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ShoryuuReppaX
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« on: January 12, 2008, 10:47:23 pm » |
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The past 3 years, I more or less quit constructed magic. However, I am still deeply interested in Type 4 and I really love my T4 stack. As most people know, Type 4 is horrid for duels. Simple free-for-all is generally the preferred method of play. I'm not too fond of FFA, so I developed (or rather, incorporated from another game) a sister set of rules to spice up my T4 circle. After playing with these rules for around an year, I believe it is superior than just FFA.
The inspiring game is Bang!. In essence, each character is assigned a role facedown, and play accordingly. Search wikipedia if you want to learn more about Bang!
Roles:
Sheriff - Deputy - Outlaw - Renegade
I sleeve cards of different colors to represent roles. The easiest way is probably to find a couple of notecards and write the corresponding role on each.
Outlaw - Outlaws collectively win if the Sheriff is dead.
Sheriff - the only one to reveal his role in the beginning. The sheriff wins if all Outlaws and all Renegades are dead.
Deputy - shares victory with the sheriff, but isn't penalized if killed early
Renegade - wins if he is the last man standing. this means he must kill the Sheriff last regardless (else Outlaws win, even from beyond the grave)
Assignment of roles:
Assignment is random since each player's role is hidden. Alternatively, the sheriff can rotate, since that's the only role which isn't hidden, and being the sheriff multiple times in a row sucks.
I find this style of play excellent for 5-8 people.
5s - 1 sheriff, 1 deputy, 2 outlaws, 1 renegade
6s - 1 sheriff, 1 deputy, 3 outlaws, 1 renegade
7s - 1 sheriff, 2 deputies, 3 outlaws, 1 renegade
8s - 1 sheriff, 2 deputies, 3 outlaws, 2 renegade
9+ can be done, and I'm sure you can figure out a good role distribution by yourself as well.
Additional Rules:
- Turn order is clockwise, with the sheriff starting first.
- Sheriff has additional life (In my stack, he starts at 30 and everyone else starts at 20).
- If a player kills an Outlaw, he or she draws 3 cards.
- If the sheriff controls kills the deputy, the Sheriff has to discard all cards and sacrifice all permanents. I would also recommend stopping all existing effects and remove-remove stuff like spelljacked spells and phased out Mist Dragons. (Deters the Sheriff to go rambo and makes masquerading as a deputy a powerful play. I would say countering a spell that saves the Deputy from death doesn't count as killing the Deputy)
- At any point in time you may label a player as an ally or an opponent. New labels do not retroactively apply to existing effects.
(the retroactive rule is mostly to prevent ridiculous Teferi exploits like allowing a player to cast just because you want him to counter something on the stack)
If you call John an opponent and he calls you an ally, you can still attack him, because he's your opponent. In short, your stuff only care about your declaration.
Basic strategies so you can get started:
- Sheriff
Survival. Your primary goal is to survive. Early on, leave the fighting to your deputy and only kill when you're sure of the target. Do remember if you kill your Deputy, you lose everything.
- Deputy
If you attack an unknown player, more often than not you'll hit an outlaw or a renegade. Dying as Deputy doesn't mean you lose, so aggression is often the best solution. Notice the Renegade is often your ally to start with due to number or roles, and prematurely killing him puts you at a bad disadvantage.
- Outlaws
Outlaws have strength in numbers, and should start off guns blazing before defensive measures can be put up. As long as the Sheriff dies you win, so kamikaze attacks are valid. Stockpiling is often the wrong strategy, because Deputies generally start the round attacking blindly and statistically eliminates you or an allied Outlaw first. However, if your Outlaw buddies die really early before you revealed yourself, masquerading as a Deputy may then be a good strategy.
- Renegade
In most scenarios, Renegade is forced to be the Sheriff's ally early on because the Outlaws have a numerical advantage. Start attacking the Deputy when the Outlaws are very weak. And don't forget to accuse the Deputy as being the renegade as you do this. Renegade is the hardest role to play, wins very rarely, and is mostly there to muddle up the game politics.
Final Comments
- Bang! style provides a streamlined game structure, yet alliances are constantly shifting. There is also "political intrigue" because you have to figure out who's who.
- Bang! style is really easy to integrate into a normal T4 game, since all you need is a way to assign a role randomly and secretly. Poker cards probably work, but I recommend sleeved cards of different colors. Personally, I use pink sleeves, and I use a Worship as Sheriff, Nimble Mongoose as Deputy, Orzhov Euthanist as Black, and Form of the Dragon as red.
- Totally off topic - lots of people have different rules for ACCs. For my stack, I say any spell you play without paying a mana cost doesn't count for your spell per turn. Force of Will, spells obtained by Mindleech Mass or Guile, or even Mind's Desire are free. Morphs, and Bringer ACC are not free.
- You should try Chaos stack with Bang! style. Bang! itself has a chaos stack, and I use those rules to determine how they work. Starting from the 2nd round (a round being each player takes his/her turn), the Sheriff reveals a card from the Chaos stack randomly. This action is taken before the Sheriff's turn starts and cannot be responded to nor countered. If it's a static effect, the Chaos card itself cannot be affected or removed.
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