Hello once again, my friends! Welcome back to the casual column where we chat about any number of casual topics. I am the host of this chat, bringing you writings of the casual while often providing a forum for your voice.
Last week, I talked about a fun multiplayer variant that we play at our kitchen table, and today I want to spend time talking about another.
Over a month ago was my twenty-twelfth birthday. About a week and a half later, some friends of mine got together at one of my friend’s place for a small bash in honor of my birthday. As part of the festivities, several of us shuffled up our Magic decks and began playing.
Prior to this event, I discussed what kind of Magic I wanted to play, so I combined some formats to create what I call Abe’s Birthday Bash. It was a ton of fun for all. Let me go over the format of craziness and awesomeness, and you can take anything from it that you desire.
Abe’s Birthday Bash
This format combines three multiplayer variants for a ton of fun. Let’s take a look:
1. Monogame – Kelly’s Multiplayer Variant. Since he hasn’t named it yet, I’m naming it for him, so I am calling it Monogame. This is the format I mention last week. As a quick reminder, you never stop playing the game, you just keep going. There are brief rules for joining the game after you die or if you are late. Check out last week’s article for more.
2. Vanguard — I brought out my full set of Vanguard cards. Check out this article for more on Vanguard. I played with the Random B*tch variant; you could B*tch as many times in the game as you wanted, but you had to wait five turns before you could b*tch your card again.
3. Random World — This is the subject of today’s article. This variant requires a prebuilt Random World deck for craziness!
The result of these three variants smashed together is a lot of fun. With Vanguards, a long game, and Random World in play, the result can be quite interesting. We played for hours. All of which may lead you to ask a question.
What is Random World?
Random World
I remember reading about this variant years ago. I never remember if it had a name or not, but I don’t believe it did. In the intervening years, I built a modest Random World deck, and we played with it occasionally, but I could not find it for my birthday bash, so I went and rebuilt it.
In Random World, you have a preselected and shuffled stack of cards with a global effect. Then at the beginning of the first player’s turn, before they untap, they flip over a card from the Random World stack. That card is in play until the next card is flipped, and so forth.
So, for example, suppose I flipped over Howling Mine. Everybody would draw an extra card for the round until I flipped the next turn. Perhaps the next card I would flip is Mana Barbs or Winter Orb and so forth.
The card flipped over cannot be targeted or destroyed in any way. It also cannot be responded to. If you want to be precise, it is in the Chaos Zone, which allows it to affect cards in other zones, but cannot be reached by any card outside of the Chaos Zone. That also means that they do not trigger the legendary clause, so if I have out Seshiro the Anointed in my snake deck, and he gets flipped, they both don’t die.
You can target the ability however. For example, if I flipped Task Mage Assembly, then players could activate the ability as a sorcery, but it could be Interdicted.
After creating a nice, thick deck, I went to work, bringing it with me to the evening. The deck was so big, that I never came close to revealing all of the cards.
Random World is fun on its own. It brings a little piece of chaos to chaos multiplayer.
I would recommend that you keep your Random World stack clear of major hosers. No Karma or Choke type cards should get included, because that’s no fun. The Mono-Black Control deck doesn’t want to lose because someone flipped Light of Day.
However, since I knew I was combining it with Kelly’s Monogame Variant, I was comfortable with including nastier cards. If someone died, they could shuffle right back up and get back into the game.
My Random World Stack
For the rest of the article, I thought I’d share my Random World stack with you. I also had to make some side rules. I included creatures with global abilities, such as Lord of Atlantis. When Lord of Atlantis is flipped, all merfolk get +1/+1 and islandwalk, but no one gets an actual Lord of Atlantis in play to attack and block with.
Some cards have wordings that are not the best ever. Just go with your intuition. Kismet, for example, reads that all opponent’s lands, artifacts and creatures come into play tapped. Since everyone is an opponent of someone, that means yours do too.
If a card has an ability, everyone can play the ability.
If a card flipped has a way of it leaving play (such as Standstill going away when someone plays a spell), then it leaves the Chaos Zone, and there are no random enchantments until the next person flips.
I wanted there to be some cards that were absolute nuts, and others that had a more limited usage.
I put these cards in categories for you, instead of just one long giant list. Where something does both (Phyrexian Arena causes both a loss of life and draws you a card, Energy Storm prevents damage and prevents flyers from untapping, Phyrexian Tyranny is both a mana tax and loss of life, etc) I just chose one.
Things that help creatures:
Myr Matrix
Kinsbaile Cavalier
Kobold Taskmaster
Goblin Warrens
Seshiro the Anointed
Crucible of Fire
Lord of the Undead (Note that the tap ability cannot be used by anyone, it’s just a straight up +1/+1 to all zombies)
Merrow Reejerey
Scion of Oona
Lord of Atlantis (yes, Merfolk get two lords for some reason. Welcome to chaos!)
