Zero Variance

[Dom Harvey]

This was featured in an article years and years ago, but never piqued much interest. Let's fix that!

The rules:

1) The Rules of Magic apply unless otherwise specified.
2) Players play cards as any card that exists in Magic. Once a card has been named (announced discarded removed from game) it cannot be announced by either player for the rest of game.*
3) Players may play only one spell per turn (like Limited Infinity).
4) There are no graveyards (just imagine that there is a permanent Leyline of the Void in play).
5) The Legacy Format banned list applies (optional).

Who wants a game?

 

[Jason Waddell]

Uh... so are there no hands either and no libraries? No counterspells then? I'm trying to figure out what's stopping someone from always opening with T1 Emrakul.

EDIT: Uh, guess I should read the article first. The rules as given by that quote are a little vague.
EDIT2: It looks very intriguing and I can't decide whether I want to play or just watch people play. I was never the chess type and I find this sort of agonizing appealing to witness but not necessarily to engage in.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

and I find this sort of agonizing appealing to witness but not necessarily to engage in.

This sums up my feelings about this format perfectly. I also fully understand why Menendian would be gushing over this

 

[Jonas]

I think the guy in the scg article 1. Overthinks it and 2. Is full of himself. I read half the article and hate him. But the format seems kinda fun.

 

[Jason Waddell]

I think I could take on a format that was a bit smaller in scope, like "zero variance Standard" or whatever.

 

[Eric Chan]

I think the guy in the scg article 1. Overthinks it and 2. Is full of himself. I read half the article and hate him.

Yeah, everything I've read about or from Stephen Menendian would seem to reinforce that opinion. It's kinda too bad that he's the poster boy for Vintage, though maybe that will change with the format being played on MTGO now.

 

[James Stevenson]

slightly tangential - I really like mental magic, that's a fun game. not a forum game though, I guess.

 

[spicewitch]

1) The Rules of Magic apply unless otherwise specified.
2) Players play cards as any card that exists in Magic. Once a card has been named (announced discarded removed from game) it cannot be announced by either player for the rest of game.*
3) Players may play only one spell per turn (like Limited Infinity).
4) There are no graveyards (just imagine that there is a permanent Leyline of the Void in play).
5) The Legacy Format banned list applies (optional).​

Rule 4 is clearly there to keep the mental tracking effort from getting out of hand.

However, this is a much better format for Cockatrice because Cockatrice can actually create and keep track of cards for you on the fly. No mental tracking, so you don't have to arbitrarily ban entire relevant zones of play. (Seriously wtf.)

Simply press Ctrl T to create a token, and then remove the checkmark that says "destroy this token when it leaves the table". If you name the token after a real card, such as Island or Mise, Cockatrice puts the real card into play for, replete with card image and all that jazz. It's that easy! You don't even have to set the card color or power/toughness, just give the card the right name and it's all done for ya.

So, here is how I would run something like this on Cockatrice:

1. You are playing Magic. Duh. Let's not overthink this part.
2. Your 40 card (or more) deck contains only basic lands.
3. If you drag a basic land to the land row, it's a basic land as normal. If you drag it to the battlefield or the stack area, destroy it and replace it with a card that can be cast using that color of mana. (F'rinstance, you play a Mountain to the stack, you can announce that it is Lightning Bolt, Fires of Yavimaya, or Epochrasite.)
4. You can only announce a card that hasn't been announced before.
5. You may play any number of spells, because we're playing Magic. Duh. And there are graveyards... cuz we're playing Magic.
6. Respect any format's allowed/banned/restricted list that seems fun. Or make up a format like Ravnica block constructed + Return block constructed.
7. Personal taste rule: you can't play 0 cost spells because games that take at least 2 turns to finish are really cool.

A little inspired by Momir Vig, a little inspired by Mental Magic and this long-winded, dopey SCG article.