Just wanted to throw this out there, this is the "casual" multiplayer section. There is a clear divide of players who believe in the "EDH" way of playing MP (socially) and there is the more spike-ish side to playing. Both are valid, neither is wrong. So remember this when you are commenting."
Banner created by Piet
I'm sure at some point in your Magic: The gathering history you have at one time or another found yourself with more than just two people to play with. What do you do? Nothing different of course! Sit down and play. Of course lots has changed since the days of old and just having three normal decks with three normal life totals. It has evolved.
In addition I made this thread in hopes to generate true interest on these boards so we can get our own sub forum for it.
General Info
Play vs. Draw
In a regular game of Magic, the starting player does not draw on his or her first turn, a rule that helps lessen the inherent advantage of going first (by basically giving the second player an extra card). In multiplayer games, however, the advantage of going first is generally minimal, so the first player is often allowed to draw on his or her first turn, especially in team formats where going first can actually be a drawback because of the turn structure. Either method is equally valid, so use whichever one your playgroup feels most comfortable with.
What we couldn't do yet, as you might have noticed, was tell you what plane cards do, and how Planechase actually works. Let's fix that, shall we?
What Is Planechase?
Planechase gives you everything you need to play Planar Magic, a new casual variant that sends you and your friends on a tour through the Multiverse. Each plane you visit—represented by a plane card—changes the nature of the battlefield. You never know how long you'll stay or where you'll go next, and the result is an ever-shifting race to exploit the unique nature of the plane you're on ... or to planeswalk away from a plane that your enemies can take advantage of!
We'll take a look at a plane card in a moment, but to know what you're looking at, you'll need a little bit of background.
Start the Journey
You can use Planechase rules in two-player games or your multiplayer variant of choice, but Planar Magic is intended for multiplayer free-for-all games with 3 to 6 players. Each player needs a normal minimum 60-card Constructed deck (such as, say, the one in each Planechase game pack) and a planar deck of at least 10 plane cards (fortuitously, also included in each game pack). Your planar deck is shuffled like your regular deck, and you can't look at or rearrange the cards in it.
You'll also need at least one planar die, also included in each game pack. The die has six faces, four of them blank. One face has the planeswalker symbol:
The last face has a new symbol on it. It's called the chaos symbol, but plane cards refer to it using the symbol itself. It looks like this:
Other than the rules for plane cards and the planar die, the game proceeds normally, including the victory condition. You win a multiplayer free-for-all game or a duel when all other players are eliminated, your team wins a team game when all other teams are eliminated, etc.
Now that you've got everything you need, you can get to the action. Determine who goes first, shuffle your decks, draw your hands, and resolve any mulligans as normal. Then, before the game starts, the player who's going to go first turns the top card of his or her shuffled planar deck face up. Let's say it's, oh, this one:
Plane cards are Magic cards, and the text on them follows most of the rules you're familiar with. Each plane card has a name, a type, a subtype, and at least two abilities. Oh, and gorgeous, all-new, landscape-oriented art, but that's not really a rules thing.
Before we look at the parts of a plane, take a look at these true facts about plane cards:
At any given time, exactly one plane card will be face up, in a new game zone called the command zone. As long as a plane card is face up in the command zone, its abilities affect the game.
They're never put onto the battlefield, and they're not permanents, so nothing can destroy or otherwise affect them.
A plane card's controller is the player whose turn it is (although this can change when a player leaves the game; see Leaving the Game, below). When a plane card's abilities talk about "you," they're always talking about the plane's current controller. If the plane's abilities have targets, its current controller chooses them. The rules below will occasionally make a distinction between a plane card's owner and its controller.
Got all that? Now let's look at the parts of a plane card.
Name: A plane is a big place—way too big to fit on just one card—so each plane card represents just part of a plane. The card's name tells you which specific location you've arrived in on the plane to which you've planeswalked.
Type line: As with other Magic cards, this line contains the card's type, subtype, and expansion symbol. "Plane" is a card type, even though you never put plane cards in your regular Magic deck. Each plane card's subtype tells you what plane it's on. Among the plane cards' subtypes, you'll find a mix of familiar favorites, like Ravnica and Dominaria, and previously unseen planes like Moag and Zendikar.
Abilities: Generally speaking, each plane has one ability (the top one) that's "always on," and another (the bottom one, in the shaded part of the text box) that triggers when you roll the chaos symbol on the planar die. When do you roll the planar die? We're glad you asked.
Walk the Walk
Now that you know how to read a plane card, it's time to learn about planeswalking. You are a planeswalker, after all. Isn't it about time you took a stroll across the Multiverse?
During your turn, any time you could cast a sorcery, you may roll the planar die. You can do this multiple times in the same turn. To roll the die, you must pay an amount of mana equal to the number of times you've already rolled the die this turn. So the first roll is free, the second roll costs 1, the third roll costs 2 , and so on. Rolling the die happens immediately (no one can respond to it), but any ability that triggers as a result goes on the stack, and can be responded to like other triggered abilities.
Why might you want to reroll the die? Rolling the die could have three results:
If you roll a blank face, nothing happens.
If you roll the chaos symbol, the face-up plane card's chaos ability triggers. Players may cast instants and activate abilities before it resolves.
If you roll the planeswalker symbol, the face-up plane card's unwritten planeswalking ability triggers. Players may cast instants and activate abilities before it resolves. When the planeswalking ability resolves, the owner of the face-up plane card puts it on the bottom of his or her planar deck, then you turn the top card of your planar deck face up. Welcome to a new world!
Some plane cards have abilities that trigger when you planeswalk to them or planeswalk away from them. These abilities trigger when the game shifts from one face-up plane card to another (but they don't trigger when the first plane of the game is turned face up). This shift might occur because the planeswalker symbol was rolled or because the player who owned the previous face-up plane card left the game. Speaking of which ....
Leaving the Game
In multiplayer games, unlike duels, you have to figure out what happens when a player leaves the game (because that player lost the game or conceded). Fortunately, there are rules for that sort of thing.
In any multiplayer game, when a player leaves the game, all permanents, spells, and other cards (including plane cards) owned by that player also leave the game, and any abilities or copies of spells that player controlled cease to exist. If that player controlled any permanents owned by another player, the effect(s) that gave that player control of them end(s), which usually means that they return to their previous controller(s). If that doesn't give control of them to a different player (perhaps because they entered the battlefield under the control of the player that left), they're exiled. If the player who left was taking his or her turn, that turn continues to its completion even though that player is now gone.
Now let's figure out what happens to the face-up plane card when one or more players leaves the game. The player(s) leaving the game might include that plane card's owner, its controller, both, or neither. First, check whether a departing player controls the plane. Then, whether or not that's the case, check whether a departing player owns the plane.
If the face-up plane card's current controller is leaving the game, the next player in turn order who's still in the game takes control of that plane just before the departing player leaves. Any planeswalking, chaos, or other abilities of that plane the departing player controls are removed from the stack, just like any other abilities that player controls.
Then, if the face-up plane card's owner is leaving the game, that card leaves the game as well. Its current controller (who may have just gained control of it) immediately turns the top card of his or her planar deck face up, triggering any "planeswalk to" or "planeswalk from" abilities. When that happens, any planeswalking abilities that were waiting to resolve will cease to exist (so you don't planeswalk twice). Any chaos abilities or other abilities of that plane that are still on the stack stay there and will resolve as normal.
The reason we get so specific about the timing of those steps is because, as we said, some cards have abilities that trigger when you planeswalk away from them. What sort of ability, you ask? Well, something like this:
If a departing player both owns and controls Sanctum of Serra, a new player takes control of it just long enough to put that ability on the stack. Boom!
Variants
The Planechase decks work great right out of the box, but that's just the beginning. You can customize the 60-card decks or swap them out for different decks entirely. But you can also customize your planar deck with any (or all!) of the 40 planes among the four game packs. There are only two rules about your planar deck's composition:
Your planar deck must have at least ten cards in it.
No two cards in your planar deck can have the same name.
Alternately, you can use the shared planar deck variant. This is perfect if you've got all four Planechase game packs, but your friends don't have any. It's also good if you'd prefer a more chaotic play experience, rather than one in which the planar decks are tailored to match the Constructed decks they're paired with.
The number of cards in the shared planar deck should be at least 40, or at least ten times the number of players in the game, whichever is smaller. No two cards in the planar deck can have the same name.
Because Planar Magic is a casual format, you can play it with any variations your group is willing to try out. You can try out Planar Two-Headed Giant, Planar Star, Planar Elder Dragon Highlander—whatever you want!
What we haven't yet done, because we're cagey like that, is tell you what exactly these oversized cards are, and how they'll help you with the daunting task of taking out a team of opposing Planeswalkers. Now that we're closer to the release, it's time to pull back the curtain!
What Is Archenemy?
Archenemy gives you everything you need to play a new casual variant of the same name. In an Archenemy game, one player—the archenemy—takes on the role of a merciless tyrant bent on total domination. The other players form a team dedicated to stopping the archenemy at any cost, taking a shared turn Two-Headed Giant–style.
But teaming up on the archenemy isn't unfair—it's a desperate survival tactic. The archenemy comes to the fight armed not only with a normal 60-card deck, but also with a deck of 20 oversized scheme cards. These represent the clever plots and monstrous machinations of the archenemy, and they give his or her deck the power boost it needs to—maybe—take out two, three, four, or even more opponents.
