So I'm a pretty big fan of a game called "Magic: the Gathering." I love the intricacies of the game. It is one of the few games I know of that you can actually get better at the more you practice and not hit a wall. I have been playing in tournaments for 3 years now and I'm not even close to being as good as I know I can be at it.
This can serve as a bad thing though. As you may not know, when people start playing the game, it is a totally different animal. So much so, that I would say with no amount of uncertainty that I, simply as a player of the game on a tournament level, could win 99% of matches played against a person who is not a tournament player. This can cause an issue because my brother, who I enjoyed playing the game with long before I was a tournament player, has never played in a single sanctioned tournament.
I remember playing games from 200 health for fun to see how well we did in the long run. I remember bashing face with Crash of Rhinos, a common that would never see play in constructed. I talked about this with my friends on my local tournament scene and to my surprise they agreed! They actually knew what I was talking about! They recalled decks that were so bad they would never play them again, but they all recalled them fondly. They remembered their first card they bought. Their first rare. They remember the worst card they used to play with, but one other thing was common among all of them: they all agreed that once you reached a higher level of play, you can't un-learn the things you know. You can never go back to schoolyard magic. I wanted to find a way to recreate the schoolyard magic way of playing without worrying about who won or the more advanced rules like phases and the stack.
The more I thought about ways to fix this, the more I failed. I tried pauper - a format that only allows commons, but it was too different. I tried EDH, a format that in its nature almost forbids combos, and does its best to make every game different, but it was still very competitive (there are tournaments based around it and Wizards has embraced it as a real format now). None of these really felt like what it felt like when I used to play casual schoolyard magic with my brother.
Al makes things, right?
I decided to make my own format. I wanted one that really felt like schoolyard Magic and could bring people back to that way of playing. I give you... the Schoolyard Magic format:
The rules are the same as Vintage format with a few exceptions...
1. You may only play cards that you clearly remember playing before you played in a sanctioned tournament
2. No crazy manabases (mostly nonbasics)
3. There is never to be a tournament of this format. The second people start playing this format to win, it is ruined. The purpose is to play like you used to, not like you do.
4. If you had less than 4 of a card because your collection wasn't great, you may only play that number of that card in a deck
5. If you can play with the same exact card you used to have, play it
6. If you don't have the exact card, try to find the same version of the card and play it
7. There is no stack
8. Instants and abilities can only be played at sorcery speed (this means no counterspells)
9. Burn spells are only to be used on players, unless they can only be used on creatures
Yeah, we're going THAT far back. This format isn't for everyone. If you're a competitive dude that is looking for a format to break, this isn't it. Back off. The point of this is to show off what crazy stuff you came up with and get all nostalgic with your friends about cards you used to love but are terrible now. Here is my deck I'm going to play:
3x Lightning Bolt
4x Shock
2x Disintegrate
4x Crash of Rhinos
1x Maraxus of Keld (my favorite rare back then)
4x Shanodin Dryads
4x Kird Ape (the first card I ever bought)
2x Firebreathing
4x Incinerate
1x Deathcoil Wurm
1x Panther Warriors
1x Blanchwood Armor
1x Fireball
1x Spined Wurm
1x Craw Wurm
1x Anaba Shaman
2x Volcanic Hammer
4x Viashino Runner
2x Viashino Sandscout
1x Wall of Razors (first strike was SO GOOD!)
2x Panther Warriors
2x Blistering Barrier
12x Mountain
12x Forest
So that's it. As with all untested things, it's a work in progress. Let me know what you think.
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