Thelon of Havenwood
Coat of Arms
Masako the Humorless
Aggravated Assault
Mass Hysteria
In the Web of War
Anthem of Rakdos
Celestial Crusader (Because I don’t own an extra Crusade)
Dauthi Embrace
Rite of Passage
Crown of Convergence
Things that cause players to gain or lose life, prevent damage, or take damage themselves:
Scrapheap
Manabarbs
Dwarven Shrine
Antagonism
Impatience
Forsaken Wastes (Note the final clause cannot happen because t cannot be targeted)
Peace of Mind
Dingus Staff
Dingus Egg
Urza’s Armor
Zo-Zu the Punisher
Energy Storm
Psychogenic Probe
Phyrexian Tyranny
Overabundance
Sphere of Duty, Grace, Law, Reason, Truth
Soul Warden
Shield of the Ages
Orim’s Prayer
Lifegift
Embargo (Yes, two life is lost in addition to the prevention of untapping)
Things that cause you to draw or discard cards:
Standstill
Oath of Scholars
Oath of Ghouls
Honden of Seeing Winds
Possessed Portal
Teferi’s Puzzle Box
Coastal Piracy
Greater Good
Thought Reflection
Warped Devotion
Volrath’s Dungeon
Future Sight (essentially)
Cabal Shrine
Well of Lost Dreams
Null Profusion
Necrogen Mists
Phyrexian Arena
Bottomless Pit
Zur’s Weirding
Tomorrow, Azami’s Familiar
Verduran Enchantress
Greed
Primitive Etchings
Things that deal damage to or destroy creatures; or allow you to deal damage to another player:
Where Ancients Tread
Task Mage Assembly
Death Pits of Rath
Clash of Realities
Pyromancer’s Swath
AEther Flash
Stormbind
Powerstone Minefield
Pandemonium
Citadel of Pain
Deadapult
Seismic Assault
Kyren Negotiations
Hosers:
Jade Leech
Blood Funnel
In the Eye of Chaos
Choke
Chill
Energy Flux
Thelon’s Curse
Urborg Shambler
Karma
City of Solitude
Ascendant Evincar
Feroz’s Ban
Cursed Totem
Damping Matrix
Dream Tides
Sulfur Elemental
Blood Moon
Gloom
Hum of the Radix
Night of Souls’ Betrayal
Magus of the Tabernacle
Dystopia
Things that untap, keep things tapped, play with untaps, or tap things (but not Hosers):
Tsabo’s Web (Note, everyone draws a card when Tsabo’s Web is revealed)
Barl’s Cage
Root Maze
Arena of the Ancients
Tectonic Instability
Imi Statue
Storage Matrix
Kismet
Mesmeric Orb
Orb of Dreams
Winter Orb
War’s Toll
Opposition
Stasis
Things that play around with mana (but not hosers):
Shizuko, Caller of Autumn
Hall of Gemstone
Mana Flare
Reality Twist
Ghostly Prison
Tangleroot
Fluctuator
Ritual of Subdual
Blinkmoth Urn
Carnival of Souls
Things with activated abilities that do not fall into other categories:
Fevered Convulsions
Nihilistic Glee
Saproling Cluster
Spirit Cairn
Elemental Augury
Goblin Trenches
Kuro, Pitlord
Miscellaneous:
Grip of Chaos
Crucible of Worlds
Grand Melee
Leyline of Singularity
Tombstone Stairwell
Aluren
Worship
Revelation
Forgotten Harvest
Confusion in the Ranks
Memory Erosion
Kormus Bell
Lich’s Tomb
Silent Arbiter
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Nullstone Gargoyle
Legacy Weapon (Ignore the line about being shuffled into your library)
Braids, Cabal Minion
Braids, Conjurer Adept
Magus of the Moat
Natural Emergence (Yes, when this comes into play (it is revealed), everybody needs to bounce a Red or Green enchantment they control to their hand)
Culling Scales
Now I Know my ABC’s (I’d love to put in more, but I don’t have them)
Teferi’s Veil
Bazaar of Wonders (Yes, you have to Morningtide when this comes into play (i.e. it is flipped))
Taniwha (It does not phase, because you don’t phase in the Chaos Zone. It simple phases out your lands)
Sunken Hope
Arcane Laboratory
Bedlam
Life and Limb
Cowardice
Hostility
Wild Pair
Yixlid Jailer
Doubling Season
Tide of War
Decaying Soil (Correct, you can only use the threshold ability if you personally have threshold)
R&D’s Secret Lair (This can really hose creature types after the great Creature Type Errata)
Sengir Autocrat (When it comes into play, everyone gets the three 0/1 Serfs)
Damping Matrix
The result is a big thick stack of random abilities big enough to not be easily repeated and unpredictable (as chaos should be).
This is a good starting ground for your own Random World stack. Grab what you can and try it out. From Squallmonger to Tortured Existence, there’s plenty here that I didn’t include. You can make your stack your own. I tried to stay away from things that were too limited, like Stabilizer. I had it in my original run but I pulled it out because it did so little. Perhaps you’ll want to run something like this.
Here’s a bit of strategy for you. The player who flips the first card is both the luckiest and unluckiest player at the table. When do you do fast effects, typically? At the end of someone’s turn. Everybody else, except the first player, will know what is revealed before they reach their turn, so they know whether or not to do a fast effect. The first player could tap out to play Whispers of the Muse with buyback only to flip over Winter Orb. But the other players know there is a WOrb in play, so they may not tap out to play various fast effects.
You also can only use the effects once. Flip over a Stormbind, and you can use it on your turn and subsequent turns until you flip again. In the meantime, opponents can use mana and resources left over to activate it at the end of turn, and then untap and do it again
That makes being in the first seat very unlucky. You could be the first hit by a hoser or somesuch. Whether it’s Taniwha or Pyromancer’s Swath, you can get hit by something you didn’t prepare for, where as other players can plan for chaos.
However, you can sometimes win the game with the seat you are in. For example, if you flip Bedlam, then you can be the first to take advantage of the inability of opponent’s to block. You might be able to kill them before they can kill you. There are a few cards like this that really give you a leg up, so although it usually sucks to be the one flipping the cards, there are occasions when you are rewarded for it.
…
I hope you can see why I liked these three variants combined. Vanguard is fun on its own. Random World is fun on its own. Kelly’s Monogame is fun on its own. Combine them? Mega fun is had by all!
Until later…