New Commander-related format: Secret Objectives
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on May 21, 2016, 9:38 a.m. by MagicalHacker
Hey everyone! So I've got an idea for a new multiplayer format involving the existing rules of commander! ... But there's gotta be a better name than"Secret Objectives"!
Here the general idea: everyone usually is aiming to win the multiplayer game, but what if they had secret ways to win? At the start of this format, before everyone starts to get their opening hand, they are passed 4 face-down objective cards, of which they must keep only two (the other two get put back face-down into the objective deck). A player wins when they achieve a certain objective or when they win the game as normally. What happens if an effect cause two players to reach their secret objectives simultaneously? Well, in this case, everyone who doesn't have a secret objective completed loses, and then the game continues until someone completes their second objective or normally wins.
Other than the name, I also am not happy with the relative difficulty among the objectives, so please help balance or redo the objectives. Oh, and each objective is tied to planeswalker character we have seen on one or more planeswalker cards.
TL;DR
- What is a better name than "Secret Objectives" for a multiplayer format centered around secret objectives?
- Of the following secret objectives, how can they be balanced or redone to be approximately the same relative difficulty in commander?
Ajani - Gain 20 life in one turn.
Arlinn - Transform a DFC twice in a game.
Ashiok - Control one creature owned by each opponent simultaneously.
Chandra - Deal noncombat damage to each opponent in one game.
Dack - Control three artifacts you don't own.
Daretti - Return three artifacts from your graveyard to your hand and/or battlefield I one game.
Domri - Control 10 nontoken creatures with power 3 or more.
Elspeth - Control 10 token creatures with power 2 or less.
Freyalise - Control 10 nontoken creatures with power 2 or less.
Garruk - Control 10 token creatures with power 3 or more.
Gideon - Deal combat damage with noncreature cards 3 times in one game.
Jace - Draw 10 cards in one turn.
Karn - Exile 5 cards an opponent owns in one game.
Kiora - Put 3 lands onto the battlefield in one turn.
Koth - Control 10 basic lands.
Liliana - Make an opponent discard his or her last card while you have at least one card in your hand.
Nahiri - Control two equipments.
Narset - Cast 5 noncreature spells in one turn.
Nicol Bolas - Live after an opponent kills another opponent when they could have killed you instead.
Nissa - Deal damage to an opponent with a land.
Nixilis - Be the first player to lose the game.
Ral - Live after a player chooses a permanent or card at random or flips a coin from an effect.
Sarkhan - Control 2 dragons.
Sorin - Gain 30 life in one game.
Tamiyo - Control three cards with the same set symbol except basic lands.
Teferi - Cast two noninstant spells on an opponent's turn in one game.
Tezzeret - Control 10 nontoken artifacts.
Tibalt - Deal damage to an opponent with a card they own.
Ugin - Cast 5 colorless spells in one turn.
Venser - Live after the same creature card enters the battlefield three times in one game.
Vraska - Destroy a nonland permanent an opponent controls two turns in a row.
Xenagos - Add three mana from one or more abilities on nonlands in one turn.
iBleedPunk says... #3
ALOT of these seem too easily accomplished to waste games on. Not to say they aren't interesting but the objectives should be a tad harder to complete imo
My meta is a literal war zone half the time, these would simply give the weaker decks an easy win
May 21, 2016 11:02 a.m.
DarkMagician says... #4
First you should have to complete all four objectives you receive, if you receive an objective your deck can not possibly accomplish you put it back and receive a new objective in its place. As far as tweaking the objectives I'll give you a full list of my opinions when I have more time a little later today.
May 21, 2016 11:12 a.m.
Karns_Pyromancer says... #5
Don't forget to add Maniac: If you would draw a card while your library has no cards in it, you win.
May 21, 2016 2:34 p.m.
AwesomeName says... #6
I don't think you should just flat out win because no matter how much "balancing" you do, this will never be balanced because for any of the objectives, they will always have a range of being very easy for some decks to extremely hard or literally impossible for others. Maybe instead of winning if you complete your objective, you could get a certain reward, based on the character's flavor and the difficulty of the task.
May 21, 2016 3:28 p.m. Edited.
DarkMagician says... #7
AwesomeName has a great idea, maybe you get emblems instead.
May 21, 2016 4:33 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #8
I really like the idea of objective->reward! Who's up for helping me write/rewrite the above objectives? Or just jump right in with even just a couple ideas!
May 21, 2016 10:31 p.m.
As for a better name, you could name it something like "(Secret/Hidden/Arcane/Cryptic) Agendas." As for balancing, I like the idea of being rewarded with emblems or boosts to power rather than outright winning.
Or maybe some provide boosts while others do get you to outright win...
May 22, 2016 3 a.m. Edited.
Deckologist says... #10
With this new idea of gaining bonuses through please a planeswalker why not call it Favor of the Planeswalkers?
Some rewards ideas:
Ajani - if you would gain life you instead put that many 1/1 white cat monk tokens into play with "sacrifice this creature: gain 1 life"
Arlinn - Once per turn you may transform all creatures you control
Ashiok - Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponents control you made exchange it with target creature you control
Chandra - At the beginning of your upkeep you may search your library for any instant or sorcery with an X cost.
