Format Idea :D
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on Sept. 14, 2016, 10:14 p.m. by Kyleeee
Every instance of any spell or land doing some form of damage, is decreased by one, out of the total damage of the card. Grapeshot, even though it has the capability to do more damage to several targets, the one damage decrease is applied to only one instance of the Grapeshot, not all instances in the Grapeshot. If you played two spells before using Grapeshot, the overall damage is 2 not 3.
Every creature is 1 colorless mana extra.
Sorceries and instants, if colored and as long as they at least one colorless mana in their cost, one of the colorless mana must become a colored mana of your choosing according whatever color mana that sorcery or instant already has.
You have a general (creature), that stays on field at start of game, that is what the opponent attacks. Your general automatically has 30 life, as with having his/her normal abilites. This card has to be 4 mana or less, with no additional casting costs beyond what is its mana casting cost. Removal in any form, doesn't work on the general, as he can only be removed by losing all of his 30 life.
If your commander can't use his text defined abilities (not first strike, lifelink, ect), all of your cards cost 2 more colorless mana. If your commander can't attack and/or defend, your creatures can't attack unless one of your creatures, is attacking as a legendary creature or has an ability shared with your commander.
No mill cards.
Update: Fixed! :D
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #3
Other than being vague, it's simply broken. Starting with a "commander" on the field is outright broken.
September 15, 2016 7:35 a.m.
When I refer to removal, I mean any form of exiling or destroying on the commander.
When I refer to mill, I refer to any cards that get rid of cards off of the top of opponents library. If they have the ability in any way to take off cards from opponents library, it is illegal. Discard works.
By life I refer to toughness, for example, a 2/3 with first strike, lifelink, and flying will become a 2/30 with the same abilties.
When I refer to ability restricting, I mean anything on the field that actively prevents an ability to be used at its normal cost. For example, if your general has a ability stating you get a 2/1 first strike token, and an opponent has a blue spell making it so that cards abilities cost extra, it is counted as ability restricting. If an ability is outright prevented actively, it also counts as ability restricting.
Any way that you would leave the field with your commander wouldn't be allowed, for it would be an illegal move. That card you listed would probably be banned.
September 15, 2016 4:39 p.m.
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #5
Doran, the Siege Tower and any tron cards.
September 15, 2016 5:23 p.m.
There might have to be stuff built into decks to prevent stuff like that. :) Simon, any other ideas? :D
September 15, 2016 5:26 p.m.
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #7
All I can say is that making commander with no mill an where your commander never has to be casted, can't be answered in any reasonabke way except with another commander seems like it will either have a huge amount of rules and balancing or boil down to a best commander and a lucky draw. Commander with more commander is an interesting idea, maybe play around with how you want to increase the commander's role without having it completely decide games.
September 15, 2016 6:54 p.m.
There are so many commanders that would get out of hand by not being allowed to be removed. Dear god Kaalia of the Vast decks would be unstoppable. T2 Iona or insert ridiculous bomb here. I would literally just play her as commander and 100 insane creatures that she can cheat out.
Also there are still plenty of ways to remove a commander that you haven't covered. Will Chaos Warp do anything? What about Unsummon? Turn to Frog? Darksteel Mutation?
The ability restricting seems somewhat odd, but it doesn't sound like it would come up all that often so I'll ignore it for now.
also Grapeshot doesn't work the way you mention it does. Grapeshot only deals one damage and creates copies of itself to deal more. So in your example it should deal 0 each because of the rules of lowering damage. A better example would be Electrolyze or Anger of the Gods.
September 15, 2016 10:52 p.m.
Aholder7 that makes sense.
I was thinking that the commander would have to be one color, but allowed to have a subset of less than 10 cards in deck of a different, but specific color. That way cards that are very powerful that include various types of mana allowing them to be powerful, wouldn't be able to work.
I think that an impossible deck with Kaalia though would be possible. I was thinking that the commanders would naturally need very strong abilities to work, as most decks would naturally have some disables for the commander that work early on. Most people would just have something just as powerful as her.
Say, I will make a deck with Kaalia to see how it turns out, in regards to this format. :)
September 16, 2016 6:44 p.m.
Also any form of removal, doesn't work. If the commander leaves the battlefield in any sense, it is an illegal move.
September 16, 2016 6:45 p.m.
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #11
What if I want to Pongify a Commander? Can I make their commander a Beetle? Whole you're at it give all commanders hexproof and protection from opponent's and opponent's creatures and spells and why the fuck not give them unlockable and 99/99 with and haste with t: you win the game
September 16, 2016 9:46 p.m.
Anything that prevents the creature from being that creature, isn't allowed. Pongify doesn't work because its not the same general. The General is required to exist on the field. Actions leading to a General leaving the field are considered an illegal move.
It's about the general, not what creatures you can put out. Its about what ways you can lock down the opponent, and keep your general safe. Creatures are just helpful. :)
September 16, 2016 11:14 p.m.
What ways can you lock down a creature on turn 1? Because if you can't, you probably lose.
And just to be clear, you cannot play spells that remove or change the opponent's commander? Do spells that change words (Sleight of Mind) on your opponent's commander count? What about creatures that influence your opponent's commander, like Avacynian Missionaries Flip (which is no longer considered a spell at this point)? What do -1/-1 counters do? Is it legal to burn my opponent's commander for 30? If it isn't, can I burn it for 29?
Honestly, it sounds like you were tired of playing in a removal heavy meta and came up with this as a way to deal with it.
September 17, 2016 2:44 p.m.
