Public Library Format

E

Ephraim

Guest
The principle behind a Public Library deck is very simple. Take a large stack of cards (at least 200) and set them in the middle of the table. Everybody draws from that stack as though it were their library and everybody discards to the same, communal graveyard. Most everybody has played this format at one time or another. Most people, however, don't spend time tuning a deck specifically for use as a Public Library. For most people, any stack of cards will do, as long as there are enough lands to cast everything with reasonable ease.

That wasn't enough for me, though. I have always been a sucker for a good Public Library game and I found that random stacks tend to be brutally unbalanced. The guy who gets the single Living Hive in the stack tends typically wins. With this in mind, I went ahead and built a five-coloured Public Library stack that's balanced evenly between the five colours. There's still a little bit of imbalance, but it tends to show up more subtly than in a typical Public stack.

In each colour, there sixteen commons, nine uncommons, and a single rare (selected to affect everybody). Artifacts are a little bit more common than any of the colours (by about three cards) and they tend to be a bit more powerful than the other cards, just because anybody can play them, regardless of their colour situation. In the early days of this deck, each of the rares was an ehchantment with some global effect. I've changed that slightly, allowing Dosan the Falling Leaf and Glowrider as green's and white's rares. They're essentially enchantments on legs, which is appropriate for those colours. To help prevent colour screw, since the deck is five colours, there are eight artifacts to fix colours, four creatures to fix colours, eight multilands, and twenty lands that will sacrifice for one mana of any colour.

One of the most fun things about this deck is the ability to play with cards that really stink in other formats. Metamorphose is actually quite good. Reclaim makes for interesting multiplayer politics, as does Forcemage Advocate. There are a lot of walls in the deck, which actually makes cards like Wall of Mulch, Goblin Digging Team, and Rampart Crawler relevant. Kami of Ancient Law and Hearth Kami take over in the absense of Naturalize or Disenchant.

Furthermore, this deck is under constant revision. As I spot cards that I think would make an exciting contribution, I pick them up and trade them into the deck.

Statistics
Total number of cards: 247
Total number of lands: 88
Land ratio: 35.6%

Red
Commons
4 Hearth Kami
4 Panic Attack
4 Goblin Digging Team
3 Dragon Breath
1 Chartooth Cougar

Uncommons
3 Pain Kami
3 Carbonize
3 Minotaur Explorer

Rare
1 Pandemonium

Green
Commons
4 Reclaim
4 Order of the Sacred Bell
4 Quirion Elves
3 Dragon Fangs
1 Wirewood Guardian

Uncommons
3 Wall of Mulch
3 Elephant Guide
3 Forcemage Advocate

Rare
1 Dosan the Falling Leaf

White
Commons
4 Kami of Ancient Law
4 Aven Redeemer
4 Topple
3 Dragon Scales
1 Noble Templar

Uncommons
3 Slith Ascendant
3 Ardent Militia
3 Gallantry

Rare
1 Glowrider

Blue
Commons
4 Thought Courier
4 Rethink
4 Infiltrate
3 Dragon Wings
1 Shoreline Ranger

Uncommons
3 Metamorphose
3 Psychic Barrier
3 Spiketail Drake

Rare
1 Unifying Theory

Black
Commons
4 Raise Dead
4 Grimclaw Bats
4 Rampart Crawler
3 Dragon Shadow
1 Twisted Abomination

Uncommons
3 Devour in Shadow
3 Carrion Wall
3 Addle

Rare
1 Tainted AEther

Artifacts
Commons
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Steel Wall
4 Clockwork Condor
4 Darksteel Ingot
4 Patchwork Gnomes

Uncommons
3 Icy Manipulator
3 Mourner's Shield
3 Flowstone Armor

Rare
1 Gate to the AEther

Lands
12/each Basic Land
4/each Oddysey Sacrifice Land (ie: Seafloor Debris)
4 Rainbow Vale
4 Tarnished Citadel
 
J

jorael

Guest
The Public Library idea is very nice. Over here we refer to it as Pile Magic. I prefer a pile that has some theme.

At the moment I have made 2 Piles made with left over commons.

1. U/B "Manipulated Fate"
Rules: -basic land included in the pile
-may attack left opponent only (around the corner)
-4x all non-land cards

Deck:

Islands &Swamps (about 40%)

basic creatures
Aven fisher
slipstream eel (biggest creature)
gravedigger
razortooth rats
screeching buzzard
deepwood ghoul
ravenous rats
wanderguard sentry
insidious bookworms

interesting creatures
sage owl
sage aven
saprazzan outrigger (dubbed touring boat by our group)
myr mindservant (suddenly a great card!)

spells
index
repel
dirge of dread
raise dead
chocking tethers
dark banishing
swat
memory lapse

This deck is cool because a lot of mediocre cards are suddenly the best ones in the deck :)

Index becomes great, because you manipulate the top of the library with it and set up each players draw. With memory lapse and repel you can stop something, but the next player will draw that card, unless you cycle something or use Myr Mindservant.... :cool:
 
J

jorael

Guest
The second deck:

2. "R/G Beastial Morph War"

Rules: -seperate piles of forest and mountains to draw cards of (to avoid manascrew)
-4x all non-land cards
-free to attack anyone (chaos)

creatures
goblin brigand
nosy goblin (morph anyone?)
krosan vorine
crested craghorn
leery fogbeast
spurred wolverine
bonethorn valesk

morph creatures
patron of the wild
skirk marauder
woodcloaker
battering craghorn
snarling undurak
spitting gourna
treespring lorian
charging slateback
bloodstoke howler

spells
dragon fangs
dragon breath
accelerated mutation
torrent of fire
reclaim (some library manipulation)
vitality charm
erratic explosion (pretty random :p)
pinpoint avalance

This deck is meant to give all those unused beasts and morphs a day in the sun. Nosy goblin suddenly is good (whell better...) with this much morphs. There is not much removal but some provoke creatures, it's their time to shine too.

The dragon fangs and dragon breaths can be returned by hardcasting some creatures instead of playing them as a morph. Can be difficult choice.

Player have to choose each draw if they want to draw a land or not and only with a lot of lands you can play the more expensive spells and morph costs.
 
E

Ephraim

Guest
I've also just added Ashnod's Coupon to the stack. I've been ogling it for a long time, for this deck, and I found a copy for $4.00 -- the cheapest I've ever seen it. Since this is the deck I'll usually take with me to play at a coffee shop, Ashnod's Coupon will be useful sometimes, too (especially since random people will occasionally accept an offer to sit down and play.)
 
C

Chaos Turtle

Guest
We called that format "FATTIE." Named for the size of the "deck," the size of the creatures, as well as for the... ah, well, you know (and if you don't, so much the better).

The principle seems to be the same, but global sweepers are not permitted; nor are counterspells of any sort, nor any creature smaller than a Serra Angel (unless it's awesome, like, say, Morphling). Landkill and handkill are likewise pointless. Pretty much anything else goes, and the more outrageous, the better.

We start at 100 life, draw 2 cards and play 2 lands per turn, and no one attacks until after the first 2 turns have been taken. Also, bogarting the Squishee is strictly forbidden.
 
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