User:Darkelfpoet/Variant MTG Formats Demo

Magic: The Gathering's standard method of play is one-on-one using a deck of at least 60 cards (40 cards in Limited) with a maximum of four of each card except for basic lands and Relentless Rats, but casual play groups and even Wizards of the Coast have developed many alternative formats for playing the game. These formats are designed to accommodate larger numbers of players, to allow two or more players to work together as a team, or create specific requirements for deck construction. They are distinct from the officially sanctioned formats such as Legacy, Vintage, or Block Constructed which are organized by the DCI and merely define the available card pool, not change the rules of the game.

These alternate methods of play have added value and depth to the game. The release of Magic: Online, Wizards of the Coast's online program for playing Magic: The Gathering, demonstrates how interesting variants can make the game - currently they support three variants not described in the comprehensive rules.

Multiplayer Options

These options are used in multiple variants and can be useful in creating your own multiplayer variant.

Attack Left/Attack Right

This option restricts you to attacking the player to your left or the player to your right.

Attack Multiple

Using the attack multiple option means that you can divide your attacking creatures between one or more players. Blockers and combat damage are assigned using Active Player, Non-Active Player (APNAP) order.

Deploy Creatures

Legality: Official

The deploy creatures option simply grants all creatures with the ability "{T}: Target teammate gains control of this creature. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.". In essence, you can give a creature without summoning sickness to any teammate as a sorcery. This option is only used in team games.

Range of Influence

Legality: Official

Range of Influence defines the area in which you can have an effect. It is usually a numeric quantity (for example, Range of Influence (or RoI) 2) and defines the number of players to your left or right that you can have an influence on. You cannot choose or target a player who is or an object who's controller is outside of your range of influence, any effects you control cannot affect an object or player outside of your range of influence and the game cannot "see" an object outside of your range of influence.

Multi Player Variants

These are variants on Magic: the Gathering which require 3 or more players to play. As always, house rules can be applied to any format.

Emperor

Players: 3, 5, 7, etc

Legality: Official

Emperor is played in teams of 3 or more with an odd number of players being required. The range of influence and deploy creatures options are used with this variant. Teams are seated together and the player in the centre of each team becomes the 'Emperor' who has more life than other players and a higher range of influence. Other players become 'Generals' who defend the Emperor. Usually the range of influence is 1 for a General and the range of influence of the Emperor is equal to the number of players per team minus one. This permits him to target any player except the opposing Emperor. The teams do not share any resources but do share a turn (there is only one Upkeep Step per team, not per player). When the Emperor is eliminated, his or her entire team is eliminated.

The rules for Emperor are maintained by WotC as a part of their comprehensive rules.

Free-For-All

Players: 3+

Legality: Official

Free-for-all is likely the easiest of variant formats. Players are seated randomly and one of the attack left, attack right or attack multiple options is chosen (see above). Optionally, a range of influence can be added - this is recommended for larger games. The game then proceeds normally until all but one player has been eliminated.

The rules for free-for-all are maintained by WotC as a part of their comprehensive rules.

Grand Melee

Players: 10+

Legality: Official

Grand Melee is a variant of Free-For-All, designed for ten or more players. It uses the Attack Left option and has a default range of influence of one. For every four players in the game, one "turn marker" is used, these are distributed before the game begins to every fourth player starting with the first active player. This allows multiple players to take their turns at the same time. As players are eliminated, the number of turn markers is reduced.

The rules for Grand Melee are maintained by [[Wizards of the Coast|WotC] as a part of their comprehensive rules.

Multi-Headed Giant

Players: 2+ per team

Legality: Sanctioned (2 players); Official (3+ players)

Multi-Headed Giant is played in two teams of two or more players each - the more common name for this variant depends on the number of players per team (Two-Headed Giant, Three-Headed Giant, etc). In a Multi-Headed Giant game, the players on a team share a life total but maintain separate libraries, hands, graveyards and control of their creatures - however they do share turns (there is only one Upkeep Step per team for example, not one for each player on the team). Damage and life loss are done to a single player and the resulting change is applied to their combined life totals - for the purposes of determining the change, each player is considered to have an equal fraction (rounded up) of their teams life total. The official rules specify that if a player loses the game, the entire team loses the game. However, this rule is optional - in Magic: Online, Multi-Headed Giant games have an option where a team loses only when every player on it loses the game. At any point in the game, teammates may look at each other's hand and discuss strategy.

