Casual rules
Social forum
Posted on Dec. 15, 2017, 3:29 p.m. by Necrosis325
I was just curious if anybody has any interesting house rules they play by. For example, my friends and I play with 50 life as opposed to 20. We find that it makes the game more interesting and everyone's decks have more time to get off the ground.
Tyrant-Thanatos says... #3
There's a lot of casual-oriented formats out there that your playgroup might enjoy imo. From Planechase to Archenemy, things like Emperor or Two-Headed Giant, and if your playgroup likes the longer games, you may want to check out Commander. There's a lot of different ways to play Magic.
December 15, 2017 3:59 p.m.
My group, at one time, had a custom ban list for commander. We're a step below cEDH to shop level competitive and we felt like the RC's ban list wasn't reflective of play at this level. We got rid of the custom ban list mostly because we play in other circles in addition to our primary one,but also because discussions about bans and unbans became too much of a burden after a while.
December 15, 2017 4:16 p.m.
Bulldawg1310 says... #5
A group of my friends edh play group has a standing rule that everyone gets to start out with a mana source (doesnt matter what it is but they all pretty much choose sol ring) on the field before they draw their seven cards
December 15, 2017 5:21 p.m.
I've played something like a year with Library legal in my group and it was ok. Good, but not busted. I'd Lost Vale over Library. Imagine how well you could xerox through your deck with 3 extra colored mana. Goldfishing T2 wins = norm. lol
December 15, 2017 7:49 p.m.
Tyrant-Thanatos says... #11
I mean yeah, if it can be any mana source to start out with, I don't see why I wouldn't be picking Lost Vale, Gilded Lotus, or Dreamstone Hedron. Library is strong, really strong, don't get me wrong, but three mana ramp from the start of the game is insane.
December 15, 2017 8:23 p.m.
TheVectornaut says... #12
If a mana source is defined as any permanent with at least one mana ability, there are some really disgusting things you could do. Composite Golem into Maelstrom Archangel (or any number of other 5 drops), Ashnod's Altar into cheerio shenanigans, Primal Wellspring into Dark Ritual/Cabal Ritual, or just start the game with a free Ramos, Dragon Engine or Rosheen Meanderer. Maybe that all requires too much building around, but maybe that could also be the point. It'd be like EDH but your commander is just a mana source. Of course, it would never work. After all, it would only be a matter of time before Warden of the Wall completely takes over the meta and has to be emergency banned. 2spooky.
December 16, 2017 1:07 a.m.
Necrosis325 says... #13
My friends and I aren't Nazis about mulligans. We pretty much mulligan as much as you want with no penalty. But, that being said, you can't mulligan over and over again until you find the perfect hand. I only do it if I have one or no land.
I came up with my own format as well. You need at least three people to play. You can only attack the person on your right side and you can only play spells against the person on your left side. Global effects (Wrath of God) still effect everybody. I call this format....The Circle Jerk.
December 16, 2017 10:24 a.m.
I played a format once I think it was called totem pole or something like that its best with 4+ people and the lowest life total player can't be attacked or you can play it where the person with the most life is the only target for attacks
December 16, 2017 12:52 p.m.
I played a format once I think it was called totem pole or something like that its best with 4+ people and the lowest life total player can't be attacked or you can play it where the person with the most life is the only target for attacks
December 16, 2017 12:57 p.m.
Necrosis325 says... #16
No one liked my Circle Jerk idea?? I thought it was pretty funny.
December 18, 2017 3:26 p.m.
Bulldawg1310 says... #17
let me be clear, as I feel you guys have taken some "liberties" with my description. I am not 100 percent positive because I don't play EDH and am therefore not involved in their game, but I believe it is a land only. I may have said mana source above and shouldn't have, but any edh legal land can start on their battlefield.
December 18, 2017 5:28 p.m.
Tyrant-Thanatos says... #18
I mean you did also say they pick Sol Ring and that's no land so....
December 18, 2017 5:35 p.m.
Bulldawg1310 says... #19
right, im pretty sure they do it to help each other from blaming the game if they ever get screwed/flooded, so everyone gets to start with a land card on the field. it doesn't have to be basic but it does have to be a land, it cant be something that needs something else to happen to produce mana, so Library of Alexandria would work, while Lost Vale would not. when I originally posted, I thought sol ring was an artifact land and I was mistaken, I don't use sol ring all that often so I hope I may be forgiven this fox paws, faux pas for those that don't listen to chad daniels.
December 18, 2017 5:48 p.m.
Lost Vale is still an EDH legal land. If not, I can still Mishra's Workshop.
The problem with starting with a free land of your choosing is that there are still about a million ways you can abuse it. Even ones that aren't easy to spot. If you really wanted to, you could just cut down on the number of lands in your deck and put in more cantrips to artificially get you through more cards in your deck. This vastly increases a deck's average card quality even if the deck contains mostly the same cards.
December 18, 2017 5:53 p.m.
Bulldawg1310 says... #21
TheDevicer I know that Lost Vale is legal but it doesn't become a land until it is transformed so therefore it wouldn't fit within their playgroup rules, Mishra's Workshop however, does. once again, it doesn't matter to me, I figured I would just throw in my two cents regarding special rules that Ive heard about as my own personal games only follow tournament specific rules and I usually only play modern or pauper. just thought it was an interesting idea that fit within the forum. I am glad that it could spark such conversation!
December 18, 2017 6:34 p.m.
My casual group adjusted the mulligan rules to deal with mana screw/mana flood. Under our rules, you can mulligan as normal (draw one fewer card than previously, and scry 1 at start of your turn), or reveal your hand and show that you have one or fewer lands. If that is the case, you can mulligan for free, drawing cards equal to your previous number (if that number is 7, you do not get a scry). If you have already mulliganed down to 5 cards, you do not get your free mana-based mulligans.
This ensures everyone has a land their first and second turn, while not allowing shenanigans (I sneak Dark Depths into play, and mulligan until I find Vesuva) like having a free land might.
December 20, 2017 8:42 p.m.
Bulldawg1310 says... #23
Wouldnt that fall subject to the legend rule though?
December 20, 2017 11:20 p.m.
Oops. I got Vesuva and Thespian's Stage backward when making that post--the combo would not work with Vesuva. That was quite foolish of me.
December 21, 2017 12:13 a.m.
TheVectornaut says... #25
Because the controller of two of the same legendary permanent gets to decide which is sacrificed (or to be more precise, which is not put into the graveyard), you can choose to keep the copied Dark Depths instead of the original. This isn't actually helpful with Vesuva since it will still enter with the ice counters. Thespian's Stage won't get the ice counters though, enabling an early Marit Lage.
December 21, 2017 12:23 a.m.
In my goup we sometimes draw ten cards to start. You dont have to start discarding until you reach seven or lower cards in hand.
TheVectornaut says... #2
The biggest one for me would be deckbuilding rules. The UCCS Magic club divides play into 60 card or 100 card formats. 100 card follows basic commander build rules, but 60 card is casual and fluid. It's still expected that you don't have more than 4 copies of a card (unless maybe playing Storm Crow memes or something) and that silver-bordered cards must be used within reason, but everything else is on the table. We're also allowed 5 proxies a deck, however, you are expected to purchase real copies of proxied cards at some point during the semester. To reduce saltiness, we allow one free mulligan in 60 card and partial Paris is EDH. I've never been a huge fan of partial Paris though since it seems to make degenerate combos occur even more often.
December 15, 2017 3:54 p.m.