We'll take a look at a scheme card in a moment, but first let's talk about how to set up the game.
Arranging the Pieces
To play Archenemy, each player needs a deck made of normal-sized Magic cards. By default these will be normal Constructed decks consisting of at least 60 cards (such as, for example, the 60-card decks featured in the four Archenemy game packs), but in theory you could also try this with 100-card EDH decks, 40-card Sealed Decks, or any other Magic decks. The player playing as the archenemy also needs a scheme deck made of at least 20 oversized scheme cards (also included in each game pack—note that some schemes appear in more than one game pack).
If each player has an Archenemy game pack, players can take turns using their scheme decks as the archenemy. If you want to customize the scheme deck, there are only two rules to follow: the deck must have at least 20 scheme cards and it can't include more than two of any single card.
At the start of the game, each player shuffles his or her traditional deck. The archenemy also shuffles his or her scheme deck. The archenemy keeps the scheme deck face down and can't look at it or rearrange the cards in it, just like his or her library.
Set Your Schemes in Motion
The archenemy's turn plays out just like a turn in any Magic game, with one major difference. As the first main phase of the archenemy's turn begins, that player sets a scheme in motion—yes, that is now an actual game action!—by turning the top card of the scheme deck face up. It might look something like this:
Most scheme cards, including this one, have abilities that trigger "When you set this scheme in motion." As with other triggered abilities, archenemy and his or her opponents have the chance to respond to these abilities by casting spells or activating abilities.
Some schemes say ongoing on their type line, like this one:
An ongoing scheme remains face up until an effect causes it to be abandoned (put on the bottom of the scheme deck). Most ongoing schemes have a condition that causes them to be abandoned, although it will likely take some work on your opponents' part. Note that ongoing schemes aren't on the battlefield; they're not permanents, and they can't be destroyed.
Schemes that aren't ongoing are simply put on the bottom of the scheme deck once all their abilities resolve or are countered (for having no legal targets, for example).
Some schemes may ask you to pay some amount of mana to reap their full benefits:
If a scheme's triggered ability has one or more targets, as this one does, you'll choose them when you put the triggered ability on the stack, as with any other triggered ability. You won't choose how much mana to pay for , X however, until the ability resolves. So your opponents will know what's going to take damage, but they won't know how much.
A few "hot seat" schemes let you put one of your opponents in a very awkward position by asking, "Self or others?"
Will your opponent take one for the team, choosing the option that puts less total hurt on the archenemy's opponents? Or will he or she decide to let teammates take the heat, leaving his or her own position unchanged? A team player will look at this choice objectively, consult with his or her teammates, and choose the option that's best for the team as a whole ... but not everybody's a team player!
If the opponent you choose doesn't have any teammates left, he or she can choose "others" and suffer no ill effects at all. On the other hand, that player is facing you and your scheme deck all alone—not an enviable position!
Revealing a scheme as your first main phase begins is mandatory. Gravely intoning its name and flavor text and then cackling madly is optional.
Win, Lose, or Draw
The rest of the rules are pretty straightforward. The archenemy starts at 40 life, and each other player starts at 20 life. Each player draws an opening hand of seven cards, and players may then take mulligans as normal. In multiplayer games, the first time a player takes a mulligan, he or she draws a new hand of seven cards rather than six cards, then subsequent hands decrease by one card as normal.
The archenemy goes first and draws a card during his or her first draw step. (We told you they were malevolent!)
The archenemy's opponents share a turn, in the same way that teammates do in Two-Headed Giant. You each untap your permanents during your team's untap step, you each draw a card as your team's draw step begins, and so on. Each teammate can play a land during the team's main phase. Each teammate chooses which of his or her creatures will attack the archenemy or a planeswalker the archenemy controls, and then those creatures all attack at the same time. You can't attack your teammates.
The team of players opposing the archenemy needs to work together to have any hope of defeating the archenemy's quest for domination. But you can't share cards or other resources. You can't give your teammates mana to cast spells, for example.
If you or a member of your alliance is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice and leave the game, the rest of the team continues the fight. However, the usual rules for what happens when a player leaves a multiplayer game apply: All permanents and other cards that player owned leave the game, any spells or abilities controlled by that player cease to exist, and any effects that caused the player to gain control of permanents he or she doesn't own end.
The archenemy wins the game by defeating each member of the opposing team. The opposing team wins by defeating the archenemy. Every player on that team wins the game, even players that left the game before its conclusion.
Remember, players lose the game when their life total is reduced to 0 or less, when they have to draw a card from an empty library, when they have ten or more poison counters, or when an effect says that player loses the game or an opponent wins the game. If the archenemy would lose the game at the same time as the last remaining member of the opposing team, the game is a draw.
In addition to the default "One vs. Many" Archenemy format, there's a Free-for-All variant. The twist? Everybody gets a scheme deck! Maybe you're all archenemies who have finished off those pesky heroes and are now fighting over the wreckage of a ruined world. Perhaps a few heroes have tapped into some source of terrible power and risen to fight you on equal terms. Regardless, this variant has the potential for some super-powered, crushingly brutal back-and-forths. And in this format, asking "Self or other?" isn't putting someone on the hot seat—it's doing them a favor!
Free for all is the most basic form of Multiplayer. It is the alpha you could say. It is done by just having any number of players with what ever deck they choose. No restrictions on targets, who you can attack, how many times you can attack, or what kind of decks should be played. Not for the faint of heart. This is a very unruly type of game where anything can happen!
Much like Free for all, Sphere of influence is a group of non-teamed players who are given a certain agreed limitation before the game begins. This is the "sphere of influence". It means that there may be only so many people to the right and left you can attack, maybe you can only attack to your left or your right, maybe your spells only effect people to your left and right, or maybe two people to your left and right (if it was a large match). Some house rules put into place a no attack more than twice in a row with out going at least a full revolution, which means that no one person can be attacked more than twice among the people playing until another revolution has passed. This does prevent some unfair beat downs but also can open doors to player who need that hard rule to build up.
This is pretty straight forward. Two or more teams, no shared life totals, just even players on each one that go at each other. Some people play it as a free for all some play it as a sit across from the player attack only that player spells only effect that player ect. This is a dangerous format, and combat can seriously ran rampant if left in a free for all setting.
Two-headed, three-headed, and four+ headed giant is where you take an even amount of players and make a team. 4 people would be two, 6 would be three, and so on. Most house rules tend to just add the players life totals together as a shared value. So 2 players would be 40 life, 3 players would be 60 life, 4 players would be 80 life and so on and so forth. This life total is shared. If a spell were to deal damage to one of those players that life total goes down as one.
Example: If I Lightning Bolt a player in this format, and there are two players, that team's life total drops to 37. Not 40 for one player and 37 for the other or 17 for one and 20 for the other is is a shared total.
In addition should some one cast a spell that hits multiple targets such as Exsanguinate, it almost works backwards it WILL take from each of those playes AND still reduce the total life total, so it is almost as if it gets to double dip! If someone strikes a three headed giant team with 60 life, with X equal to 15, then each of those opponents lose 15 life, as normal, but the casting team also gets 15 x 3 life back. So for the cost of 17 mana, the team gets 45 life back.
Some times a player of the team can still lose with out causing the team to lose. Such as drawing cards out Prosperity, poison counters Marsh Viper" target="blank">Marsh Viper, or just straight up lose the game Door to Nothingness. It is pretty much over at that point but that one player can still go on playing to try and win, they retain the life total they had if they had 40 life when door to nothingness went off, they keep the 40 life and go on with the match.
Emperor format is where there a usually two teams, or could be more, but each team needs and odd number of players. Such as three, five, or seven ect. This is because the center person is known as the emperor. The players to the left and right are the flankers. Now in most cases players will opt to go with a sphere of influence because that is how this format is built around.
Each player has 20 life. Not shared in anyway. The emperor's job is to generate helpful effects and in some house rules that allow it helpful permanent to pass to their flankers (I'll explain that later on). The flankers then are doing two things, 1) trying to defend the the emperor while 2) trying to defeat the opponent's defending flanker to break to their emperor. To win you must your the opponent's teams emperor to 0 or just make them lose the game how ever it comes.
Now online you cannot do this next part, but I've seen many house rules, use their emperor to the extent of being able to pass creatures or other helpful nonland permanents to their flankers. However it is at the cost of playing any no other permanent spells that turn. The only creatures that can be passed right after being cast is ones with haste, so any other permanent or non haste creature must be out for one entire turn before being able to be passed.
For example, you are the emperor and you notice your right flanker is falling behind and need something to try and revive their board position you decide to not cast any permanent spells this turn to give them a Wall of Glare. Can spice things up. This kind of rule does force emperors to stay with in the spirit of the job rather than just using flanks as meat shield for a combo deck.
4+
Each player writes his or her name on a piece of paper and puts the piece of paper in a hat. After all names have been collected, each player chooses a piece of paper from the hat at random and keeps it. This is your "mark". If at any time a player picks his or her own name, the player puts their piece of paper back in the hat and redraws until that player gets a piece of paper that does not have their name on it. This continues until all pieces of paper are taken. Now, each player has an opponents name and an opponent has your name. Players keep their picks secret, and do not reveal who they picked. When you kill an opponent, you receive their piece of paper, again not showing anyone else. The goal of Assassins is to destroy/win against the person whose name you have and the person who has your name. If your mark was killed by someone else, your new mark is the person who killed your mark. Once you have your name and have killed your mark/the person who killed your mark, you announce that you are the winner and reveal your pieces of paper. Gameplay operates the same as in a Chaos game. The more players the better for this format.
