Type 42- Puddle.dec

[Bulls on Parade]

Yeah, so I know Type 4 is the hot shit right now, but I tried to introduce it to my friends who didn't like it much. Wanting to find something fun that's a break from normal constructed, I came up with my own format we're calling Puddle.dec, because someone decided that's how you would go about anunciating POTL (for Pulse Of The Llanowar, which I'll get to in a moment). I sort of like the idea of all players drawing from a common deck, and I really like the idea of eliminating mana screw (at least, to an extent). So, I threw together a 200 card deck and a few loose rules:

All players start the game with 50 life.
Pulse of the Llanowar begins the game in play, and may not be removed from play.
No player may mulligan before the first turn, but any player may opt to skip their turn and instead shuffle their hand into the deck, drawing as many new cards.
Players share a common graveyard in addition to drawing from the same library, which they do each turn as in a normal game.
Life and Mana may be traded during any player's main phase at sorcery speed.
Creatures may not be marched as in Emperor formats, but instead any player may use their untapped creatures to block attackers that are attacking any player.

The deck is pretty interesting itself. With 200 cards I went with 80 random basic lands, since type doesn't matter. I included a lot of flashy spells (things like Confiscate, Crater Hellion, elder Dragon legends), a solid amount of classic multiplayer cards (my deck is now constructed to be fun for anywhere from 2 to 8 players) like Teferi's Puzzle Box, and tons of utility spells. The most enjoyable part of the format was being able to take old cards that had fond memories attached to them that might not necessarily be so funny to players outside this particular casual circle and throw them in the deck knowing when someone drew them there would be laughs and possibly a story told. This gave the real "customization" feel, and is my favorite part of what I've done.

I think everyone should at least give this a try if they still play cards with the people they originally started playing with, and I'd love to hear any ideas you have to improve the "format".

[combo_dude]

And what exactly is this mythical Pulse of the Llanowar?

[Bulls on Parade]

http://www.anycraze.com/search_results.asp

Sorry, no "the"

Wow, that completely ruins the name :/

The reason I chose to have this card start in play rather than just say all basics can produce any color is that it was easier to print out the rules changes on the back of the card rather than have to go over them repeatedly.

[ivansoup]

It's "Pulse of Llanowar" -- enchantment: lands tap for any color mana

Seems pretty interesting....but the trade life for mana seems like it could lead to some pretty explosive first turns.

[Bulls on Parade]

It's "Pulse of Llanowar" -- enchantment: lands tap for any color mana

Seems pretty interesting....but the trade life for mana seems like it could lead to some pretty explosive first turns.

No no, another mistake on my part.

Players may trade resources with OTHER PLAYERS! No 20 life for 20 mana turn 1, etc.

[combo_dude]

How do you mean? You can't trade mana for mana with other players...that's senseless. How could you implement that? "I'll swap you 5 mana of any colour for...5 mana of any colour."

Or am I missing the point? I'm pretty sure I am, just can't see from your explanation what the point might be.

[Bulls on Parade]

Sorry, I just really suck at explaining things today.

I added that "of the same type" thinking I was making myself clearer, but really I was changing the statement entirely, so I'll just give examples rather than not make sense:

Typically, a player is only "spotted" life to give them a chance (usually just 1 more turn) to get back at the player(s) who got them down to their low life total in the first place. So player 2 would propose to player 1 "Hey, I'll totally screw player 3 with this card I can play on my next turn if you spot me enough life to get there"

Similarly, a player might say "Hey, if you spot me the mana I'll counter this spell which is totally going to ruin your shit" or maybe "I won't tap any of my lands this turn so I can give you all my mana on yours, as long as you do the same for me next turn".