New Format Idea: [Bullets]
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on Jan. 12, 2017, 10:22 p.m. by StopShot
The Bullets format is an eternal format in that decks can contain lands and cards with converted mana cost 1 only. All other cards are not legal in the format, such as zero-cost, two-cost, three-cost cards, etc. Any card with CMC 1 is legal, and any land printed in a Modern set is legal. (**Exceptions are on the banlist.)
The format itself is meant to be aggressive and rather unpredictable. The minimum deck size is 60. The maximum number of cards with the same name you can carry in your deck and sideboard is 4 with the exception to basic lands. Sideboards can only contain 15 cards.
The Bullets Format does have its own unofficial ban list.
The ban-list works like most other formats. Cards that would be legal in the format, but are placed on this list can not be played. This list consists of: Ancestral Recall, Candelabra of Tawnos, Contract from Below, Dark Depths, Demonic Consultation, Enlightened Tutor, Entomb, Gamble, Green Sun's Zenith, High Tide, Imperial Seal, Jeweled Bird, Mental Misstep, Mind Twist, Mystical Tutor, Personal Tutor, Skullclamp, Vampiric Tutor, and Worldly Tutor.
Potential Questions and Answers are listed below.
Why Modern set lands only? Lands are essential in any deck, and for such a fringe format the advantage a player with OG duel lands over someone with tap lands is too much especially when the format is strictly one-drops where speed is paramount. With the Ravnica shock lands there is more balance, especially with price tags.
Why isn't Sol Ring banned? In a format full of one-drops Sol Ring isn't around to ramp you into three and four drops on turn 2. When all your spells usually cost one type of color mana alone the advantages of having Sol Ring in your deck aren't as big as in other formats where its banned.
Please let me know if you have any questions, criticisms, or thoughts, thank you.
GlistenerAgent says... #3
Not sure what would be good in this format, but I'm very sure that you're wrong about Mental Misstep. Paying 2 life to counter target spell is so broken that 100% of players in this format would play four copies, which is the definition of unhealthy if there ever was one.
January 12, 2017 11:42 p.m.
"While Mental Misstep would mean an instant 4-of in every deck" - you yourself just stated why the card should be banned. If every deck is 56 cards Missteps, that is a textbook definition of a ban.
Also, bans are quite weird - I get the ante cards, power 9 and mind twist, but only some of the tutors? I would also ban all tutors. How is Worldly Tutor or Personal Tutor less powerful than Mystical Tutor?
Also, think about the meta. Burn is obvious tier one material with no obvious counterplay, so is ramp - 4 copies of each of sol ring, mana vault, mana crypt, voltaic key, high tide, etc. are all still legal and there are lots of powerful X cards to spend this on. With tutors for sorceries and X spells, Blaze and its variants becomes a top tier card.
This needs a lot more thought put into it.
January 13, 2017 4:28 a.m.
"decks can contain lands and cards with converted mana cost 1 only"
I found this confusing as the lands I know of cost 0 mana.
Does this also mean that playing Ornithopter is out?
Or did you mean 1CMC OR LESS?
January 13, 2017 7:17 a.m.
@Argeaux, No zero cost spells, so no Ornithopter.
I suppose I can update the ban list. Players would not be allowed access to Mana Crypt Since that is not a one-cost spell. I'll put tutors and High Tide on the list I suppose.
January 13, 2017 3:44 p.m.
Yeah, Mental Misstep is almost certainly too strong in this format. It's a Force of Will without any kind of deck building restriction. Also, is the format limited to 1CMC only, or 1CMC and less? Because if we can play 0-mana cards, Glimpse of Nature seems disgusting.
January 13, 2017 3:46 p.m.
Oh, you answered my question before I posted. Still, though, Mental Misstep is incredibly powerful in this format. It's played in Vintage for a reason, and those decks don't play just 1-drops.
January 13, 2017 3:48 p.m.
@ThinkJank No, zero cost spells are not allowed. Strictly CMC 1 only.
January 13, 2017 3:49 p.m.
I've updated the ban list and placed Mental Misstep as banned.
January 13, 2017 3:50 p.m.
You haven't fixed up the grammatical issue which makes this sentence useless.
"decks can contain lands and cards with converted mana cost 1 only"
It's important to get this right if you want the format to catch on.
As it reads now YOU CANNOT PLAY LANDS UNLESS THEIR CMC IS 1.
You need to use another comma:
"decks can contain lands, and cards with converted mana cost 1 only"
January 14, 2017 5:11 a.m.
mymanpotsandpans says... #14
Is the restriction to play only modern lands only because of the original dual lands power and cost? All non modern lands are banned, you want that to expand to cover cards like Wasteland, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and other non modern legal lands? Nothing like Unholy Citadel should be allowed right? I'm not sure if your intention was to have have only modern legal lands (excluding looking at balance of the original dual lands) but if it was I disagree with it. I really like everything else just the land part bugs me.
January 14, 2017 2:50 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #15
I like the concept but I don't think banning older lands due to their cost is the right way to go. And why so much tutor hate?
Epochalyptik says... #2
This thread was moved to a more appropriate forum (auto-generated comment)
January 12, 2017 10:46 p.m.