More Info in relation!
Theres another way to paly multiplayer, don't know the name but everyone puts their names in a hat. Everyone picks a name (you can't have your own name). That player is your target. When you kill your target you take his target and keep playing. The player with the most dead targets wins.
EX:
Player A has Player B
Player B has Player C
Player C has Player D
Player D has Player E
Player E has Player A
A kills B then takes his target. Now B is out and A tries to kill C.
A kills C and takes his target. Now B and C are out, A tries to kill D.
E kills A and takes his target. B, C and A are out, E tries to kill D.
D kills E. A has got target B and C. B and C have nothing. E has A and D has E.
A: 2 pts
B: 0 pts
C: 0 pts
D: 1 pt
E: 1 pt
A wins.
You can also give extra points for the last player alive or for who killed the one with most kills or even a few points for 2nd last person alive or first to die. Up to the group.
Now this isn't so much a format but a way of putting some excitement to the multiplayer madness. What you do is you take two deck of cards. Each deck has 60 cards in it. One pile is enchantments/artifacts with global effects (Howling Mine. Aluren. Bottomless Pit. The other pile is global spells that are either instant or sorcery. All is dust, Tariff. Obliterate.
After each revolution of players, someone rolls a dice even is one pile odd is the other. Then that player puts that spell into motion. It cannot be countered, stopped, or redirected or controlled in anyway. It is going to happen. With the enchantment/artifact deck no more than three can be out at a time, so when there is a fourth one it shuffles the oldest back into the deck. With the instant sorcery pile after it is cast, it is exiled until all cards are used then shuffled again.
Some players like to use X spells and roll a couple six sided dice to determine what X is. This adds more complexity but allows more spells to be added New Frontiers or Earthquake.
Here's a format my group plays. We call it "Fickle Finger of Fate."
Any number of players may play, however it works best with 7 or fewer. Either roll to see who goes first, or winner of the last game goes first. At the beginning of your turn, roll a die that corresponds to the number of opponents, If there are 3 opponents, roll a six, If there are four opponents, players, roll a 4 or an 8, and counting from the left, whatever number you roll is the player you may attack that turn. If you roll an 8 with four opponents, then 1-2 would be the player to your left, 3-4 would be the opponent to his left, etc. When a player dies, simply switch the die. Everyone starts with 20 life as normal, but everyone draws on their first turn. Global spells affect the table, and targeted spells may target any player or his battlefield. After your turn, the play proceeds to the player on your left.
We find that this avoids diplomacy style gang-ups in free-for-all, and provides interesting strategies in and of itself. e.g. Do I finish off the opponent I rolled, or do I need him in the game as one more chance not to be attacked next turn? (Which we call 'hiding behind the finger.')
Anyway, We've played with this house rule since '95 or so. Give it a try if you're feeling bored with free-for all.
You can add "Star" to the list, as explained in this article.
You can add "Star" to the list, as explained in this article.
In Brief: Five players sit in a circle, each trying to be the first to eliminate the two players across the circle.
Rules Rundown: Players sit down in a circle. Order is very relevant, so I strongly recommend random seating, but any mutually agreeable method, including just sitting down at the table, will do fine.
The two players across the circle from a player are that player's enemies. Each turn, a player's creatures can attack either of these enemies or be split between them.
The two players who sit adjacent to a player are that player's allies. A player's creatures can't attack his or her allies, but he or she can target them and their permanents with whatever spells he or she wishes.
A player's allies aren't opponents, so cards that say "each opponent," "target opponent," etc. can't affect them. (You could try Star without this rule, but letting an ally "opponent" split your Gifts Ungiven or graciously accept your Knight tokens from Hunted Dragon seems like it would be hilarious exactly once, and very tiresome thereafter.)
The winner is the first player with no enemies still in the game. If two players have no enemies left, they both win. Players who have already been eliminated can't win, but that shouldn't stop them from claiming moral victory if they meet the victory condition after being eliminated.
I don't know if anyone has added this one yet...Respawn Magic. any number of players may play. normal rules apply however whomever wins is based on a point system.
+1 point if you kill an opponent.
+1 point if you dealt the killing blow to an opponent.
-1 point if you die
Whomever ha the most points at the end of the night wins.
Whenever a player dies instead of waiting for the next game, that player gets a deck and jumps back in the game. That player is immune from the rest of the game for the first 3 turns so that player may get a little start. That player's immunity bubble goes away on that players 4th turn (in normal turn order)
This is a fun format and it gives Blood Tyrant a new meaning to it's life.
Zombies is a format of multiplayer where everyone attacks everyone as a normal free for all. However when a player dies, that player becomes a zombie, and becomes a team mate of the player who killed them. The nonzombie team mate cannot be dealt damage until all his or her zombies are killed. Once A zombie dies they are then gone for good. When someone gets turned into a zombie they cannot be attacked for a pretermined number of rounds (usually three).
We've got a multiplayer format called "Crapshoot". It is a Free for All format with communal decks.
There is a land deck and a spell deck shared by all players; additionally all players share a single graveyard. The land deck is an even mix of basic lands (20 of each is good for 6-7 players), and the spell deck has anything (we use random bulk un/commons, thus the format name). Whenever you would draw a card, you may choose to draw from either the land deck or the spell deck, this rule includes your initial 7. If you would search a deck, you may search either deck.
This is a format that relies heavily on random luck, you will have a bad time if you try to do any sort of long term planning. Our 7 player games last about 30 minutes, draw crap you wouldn't even run in limited and smash as much face as fast as you can.
If I were to build a spell deck specifically for this format, I would aim for about 400-500 cards. Here are things I would keep in mind.
The shared deck and permanent Abundance effect makes cards like Sage Owl or Brainstorm able to disrupt your opponents. They are doubly fun.
Flashback and reanimation all use the same graveyard, people love fighting over this stuff.
Being able to color fix your land is important. Include artifacts as well as colored spells that will allow you to do this.
Now that you know some of the formats, lets talk about the cards. While at its core, Multiplayer is not any different than single player in the sense you have a life total and you have to get it to 0, it is blatantly obvious that you want cards that can withstand threats from multiple angles. Your typical red deck wins deck that could shred one person to oblivion in a matter of minutes, would struggle greatly to managed that when you have more than one person to take down. Therefore keeping card choices in mind helps greatly.
Spider cards trap opponents into making bad choices, unaware of the consequenses of their actions.
In addition its very easy to get caught up with 1 vs 1 decks being so powerful and successful that you forget that not ever card transitions right from dueling to a grand melee! Don't use Drain Life when you could be using Subversion.
The ultimate goal when choosing cards for multiplayer is getting the most for your investment. That isn't to say Counterspell and Swords to Plowshares cannot work, you just have to play very conservative and use them when you know YOU are in danger. Don't go firing at another creature just because it looks like a threat in general. If its a threat to YOU then that's when its time to get serious.
This forum needs a place where people can discuss their multiplayer decks. A place where advice can be given on the fly with out wondering if this is actually just a casual deck or is it a purpose built mp deck. I'll start in just a moment putting up my decks. Feel free to do the same!
This is pretty cool! Although I'll suggest adding Zombie to the game types. I play that every so often.
I'm not familiar with that but if you can write up a description about it I will gladly add it! This goes for anyone who knows formats and types I don't know about it!!
Here are the decks I've had for a while but haven't really updated them that much. I have had them for ages from when I used to really collect the cards. I quit after mirrodin, came back for a little bit with eventide, left again, still had my cards, and have been going pretty well since m10.
I'm looking for some advice on what might fine tune them if at all.
The history behind this deck was, I was playing magic online during beta when you could literally have as many cards as you wanted it was paradise :D! It was a six player free for all and this one player kept dropping howling mines, and never attacked. He would cast target draw spells on everyone. So no one bothered him. He dropped Mirari, we didn't think anything of it. We just kept reaping the rewards until... he unloaded his 4 wheel and deals, and copied 3 of them. We never concerned our selves with all the mana he had, but before we knew it it was gone. Well online that deck is easy to manage no one really remembers you. In person you have to be prepared So i made this deck.
The purpose of it is to use the Helms to power the deck forward, the opponents usually abuse it for a couple turns but each turn that goes by that they don't act, gets worse as I draw into more and more threats. Umbilicus allows for the repeatable tangle wires. Propaganda and pendrell mists along with mana breach and overburden help to try and bring the entire table to a crawl.
I'm not familiar with that but if you can write up a description about it I will gladly add it! This goes for anyone who knows formats and types I don't know about it!!
I can't find the exact rules, probably because you can change it to however you like. Basically, it starts as free for all, but when you kill someone, they become your "zombie minion", and restart the game with new life. We usually make rules that new zombies can't be attacked for X turns, and that you must destroy every non-zombies' zombie(s) before you can damage them.
Also I recently built a multiplayer black deck that stalls until it gets enough mana for exsanguinate. I really want to play No Mercy, but I'm not sure what to take out.
Here's the list:
No mercy looks pretty good, but since you already run Pestilence, what about Death pits of Rath?
