What is Your Favourite Kitchen Table Format?
The Kitchen Table forum
Posted on Aug. 21, 2014, 11:11 p.m. by Femme_Fatale
Is it casual EDH? Is it 2HG? Is it Emperor? Is it free-for-all? Archenemy? Planescape? Round-robin? Cube? Or is it some really unusual creation like "The Beast" or "Limited Infinity"?
Whatever it is, we all have our own formats that are most popular at the kitchen table. And then we have our personal favourites. Let us here what the favourites are of your kitchen table, and go into detail of house-rules, bannings, and if it is a new set, how the set works out in general~
At my kitchen table, it is free for all. Casual players like freedom, they like to direct that freedom where-ever possible. Specifically if there is one over-powered player. They like free-for-all because they can gang-up on that player. (General me, why would you gain up on a girl ... wah.) Close up second and third is 2HG and Emperor, because they are a bit more balanced in terms of power.
MagicalHacker says... #4
Also, I play multiplayer and 1v1 with the multiplayer EDH/Commander format ban list, so I guess that counts as kitchen table.
Also I play with lots-o-proxies (I don't proxy OP stuff tho)
August 21, 2014 11:20 p.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #5
Yeah but I started Round-robing in Zendikar, so a bit before Mystic Barrier 's time.
August 21, 2014 11:24 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #6
That sounds pretty cool. I knew I liked Mystic Barrier for a reason. XD
August 21, 2014 11:28 p.m.
miracleHat says... #7
I love Round-robing! Playing that with edh decks. Also, does Round-robing normally with a bystander playing god?
My second favorite would be EDH! Cube is also fun, but my friend and I have yet to build a pauper one (yeah, we are slackers).
August 21, 2014 11:30 p.m.
Kitchen tables are often filled with EDH games around me, and soon Modern. We keep it competitive-ish, we usually bring the same decks to FNMs and such.
I feel like I want to make a Battlebox though.
August 22, 2014 1:03 a.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #9
I always wanted to do cube. I've got far too much Zendikar and M10 junk. A pauper cube would be best, but the amount of work and planning to do it is a bit much with everything else I have on my plate.
August 22, 2014 1:18 a.m.
ItchiUchiha117 says... #10
Seven player Stars EDH (the people directly next to you are your allies and everyone else is your enemy) with Planechase. It was beautiful. As far as what generally happens, we tend to just try and start as large a game as possible in whatever format the group has enough decks for. Given that I carry around nine different EDH decks, another friend has about seven , and everyone else that builds them tends to have two, EDH wins a lot. I can also generally sit down with a couple friends and they'll just take one of my decks while we bash heads for a while.
August 22, 2014 1:19 a.m.
ItchiUchiha117 says... #11
Also, we have a house rule in EDH: As long as you are not being degenerate with it all the time, every time,you are allowed one banned card in each EDH. Started with a Painter's Servant in a Teysa, Orzhov Scion EDH that only used it as a one sided boardwipe that was difficult to set up. Considering the fact that he already had three or four such combos and it wasn't an instant win, we allowed it. Partially because he had already spent eight dollars on it before realizing it was banned.
August 22, 2014 1:24 a.m.
KnightsBattlecry001 says... #12
Emperor and free for all is what me and some friends usually do. Most emperor matches don't take long. Everyone wants to win pretty damn fast. Free for all can last a long time. All of us end up building up a massive field of creatures and whatnot so it becomes a standstill. If anyone attacks someone, counters something, etc they are always the first to be ganged up on. Longest free for all we had lasted like 8 hours. Started at around 9 pm and didn't get finished until 5 am.
We went through like two cases of beer, 6 frozen pizzas, and I went through three cans of dip. At that point when we stopped me and one other had been up 24 hours. What's bad is nobody won either. We just said screw it we are tired and all of us just found a spot on the floor to crash. It was fun, but never again.
August 22, 2014 2:17 a.m.
BlueEyesRedMage says... #13
I cannot fully express my love for Commander Planechase free-for-all, with a communal plane deck in the middle of a table. It takes a while, even with 3 players, but nothing can match that level of fun.
Alternatively, a variant my casual play group has yet to name.
Step 1: Rochester Draft my Cube Step 2: Set up a free-for all gameStep 3: Add in the communal Planechase deck and/or designate one player as the Archenemy, complete with Archenemy deckStep 4: Glorious chaos >_>
August 22, 2014 2:37 a.m.
Oletorpedo says... #14
BlueEyesRedMage, EDH planechase Free-for-all is absolutely bonkers. Love it.
Our group rarely play one-on-one matches, aside from drafting or sealed, so we all have lots of decks that are meant as multiplayer-decks. We often play threeplayer "gentleman's rules" (You can't attack the same opponent twice in a row), and we mix it up with planechase/ free-for-all when we like.
We're also really into the EDH-format, and 2HG is also a staple in our group.
We are all mostly social players, so games that last long, and that makes for crazy interactions is the ones we favour.
Conspiracy is a set we have been playing a lot since it came out. In fact, we're playing it later today.
