"New" format: Diminishing
General forum
Posted on Nov. 17, 2017, 10:07 a.m. by Argy
My friend made an offhand comment today while we were mucking around with the latest Merfolk vs Goblins Duel Decks, and it gave me an idea.
We made up a format on the spot. I'm interested to know if someone else has already done it.
He suggested the name "Diminishing", which I like.
Here are the very loose rules:
Both Players start with 60 card decks.
Duel Decks, or similar "balanced" type of decks, are preferred.
No cards with a mill effect can be used.
Players do not lose a game if they can't draw.
At the end of each game each card that ended up in Exile, in the Graveyard, or on the field is removed from the game entirely. It cannot be brought back to any game under any circumstance.
Any cards still in hand at the end of each game are shuffled back into each Player's Library.
After decks have been shuffled, the next game begins.
Games proceed in this order, until one or both of Players have no library left.
The Player who won the most games is the winner.
The Vancouver mulligan and Scry rules apply.
We discovered that it becomes quite strategic knowing when to play Lands or when to hold on to them for future games.
The same with Creatures. It can be difficult to keep a good curve.
There is also sometimes an advantage to deliberately losing a game, in order to hang on to cards that will benefit you in upcoming rounds.
We decided this was fine, as it's part of the strategy.
Also, because number of games won is what counts, choosing to lose a game may end up penalising you so much that you lose.
Seems like it could be fun but I feel like burn and other agro decks would be monsters in the format while combo and control will have a hard time. I want to play a game with these rules though
November 17, 2017 1:22 p.m.
This sounds really fun. Do y'all think shuffle-graveyard-into-library effects (e.g., Primal Command Mode 3, and Loaming Shaman) would be too strong?
November 18, 2017 9:19 p.m.
Hyperalgialysis and clayperce I think you're correct. Cards that let you shuffle your library should be banned, particularly if they end up back in your library, or allow you to shuffle your graveyard back into your library.
Hyperalgialysis Planeswalker decks are EXACTLY the type of decks that should work for this Format.
If you play any games with them, I'd be interested in the results.
Hyperalgialysis says... #3
Looks really fun! If I may the rules might be slightly better if Elixir of Immortality type effects were also prohibited. It seems like that would be the only thing that could make it unbalanced(aside from milling). If you would like, my playgroup has a lot of the planeswalker precon decks laying around, we could test it out and let you know thr results.
November 17, 2017 11:26 a.m.