Or were you looking to go into a deck that gains so much life you can still take damage from opponents and if they try to attack you, they kill there creatures with No Mercy? If that is the case, I would suggest things like Subversion, Syphon Soul OR... go into the original Idea of Death Pits of Rath + Caltrops
I am getting ready to type up a mono red Repercussion + Caltrops + Furnance of Rath deck I've been plotting to make for years. Just never got around to it.
As far as that zombie type let me try my best to understand.
You have your normal free for all game, if a player dies that player packs up, and basically becomes your team mate? That player cannot be attacked for a few turns? The player who turns everyone into their zombie army wins the match?
Here's a format my group plays. We call it "Fickle Finger of Fate."
Any number of players may play, however it works best with 7 or fewer. Either roll to see who goes first, or winner of the last game goes first. At the beginning of your turn, roll a die that corresponds to the number of opponents, If there are 3 opponents, roll a six, If there are four opponents, players, roll a 4 or an 8, and counting from the left, whatever number you roll is the player you may attack that turn. If you roll an 8 with four opponents, then 1-2 would be the player to your left, 3-4 would be the opponent to his left, etc. When a player dies, simply switch the die. Everyone starts with 20 life as normal, but everyone draws on their first turn. Global spells affect the table, and targeted spells may target any player or his battlefield. After your turn, the play proceeds to the player on your left.
We find that this avoids diplomacy style gang-ups in free-for-all, and provides interesting strategies in and of itself. e.g. Do I finish off the opponent I rolled, or do I need him in the game as one more chance not to be attacked next turn? (Which we call 'hiding behind the finger.')
Anyway, We've played with this house rule since '95 or so. Give it a try if you're feeling bored with free-for all.
Here's a format my group plays. We call it "Fickle Finger of Fate."
Any number of players may play, however it works best with 7 or fewer. Either roll to see who goes first, or winner of the last game goes first. At the beginning of your turn, roll a die that corresponds to the number of opponents, If there are 3 opponents, roll a six, If there are four opponents, players, roll a 4 or an 8, and counting from the left, whatever number you roll is the player you may attack that turn. If you roll an 8 with four opponents, then 1-2 would be the player to your left, 3-4 would be the opponent to his left, etc. When a player dies, simply switch the die. Everyone starts with 20 life as normal, but everyone draws on their first turn. Global spells affect the table, and targeted spells may target any player or his battlefield. After your turn, the play proceeds to the player on your left.
We find that this avoids diplomacy style gang-ups in free-for-all, and provides interesting strategies in and of itself. e.g. Do I finish off the opponent I rolled, or do I need him in the game as one more chance not to be attacked next turn? (Which we call 'hiding behind the finger.')
Anyway, We've played with this house rule since '95 or so. Give it a try if you're feeling bored with free-for all.
Awesome thanks for the input.
If anyone has MP decks, I can put them into the first post as a semi primer for decks that see MP play!
As far as that zombie type let me try my best to understand.
You have your normal free for all game, if a player dies that player packs up, and basically becomes your team mate? That player cannot be attacked for a few turns? The player who turns everyone into their zombie army wins the match?
Is that right?
Pretty much right, yes they become your teammate, and yes they cannot be attacked for a pre defined number of turns when they first become a zombie. (usually 3), but we usually play where if a play has a zombie, they cannot be dealt damage until all of their zombies are defeated. Once a zombie dies, they are gone for good. It'll get down to 2 people with a bunch of zombies who brawl it out. It's really fun.
In multiplayer I find that lifegain is one of the best things to utilize, but not base around.
Lifegain gives you that few extra points of life that allows you to live for a turn or more, to swing in and kill the other guy. If they aren't weary, the guy with the least life could easily come back and kill the rest of the table.
Also, weenie rush decks never work out the way they should + the probablity of a sweeper in the game is always 1.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Thanks to Darth Monkey and SGT_Chubbz at Damnation Studios for the sig and banner.
Quote from Bone_doc »
This virtual world is begining to feel more and more like Tron, exept with less motorcycles and more card games
You can add "Star" to the list, as explained in this article.
Format: Star
In Brief: Five players sit in a circle, each trying to be the first to eliminate the two players across the circle.
Rules Rundown: Players sit down in a circle. Order is very relevant, so I strongly recommend random seating, but any mutually agreeable method, including just sitting down at the table, will do fine.
The two players across the circle from a player are that player's enemies. Each turn, a player's creatures can attack either of these enemies or be split between them.
The two players who sit adjacent to a player are that player's allies. A player's creatures can't attack his or her allies, but he or she can target them and their permanents with whatever spells he or she wishes.
A player's allies aren't opponents, so cards that say "each opponent," "target opponent," etc. can't affect them. (You could try Star without this rule, but letting an ally "opponent" split your Gifts Ungiven or graciously accept your Knight tokens from Hunted Dragon seems like it would be hilarious exactly once, and very tiresome thereafter.)
The winner is the first player with no enemies still in the game. If two players have no enemies left, they both win. Players who have already been eliminated can't win, but that shouldn't stop them from claiming moral victory if they meet the victory condition after being eliminated.
1. I edited the formating mess out of the OP
2. Give Mr. Alongi credit for the card types, spoiler them, and search an article where they're introduced.
more later, I gotta catch a bus.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Each reality is but the dream of another, and each sleeper a god unknowing.
We define the boundaries of reality; they don't define us.
The main problem is, my MP groups when I can get together with them are large. Really large. 8-14 people large. The idea of the Repercussion deck is to abuse the global spells such as slice and dice to hit even a couple creature would mean death.
Example: I through down a Tremor, with say two repercussions and one furnance, and one player has three creatures. That's going to start out as 3 damage, then turn into 6, 12 because of two repercussions, and turns into 24 damage for R. I can see where a single target spell could be just as dangerous. I will proxy it up at home and give it some tests.
I like your deck here. What do you think about tossing Clone in there to copy Kosh to cause him to die triggering the effect? And you are right, there is format called Choas Magic, which is ffa. I have seen an article a long time ago (sadly I could not get it to pull up in the wizards search.) about doing the random cards to effect the game thing.
In multiplayer I find that lifegain is one of the best things to utilize, but not base around.
Lifegain gives you that few extra points of life that allows you to live for a turn or more, to swing in and kill the other guy. If they aren't weary, the guy with the least life could easily come back and kill the rest of the table.
Also, weenie rush decks never work out the way they should + the probablity of a sweeper in the game is always 1.
You are correct life gain which usually is weaker in single player can really thrive in multiplayer. Congregate is one of the most brutal life gain spells. And if you can build around it weather its just a buffer so you can Earthquake everyone else or you plan on winning with a win condition Celestial Convergence it works well!
Here is the newest version of the repercussion deck I have been wanting to build.
The idea of this deck is to lock down the table with either Bottled Cloister + Ensnaring Bridge, abuse Iscohron Scepter and The many 2cc spells I have to keep dealing damage, or just hold down table with Caltrops. The real kicker though is Repercussion and Furnace of Rath. Its a really deceptive way of being defensive at the same time, turning even the smallest spell into a roaring ball of fire.
I also have the orchard and War-riders so that I might be able to give creatures to people who play "creature less" decks, or creatures that have pro red and or just in general try and circumvent my win condition.
Here is an example of how crazy this deck can get..
With just one Repercussion and one Furnace of Rath out, can turn a simple Seismic Shudder , into a big hitter. If they had say 4 creatures. (Seems like a fair estimate in a normal multiplayer game anyway), I deal 1 damage to each of them (assuming they don't fly), furnance of wrath says it now deals 2 damage instead. Then once those creatures are dealt their 2 damage each, repercussion triggers and deals that much damage to its controller, but again furnace of wrath says that would be 4 damage for each creature. So for 1R I dealt 16 damage and left my opponent with no creatures.
We've got a multiplayer format called "Crapshoot". It is a Free for All format with communal decks.
There is a land deck and a spell deck shared by all players; additionally all players share a single graveyard. The land deck is an even mix of basic lands (20 of each is good for 6-7 players), and the spell deck has anything (we use random bulk un/commons, thus the format name). Whenever you would draw a card, you may choose to draw from either the land deck or the spell deck, this rule includes your initial 7. If you would search a deck, you may search either deck.
This is a format that relies heavily on random luck, you will have a bad time if you try to do any sort of long term planning. Our 7 player games last about 30 minutes, draw crap you wouldn't even run in limited and smash as much face as fast as you can.
If I were to build a spell deck specifically for this format, I would aim for about 400-500 cards. Here are things I would keep in mind.
The shared deck and permanent Abundance effect makes cards like Sage Owl or Brainstorm able to disrupt your opponents. They are doubly fun.
Flashback and reanimation all use the same graveyard, people love fighting over this stuff.
Being able to color fix your land is important. Include artifacts as well as colored spells that will allow you to do this.
Could we have a discussion for and against sweepers in mutiplayer? I know my play group doesn't allow it as I'm a C.A. junkie and would put in 10 diffrent sweeper effects in my defensive two-headed giant B/W deck.
How much do people push the curve up in mutiplayer? I push it till its every creature is almost a 3~4 drop.
Also will post my groups multiplayer decks.
1 Affinity
2 Mill merfolk (embargo is teh nuts in multiplayer. Shut down the table turn four sure. Shut down the table and only I get to untap is Epic.
