C
Captain Caveman
Guest
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Casual Play Article
September 06, 2001
Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 8: Giant Spider
by Stijn van Dongen
THE RAAD VAN WIJZE MANNEN PRESENTS: TRIBES
The Tribes tournament is a casual tournament being
played in the multiplayer format. A Tribe is a
race of creatures, like Apes or Giants or Clerics.
Each deck has to be of a single tribe and may
therefore only contain creatures of the chosen
tribe. All other cards may only be included once,
except when the name of the tribe appears on the
card.
So a Vampire tribe may play with four Vampiric
Tutors and with four Sengir Vampires, but only
with one Terror and with no Hypnotic Specters at
all.
But sometimes a creature is of a certain tribe,
while its creature type isn’t. To stay in the
Vampiric mood, let’s consider Baron Sengir. He is
very definitely a Vampire, yet his creature type
is Legend. Here’s the rule covering this: The name
of a tribe has to be an existing creature type,
but a tribe creature doesn’t have to be of that
type. As soon as the name of the tribe appears on
the card, it is a tribe card. So Baron Sengir is a
Vampire, because he is able to regenerate
Vampires. (If the baron didn’t have that cool
ability, it would have been a terrible waste. He
wouldn’t have been allowed in a Vampire deck. God
praise R&D for the regeneration ability!) Now, of
course, only the English wording of cards is
accepted. Otherwise, Vampiric Tutor wouldn’t be
allowed in a Vampire deck: It is called
Blutsaugender Lehrmeister in German!
This deck also allows cool spells to be of a
certain tribe. I reckon the Death tribe wouldn’t
be much more than a hassle if Living Death been a
card of its tribe. So for example, the Shade tribe
is allowed to play with four Frozen Shades, four
Ihsan's Shades, four Scents of Nightshade, and
four Nightshade Seers. Only one Vampiric Tutor is
allowed, and Sengir Vampire is forbidden.
There will always be the misanthrope who tries and
bend these rules: He will say "Ants" are his
tribe, then stuff his deck full of ANTS, instANTS,
enchANTments, giANTS and plANTS. This has to be
foiled, and that is done by this rule: The name of
your tribe that appears on the card has to include
the the meaning of the name of your tribe. For
example: the ant in enchantment doesn’t mean "tiny
little insect that steals the show in A Bug’s
Life." And the monk in Crimson Kobolds doesn’t
mean ‘inhabitant of a monastery,’ either.
(Still searching for the monk? It’s in ‘summon
kobold.’)
Now to get all the other rules concerning the
tribeness of a card out of the way: The name of
the tribe may be mentioned in any way. So an Elf
tribe may, of course, play with Elves. It may also
play with Elvish stuff. Or Elven stuff. Or
anything else, so long as the word links back to
Elf.
Now for some shadier stuff: the Brother tribe may
use up to four copies of Sisters of the Flame. Or
of Mother of Runes. Or of Uncle Istvan.
Grandmother Sengir. Child of Gaea.
The King tribe could consist of four copies of
each of King Suleiman, Sorceress Queen, Sliver
Queen, Kingfisher, King Crab, Pixie Queen, King
Cheetah, and, last but not least (but certainly
most unexpected), Royal Assassin. Or did you have
another adjective in mind for King?
The only weird declination that is not allowed is
the denial of a tribe or the name of a tribe that
is also a game rule. Examples of both rules:
Juggernaut, with its ability not to be able to be
blocked by walls, isn’t a Wall card — and neither
is Unnatural Selection, which mentions non-wall
somewhere. And where Nether Shadow is a viable
Shadow tribe card, Soltari Lancer isn’t, as the
Shadow word on that card is the name of a game
rule.
Now to disenchant the hopes of all Greevil fans
out there: A Greevil tribe cannot be made. For a
tribe deck to be legal, at least thirty tribe
cards have to be included in your ninety-card
thick deck, twenty-five of which have to be tribe
creatures. This means that at least eight
different tribe cards have to exist. A tribe
doesn’t need to use all of its legal cards. This
is to keep the Goblin tribe viable, and to allow
for some decent deck construction.
But what if your beloved tribe only has seven
different cards? This way a legal deck can never
be made — and we were so close! Only two cards
short of the minimum...But never fear, a legend
may be recruited in those special occasions. Just
think of a legend that could conceivably be of
your tribe and ask one of the members of team RVWM
for permission to use it as a tribe card. Or,
which is probably more convenient, ask the Tourney
Official for his approval.
So let’s say seven different hippos existed and a
twisted mind would want to build a hippo tribe
deck. He would have to ask permission to use a
legend as a hippo. When he approaches me to ask if
Rith, the Awakener is a viable hippo, I’d slap him
in response. Or maybe I’d tell some one to slap
him. (Or maybe I’d just tell him I wouldn't allow
it.) But would he ask me permission to use
Phelddagrif, I’d pat him on the back and wish him
luck with his deck in the next tournament.
Cards that become creatures, like Opal Archangel,
count towards the twenty-five card minimum. The
same goes for token generators like Sacred Mesa:
That is a valid Pegasus creature in tribes.
