I'm going to build my increasing confusion version in paper and show people how it works.

graft, I just had a thought, you should write up an article in the the Forums either in the Tapped.Out or in the the General section explaining what Noble is, how it works, what is banned, a brief history, and maybe a little bit about why you personally think it's so fun. List who they can go to for Q&A. Then ask people to post their decks there. Basically what you've done here but a little more refined and distilled with all the input that has been garnered from all the discussion here. Just a thought...

Blazing Shoal Infect Noble. BS may need to be banned. This deck can win turn 2/3 fairly consistently (not done yet with it, still need to add that really good free pump spell and change Dispel to another counter, but this deck is the nuts)

Blazing fast Infect Noble

Oh and about the zone thing: my suggestion is that it be modified so that you can use the abilities of your Noble from the Noble Zone (so you could cycle a Noble, discard it to Faithless Looting, ect...)

Pretty sure with the rules as they are my Greater Gargadon deck doesn't work because you have to suspend from your hand. There's no reason not to have the GG deck work, it's a minor rules fix with lots of potential upside of enabling potentially dozens of Nobles compared to the potential downside of having to ban a couple more Nobles that are too good with that additional ruling.

Just my two cents. It's still a casual format now so there's no reason to nuke Ink Eyes decks and the like.

I still don't think it's a good idea. It really messes up the rules very critical at a point where it could enable some decks and makes a lot more very weird. Ninjutsu, Forecast, Suspend, Dredge, etc. are abilities which are affected by this. And even commander don't cares about that (imo there must be a reason).

It's just my opinion, but I think we could enable some more strategies by allowing the noble-zone to treat cards as they were in specific zones without messing it up.

I can understand your opinion (Gargadon and Loam are most effected by this I think, and sadly you seem to have exactly builded these), but the first thing we need to do is to get a working format before we can look over specific deck-types. Also, thinking outside the box is needed everywhere in each format, that's why every format has it's own Tier-1-Decks. Maybe decks that worked in other formats are weakened by this, but it will enable others to work just fine. Even if we don't see them yet.

One thought btw is this: It is not wanted to interact with the noble card as long it is in the noble-zone. If you can, you would have to allow that your opponent, too. And then this cards in the noble-zone need to be face up. And then there are hundrets of questions how you can interact with an opponent-noble-card...

Ok. This one is just silly. Noble Humility

I recognize your concerns about brokenness, but I really don't think the answer is to just nuke the rules and not even give those cards a chance. There's a ban list for a reason: some cards are broken. IMO we should work on making the rules have maximum functionality while simply banning the cards which are too powerful: I'd rather see Greater Gargadon able to be a functional Noble card and be banned than to just exclude it from consideration based on the idea that it might be too strong. Also, making cards have maximal functionality within the rules scheme will be good for the format in the long run: a larger percent of the newly printed cards will be able to work as Nobles.

About not wanting interaction with the Noble while its in the noble zone: Why not just say that abilities of the noble card can be played as though it were in the zone you chose to start it in? That way nobody would be able to Duress or Relic of Progenitus your Noble away before you play it, but you'd still be able to suspend the Garg.

Mandroid, I see your points (good points btw here). I really like the second thought you brought up. You said: 'Why not just say that abilities of the noble card can be played as though it were in the zone you chose to start it in?'. Good thought imo, I wonder why I didn't came up with this... maybe sleep deprivation? :D Anyways, good point, I'll keep that in mind! Thanks for thinking about that problem and coming up with an excellent solution in the end!

Glimpse of Nature needs to be banned. Turn 3 every game.

NP, my favorite part about magic is deck and format design - both brand new and cubing formats, so it's great fun to be able to help Noble get off the ground. If that does end up being the rule, Loam will maybe have to be banned. The ability to dredge it right off turn 1 with Faithless Looting is really good, but what honestly pushes Loam over the top is the ability of the deck to dredge it back at instant speed with the cyclelands for one mana, rendering yard hate not totally useless, but not effective at clearing out the card advantage engine.

BTW my Infect deck is done, have a look at it and tell me what you think. Should be able to hit a turn 2/3 kill fairly often, as the early game is filled in with 8 free cycling cards. Didn't make a sideboard yet, but it'd probably be something like packing in the Gravedigger infect creature so I can side out Spell Pierce against creature matchups where its useless.