3 Kithkin
5 B/W murder everything that attacks you.
6 Elves
7 Naya (agro)
8 Bant (control)
9 Vamps
10 Big Red. (dipps into black sometimes of the removal)
11 Epic Jank(still working on gathering the cards for it
I have jank rare cards that I want to justify the fact they exist with. So what do I do? Build a multiplayer deck with them of course! The nature of the deck means that it can't have any win conditions.
We've got a multiplayer format called "Crapshoot". It is a Free for All format with communal decks.
There is a land deck and a spell deck shared by all players; additionally all players share a single graveyard. The land deck is an even mix of basic lands (20 of each is good for 6-7 players), and the spell deck has anything (we use random bulk un/commons, thus the format name). Whenever you would draw a card, you may choose to draw from either the land deck or the spell deck, this rule includes your initial 7. If you would search a deck, you may search either deck.
This is a format that relies heavily on random luck, you will have a bad time if you try to do any sort of long term planning. Our 7 player games last about 30 minutes, draw crap you wouldn't even run in limited and smash as much face as fast as you can.
If I were to build a spell deck specifically for this format, I would aim for about 400-500 cards. Here are things I would keep in mind.
The shared deck and permanent Abundance effect makes cards like Sage Owl or Brainstorm able to disrupt your opponents. They are doubly fun.
Flashback and reanimation all use the same graveyard, people love fighting over this stuff.
Being able to color fix your land is important. Include artifacts as well as colored spells that will allow you to do this.
This is an awesome Idea. This could be easily done with by cube, granted its 360 cards but I have more than enough lands. It won't work for a big game but for the small ones I have with my close friends it'll be perfect. I'll add it! Great!
Could we have a discussion for and against sweepers in mutiplayer? I know my play group doesn't allow it as I'm a C.A. junkie and would put in 10 diffrent sweeper effects in my defensive two-headed giant B/W deck.
In my group no one really seems to complain about decks, cards, and such. Most people in the group kind of agree that infinite combo decks that blow up to wipe the table are frowned upon. Control decks get some nasty looks but nothing more. As far as sweepers, my group doesn't seem to care, and in fact, its needed. Because other wise it would be the worst MP match of all time, everyone would play with a bunch of token generating and creature based decks and game would never end. lol Me personally because they are allowed, I run what ever I can, if it ain't a sweeper its something to lock down or hit more than one person. Hive mind gets hated alot here.
How much do people push the curve up in mutiplayer? I push it till its every creature is almost a 3~4 drop.
As far as curves, I try to stick to my effects to be 3-4 drops but if its a creature based deck, its usually a cheater one and it doesn't get them into play by casting them
Also will post my groups multiplayer decks.
1 Affinity
2 Mill merfolk (embargo is teh nuts in multiplayer. Shut down the table turn four sure. Shut down the table and only I get to untap is Epic.
3 Kithkin
5 B/W murder everything that attacks you.
6 Elves
7 Naya (agro)
8 Bant (control)
9 Vamps
10 Big Red. (dipps into black sometimes of the removal)
11 Epic Jank(still working on gathering the cards for it
You should get the decklists, I'd like to see how things like affinity and big red managed in a big game like that. I have a lot of decks too I need it put up.
I have jank rare cards that I want to justify the fact they exist with. So what do I do? Build a multiplayer deck with them of course! The nature of the deck means that it can't have any win conditions.
Multiplayer Caos
Creatures
4 Solder of Fortune
4 Boldwyr Heavyweights
4 Norin the Wary
Spells
4 Enduring Ideal
4 Idyllic Tutor
4 Evacuation
Enchantments
4 Confusion in the Ranks
4 Shared Fate
4 Oath of Scholars
2 Grip of Chaos
4 Endless Whispers Artifacts
4 Mycosynth Lattice
Land
?
Alright now I just need help filling in the other slots.
It's a bunch of jank effects that add up to let you win. Shared Fate is a great card in Vs. and I want to try it in multiplayer.
Actually, while you will certain get a lot of odd ball looks if you do when because it will be that much better, I have to defend evacution, and Confusion in the Ranks. Ranks is unvelievable if built around it. I have an MTGO version that is W/R its slow because I don't have access to the greatest cards but i am going to someday make it on paper. if you wanted more ways to really mess with confusions look for things like Kor Skyfisher, Flickerwisp, Glitterfang.
Oh I ment to say I would post the deck lists as soon as I get together with my group. I'm planing on twecking Affinity as soon as I get the cards I need.
Well my deck that hurts people for manipulating their land is on here already, i'll have to post one i've been working on around stuffy doll and pestilance. I'll type up a deck list tomorrow. http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=270825
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant what we should voyage far."
@Sweepers in Multiplayer: Mostly used precons in my group + a few boosters and trading for cards. A few here and there, but not an overwhelming number.
If anything, it was cards like those mentioned above: Warp World, Confusion in the Ranks, Hive Mind, Eye of the Storm, etc.
I don't have much money to pump into it (AKA No Damnation), and I hate the flavour of Planeswalkers, so none of them. I may include my single Garruk, just because I like him, though. I mainly want to add more Broodmate and a single Wurmcoil Engine. I should probably add some other multiplayer goodies, though, as well. Genesis and Verdant Force being amongst the top cards....
Finally, I realize that spot removal is less desirable, but I main 4 Terminate. Why? Because it's happened to me before I added them that NOBODY had any answers to that one bomb that just came off the top of someone's deck. Besides, extra spot removal isn't bad to have anyway.
Sweepers are no big problem in my group. Those of us with them run them, because huzzah!
About the only thing that gets annoying is someone repeatedly using infinite combo decks. Those sort themselves out in a "Hey, dude has his infinite deck! Bum rush him!" Which happens, but it skews the first few turns of development.
Sweepers are no big problem in my group. Those of us with them run them, because huzzah!
About the only thing that gets annoying is someone repeatedly using infinite combo decks. Those sort themselves out in a "Hey, dude has his infinite deck! Bum rush him!" Which happens, but it skews the first few turns of development.
I think the biggest problem with infinite combo decks is, in a very casual enviroment no rule can really stop it. Even with spheres sure they can target left and right but if its infinite oh well they will burn through each player. :/
That's why I made my tangle wire deck. I just wish they would bring out a blue card or artifact that would turn lands into creatures. Then it would be complete
I don't have much money to pump into it (AKA No Damnation), and I hate the flavour of Planeswalkers, so none of them. I may include my single Garruk, just because I like him, though. I mainly want to add more Broodmate and a single Wurmcoil Engine. I should probably add some other multiplayer goodies, though, as well. Genesis and Verdant Force being amongst the top cards....
Finally, I realize that spot removal is less desirable, but I main 4 Terminate. Why? Because it's happened to me before I added them that NOBODY had any answers to that one bomb that just came off the top of someone's deck. Besides, extra spot removal isn't bad to have anyway.
Help please?
I don't think you have to go the high end sweepers to be effective.
Watch this card All Is Dust it will drop in price. Its great now because its used in all formats but as it slowly drops out of all of them it will become cheaper and cheaper.
In my usual group, we have 5 people. Two of them run extremely expensive planeswalker control decks, while the other two are less experienced and run timmy aggro decks. I play really cheap control decks / midrange aggro decks.
The problem here is that the two with the extremely expensive decks are, well, extremely expensive. My meta is control heavy, and I keep losing because, well, of sheer lack of money. Example: I'm playing mono-black control, no damnations or anything. He's playing RBW Riddlebox control. "I Ajani all your lands." See what I'm talking about?
Of course, I could always pw hate, but that's not fair. Instead, I want to build a good control deck that can take the matchup, for a fair price. It's not fair that I get beat in the face with a JTMS that I can't afford and yet lose games to.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Thanks to Darth Monkey and SGT_Chubbz at Damnation Studios for the sig and banner.
Quote from Bone_doc »
This virtual world is begining to feel more and more like Tron, exept with less motorcycles and more card games
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I'm sure at some point in your Magic: The gathering history you have at one time or another found yourself with more than just two people to play with. What do you do? Nothing different of course! Sit down and play. Of course lots has changed since the days of old and just having three normal decks with three normal life totals. It has evolved.
The Official Website source:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/51
What we couldn't do yet, as you might have noticed, was tell you what plane cards do, and how Planechase actually works. Let's fix that, shall we?
What Is Planechase?
Planechase gives you everything you need to play Planar Magic, a new casual variant that sends you and your friends on a tour through the Multiverse. Each plane you visit—represented by a plane card—changes the nature of the battlefield. You never know how long you'll stay or where you'll go next, and the result is an ever-shifting race to exploit the unique nature of the plane you're on ... or to planeswalk away from a plane that your enemies can take advantage of!
We'll take a look at a plane card in a moment, but to know what you're looking at, you'll need a little bit of background.
Start the Journey
You can use Planechase rules in two-player games or your multiplayer variant of choice, but Planar Magic is intended for multiplayer free-for-all games with 3 to 6 players. Each player needs a normal minimum 60-card Constructed deck (such as, say, the one in each Planechase game pack) and a planar deck of at least 10 plane cards (fortuitously, also included in each game pack). Your planar deck is shuffled like your regular deck, and you can't look at or rearrange the cards in it.
