here was my first take. Each player gets:
6 of each basic
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Grand Coliseum that ETB untapped
and 3 Evolving Wilds that fetch from your "collection" instead of your library
It worked fine, but I wasn't quite happy with it. I guess ETB untapped Coliseums are strictly better than City of Brass, which is maybe too aggro heavy? Using them and managing life loss felt quite good though. I had one zombie deck where I got to 1 life off my own lands and had to make some real difficult resource allocation problems.
The Evolving Wilds were fun because they allow you to get more lands than are in your deck, and you can choose whether to crack them or not at different times based on your shuffles, and has interesting interactions with cards like Bloodghast, Crucible of Worlds, Sphinxes Revelation, etc.
The Ghost Quarters were basically never used. That didn't really work as desired.
Abstractly, I want a dynamic that keeps you in check for overloading on nonbasics, or some tension there, but I don't have great ideas on what lands to use to make it better. They played pretty well, but it doesn't feel perfect. Does anybody have better ideas?