Two-Headed Giant is the first multiplayer format officially sanctioned by the DCI and was sanctioned in 2005. WotC maintains the rules for Two-Headed Giant, as well as the concept of Multi-Headed Giant, in its Comprehensive Rules. The DCI maintains tournament rules for Two-Headed Giant and there are tournaments for both Constructed and Limited Two-Headed Giant. In either format, matches only have one round instead of three to make up for the longer game time.

In Constructed, players bring their own decks - these decks must be 60 cards each and contain no more than 4 of any one card between the two decks (except basic land and Relentless Rats). There are Standard, Extended, Legacy, Vintage and Block Constructed tournaments.

Limited allows both Booster and Sealed draft. In Sealed, the team receives a single tournament pack and five booster packs to form their card pool; they then draft their decks together. In Booster, teammates are seated opposite one another and have no knowledge of the other person's deck.

Two-Headed Giant has also been added to the formats available in the Grand Prix and Pro Tour series. There is also a Two-Headed Giant event available during the pre-releases for new sets.

Star

Players: 5

Legality: ' Unofficial

This format comes with multiple sub-formats, but the core is 5 players in a circle around each other, in a form reminiscent of the layout of the five colors of magic on the back of magic cards. Each player has two players next to them, and two players across from them.

Five-Point Star In Five-Point Star, any player has the players next to them considered 'allies' and those across from them considered 'enemies'. A player may not directly attack an ally or target an ally with an effect unless given permission by the ally (if the ally doesn't give permission the effect fizzles, although it should be noted this does not prevent you from targeting an ally's creatures). The winner of the match is the first one to defeat the two opponents across from them. This format usually involves a lot more diplomacy than the typical magic game, since if you do too well, your allies will want to slow you down, but you want your allies to help you defeat your enemies instead of your other ally. In the rare occurrence of a tie (usually happens when one ally and your mutual enemy are both killed, and you or your other ally kill your other enemy). In this case, the player who dealt the final blow to the enemy may choose to declare the game a tie between the two remaining players (all other players losing) or continue, the game continuing with the final two players fighting it out.

Mana Star Using the Star sitting format, players agree (either by consensus or random) one color of magic assigned to each player. They sit according to the mana symbols orientation on the back of a magic card. Players may only generate mana of their assigned color. Any other mana they get is instead colorless. Otherwise, it is a typical free-for-all or attack-to-the-left match.

Five-Point Mana Star Simply, Five-Point Mana star combines the rules for Mana star and Five-Point Star. This means a player playing red has green and black as allies, green has the red and white as allies, white has blue and green as allies, blue has white and black as allies, and black has red and blue as allies.

Five-Point Shard Star A variant mildly popular before the shards release (and usually described without a name) but named and used a little more after the release, Five-Point Shard Star has similar rules to Five-Point Mana star. Each player still has an assigned color, however, they can also produce mana in the colors assigned to their allies (but not their enemies).

Rainbow (TBC)

Teams

Players: 2+ teams of equal size

Legality: Official

The teams variant can be played with two or more teams, all of equal size. Players are seated randomly, but the teams are distributed equally. For example, in a four-team game of three people (teams A, B, C, D) they would be seated A#, B#, C#, D#, A#, B#, C#, D#, A#, B#, C#, D#. Players can only attack opponents next to them. Teammates cannot look at each other's hands unless they are sitting next to each other.

The rules for Teams are maintained by WotC as a part of their comprehensive rules.

Vendetta/Assassin

Maximum Deck Size: None

Format: Constructed

Legality: Unofficial; Magic: Online Sanctioned

Vanguard

Multiplayer Vanguard

Players: 3+

Legality: Unofficial

TBC

Online Vanguard

Players: 2 (confirm?)

Legality: Official

TBC

Vanguard

Players: 2

Legality: Official

TBC