You'll also need at least one planar die, also included in each game pack. The die has six faces, four of them blank. One face has the planeswalker symbol:
The last face has a new symbol on it. It's called the chaos symbol, but plane cards refer to it using the symbol itself. It looks like this:
Other than the rules for plane cards and the planar die, the game proceeds normally, including the victory condition. You win a multiplayer free-for-all game or a duel when all other players are eliminated, your team wins a team game when all other teams are eliminated, etc.
Now that you've got everything you need, you can get to the action. Determine who goes first, shuffle your decks, draw your hands, and resolve any mulligans as normal. Then, before the game starts, the player who's going to go first turns the top card of his or her shuffled planar deck face up. Let's say it's, oh, this one:
Plane cards are Magic cards, and the text on them follows most of the rules you're familiar with. Each plane card has a name, a type, a subtype, and at least two abilities. Oh, and gorgeous, all-new, landscape-oriented art, but that's not really a rules thing.
Before we look at the parts of a plane, take a look at these true facts about plane cards:
Name: A plane is a big place—way too big to fit on just one card—so each plane card represents just part of a plane. The card's name tells you which specific location you've arrived in on the plane to which you've planeswalked.
Type line: As with other Magic cards, this line contains the card's type, subtype, and expansion symbol. "Plane" is a card type, even though you never put plane cards in your regular Magic deck. Each plane card's subtype tells you what plane it's on. Among the plane cards' subtypes, you'll find a mix of familiar favorites, like Ravnica and Dominaria, and previously unseen planes like Moag and Zendikar.
Abilities: Generally speaking, each plane has one ability (the top one) that's "always on," and another (the bottom one, in the shaded part of the text box) that triggers when you roll the chaos symbol on the planar die. When do you roll the planar die? We're glad you asked.
Walk the Walk
Now that you know how to read a plane card, it's time to learn about planeswalking. You are a planeswalker, after all. Isn't it about time you took a stroll across the Multiverse?
During your turn, any time you could cast a sorcery, you may roll the planar die. You can do this multiple times in the same turn. To roll the die, you must pay an amount of mana equal to the number of times you've already rolled the die this turn. So the first roll is free, the second roll costs 1, the third roll costs 2 , and so on. Rolling the die happens immediately (no one can respond to it), but any ability that triggers as a result goes on the stack, and can be responded to like other triggered abilities.
Why might you want to reroll the die? Rolling the die could have three results:
Some plane cards have abilities that trigger when you planeswalk to them or planeswalk away from them. These abilities trigger when the game shifts from one face-up plane card to another (but they don't trigger when the first plane of the game is turned face up). This shift might occur because the planeswalker symbol was rolled or because the player who owned the previous face-up plane card left the game. Speaking of which ....
Leaving the Game
In multiplayer games, unlike duels, you have to figure out what happens when a player leaves the game (because that player lost the game or conceded). Fortunately, there are rules for that sort of thing.
In any multiplayer game, when a player leaves the game, all permanents, spells, and other cards (including plane cards) owned by that player also leave the game, and any abilities or copies of spells that player controlled cease to exist. If that player controlled any permanents owned by another player, the effect(s) that gave that player control of them end(s), which usually means that they return to their previous controller(s). If that doesn't give control of them to a different player (perhaps because they entered the battlefield under the control of the player that left), they're exiled. If the player who left was taking his or her turn, that turn continues to its completion even though that player is now gone.
Now let's figure out what happens to the face-up plane card when one or more players leaves the game. The player(s) leaving the game might include that plane card's owner, its controller, both, or neither. First, check whether a departing player controls the plane. Then, whether or not that's the case, check whether a departing player owns the plane.
If a departing player both owns and controls Sanctum of Serra, a new player takes control of it just long enough to put that ability on the stack. Boom!
Variants
The Planechase decks work great right out of the box, but that's just the beginning. You can customize the 60-card decks or swap them out for different decks entirely. But you can also customize your planar deck with any (or all!) of the 40 planes among the four game packs. There are only two rules about your planar deck's composition:
The number of cards in the shared planar deck should be at least 40, or at least ten times the number of players in the game, whichever is smaller. No two cards in the planar deck can have the same name.
Because Planar Magic is a casual format, you can play it with any variations your group is willing to try out. You can try out Planar Two-Headed Giant, Planar Star, Planar Elder Dragon Highlander—whatever you want!
The official website source:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/91
What we haven't yet done, because we're cagey like that, is tell you what exactly these oversized cards are, and how they'll help you with the daunting task of taking out a team of opposing Planeswalkers. Now that we're closer to the release, it's time to pull back the curtain!
What Is Archenemy?
Archenemy gives you everything you need to play a new casual variant of the same name. In an Archenemy game, one player—the archenemy—takes on the role of a merciless tyrant bent on total domination. The other players form a team dedicated to stopping the archenemy at any cost, taking a shared turn Two-Headed Giant–style.
But teaming up on the archenemy isn't unfair—it's a desperate survival tactic. The archenemy comes to the fight armed not only with a normal 60-card deck, but also with a deck of 20 oversized scheme cards. These represent the clever plots and monstrous machinations of the archenemy, and they give his or her deck the power boost it needs to—maybe—take out two, three, four, or even more opponents.
We'll take a look at a scheme card in a moment, but first let's talk about how to set up the game.
Arranging the Pieces
To play Archenemy, each player needs a deck made of normal-sized Magic cards. By default these will be normal Constructed decks consisting of at least 60 cards (such as, for example, the 60-card decks featured in the four Archenemy game packs), but in theory you could also try this with 100-card EDH decks, 40-card Sealed Decks, or any other Magic decks. The player playing as the archenemy also needs a scheme deck made of at least 20 oversized scheme cards (also included in each game pack—note that some schemes appear in more than one game pack).
If each player has an Archenemy game pack, players can take turns using their scheme decks as the archenemy. If you want to customize the scheme deck, there are only two rules to follow: the deck must have at least 20 scheme cards and it can't include more than two of any single card.
At the start of the game, each player shuffles his or her traditional deck. The archenemy also shuffles his or her scheme deck. The archenemy keeps the scheme deck face down and can't look at it or rearrange the cards in it, just like his or her library.
Set Your Schemes in Motion
The archenemy's turn plays out just like a turn in any Magic game, with one major difference. As the first main phase of the archenemy's turn begins, that player sets a scheme in motion—yes, that is now an actual game action!—by turning the top card of the scheme deck face up. It might look something like this:
Most scheme cards, including this one, have abilities that trigger "When you set this scheme in motion." As with other triggered abilities, archenemy and his or her opponents have the chance to respond to these abilities by casting spells or activating abilities.
Some schemes say ongoing on their type line, like this one:
An ongoing scheme remains face up until an effect causes it to be abandoned (put on the bottom of the scheme deck). Most ongoing schemes have a condition that causes them to be abandoned, although it will likely take some work on your opponents' part. Note that ongoing schemes aren't on the battlefield; they're not permanents, and they can't be destroyed.
Schemes that aren't ongoing are simply put on the bottom of the scheme deck once all their abilities resolve or are countered (for having no legal targets, for example).
Some schemes may ask you to pay some amount of mana to reap their full benefits:
If a scheme's triggered ability has one or more targets, as this one does, you'll choose them when you put the triggered ability on the stack, as with any other triggered ability. You won't choose how much mana to pay for , X however, until the ability resolves. So your opponents will know what's going to take damage, but they won't know how much.
A few "hot seat" schemes let you put one of your opponents in a very awkward position by asking, "Self or others?"
Will your opponent take one for the team, choosing the option that puts less total hurt on the archenemy's opponents? Or will he or she decide to let teammates take the heat, leaving his or her own position unchanged? A team player will look at this choice objectively, consult with his or her teammates, and choose the option that's best for the team as a whole ... but not everybody's a team player!
If the opponent you choose doesn't have any teammates left, he or she can choose "others" and suffer no ill effects at all. On the other hand, that player is facing you and your scheme deck all alone—not an enviable position!
Revealing a scheme as your first main phase begins is mandatory. Gravely intoning its name and flavor text and then cackling madly is optional.
Win, Lose, or Draw
The rest of the rules are pretty straightforward. The archenemy starts at 40 life, and each other player starts at 20 life. Each player draws an opening hand of seven cards, and players may then take mulligans as normal. In multiplayer games, the first time a player takes a mulligan, he or she draws a new hand of seven cards rather than six cards, then subsequent hands decrease by one card as normal.
The archenemy goes first and draws a card during his or her first draw step. (We told you they were malevolent!)
The archenemy's opponents share a turn, in the same way that teammates do in Two-Headed Giant. You each untap your permanents during your team's untap step, you each draw a card as your team's draw step begins, and so on. Each teammate can play a land during the team's main phase. Each teammate chooses which of his or her creatures will attack the archenemy or a planeswalker the archenemy controls, and then those creatures all attack at the same time. You can't attack your teammates.
The team of players opposing the archenemy needs to work together to have any hope of defeating the archenemy's quest for domination. But you can't share cards or other resources. You can't give your teammates mana to cast spells, for example.
If you or a member of your alliance is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice and leave the game, the rest of the team continues the fight. However, the usual rules for what happens when a player leaves a multiplayer game apply: All permanents and other cards that player owned leave the game, any spells or abilities controlled by that player cease to exist, and any effects that caused the player to gain control of permanents he or she doesn't own end.