Nota Bene: There is no creature card that has the
creature type ‘saproling.’ Hence, a saproling
tribe cannot be made. Should a Saproling ever be
made, I think I’ll run away in fear — since a deck
with four Verdant Forces right next to four Aura
Mutations, living in harmony with four Elvish
Farmers, scares the hell out of me. (Note:
Artifact and Aura Mutation are both saproling
tribe creatures. They, can therefore, not be used
by other tribes. A Master of the Hunt on the other
hand, is a valid Master creature, a valid Hunter
creature, and a valid Wolf creature.)
The basic rules in a nutshell:
Play with at least ninety cards in your deck,
and with at least 30 tribe cards.
A minimum of 25 tribe creatures must be in your
deck.
Each non-basic land card may only be played
once, except for tribe cards.
Creatures that are not of your tribe are banned.
Now whenever multiplayer is played, there is
always the risk of a single game lasting longer
than the Roman empire. This might sometimes be
caused by excessive life gaining. So when
organizing a multiplayer tournament, the following
rules are recommended by the RVWM:
1. Anytime an amount of life is gained, this
cannot be more than five life. Exempla Gratia: A
Stream of Life cast for eight will don it’s caster
only five life.
2. Life gaining spells cannot be cast with
buyback. For example, Worthy Cause now sucks.
3. A permanent with the ability to grant life will
only do so when the life granted isn’t given to
its controller. So an Ivory Tower basically does
nothing, and a Spirit Link does nothing as well. A
Grollub, on the other hand, still has all of its
abilities, since the life-effect is only
beneficial to opponents. Sol'Kanar the Swamp King
is still a savage facesmasher that lays tight
beats, but you won’t mise any life from him
anymore.
There are a few more rules that are occupied with
making multiplayer tournaments more fun. They are:
1. Color hosers are out of the question. The
definition of a color hoser used for this rule is:
A card that benefits from the existence of more
than one other card of a certain color or type.
Good examples of hosers are Flashfires, Perish,
Crackdown, and Compost. Hosing abilities imbued in
creatures or lands just cannot be activated. So a
Northern Paladin looks to the North, my son, and
only finds himself to be an overcosted Hill Giant.
Nota Bene: A Red Elemental Blast is no hoser,
since it doesn’t profit from the existence of
multiple blue cards. It only takes down one of
them. (Hey, I played with two Red and two Blue
Elemental Blasts while playing with my Elemental
tribe; they proved quite useful.)
2. Tribe hosers are out of the question. You
thought Tivadar’s Crusade would be the nuts? You
thought Spike Cannibal would be les noisettes? You
thought Suleiman's Legacy would be die Nüssen?
That Extinction would be de nootjes? That Tsabo’s
Decree would be przypis? Well, you can take your
tasty crunchy snacks somewhere else, for those
kind of cards are all banned, as is the following
list of cards:
Ashnod’s Altar
Balance
Celestial Convergence
Channel
Chaos Orb
Coat of Arms
Conspiracy
Demonic Tutor
Doomsday
Divine Intervention
Earthcraft
Falling Star
Goblin Bombardment
Limited Resources
Mind Over Matter
Mind Twist
Memory Jar
Phyrexian Altar
Portcullis
Planar Portal
Price of Progress
Primal Order
Regrowth
Reins of Power
Shaharazad
Strip Mine
Thieves' Auction
Time Walk
Unnatural Selection
And remember: Outbreak and Engineered Plague are
already banned by the rules.
4x Craw Giant
4x Karplusan Giant
4x Frost Giant
4x Heartwood Giant
4x Bloodfire Colossus
4x Bloodshot Cyclops
4x Giant Spider
4x Giant Caterpillar
4x Giant Trap Door Spider
2x Giant Growth
1x Thawing Glaciers
1x Hammerheim
1x Pendelhaven (Go Butterfly!)
1x Sol Ring (Counts as a land because it is so
cheap.)
18x Snow-covered Forest
18x Snow-covered Mountain
complete list without further ado.
1x Lure
1x Mana Flare
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Creeping Mold
1x Desert Twister
1x Shiv’s Embrace
1x Gaea’s Embrace
1x Furnace of Rath
1x Fanning the Flames
1x Stormbind
1x Fireball
1x Earthquake
1x Hurricane
1x Pyroclasm
1x Steamblast
1x Hammer of Bogardan
1x Kaervek’s Torch
1x Rolling Thunder
1x Fireball
1x Incinerate
1x Lightning Bolt
1x Goblin War Drums
Emperial Regards,
Stijn van Dongen,
Team RVWM
Casual Play Article
September 06, 2001
Multiplayer Is An Art, Part 8: Giant Spider
by Stijn van Dongen
THE RAAD VAN WIJZE MANNEN PRESENTS: TRIBES
The Tribes tournament is a casual tournament being
played in the multiplayer format. A Tribe is a
race of creatures, like Apes or Giants or Clerics.
Each deck has to be of a single tribe and may
therefore only contain creatures of the chosen
tribe. All other cards may only be included once,
except when the name of the tribe appears on the
card.