Dack - whenever an opponent plays an artifact with CMC 3 or higher you may pay 3, if you do put a token copy of that artifact into play.
Daretti - At the beginning of each upkeep put an artifact from your graveyard into play tapped.
Domri - whenever a creature with power 3 or more enters the battlefield under your control you may have it deal damage equal to its power to target rreature or player.
Elspeth - Token creatures you control have flying double strike and indestructible.
Freyalise - If a creature you control would be tapped for mana it produces double mana of that color.
Garruk - Token creatures you control have "3 tap: Sacrifice this creature to draw 2 cards"
Gideon - Planeswalkers you control enter the battlefield with 2 extra loyalty counters and do not leave play when they reach 0 loyalty.
Jace - whenever you draw one or more cards you may have target opponent reveal his or her hand. You may have target opponent shuffle it back into their library and draw a card.
Karn - At the beginning of your upkeep you may cast any card from a faceup exile pile without paying its mana cost.
Kiora - Whenever you play a land you may reveal the top card of your library. If revealed card is a land you may put it onto the battlefield tapped otherwise put it into your hand.
Koth - Lands you control have "whenever you tap this land for mana you may have it deal 1 damage to target creature"
Liliana - Opponents hand sizes are reduced to 2. Effects that would change this do not apply. You may cast a spell from any graveyard as long as its mana cost is equal to the amount of cards in your hand.
Nahiri - Equipped creatures you control can only be blocked by creatures that are equiped.
Narset - At the beginning of your upkeep reveal the top card of your library. If its a nonland non creature spell you may cast it without paying its mana cost. It has rebound. Otherwise put that card into your graveyard.
Nicol Bolas - Whenever a permanent you control is targeted by a spell or ability and opponent controls sacrifice it then gain control of a permanent target player controls that has a CMC equal to or less than sacrificed permanent.
Nissa - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control it becomes a 4/4 elemental creature with trample and haste until end of turn. It is still a land.
Nixilis - At the beginning of the next endstep you may sacrifice this emblem if you do you may exile your graveyard and hand gain 5 life and draw a card and place a 6/6 demon token into play with Flying, Lifelink, and protection from creatures into play under your control.
Ral - If a player would take and extra turn they must flip a coin. If they win they take an extra turn. If they lose you make take an extra turn after this one.
Sarkhan - Whenever a dragon comes into play it deals damage equal to its power to all players. All dragons have haste.
Sorin - Whenever you gain life target creature you control get +X/+X where X is the amount of life gained this way.
Tamiyo - Whenever you play a card you may search your library and graveyard for a spell from the same set, reveal it and put it into your hand.
Teferi - Whenever you cast a non instant spell on an opponents turn you until end of turn you may cast an instant from your hand without paying its mana cost.
Tezzeret - artifacts you control have "pay 1 mana: This artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness equal to its cmc until end of turn. It gains indestructible until end of turn. Pay 3 mana: sacrifice this artifact to search your library for an artifact with the same cmc and put it into play.
Tibalt - You may cast red spells out of any opponents hand.
Ugin - Whenever you cast a colorless creature spell you may pay 5. If you do you may put a copy of that creature onto the battlefield under your control.
Venser - Whenever a player casts a spell they must return a permanent to its owners hands. If a player does not play at least one spell on their turn an opponent at random may return a target permanent of their choice to players hand.
Vraska - Whenever you destroy a nonland permanent you may destroy all permanents with the same name.
Xenagos - Whenever you cast your first creature spell per turn you may have that creature gain +X/+X where X is that creatures power. Add X mana of any one color to your mana pool where x is creatures converted mana cost.
May 22, 2016 11:55 a.m.
Hey I read this and my mind said: This is like the board game War (idk if ppl are familiar with it) mixed with Commander and I'd love the fun in that!
It's much harder, in my opinion, making the objectives truly balanced, for two reasons:
Some decks are just better for achieving some objectives than others purely for the way they're constructed.
Objectives would have to mantain balance in a format that I think is heavily influenced by local metas. I'm no expert player but even in the different stores on my city (that is 4 stores) the same deck works very different in all of them.
I like what Deckologist is proposing in the post above, but there's still the difficulty on deciding what players should do to get any of those buffs.
May 22, 2016 12:15 p.m. Edited.
Deckologist says... #12
I agree. Some of the challenges to get said emblems looked way too easy. If it was a one time thing I would say they are ok but over time people could/would/should build around getting and abusing emblems so to counteract that as much as possible I would say make it almost impossible to get them. A player should have to go really above and beyond to get favor from a planeswalker.
May 22, 2016 12:31 p.m.
Or you could make like a big pool of emblems and randomly picking like 8 - 12 that can be obtained in a particular round.
DeathChant17 says... #2
You could call it
Commander: Black Ops
or Commander: Ulterior Motives
or Commander: Scheme(s)
or Commander: Oh Shit, Waddup! (Jk)
May 21, 2016 10:02 a.m.