The archenemy wins the game by defeating each member of the opposing team. The opposing team wins by defeating the archenemy. Every player on that team wins the game, even players that left the game before its conclusion.
Remember, players lose the game when their life total is reduced to 0 or less, when they have to draw a card from an empty library, when they have ten or more poison counters, or when an effect says that player loses the game or an opponent wins the game. If the archenemy would lose the game at the same time as the last remaining member of the opposing team, the game is a draw.
In addition to the default "One vs. Many" Archenemy format, there's a Free-for-All variant. The twist? Everybody gets a scheme deck! Maybe you're all archenemies who have finished off those pesky heroes and are now fighting over the wreckage of a ruined world. Perhaps a few heroes have tapped into some source of terrible power and risen to fight you on equal terms. Regardless, this variant has the potential for some super-powered, crushingly brutal back-and-forths. And in this format, asking "Self or other?" isn't putting someone on the hot seat—it's doing them a favor!
4+
Each player writes his or her name on a piece of paper and puts the piece of paper in a hat. After all names have been collected, each player chooses a piece of paper from the hat at random and keeps it. This is your "mark". If at any time a player picks his or her own name, the player puts their piece of paper back in the hat and redraws until that player gets a piece of paper that does not have their name on it. This continues until all pieces of paper are taken. Now, each player has an opponents name and an opponent has your name. Players keep their picks secret, and do not reveal who they picked. When you kill an opponent, you receive their piece of paper, again not showing anyone else. The goal of Assassins is to destroy/win against the person whose name you have and the person who has your name. If your mark was killed by someone else, your new mark is the person who killed your mark. Once you have your name and have killed your mark/the person who killed your mark, you announce that you are the winner and reveal your pieces of paper. Gameplay operates the same as in a Chaos game. The more players the better for this format.
More Info in relation!
Theres another way to paly multiplayer, don't know the name but everyone puts their names in a hat. Everyone picks a name (you can't have your own name). That player is your target. When you kill your target you take his target and keep playing. The player with the most dead targets wins.
EX:
Player A has Player B
Player B has Player C
Player C has Player D
Player D has Player E
Player E has Player A
A kills B then takes his target. Now B is out and A tries to kill C.
A kills C and takes his target. Now B and C are out, A tries to kill D.
E kills A and takes his target. B, C and A are out, E tries to kill D.
D kills E. A has got target B and C. B and C have nothing. E has A and D has E.
A: 2 pts
B: 0 pts
C: 0 pts
D: 1 pt
E: 1 pt
A wins.
You can also give extra points for the last player alive or for who killed the one with most kills or even a few points for 2nd last person alive or first to die. Up to the group.
You can add "Star" to the list, as explained in this article.
In Brief: Five players sit in a circle, each trying to be the first to eliminate the two players across the circle.
Rules Rundown: Players sit down in a circle. Order is very relevant, so I strongly recommend random seating, but any mutually agreeable method, including just sitting down at the table, will do fine.
The two players across the circle from a player are that player's enemies. Each turn, a player's creatures can attack either of these enemies or be split between them.
The two players who sit adjacent to a player are that player's allies. A player's creatures can't attack his or her allies, but he or she can target them and their permanents with whatever spells he or she wishes.
A player's allies aren't opponents, so cards that say "each opponent," "target opponent," etc. can't affect them. (You could try Star without this rule, but letting an ally "opponent" split your Gifts Ungiven or graciously accept your Knight tokens from Hunted Dragon seems like it would be hilarious exactly once, and very tiresome thereafter.)
The winner is the first player with no enemies still in the game. If two players have no enemies left, they both win. Players who have already been eliminated can't win, but that shouldn't stop them from claiming moral victory if they meet the victory condition after being eliminated.
Zombies is a format of multiplayer where everyone attacks everyone as a normal free for all. However when a player dies, that player becomes a zombie, and becomes a team mate of the player who killed them. The nonzombie team mate cannot be dealt damage until all his or her zombies are killed. Once A zombie dies they are then gone for good. When someone gets turned into a zombie they cannot be attacked for a pretermined number of rounds (usually three).
Go get those BRAINS!!
Most board-sweepers fall under this category.
Black
Red
Green
I'm not familiar with that but if you can write up a description about it I will gladly add it! This goes for anyone who knows formats and types I don't know about it!!
Here are the decks I've had for a while but haven't really updated them that much. I have had them for ages from when I used to really collect the cards. I quit after mirrodin, came back for a little bit with eventide, left again, still had my cards, and have been going pretty well since m10.
I'm looking for some advice on what might fine tune them if at all.
The history behind this deck was, I was playing magic online during beta when you could literally have as many cards as you wanted it was paradise :D! It was a six player free for all and this one player kept dropping howling mines, and never attacked. He would cast target draw spells on everyone. So no one bothered him. He dropped Mirari, we didn't think anything of it. We just kept reaping the rewards until... he unloaded his 4 wheel and deals, and copied 3 of them. We never concerned our selves with all the mana he had, but before we knew it it was gone. Well online that deck is easy to manage no one really remembers you. In person you have to be prepared So i made this deck.
The purpose of it is to use the Helms to power the deck forward, the opponents usually abuse it for a couple turns but each turn that goes by that they don't act, gets worse as I draw into more and more threats. Umbilicus allows for the repeatable tangle wires. Propaganda and pendrell mists along with mana breach and overburden help to try and bring the entire table to a crawl.
22 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
//2cc
4 Help of Awakening
4 Copy Artifact
4 Howling Mine
3 Overburden
3 Mana Breach
4 Propaganda
4 Tangle Wire
//4cc
4 Umbilicus
4 Pendrell Mists
4 Wheel and Deal
I can't find the exact rules, probably because you can change it to however you like. Basically, it starts as free for all, but when you kill someone, they become your "zombie minion", and restart the game with new life. We usually make rules that new zombies can't be attacked for X turns, and that you must destroy every non-zombies' zombie(s) before you can damage them.
Also I recently built a multiplayer black deck that stalls until it gets enough mana for exsanguinate. I really want to play No Mercy, but I'm not sure what to take out.
Here's the list:
2 Magus of the coffers
4 Wall of Souls
4 Will-o'-the-Wisp
2 Avatar of Woe
2 Nightmare
1 Nirkana revenant
1 Reiver Demon
4 Syphon Mind
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Doom Blade
4 Exsanguinate
2 pestilence
24 swamp
2 Thawing Glaciers
Or were you looking to go into a deck that gains so much life you can still take damage from opponents and if they try to attack you, they kill there creatures with No Mercy? If that is the case, I would suggest things like Subversion, Syphon Soul OR... go into the original Idea of Death Pits of Rath + Caltrops
I am getting ready to type up a mono red Repercussion + Caltrops + Furnance of Rath deck I've been plotting to make for years. Just never got around to it.
As far as that zombie type let me try my best to understand.
You have your normal free for all game, if a player dies that player packs up, and basically becomes your team mate? That player cannot be attacked for a few turns? The player who turns everyone into their zombie army wins the match?
Is that right?
Any number of players may play, however it works best with 7 or fewer. Either roll to see who goes first, or winner of the last game goes first. At the beginning of your turn, roll a die that corresponds to the number of opponents, If there are 3 opponents, roll a six, If there are four opponents, players, roll a 4 or an 8, and counting from the left, whatever number you roll is the player you may attack that turn. If you roll an 8 with four opponents, then 1-2 would be the player to your left, 3-4 would be the opponent to his left, etc. When a player dies, simply switch the die. Everyone starts with 20 life as normal, but everyone draws on their first turn. Global spells affect the table, and targeted spells may target any player or his battlefield. After your turn, the play proceeds to the player on your left.
We find that this avoids diplomacy style gang-ups in free-for-all, and provides interesting strategies in and of itself. e.g. Do I finish off the opponent I rolled, or do I need him in the game as one more chance not to be attacked next turn? (Which we call 'hiding behind the finger.')
Anyway, We've played with this house rule since '95 or so. Give it a try if you're feeling bored with free-for all.
Awesome thanks for the input.
If anyone has MP decks, I can put them into the first post as a semi primer for decks that see MP play!
Pretty much right, yes they become your teammate, and yes they cannot be attacked for a pre defined number of turns when they first become a zombie. (usually 3), but we usually play where if a play has a zombie, they cannot be dealt damage until all of their zombies are defeated. Once a zombie dies, they are gone for good. It'll get down to 2 people with a bunch of zombies who brawl it out. It's really fun.
Good luck with your deck. I would suggest hammer of bogardan, pulse of the forge, and punishing fire.
Lifegain gives you that few extra points of life that allows you to live for a turn or more, to swing in and kill the other guy. If they aren't weary, the guy with the least life could easily come back and kill the rest of the table.
Also, weenie rush decks never work out the way they should + the probablity of a sweeper in the game is always 1.
Thanks to Darth Monkey and SGT_Chubbz at Damnation Studios for the sig and banner.
I've always thought that choas was free for all.
This is one of my favourite (and most successful) multiplayer decks that use the power of kokusho.
11 Swamp
6 Island
4 Tainted Isle
1 Volrath's Stronghold
Creatures
4 Shriekmaw
4 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
3 Withered Wretch
4 Mulldrifter
4 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Echoing Truth
4 Dark Ritual
2 Mystical Tutor
Sorceries
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Living Death
2 Buried Alive
3 Nevinyrral's Disk
2. Give Mr. Alongi credit for the card types, spoiler them, and search an article where they're introduced.
more later, I gotta catch a bus.
