This One Card Game I Played Once
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on Sept. 21, 2020, 1:58 p.m. by Reznorboy
So, probably none of you know, but there's this free flash game on the internet called the Necronomicon, which is directly and authentically based upon the H.P. Lovecraft mythos (one of my favorite topics btw.)
There were only 100 cards in the entire game, and no way to play with other humans, but I honestly think that some of the concepts were really interesting.
I'm going to basically describe how the rules would be translated to an alternate format of MTG (in a way that seems reasonable and decent to play).
It's not really my idea anyway.
Basically, first of all, every deck would be purely burn based. How that would actually implemented, than banning a slew of specific cards, I'm not sure, but regardless, the point stands.
More interestingly, instead of mana, there is sanity. Sanity is an extremely interesting concept that I've never really seen done ever before.
Basically, both players start with an arbitrary number of sanity (say 30, maybe 20). Rather than having lands, and making mana, you pay sanity (which never changes unless you pay some or whatever).
However, once your sanity becomes 0, the game randomly determines that something very bad happens to you. For example, in that game, basically, I believe there were 5 possibilities. Either your max hand size became 2, you had a cumulative upkeep of pay 1 life or lose the game, you can't cast spells except from your hand, etc. Something generally very bad for your game state. Some cards could give you more sanity however.
It would require a lot of balancing, I'm not even sure what the deck size/starting life etc. would be, but I think this is a cool concept to explore.
Also the Lovecraft mythos is epic, so yeah.
SquirrelPenguin says... #3
I... I think I found it: here it is.
Unfortunately, Flash Player is scheduled to turn off at the end of this year.
September 21, 2020 3:21 p.m.
So, I forgot about/realized a couple things about how to make this format both more accurate to the original and practical.
First of all, to make everything burn based, 1. If you would draw from an empty deck, you instead simply don't draw (unless both players libraries are empty, in which case the player with the higher life total wins, or it is a tie) 2. Creatures cannot attack.
Additionally, life, in my opinion, should start at 40, because every single card is devoted to burn anyway (there are no lands), and deck size should be exactly 50 (to have a little bit more cards than life to ensure the game ends.)
In the Necronomicon, you could only control exactly 1 creature at a time, and rather than it attacking, whenever your opponent caused you to lose life, your creature would immediately trigger an ability with Split Second that deals damage equal to its power to your opponent, OR to their creature if they control one. Creature damage would not wear off over time (you could use counters or something to remember).
I think sanity should start at 25.
As to how colors would be addressed (as to having no mana), I'm still unsure.
I'll keep posting improvements/rules as I think of them. Thank you.
September 21, 2020 4:23 p.m.
This sounds really cool. I like the idea of it being a cube like format as suggested by BodhiQL. The way I would handle it would be you play it as a normal game of magic with sanity being used for mana and when you run out of sanity you roll a D6 to determine what negative effect you get. You can't pay sanity you don't have but at your end step you can discard any number of cards and drain that much sanity. That way you don't get stuck in top deck mode
September 21, 2020 5:29 p.m.
Great idea! A way to play Magic AND battle the terrors of Cthulhu at the same time would be awesome. =D
Here are some thoughts:
In order to keep everyone from playing 5c goodstuff, what if you used a pile of 25 basic lands to represent your sanity? You would have to decide how many of each basic land type to put in your "sanity pile." Instead of drawing from it, you could just dig through it for the mana/sanity (manity/sana?) you need, but once you spend it, that's it. It would be exiled/removed from game, and you now have less sanity left, and less color variety to choose from.
And now for a bit of flavor-brainstorming: So instead of a planeswalker, in this game you'd play as an Investigator, of course. I like the idea of being allowed one companion (meaning creature) at a time. So then maybe if you're playing a human investigator, if you play any creature type except human, cat, dog or horse (or something like that) you'd lose a sanity/life point per turn, or maybe just when you cast it? Because if you're fighting Chtulhu or Dagon or something, you wouldn't summon a Fire Elemental, or a hydra or anything like that. And I would say just pretend that any anthropomorphic cats are just regular "cats," just to keep things simple. If you go with the idea at all.
BodhiQL says... #2
This sounds like a really fun idea. I think it would require some custom cards/mechanics, especially for the sanity. You could include some actual Magic cards, and just have this “library” sort of like a cube, and people you want to play with would build their decks on the spot. Since there would be no need for land, maybe deck sizes of 30? It would probably require some play testing to get specifics and balance
September 21, 2020 2:30 p.m.