You say "Actions leading to a General leaving the field are considered an illegal move". You also say "You have a general (creature), that stays on field at start of game, that is what the opponent attacks". Does this mean attacking my opponent's commander for lethal is an illegal move?
I also don't see any rules on how you lose or win the game.
September 17, 2016 2:47 p.m.
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #15
Also a slower strategy (since you arbitrarily bumped costs and lowered damage, and hosting mill despite formats like this being slow already and mill ineffective) than khalia is Mirror Gallery and any copy creature cards (here is a list of themCopies of copies). Endlessly coping my commander? An eternal format with all the tutoring and filtering I'll ever need? A commander that can not be answered in any way ever where for no reason other than an aversion to an already ineffective strategy?
Seriously though that's like saying "In my format we just play without cards, roll a dice and see who wins! It's completely balanced with no annoying mill!
September 17, 2016 3:05 p.m.
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #16
Also a slower strategy (since you arbitrarily bumped costs and lowered damage, and hosting mill despite formats like this being slow already and mill ineffective) than khalia is Mirror Gallery and any copy creature cards (here is a list of themCopies of copies). Endlessly coping my commander? An eternal format with all the tutoring and filtering I'll ever need? A commander that can not be answered in any way ever where for no reason other than an aversion to an already ineffective strategy?
Seriously though that's like saying "In my format we just play without cards, roll a dice and see who wins! It's completely balanced with no annoying mill!
September 17, 2016 3:05 p.m.
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #17
Also a slower strategy (since you arbitrarily bumped costs and lowered damage, and hosting mill despite formats like this being slow already and mill ineffective) than khalia is Mirror Gallery and any copy creature cards (here is a list of themCopies of copies). Endlessly coping my commander? An eternal format with all the tutoring and filtering I'll ever need? A commander that can not be answered in any way ever where for no reason other than an aversion to an already ineffective strategy?
Seriously though that's like saying "In my format we just play without cards, roll a dice and see who wins! It's completely balanced with no annoying mill!
September 17, 2016 3:05 p.m.
Sim_Will_CMcantfindmehopefully says... #18
Also a slower strategy (since you arbitrarily bumped costs and lowered damage, and hosting mill despite formats like this being slow already and mill ineffective) than khalia is Mirror Gallery and any copy creature cards (here is a list of themCopies of copies). Endlessly coping my commander? An eternal format with all the tutoring and filtering I'll ever need? A commander that can not be answered in any way ever where for no reason other than an aversion to an already ineffective strategy?
Seriously though that's like saying "In my format we just play without cards, roll a dice and see who wins! It's completely balanced with no annoying mill!
aholder7 says... #2
The format seems confusing at best.
1 less damage? does this mean that Electrolyze will deal 0 if i pick 2 targets? or 1 less total? will Anger of the Gods deal 2 to everything? or will i choose 1 creature to take 1 less damage total? 1 less is really vague for a core rule.
creatures being 1 colorless more is simpler and i assume to goal is to slow the game down. also technically creatures are spells, so your next sentence should be non-creature spells. besides that it seems to make less sense than the creature rule. does this rule imply that artifacts are the same cost? All Is Dust is still 7 mana? do devoid spells still get the increase cost since they technically don't have a color. these questions need answers before i can effectively say whether or not this makes sense as a whole.
are the rules for general the same as the ones for EDH? starts on the field is pretty powerful. the general has 30 life? so basically when they are hit, their life goes down instead of toughness? can the creature still be killed in combat like normal? will my 2/2 general with 30 life be able to kill a 2/2 first strike? why wouldn't anyone pick Norin the Wary? he can't be hit by anything. can you still be hit? if not you'd be unkillable. giving a creature life does not make sense. this rule needs further explanation before it even becomes remotely understandable.
removal doesnt work on them? what counts as removal? cards that say destroy? will Lightning Bolt count as removal? it doesn't kill things outright. would it only be considered removal if the card deals lethal damage? what about cards like Supreme Verdict? would that kill a general? exiling wont work on them? what if i use Eerie Interlude? can i use that still? if the general has 30 life and is dealt 20 damage and i use Vapor Snag (not sure if you count this as removal or not). do i lose? i wouldn't have a general out. also if i replay it, how much life will it have?
"it's abilities prevented in some way" what does that mean? like Stifled? thats pretty narrow. do you mean the ability fizzling when its on the stack? like when a creature has an ability that targets and you give the targeted creature protection from the color of the general.
i don't know what the next sentence even means. "If his attack and/or defense is prevented or changed in some way, you can't attack with other creatures, unless you choose to attack (with the others or by itself) a creature that is legendary or has at least two abilities shared with your general." so if i cast Brute Strength on my general, i can't attack with anything else unless something? this part needs rewording. i can barely begin to try and understand what's going on here. but the last part about abilities shared with your general. what if your general doesn't have abilities? will something like bushido 1 count if your general has bushido 2? etc.
no mill cards? thats incredibly vague. especially since theres technically no such thing as a mill card with the exception of Millstone and maybe another card or two. if you mean cards that put cards from the top of a library into the grave, then thats still incredibly vague and shuts down a lot of cards that i don't think you intend to. what about Screeching Skaab? am i allowed to use cards that put cards from the top of my library to the grave? Satyr Wayfinder could be considered a mill card. so are you intending to shut down all graveyard based strategies? or just cards like Glimpse the Unthinkable. will Thought Scour be legal in that case?
overall you need to give a lot more details before i can begin to say how this format would be to play.
September 14, 2016 11:47 p.m.