Haven't really gotten into arch-enemy yet, but we'we dabbled a bit in that front as well.
Hoping to get a cube together soon as well.
August 22, 2014 2:52 a.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #15
You know what I love? Chaos decks. Our play group once made our own, with cards like Mark Walberg, Daft Punk, Super Awesome Dice Role, Bullshit, Burning Sensation and Unwise Google Search.
You can technically make your own Chaos deck from any batch of MtG cards, just get a bunch you might think are awesome, or ones that create utter chaos, and use them. Generally enchantments and world effect sorceries and instants are best, but the reason why I like making your own is because of the hilarity of it, and that you can guarantee the cards you have fit the chaos deck.
August 22, 2014 3:40 a.m.
Oletorpedo says... #16
Sounds like a blast Femme_Fatale, I'll be sure to suggest it to my group.
Could I ask for some examples of Chaos cards you've made?
August 22, 2014 5:32 a.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #17
I personally like free-for-all with four to five players, just because there are no restrictions. It's big on politics, just like EDH, but we get to play Magic without having certain restrictions on cards we can play and things like that.
August 22, 2014 10:56 a.m.
Gotta say I do enjoy playing Chaos magic a lot. Chaos magic is a lot like Planechase except you make the Chaos deck from already printed magic card. Before the upkeep you draw a card from chaos deck and resolve it. If it has an ability, any player may activate it.
My absolute favorite has to be EDH. Got a playgroup of 6 people where 4 of us has at least 5 decks each. We gather all the decks, give them a number and roll a dice to decide what deck we'll be playing. Rarely have the same games this way making it much more fun to play in the long run
August 22, 2014 12:18 p.m.
Wow you make Round Robin sound like a lot of fun. I always avoided it but will have to suggest trying it out to my group soon.
My favorite style has always been 2-Headed Giant. It's not only fun but it allows strong players to pair with weaker players to let everyone have a good time.
I tried Wizards tower once and hated it.
August 22, 2014 12:42 p.m.
Conspiracy.
It was probably the most fun I've ever had with this game.
August 22, 2014 2:46 p.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #21
I've never had free for all be big on politics thispersonisagenius. It is really, everyone gang-up on one person, kill him, do it with the next guy, kill him, then do 1 vs 1.
I don't have any of my Chaos cards we made anymore Oletorpedo, but I can tell you one of them, that was the Bullshit chaos card.
Basically the rules of Bullshit in magic are similar to the original 52 pack of playing cards, card game (also known as cheat). The goal of Bullshit is to play a card for free and try to trick your opponents. Each player may cast a spell for no mana cost and place it face-down without showing the actual card to anyone and say a card name, whenever they could cast a sorcery. The name you say could be the card name that is on the card, or it could be something the card is not. If someone says Bullshit to you naming that card as you play it face down, you flip it face up. If the card is not the name you said, the card is exiled. If the card is the name you said, you choose a permanent the player who called Bullshit wrongly controls, and they put it into their graveyard. (Note it doesn't die or get sacrificed, it just gets placed). Now if no one calls you on the card, the card remains face down and acts as the name card in all fields, until the game ends or it gets placed in your library or hand.
Now I also remember another card called Cheat! (coincidentally they are both alternate names for the same game, but the rules for this one are different for the chaos card). Basically anyone may sneak a card in play without paying its mana cost at any point in time. If a player catches you playing that card at the wrong time or without paying its mana cost, the card is exiled. But if no one catches you, well, you just cheated a card into play for free.
Finally, there was Awesome! (it had two scorpions fighting each other with cutlery) basically what Awesome! did was it allowed multiple Chaos Cards in play at the same time. When you draw Awesome! you do another Chaos Card draw, and draw 2 cards into play instead of one. Awesome! also stacks, so if you put a lot of them in your deck, you can potentially have 5 chaos card effects going at the same time. Awesome!
August 22, 2014 4:13 p.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #22
Oh, normally the rules for Chaos was that each player rolled a die before their turn starts, and whenever a player rolled a 6 (or maybe a 1, whichever number you set it as) , you change the Chaos Card(s). Now the problem with this rule is the randomness in it can really destroy some games. Sometimes you can have an effect everyone is just tired of seeing stay in play for the entire game. Sometimes a certain card that everyone likes lasts for only one turn.
To rectify this, we had a Chaos Deck Controller. Basically before the start of the Chaos Deck Controller's turn, that player would draw a card and play a Chaos Card. This set rule balanced the Chaos Deck quite nicely, and allowed for some interesting cards like, "Change the Chaos Deck's controller to a new person." Or "Split the Chaos Deck in half, and give the half to another player. That player is now a Chaos Deck Controller as well." effectively running multiple Chaos Decks at once.
August 22, 2014 4:22 p.m.
NotSoLuckyLydia says... #23
Okay. Hold onto your hats. Battle for the Multiverse Planechase Free For All EDH. I have played this twice. Both times, the games lasted well over three hours.
Battle for the Multiverse is an archenemy variant where EVERYBODY has a scheme deck.
August 23, 2014 1:13 p.m.
