MTG Roll - a new way to randomize your casual MTG gameplay
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on Feb. 16, 2016, 6:39 a.m. by shrimpey
Hello there!
I am a casual MTG player and I seek new ways to play Magic with my friends, especially more original and fun formats. Lately we thought of preparing a list of events (instant-like spells) and before each player's turn he would roll K-20 and choose one of the results from the list. It was quite fun and we thought about enhancing it.
I prepared the internet version of the randomizer, it's in alpha state currently, but I wanted to share it with you guys as I need suggestions.Here it is:MTG ROLL
The thing is, it is not optimized. I need some ideas of changing those "instants" to be optimized or even replacing all of them.Tell me if you like the idea and what would you change. Here is the full list of spells, they are divided into 4 groups (commons, epics, rares and legendaries), the chance of getting certain card is: 71,6% for common, 22,8% for rare, 4,4% for epic and 1,2% for legendary. It's for one card, so triple the chances due to getting 3 cards at a time.
Current state list:
var commons = [ "Bolster 1",
"Draw a card",
"Gain 2 life",
"Target creature gains flying and gets -1/-1",
"Target creature that you control loses all abilities and becomes 3/3",
"Put a 2/2 bull***** creature token onto the battlefield",
"Target creature gets: 'Whenever this creature attacks, it's controller loses 2 life'",
"Draw a card",
"Choose an opponent. Creatures of chosen opponent lose flying and gain reach",
"Each player draws a card",
"Chosen creature gets +0/+2 until end of turn",
"Chosen opponent discards a card",
"Your opponents lose 1 life",
"Target creature gains reach",
"Target creature that you control loses all abilities and becomes 3/2 bull***** creature with haste",
"Draw a card",
"Target creature gets: 'Whenever this creature attacks, it's controller gains 2 life'",
"Reveal your hand, then draw 2 cards",
"Target opponent puts 2 cards from his library into his graveyard",
"Each player gains 1 life",
"Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn",
"Shuffle 2 cards from the top of your graveyard into your library",
"Chosen opponent loses 2 life",
"Target creature gets: (Tap)Draw 1 card and lose 2 life",
"Target creature that you control loses all abilities and becomes 0/4 bull***** creature with reach and wall",
"Gain 2 life",
"Target creature gets: 'Whenever this creature blocks, it gets +2/+2'",
"If you have less than 3 cards in your hand, draw 3 cards",
"Target opponent reveals 1 nonland card from his hand",
"Each player puts 1/1 bull***** creature onto the battlefield"]
//30 elements
var rares = ["Target player discards 2 cards",
"Each opponent puts 3 cards from their library into graveyard",
"Target creature gets -2/-2",
"Destroy target creature with 2 or less health",
"Destroy target creature with 2 or less attack",
"Draw 2 cards, if you have less than 3 cards in your hand, draw 3 instead",
"Gain 1 colorless mana",
"Bolster 2",
"Put a 5/5 bull***** creature onto the battlefield, tap it, it doesn't untap during your next untap phase",
"Target creature gains +1/+1, lifelink and reach. Tap that creature, it doesn't untap during its controller's next untap phase",
"Put a 4/1 bull***** creature with haste onto the battlefield, exile it at the end of your turn",
"Tap 3 lands",
"Gain 4 life",
"Target creature gains reach, vigilance",
"Draw 2 cards",
"Reveal top card of your library, if it is an instant card you may play it for free, otherwise draw this card",
"Target opponent reveals his hand",
"Next instant or sorcery card you play this turn costs 2 colorless mana less",
"If you have 5 or more cards in your hand bolster 3, otherwise bolster 1",
"If you have 3 or more creature on the battlefield bolster 3, otherwise bolster 1"]
//20 elements
var epics = ["You may play an additional land this turn",
"Each player skips his draw phase, bolster 1",
"Destroy target creature with flying. It's controller draws 1 card",
"Next creature you play this turn gets +3/+3",
"Destroy 2 target bull***** creatures",
"Put 3 1/1 bull***** creature tokens onto the battlefield",
"Each player skips his next dice roll, bolster 1",
"Bolster 1, draw a card, gain 2 life",
"Each player draws 2 cards",
"Draw a card and re-roll",
"Put a 5/5 bull***** creature onto the battlefield",
"Deal 6 damage to target creature",
"Deal 3 damage to target creature, then deal 2 damage to another target creature, then deal 1 damage to another target creature",
"You may reveal instant or sorcery cards from your hand, for each card revealed this way deal 5 damage to target creature",
"Destroy 2 of your lands, all your lands give you 2 mana instead of 1"]
//15 elements
var legendaries = ["Draw up to 7 cards. Each sorcery card drawn and revealed may be cast for free.",
"Target creature your opponent controls gets +3/+3, haste and annihilator 1 until end of turn. Gain control of that creature until end of turn",
"Gain 5 life, draw 2 cards, gain 3 colorless mana, bolster 1",
"Bolster 6, draw a card",
"Destroy 2 target creatures, their controllers discard a card and lose 1 life",
"Your opponents skip their next roll, you may roll 3 times now. Shuffle your graveyard into your library",
"Put a 5/10 bull***** creature with haste, trample, vigilance and annihilator 1 onto the battlefield",
"Put 4 2/2 bull***** creatures with reach onto the battlefield",
"You may play 2 cards for free this turn",
"Your lands untap during opponent's untap phase, you may cast sorcery spells as instant spells"]
//10 elements
p.s. Sorry for the swear word as a creature type, but they are usually really annoying while on battlefield so this name suits them best :) And remember, this is a 4FUN format.
That is why I am posting it here, so people could come up with new "instant" ideas. I get it, they are too schematic, but I do not want to introduce something gamebreaking, just a simple addition to already exisiting game. Anyway, thank you for your advice, I'll think what could possibly be changed to make it more entertaining and not too gamebreaking at the same time.