The main problem is, my MP groups when I can get together with them are large. Really large. 8-14 people large. The idea of the Repercussion deck is to abuse the global spells such as slice and dice to hit even a couple creature would mean death.
Example: I through down a Tremor, with say two repercussions and one furnance, and one player has three creatures. That's going to start out as 3 damage, then turn into 6, 12 because of two repercussions, and turns into 24 damage for R. I can see where a single target spell could be just as dangerous. I will proxy it up at home and give it some tests.
I changed the spoilers.
I like your deck here. What do you think about tossing Clone in there to copy Kosh to cause him to die triggering the effect? And you are right, there is format called Choas Magic, which is ffa. I have seen an article a long time ago (sadly I could not get it to pull up in the wizards search.) about doing the random cards to effect the game thing.
You are correct life gain which usually is weaker in single player can really thrive in multiplayer. Congregate is one of the most brutal life gain spells. And if you can build around it weather its just a buffer so you can Earthquake everyone else or you plan on winning with a win condition Celestial Convergence it works well!
Here is the newest version of the repercussion deck I have been wanting to build.
14 Mountain
4 Spinerock Knoll
4 Forbidden Orchard
//Creatures
4 Varchild's War-Riders
4 Fire/Ice
4 Seismic Shudder
4 Magma Jet
//Enchantments
4 Repercussion
4 Furnace of Rath
4 Caltrops
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Bottled Cloister
3 Isochron Scepter
I also have the orchard and War-riders so that I might be able to give creatures to people who play "creature less" decks, or creatures that have pro red and or just in general try and circumvent my win condition.
Here is an example of how crazy this deck can get..
With just one Repercussion and one Furnace of Rath out, can turn a simple Seismic Shudder , into a big hitter. If they had say 4 creatures. (Seems like a fair estimate in a normal multiplayer game anyway), I deal 1 damage to each of them (assuming they don't fly), furnance of wrath says it now deals 2 damage instead. Then once those creatures are dealt their 2 damage each, repercussion triggers and deals that much damage to its controller, but again furnace of wrath says that would be 4 damage for each creature. So for 1R I dealt 16 damage and left my opponent with no creatures.
There is a land deck and a spell deck shared by all players; additionally all players share a single graveyard. The land deck is an even mix of basic lands (20 of each is good for 6-7 players), and the spell deck has anything (we use random bulk un/commons, thus the format name). Whenever you would draw a card, you may choose to draw from either the land deck or the spell deck, this rule includes your initial 7. If you would search a deck, you may search either deck.
This is a format that relies heavily on random luck, you will have a bad time if you try to do any sort of long term planning. Our 7 player games last about 30 minutes, draw crap you wouldn't even run in limited and smash as much face as fast as you can.
If I were to build a spell deck specifically for this format, I would aim for about 400-500 cards. Here are things I would keep in mind.
The shared deck and permanent Abundance effect makes cards like Sage Owl or Brainstorm able to disrupt your opponents. They are doubly fun.
Flashback and reanimation all use the same graveyard, people love fighting over this stuff.
Being able to color fix your land is important. Include artifacts as well as colored spells that will allow you to do this.
Moderator Help Desk
Sales Thread
How much do people push the curve up in mutiplayer? I push it till its every creature is almost a 3~4 drop.
Also will post my groups multiplayer decks.
1 Affinity
2 Mill merfolk (embargo is teh nuts in multiplayer. Shut down the table turn four sure. Shut down the table and only I get to untap is Epic.
3 Kithkin
5 B/W murder everything that attacks you.
6 Elves
7 Naya (agro)
8 Bant (control)
9 Vamps
10 Big Red. (dipps into black sometimes of the removal)
11 Epic Jank(still working on gathering the cards for it
[Mafia Stats] Mafia MVP: 1/3 Basic #29,Co-[CCMV]
This is an awesome Idea. This could be easily done with by cube, granted its 360 cards but I have more than enough lands. It won't work for a big game but for the small ones I have with my close friends it'll be perfect. I'll add it! Great!
In my group no one really seems to complain about decks, cards, and such. Most people in the group kind of agree that infinite combo decks that blow up to wipe the table are frowned upon. Control decks get some nasty looks but nothing more. As far as sweepers, my group doesn't seem to care, and in fact, its needed. Because other wise it would be the worst MP match of all time, everyone would play with a bunch of token generating and creature based decks and game would never end. lol Me personally because they are allowed, I run what ever I can, if it ain't a sweeper its something to lock down or hit more than one person. Hive mind gets hated alot here.
As far as curves, I try to stick to my effects to be 3-4 drops but if its a creature based deck, its usually a cheater one and it doesn't get them into play by casting them
You should get the decklists, I'd like to see how things like affinity and big red managed in a big game like that. I have a lot of decks too I need it put up.
Actually, while you will certain get a lot of odd ball looks if you do when because it will be that much better, I have to defend evacution, and Confusion in the Ranks. Ranks is unvelievable if built around it. I have an MTGO version that is W/R its slow because I don't have access to the greatest cards but i am going to someday make it on paper. if you wanted more ways to really mess with confusions look for things like Kor Skyfisher, Flickerwisp, Glitterfang.
If you wanted more jank rares in there, Hive Mind, Warp World, and Eye of the Storm
But for now its the same as a basic Atog/Fatal Frenzy List it runs disciple of the Vault to give it reach.
I'm thinking about being Really Evil and putting Sword/Thopter combo in.
It runs Broodstar to provide the game ending umph.
It also has the awesome of runing Two Skullclamps in it.
[Mafia Stats] Mafia MVP: 1/3 Basic #29,Co-[CCMV]
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=270825
H.P. Lovecraft
If anything, it was cards like those mentioned above: Warp World, Confusion in the Ranks, Hive Mind, Eye of the Storm, etc.
4 Sprouting Thrinax
3 Elvish Visionary
2 Scarland Thrinax
2 Mitotic Slime
2 Mycoloth
1 Predator Dragon
1 Broodmate Dragon
4 Putrefy
3 Jund Charm
2 Torrent of Souls
5 Mountain
4 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Savage Lands
3 Jund Panorama
2 Treetop Village
2 Kher Keep
1 Bloodstained Mire
I don't have much money to pump into it (AKA No Damnation), and I hate the flavour of Planeswalkers, so none of them. I may include my single Garruk, just because I like him, though. I mainly want to add more Broodmate and a single Wurmcoil Engine. I should probably add some other multiplayer goodies, though, as well. Genesis and Verdant Force being amongst the top cards....
Also thinking about adding some Raging Ravine.
Finally, I realize that spot removal is less desirable, but I main 4 Terminate. Why? Because it's happened to me before I added them that NOBODY had any answers to that one bomb that just came off the top of someone's deck. Besides, extra spot removal isn't bad to have anyway.
Help please?
About the only thing that gets annoying is someone repeatedly using infinite combo decks. Those sort themselves out in a "Hey, dude has his infinite deck! Bum rush him!" Which happens, but it skews the first few turns of development.
Moderator Help Desk
Sales Thread
I think the biggest problem with infinite combo decks is, in a very casual enviroment no rule can really stop it. Even with spheres sure they can target left and right but if its infinite oh well they will burn through each player. :/
That's why I made my tangle wire deck. I just wish they would bring out a blue card or artifact that would turn lands into creatures. Then it would be complete
I don't think you have to go the high end sweepers to be effective.
Some cheap sweepers.
Breath of Darigaaz
Slice and Dice
Barter in Blood
Canopy Surge
Curse of the Cabal (not exactly a sweeper)
Decree of Pain (really good MP sweeper and not really pricey at all if you are looking to buy new cards) Me, I am in a rut I cant so I know how that is.
Disaster Radius (whoa!)
Earthquake even this isn't so badly priced
Evincar's Justice
Firespout
Lavalanche!
Mutilate This card has dropped considerably since I last saw it
Also on a lesser level..
Tsabo's Decree
Extinction
Rain of Daggers pretty painful sweeper, but it gets the job done.
Savage Twister
Also
Wildfire very cheap, very effective sweeper
Inferno cheap, painful, but it works!
Death Cloud
Watch this card
All Is Dust it will drop in price. Its great now because its used in all formats but as it slowly drops out of all of them it will become cheaper and cheaper.
EDH Decks:
- Reya Dawnbringer // - Mistform Ultimus // - Balthor the Defiled // - Urabrask the Hidden // - Mirri, Cat Warrior
In my usual group, we have 5 people. Two of them run extremely expensive planeswalker control decks, while the other two are less experienced and run timmy aggro decks. I play really cheap control decks / midrange aggro decks.
The problem here is that the two with the extremely expensive decks are, well, extremely expensive. My meta is control heavy, and I keep losing because, well, of sheer lack of money. Example: I'm playing mono-black control, no damnations or anything. He's playing RBW Riddlebox control. "I Ajani all your lands." See what I'm talking about?
Of course, I could always pw hate, but that's not fair. Instead, I want to build a good control deck that can take the matchup, for a fair price. It's not fair that I get beat in the face with a JTMS that I can't afford and yet lose games to.
Thanks to Darth Monkey and SGT_Chubbz at Damnation Studios for the sig and banner.