Since Everyone Else is Making Their Own Formats

General forum

Posted on Sept. 13, 2020, 9:55 p.m. by TriusMalarky

So, I was wondering a little bit, and came across this idea in my crazy brainscape:

What if there was a (60 card, or 75 if you count SB) format where, instead of one generic rule(everything 8th edition forward, or only commons) there's a special, customized list of legal cards?

Here're my thoughts:

Pros:

  • The meta would be able to be easily balanced. Like, a single card addition could fix the format!

  • You can make it not use the more mainstream(and therefore $$$$) cards, so you can use more interesting and underused cards that otherwise wouldn't be good in anything.

  • You can use silver-bordered cards.

Cons:

  • The manpower would be difficult to pull together, in order to maintain a functional list that helps keep most people happy.

  • We'd need a customized search engine, unless we can convince Scryfall to help.

  • Things could change really fast.

If enough ppl are interested, I'd be down to run a Discord server and administrate the list(for the most part) as long as we can get a system set up to allow players to suggest new cards or ask for the banning of certain cards. I don't have time to play or anything, but I'd be interested in watching the format evolve.

Ye dude that sounds like fun. I'm interested in most new formats, but this one actually seems viable (if not incredibly hard to set up). My only question is: do you have to make some un- cards legal? I know a lot of people like them but if you want any semblance of competition to happen in this format you'll probably want to stray away, as I believe more competitive players won't like playing with/against them. Just a thought I like the idea though!

September 13, 2020 11:07 p.m.

TriusMalarky says... #3

Omniscience_is_life un-cards won't necessarily be legal. But there are some less goofy and more reasonable cards(Earl of Squirrel was one I had in mind) that people might like to use outside of kitchen table. Stuff like Gleemax and Infinity Elemental are by far too silly to be using.

I would totally add Just Desserts even if it's just a worse Lightning Strike(which I see as likely to be added), just to have the option of dealing Pi damage. But I can see reasons to not use such cards.

I do have a couple cards I'd like to add, so if we set this up I'll be able to set up a good 100-ish card balanced list that can support a few fun archetypes.

September 14, 2020 10 a.m.

shadow63 says... #4

Seems fun. This is an idea I had kicked around in my head before. I think your best bet would be to start with standard

September 14, 2020 12:05 p.m.

TriusMalarky says... #5

shadow63 naw, I don't want to mess with just taking Standard and changing it. I have some archetypes that I think would be fun but can't be used without a format like this because certain cards exist that make some of the pieces really broken.

Like Bg 'ramp': Using Dark Ritual and Elves of Deep Shadow to get to 3 black mana early and use value cards like Read the Bones and Mournwillow and possibly even Putrefy. No need for storm, or Pox(unless it needs to be added for balance, but no Storm ever)

September 14, 2020 12:19 p.m.

Daveslab2022 says... #6

What’s the power level power you’re looking for? What archetypes are you looking to include?

This sounds like a fun experiment, I’d love to contribute a card list based on the above criteria! Maybe start a deck titled “___ format card list” and tag us all there so we can all the see the ever changing list.

September 14, 2020 3:37 p.m.

TriusMalarky says... #7

Daveslab2022 has a good point. Since all three people who've responded like it so far, I'll set up a 'deck' with my planned archetypes. Feel free to suggest archetypes or cards you'd like to use.

September 14, 2020 5:29 p.m.

Daveslab2022 says... #8

I want dibs on the midrange shell cards lol

September 14, 2020 5:36 p.m.

TriusMalarky says... #9

September 14, 2020 5:57 p.m.

shadow63 says... #10

I suggested standard as itd probably be easier to balance as all the cards are meant to be played with each other.

September 14, 2020 8:28 p.m.

TriusMalarky says... #11

Easier? Yes. More fun for me? No.

September 15, 2020 9:35 a.m.

Sounds fun!

September 16, 2020 7:49 p.m.

TriusMalarky says... #13

September 17, 2020 9:34 a.m.

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