An Introduction to Mental Magic

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TAMA

22 February 2010

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I stumbled (or rather a friend dragged me) across the hot coals of Mental Magic. For those who don't know it is a format that tests your card knowledge, quick thinking and combo plays. Here's how to play:

Go to your local store or if you have a box of unused commons at home grab them. You and your opponent each get a deck of 60 cards of which all cards must be randomly chosen, none can be lands and/or tokens and finally you cannot see them before you play. The game starts as normal with each player drawing seven cards and randomly deciding which player will draw, however as you may have noticed you have no lands in hand. What do you do? Well in Mental Magic players may play any card face down as a land, not just any old land but a very special land named Utopia. If Utopia was a real card it would look something like this.

Now obviously this has its advantages but then you look at your hand and realise that you are holding a Cancel, a Burst of Speed, a Giant Growth, two copies of Smash, a Terror and a Bandage. Now that looks pretty useless at an outsider's glance but you haven't heard everything yet. To explain why this is a hand you can pick up with a smile I will need the assistance of an unhinged card by the name of Richard Garfield, Ph.D. The whole premise of this format is that the effect of this card is active throughout the whole game for both players. Your Cancel becomes a Jace Beleren, a Burst of Speed is a Lightning Bolt and a Giant Growth is a Noble Hierarch. You can use a Simian Spirit Guide for a second turn Stone Rain or play your Terror as a Dark Confidant and if you are really in dire trouble you can Angel's Grace off a Bandage.

Ok admittedly it sounds like you can do whatever you want so of course there are some restrictions (here's a list).

Base Rules

Type 1.5 banned list applies.

Players cannot search Libraries.

Cards can only be named once per game e.g. if I have a card in my hand with a mana cost of 2W I can play an Oblivion Ring but after I have named Oblivion Ring even if an opponent counters it no-one can name an Oblivion ring for the rest of the game (this saves people spamming cards).

Naming a card works like a state based effect once a card is named an opponent cannot respond by naming the same card and hence trying to fizzle the opponents spell.

Whenever a card would be put into a zone other than hand, library or graveyard it must be named. If the card could go into either zone because of an effect say Mind Funeral or Telemin Performance the targeted player may name the cards (Name four utopia for Mind Funeral or a creature for Telemin Performance). Polymorph can then be abused as a broken card however you may decide to ban it as a house rule.

Cards that are being milled or discarded cannot be named for the purposes of madness or effects like Narcomoeba.

Cards in graveyards cannot be named (predominantly due to combos like Squee, Goblin Nabob becoming a Stone Rain after you've already used it as a Char or Crucible of Worlds all by itself). This includes but is not limited to Unearth, Flashback or Dredge. Cards like Recollect still work because they don't target a type of card whereas cards like Raise Dead do not. Cards that trigger upon entering the grave like Screams from Within trigger as normal and do not require a second naming, however cards that trigger whilst in the grave like Bridge from Below do not Trigger.

You cannot Morph a permanent (this is partly to do with the confusion caused between lands).

Cascade and similar effects triggers as per normal (because the card only states mana cost not card type).

Copies function as per normal. You do not name a card when using a Clone or a Twincast so they remain unaffected. When using an Isochron Scepter you exile a card and name it, you do not imprint a cost (likewise with Eye of the Storm and Panoptic Mirror.

House Rules

Polymorph is banned.

If you play a spell as what is actually written on the card then you pay a newb cost of 1 life.

You may be itching to run off and try this new idea with your friends but be warned you will suddenly find yourself forgetting good cards, so here is a list of good costs and corresponding cards for the format (that I prepared earlier) to help you on your way.

CMC: Card names

0: Lotus Petal, Lion's Eye Diamond, Spellbook, Everflowing Chalice, Pact of Negation 1: Skullclamp, Sensei's Divining Top, Library of Leng, Phyrexian Dreadnought 2: Howling Mine, Umezawa's Jitte, Archbound Ravager 3: Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Light and Shadow, Storage Matrix, Loxodon Warhammer, Sculpting Steel. 4: Font of Mythos, Clock of Omens, Deathrender, Heartseeker.

W: Silence, Mana Tithe, Spirit Link, Angel's Grace, Bushi Tenderfoot  ^Flip, Path to Exile, Isamaru, Hound of Konda. 1W: Abeyance, Raise the Alarm, Journey to Nowhere, Rest for the Weary, Pacifism, Sacred Ground 2W: Oblivion Ring, Even the Odds, Arrest, Ghostly Prison 3W: Faith's Fetters, Armageddon, AEther Shockwave, Armored Ascension 2WW: Wrath of God, Ajani Goldmane, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Day of Judgment

U: Spell Pierce, Force Spike, Serum Visions, Kraken Hatchling, Twiddle, Unsummon, Stifle 1U: Mana Leak, Vision Skeins, Cloud of Faeries, Spreading Seas, Trickbind, Spellstutter Sprite 2U: Counsel of the Soratami, Arcane observatory, Mistblade Shinobi, Convolute, Vaccumelt, Wake Thresher 3U: Inspiration, Ensnare, Embargo, Sift, Foresee, Mistbind Clique 3UU: Traumatize, Dream Halls, Evacuation, Force of Will, Treachery

B: Dark Ritual, Bonesplinters, Innocent Blood, Mire's Toll, Sleeper Agent 1B: Night's Whisper, Doom Blade, Cabal Ritual, Cruel Edict, Dark Confidant 2B: Rend Flesh, Fleshbag Marauder, Priest of Gix, Nantuko Husk 3B: Ancient Craving, Tendrils of Corruption, Hoarder's Greed, 2BB: Lethal Vapors, Damnation, Night of Souls' Betrayal, Abyssal Persecutor

R: Lightning Bolt, Rite of Flame, Goblin Guide, Goblin Grenade, Jackal Familiar, Shattering Spree 1R: Desperate Ritual, Sudden Shock, Dragon Fodder, Incinerate, Shatter, Book Burning, Grapeshot 2R: Simian Spirit Guide, Char, Browbeat, Ronin Houndmaster, Seething Song, Scattershot 3R: Akki Lavarunner  ^Flip, Empty the Warrens, Grand Melee, Hidetsugu's Secpnd Rite, Lightning Blast 2RR: Chain Reaction, Boldywyr Heavyweights, Pyrohemia, Rakdos Pit Dragon, Rakka Mar, Ali from Cairo

G: Giant Growth, Arbor Elf, Ghaziban Ogre, Concordant Crossroads, Burgeoning, Exploration 1G: Fists of Ironwood, Sprout Swarm, Naturalize, Elvish Visionary, Muscle Sliver, Explore 2G: Fyndhorn Elder, Elvish Spirit Guide, Heartbeat of Spring, Touch of Vitae, Beastmaster Ascension, Azusa, Lost but Seeking 3G: Beacon of Creation, Keeper of Progenitus, Algae Gharial, Argrothian Elder, Elvish Piper 2GG: Garruk Wildspeaker, Master of the Wild Hunt, Chameleon Colossus, Aluren

Then just to spark you off a little more here's a list of ideas. Domain, Sunburst, Cascade, Dual cards (Assault / Battery, Hybrid mana costs, (Spectral Procession/Manamorphose) and (my personal favourite) Urza free spells.