Blazing fast Infect Noble.dec

LOL this keeps geting more and more posts, but i want to get some more help with my Noble deck: LAND NOBLE

Oh, a point about forecast: can you reveal face-up cards?

Forecast - MANA, Reveal CARDNAME from your hand: EFFECT. (Activate this ability only during your upkeep and only once each turn.)

I don't know if you can reveal face-up cards (I'd say yes), but if you mean the noble-card: The noble-card is face-down normally. But don't plan to do something with this... what we discussed isn't a rule yet. It's just a suggestion waiting for approval or denial.

I would say treat it exactly like the command zone in edh with the one change that you cannot choose for the card to return to said command zone.

To Ohthenoises: This is the way it works right now. I'm just considering all drawbacks and opportunities.

If you change it you're going to have a lot of people who are confused and others who will abuse it.

It's easier to stick with something established and a zone that is un-abuseable (nearly) so that the newer people AND the established people have a chance.

There's a good reason why the people who invented EDH made the commander zone un-interactable. Could you imagine a ninjitsu general flashing in and hitting for general damage? Point being I believe that it should be treated like the commander zone due to abuse issues. I'm all for giving cards a chance but when you start allowing the cards to be treated as if they were in your hand you open the door to so many things.

There's a whole spectrum of rules regarding this that could be implemented. There could just be the enabling of abilities, or it could go full out and have it be interactable (but then why not just start out with it in your hand?) or it could be only cast for its mana cost, or anything in between.

Personally, I think the Nobles shouldn't be able to be discarded (or interacted with) from the Noble zone as that is incredibly powerful and really pretty much only benefits reanimator strategies (and Loam). I think that if the Noble's abilities could be played as though it were in your hand that would be a good enabler for many Nobles which could otherwise be unplayable due to their abilities.

"If you change it you're going to have a lot of people who are confused and others who will abuse it."

Confusion I understand, but the proposed rules change to enable the abilities of Nobles won't affect the way most Noble cards work, so I don't think it's that confusing: it basically boils down to saying "Greater Gargadon works now".

Oh and also General Damage isn't applicable in this format so it's harder to abuse Ninjitsu, it's just available for some who want it.

This is a really cool idea, especially for new players to get started. They can take their rare and their new pile of cards and make something meaningful out of it. I appreciate someone making a cool format for casual play when people can't afford commander decks or just started.

try the disgusting but sadly noble goblins, cheap, fast, pretty effective and stable. its simple and fun to play

@mandroid I know general damage doesn't apply I was using that as an example of one of the reasons that the creators of EDH designed it that way. I'm sure the guys in Alaska who came up with that format sat down and had this same discussion lol.

two red extended decks. the first one is a modified budget deck the second was an excuse to play goblins

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/noble-rdw-bloodthirst/

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/legend-of-the-skrill-tamer/

+1 for a great format concept :)

I like the thought of this as a casual multiplayer format alternative to EDH.

As for deck composition, I'd like to see something a bit closer to WOTC duel deck style restrictions (4 rares, ~8 uncommons, no more than 2 copies of a card). Limit of 4 uncommons and 1 rare seems a bit low. Allowing 4 copies of a card invites combo decks - which is fine, but not so much in multiplayer. One of the reasons I like EDH is that each game is unique.

I agree with other commenters that it seems odd to allow non-creature "nobles". Seems like a disadvantage to play a creature noble if you can instead play something silly like Eldrazi Temple, Call to the Grave, Curse of Bloodletting, etc ...

What does the community think of having a restricted list as well as a ban list? It lets people have more to work with in building their decks.

Also, the moxen don't need to be banned. They are rares. I think they would be fine to choose as nobles.

I also think Worldgorger Dragon should be unbanned, as having it start in the command zone is a sever disadvantage to that deck. It means you have to cast it, and then kill it, then animate dead it and go off.

Back to my comment about a restricted list, cards like Demonic Tutor, Gush, Cranial Plating and Mana Drain could be fine as singleton additions to a deck, without straight-out banning them. Like Vintage, this format operates different to most constructed formats, and a restricted list as well as a banned list could lead to more exciting and unusual game states.