February 16, 2016 9:38 a.m.
amazingdan says... #4
I think this is a really cool idea. I don't really have any suggestions, but I'm following the thread because I really like this idea.
February 16, 2016 9:54 a.m.
Thank you for approval of this idea, currently I am working on making cards (proxys?) for each of the "instant" so it isn't just a plain text on coloured background, but rather something funny and interesting.Here is an example of such card:
February 16, 2016 10:09 a.m.
Hmmm, interesting. Don't get me wrong, shrimpey, I really like the idea.
Another problem I see is that, "How do you distinguish between your deck's instants, and the ones you draw?" Penny sleeves?
February 16, 2016 10:27 a.m.
No, that's not how I intended it to work. I mean, you can make any rules to this format, it's up to you, but I had different rules for that.
Player rolls the dice (gets a choice of 3 cards selected randomly) before any phase of his turn (before the beginning of untap phase) and he chooses one option that he likes the best at the current situation. He is forced to use it at the moment, before his move. He cannot hold on to the card to use it later, either now or never. The only problem with this solution is with some of the cards which would require special rules. For example: "Gain 1 colorless mana" would have to be added to the mana pool of all phases until it's used. This way there is no need to print those cards. Yes, sometimes it may be hard to remember all those stats modifiers, but there are not so many of them at the moment and probably can be easily tracked with some tokens or dice.
That was my intention, but as I said it is free to interpret by people who want to play it. Those rules are flexible, because the format itself is for fun.
I appreciate your concerns, thank you for your feedback.
February 16, 2016 10:36 a.m.
No problem shrimpey.
My one card suggestion is:
"Target land gains (tap), Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
A good legendary, or you could always make them pay 1 life to tap, like a Mana Confluence id you feel it's a ltitle too powerful..
February 16, 2016 10:53 a.m.
ItchiUchiha117 says... #9
So, in the case of the mana being added, have it be the last thing said on these "cards" and then say "This mana does not empty from your mana pool as phases end until the beginning of the end step."
February 16, 2016 12:09 p.m.
QUICK UPDATE:
-At THIS LINK you will find all the commons, I have not done uncommons, rares and mythic rares yet (pictures may load slowly due to free web hosting, I will upgrade it when next update kicks in)
-Those images are not yet implemented to the actual randomizer, I will do that when I have all the cards. Atony1400, it's a good card suggestion, but definately not for a legendary, existing ones are much more powerful, I will add it as an uncommon or rare. ItchiUchiha117, I will change those cards to have this statement.
Further updates will probably appear not until March as I am going on holiday. However, expect that I will try to finish this project.
February 18, 2016 10:16 a.m.
Oh, ok. shrimpey. I was just being cautious, in case it was "format braking".
February 18, 2016 3:30 p.m.
In terms of semi-powerful random fun moments:
- "creatures you control gain +1/+1 and trample"
- "creatures you control gain +0/+3 and vigilance"
- "prevent 1 damage to each creature this turn"
- "at the beginning of the next end step untap all permanents"
- "your opponents can't cast spells on your turn"
- "discard your hand, draw 3 cards"
- "copy your first instant/sorcery this turn"
- "sacrifice a creature you control, gain life equal to power and toughness"
- "target a creature in your graveyard, it gains unearth until EOT"
- "spells cost 1 less to cast this turn"
- "play an additional land this turn"
- "return target card from graveyard to the hand"
- "all creatures gain deathtouch"
- "all creatures gain indestructible"
- "target instant/sorcery in graveyard gains flashback"
- "scry 4"
- "each player sacrifices a permanent or discards a card"
- "each opponent reveals their hand"
- "each player destroys a permanent of their choice"
- "deal 1 damage to each creature and player"
- "sacrifice a permanent, return target permanent to controller's hand"
- "each player reveals the top of his/her library, if it's a permanent put it into play, if it's a non-permanent put it into hand"
February 19, 2016 12:40 a.m.
Thanks for the ideas, I am sure I will use most of them.
February 19, 2016 5:13 a.m.
No problem, I like it when people think outside the box. It's thoughts like these that create new fun formats. MtG is a well supported game, but it's formats can feel very stagnant at times. I blame spikes.
February 20, 2016 10:58 p.m.
alanwescoat says... #16
Here is a way to make it easy. Everyone brings X number of instants and sorceries. They are shuffled together into a library in the nonsense zone. Once per turn, the active player may look at the top card of the library of nonsense and either play that card without paying its mana cost or put it on the bottom of the library of nonsense. Alternately, you could require that the top card is revealed and must be cast, no matter what.
February 21, 2016 6:59 a.m.
Neat idea, I like the way you called the pile of instants - "nonsense zone". I think that on the website there will be a few variations of this format - some may be more like the existing one and some may just contain a set of rules like your idea and will not require to do anything online during the game. Anyway, thanks for sharing more ideas of making similar, random format. I will take all the comments into consideration and try to implement those ideas.
February 21, 2016 8:13 a.m.
If somebody is still following this thread, here's an update.
I've made a new version of the original concept, based on alanwescoat's idea. The new randomizer will show 3 random instants from the database and you can choose one of them. I am not sure about the rules yet (whether you pay normal cost of the spell, but with any mana or something completely different), but here is the alpha version:
http://mtgroll.y0.pl/annihilation.html
It's only got about 50 instants in database and is not completely random, as database is not full, but you can see how it would look like in general.
Atony1400 says... #2
@shrimpey,
I honestly think i'd get bored too quick. I would need more different "instants" to keep me entertained. That being said, you could always grab 20 or so instants of different rarities, lay them out face-down, and then roll the dice and play as normal.
February 16, 2016 9:20 a.m.