There is an app for chaos magic for android phones on the playstore. It's pretty good and have a lot of random
August 23, 2014 2:30 p.m.
I've started playing Pauper EDH recently, its a great way to use up all the common singles you have lying around and is an interesting/challenging format to build a deck in.
August 28, 2014 7:26 a.m.
Some of the most fun I've had is The Horde, Fighting the zombies, and even being the zombies. It's alot like the hydra decks that theros had at Gameday, but much more fun. Especially when you remake it with pretty much anything with tokens. We had a Werewolf version, and also being Supernatural fans, we made a version with Angels, and Demons with two silly Brothers Yamazaki decks.
August 28, 2014 3:38 p.m.
My friend and I recently came up with our own kitchen table format that we call Binder Wars. Basically its pack wars but with 15 cards from your binder but with no X cost spells, mill, miltikicker, fire breathing effects, and winning or losing effects. It has been super fun to create and is a fun way to play in between rounds or just in general.
August 31, 2014 5:40 p.m.
tyforthevenom says... #28
my favorite "format" is Timesifter starts in play under each players control (so noone is tempted to try and remove it) and we play free for all with that rule in play
September 7, 2014 8:46 a.m.
biggestmtgnerd says... #30
I created this one format called magic mau. I've never played it before, but it looks like fun. If you guys like it, try it out and tell me what you think:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-forum/general/magic-mau/
I mostly play EDH or normal with my mom (mostly EDH), but sometimes I play normal with a friend of mine at school. Occasionally I use gatherer and some dice to play archenemy planechase with my mom.
October 12, 2014 8:05 a.m.
The ''treehouse" group i usually play with have doesn't care about the banned cards, but they refuse to play with planeswalkers(if they come up, discard, and draw a card). So i get away with being a prick with Panoptic Mirror + Time Warp , Grindstone + Painter's Servant , and my favorite Tinker ing for Darksteel Forge .
For playing styles we do free for all, multi team 2HG, and 3HG. Except when i play my eldrazi deck, then it turns into a 3/4 vs 1 once i play that first Urza land.
October 14, 2014 12:57 a.m.
I just built my first cube to teach the kids in my chess club how to draft and how to build & play better. The ultimate goal is to run a Conspiracy draft with them.
I'm curious about building a non-singleton cube, probably using many of the conspiracy cards we crack (they'll all be my cards.)
I'd also like to promote a format I'm calling "Hierarchy," a 60- card format which could be seen as as a progression of pauper/peasant: limit 1-of rares up to 3, limit 2-of uncommons up to 9, and limit 3-of commons. The goal of this format would be to dial back the power level of decks and get a more casual groove going on, but still letting a few bomb rares in. It would also mimic the as-fan of a booster pack in its rarity limits. The only banned cards would be those that would break the card-limit rules, like Relentless Rats and Shadowborn Apostle .
Or perhaps instead of pushing this "Hierarchy" concept, I'll just fiddle with cubing some more.
October 16, 2014 11:01 a.m.
A_Real_Travesty says... #33
I really love Star/Pentagram magic, especially with EDH, but unfortunately most people in my playgroup don't care for it.
For those that don't know, Star Magic is 5-person magic with the color pie in mind. You can play with five mono-color decks, but I prefer to let anyone use anything. Like the color pie, the idea is that the people on either side are your allies, and the two across from you are the enemy. Each of your allies has one common enemy with you, but they are also against each other. You win when both of your enemies are dead, whether you're still in the game or not.
Like: White wants to kill red and black. Green will help you kill black, but will try to keep you from killing Red. Blue will help you kill Red, but wants Black alive. If Green is doing a good job of stopping you, you could always ask Blue to deal with them, but then you're short an ally because Green is either dead or has a grudge. Have fun!
I love the political challenge of helping your allies kill one enemy, but also trying to keep them from going at each other's throats. At the same time, each ally is also trying to protect one of your enemies. It leads to a lot of strange choices.
Femme_Fatale says... #2
My favourite is round-robin. The unique state of attacking to one side and blocking the other provides very interesting political reasoning for your choices. Spells can still target everyone, it is just that you have very specific attacking and defending guidelines.
I'll give an example, say there are 6 people playing round robin. You are person A at the table, and going clockwise, each other person is lettered, B for the player you are attacking, C, D for the person sitting directly opposite to you, E and F, the player that is attack you.
You obviously want to kill B, and F has too large of a board presence for you to risk attacking B. F has free roam over attacking you because E doesn't have much board state. However it looks like D has a pretty impressive tribal thing going on. So, in order to attack B, you have to make attacking you look unappealing to F. You do this by helping D kill E, as then F has to defend against a much more dangerous board presence, giving you a lot more free reign in killing B.
I started magic with round-robin, so being able to deal with multiple different board states all at once is really important, and a skill I learned quickly. It isn't a style of playing most casual players like, as if there is one over-powered player, no one wants to be to be the one defending against that player. But I think it is a great way to learn how to play, as it forces you into a situation into you know you will die if you don't plan against that death very well.
August 21, 2014 11:13 p.m.