up to play test?

Skred Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip Assemble the Legion Predatory Sliver Bloodsoaked Champion

Mogg War Marshal seems good.

If you want constellation tomfoolery you probably want Grim Guardian, as that stacks up quick. Fate Unraveler also would add up fast

Squadron Hawk means you never run out of creatures to play as well. (sorry for spam)

Lone Missionary ? lol

May I suggest a TWIST on your format?

Add a Minimum Level for each match: the CMC of the chosen card must be equal to or higher than the chosen Minimum Level.

For example, in a Level 4+ One-Man Show match, players couldn't choose cards with CMC lower than 4, so we would get a whole new different kind of play, with cards that would never be even considered without a minimum level. Personally, I'd like to play a Level 6+ match, and see all those Titans and Dragons fight :)

Of course such a variant is possible. I think that the biggest thing to take away from this format the most is how to generalize a card's usefulness and to identify some cards that you may or may not have thought were very strong and realize their potential in a vacuum. To extend those concepts to higher converted mana costs is something I can't recommend enough. In 6+ minimum CMC, titans would be pretty good, but then you introduce platnium angel, and potentially iona. No matter what minimum you set, the format will revolve around that minimum level and about 1, maybe 2 turns ahead. So even in 6+, 9-drops aren't very viable. in fact, I'd be hard-pressed to play an 8-drop. I imagine there are some 6/7 drops that can lock out the game pretty hard. Avenger of Zendikar, for example.

Perhaps a format where you can use any CMC, but no one is allowed to cast spells for 6 turns. :P Now that's interesting. Do you play 3-drops so that you can enter turn 6 casting two spells per turn.

Nyxborn Shieldmate might be good

Siege Rhino

Multi color cards suck this format

Esper Stormblade is fair.

logician, your idea sounds a bit like how work the Levels of a character in QUEST MAGIC. In QM, players can take a number of free preparation turns equal to their level, before tha match actually begins. You can cast spells but as if you were playing alone, with no opponent, so you can harm each other or interact in any way.

To make it simpler, starting the game with a number of basic lands already in play would work nicely.

Starting the game with a number of basic lands already in play would allow strong landless decks.

Right. Can't start with lands in play. I have enjoyed your Quest Magic series, and perhaps preperation phases could work as part of a variation to this format, but how would I pick a CMC to work with? I feel as though it doesn't matter what converted mana cost is chosen, there will still be the same number of cards in a metagame. This format seems to work okay without the CMC idea, and sadly, it can't be both. It has to be one or the other, or else the format becomes inconsistent.

I will be trying out some higher CMC in my spare time though as it does sound interesting.

Thoughts on Angel's Grace?

If you play only 10 land and cast the first one just before you lose you could walk through a long game and win.

We've considered adding a 10-turn per player limit in which both players lose if each has taken 10 turns and has yet to win.

This is due to cards like Angel's Grace. We're trying to avoid stall strategies that really only win on the play. Keep in mind that with our current ruleset and no time limit, Angel's Grace would win on the play and lose on the draw, forcing both decks out of their respective player's stockpiles. This isn't like normal magic where there's a 3rd game to decide a tiebreaker; instead, you have to have 3 decks, and your other two decks are sort of like your sideboard choices. Read the top post entirely to learn and understand more about how this works.

@logician

Please reread Angel's Grace, run through a game in your mind, and tell me again how you lose on the draw.

To break it down more precisely, let's assume you only include 8 lands.

You can now mulligan down to a hand with at least 2x Plains and 2x Angel's Grace.

Note that mulligans also add cards to your library.

If your opponent plays a quick one-drop strategy, you'll be casting your first Angel's Grace on your opponent's fifth turn. Then you'll cast one Angel's Grace per 2 turns.

If you don't mulligan and you manage to discard 1 of your Plains within the first 5 turns you win.

If you mulligan, you'll have more cards in the library anyways.

My conclusion: ban it.

Angel's Grace isn't really, that OP. There's plenty of strategies, that can deal with it. For example infect, mill, life loss and instant based strategies, that can win either on your or their turn so you would need two Angel's Grace each turn. Your opponent can always mill to 0, because you have no lock and you can't because you need to be sure, that you have get mana for Angel's Grace fast enough rolling.

@Colgate

That makes sense. I'd still have one of my hypothetical decks be this one, just for kicks :D

*take mulligans to 0 rather than mill to 0

Don't make the player turn limit 10. Raise it to 15 or 20 because there will be long games without stalling.

Shahrazad, anyone?