So a Vampire tribe may play with four Vampiric
Tutors and with four Sengir Vampires, but only
with one Terror and with no Hypnotic Specters at
all.
But sometimes a creature is of a certain tribe,
while its creature type isn’t. To stay in the
Vampiric mood, let’s consider Baron Sengir. He is
very definitely a Vampire, yet his creature type
is Legend. Here’s the rule covering this: The name
of a tribe has to be an existing creature type,
but a tribe creature doesn’t have to be of that
type. As soon as the name of the tribe appears on
the card, it is a tribe card. So Baron Sengir is a
Vampire, because he is able to regenerate
Vampires. (If the baron didn’t have that cool
ability, it would have been a terrible waste. He
wouldn’t have been allowed in a Vampire deck. God
praise R&D for the regeneration ability!) Now, of
course, only the English wording of cards is
accepted. Otherwise, Vampiric Tutor wouldn’t be
allowed in a Vampire deck: It is called
Blutsaugender Lehrmeister in German!
This deck also allows cool spells to be of a
certain tribe. I reckon the Death tribe wouldn’t
be much more than a hassle if Living Death been a
card of its tribe. So for example, the Shade tribe
is allowed to play with four Frozen Shades, four
Ihsan's Shades, four Scents of Nightshade, and
four Nightshade Seers. Only one Vampiric Tutor is
allowed, and Sengir Vampire is forbidden.
There will always be the misanthrope who tries and
bend these rules: He will say "Ants" are his
tribe, then stuff his deck full of ANTS, instANTS,
enchANTments, giANTS and plANTS. This has to be
foiled, and that is done by this rule: The name of
your tribe that appears on the card has to include
the the meaning of the name of your tribe. For
example: the ant in enchantment doesn’t mean "tiny
little insect that steals the show in A Bug’s
Life." And the monk in Crimson Kobolds doesn’t
mean ‘inhabitant of a monastery,’ either.
(Still searching for the monk? It’s in ‘summon
kobold.’)
Now to get all the other rules concerning the
tribeness of a card out of the way: The name of
the tribe may be mentioned in any way. So an Elf
tribe may, of course, play with Elves. It may also
play with Elvish stuff. Or Elven stuff. Or
anything else, so long as the word links back to
Elf.
Now for some shadier stuff: the Brother tribe may
use up to four copies of Sisters of the Flame. Or
of Mother of Runes. Or of Uncle Istvan.
Grandmother Sengir. Child of Gaea.
The King tribe could consist of four copies of
each of King Suleiman, Sorceress Queen, Sliver
Queen, Kingfisher, King Crab, Pixie Queen, King
Cheetah, and, last but not least (but certainly
most unexpected), Royal Assassin. Or did you have
another adjective in mind for King?
The only weird declination that is not allowed is
the denial of a tribe or the name of a tribe that
is also a game rule. Examples of both rules:
Juggernaut, with its ability not to be able to be
blocked by walls, isn’t a Wall card — and neither
is Unnatural Selection, which mentions non-wall
somewhere. And where Nether Shadow is a viable
Shadow tribe card, Soltari Lancer isn’t, as the
Shadow word on that card is the name of a game
rule.
Now to disenchant the hopes of all Greevil fans
out there: A Greevil tribe cannot be made. For a
tribe deck to be legal, at least thirty tribe
cards have to be included in your ninety-card
thick deck, twenty-five of which have to be tribe
creatures. This means that at least eight
different tribe cards have to exist. A tribe
doesn’t need to use all of its legal cards. This
is to keep the Goblin tribe viable, and to allow
for some decent deck construction.
But what if your beloved tribe only has seven
different cards? This way a legal deck can never
be made — and we were so close! Only two cards
short of the minimum...But never fear, a legend
may be recruited in those special occasions. Just
think of a legend that could conceivably be of
your tribe and ask one of the members of team RVWM
for permission to use it as a tribe card. Or,
which is probably more convenient, ask the Tourney
Official for his approval.
So let’s say seven different hippos existed and a
twisted mind would want to build a hippo tribe
deck. He would have to ask permission to use a
legend as a hippo. When he approaches me to ask if
Rith, the Awakener is a viable hippo, I’d slap him
in response. Or maybe I’d tell some one to slap
him. (Or maybe I’d just tell him I wouldn't allow
it.) But would he ask me permission to use
Phelddagrif, I’d pat him on the back and wish him
luck with his deck in the next tournament.
Cards that become creatures, like Opal Archangel,
count towards the twenty-five card minimum. The
same goes for token generators like Sacred Mesa:
That is a valid Pegasus creature in tribes.
Nota Bene: There is no creature card that has the
creature type ‘saproling.’ Hence, a saproling
tribe cannot be made. Should a Saproling ever be
made, I think I’ll run away in fear — since a deck
with four Verdant Forces right next to four Aura
Mutations, living in harmony with four Elvish
Farmers, scares the hell out of me. (Note:
Artifact and Aura Mutation are both saproling
tribe creatures. They, can therefore, not be used
by other tribes. A Master of the Hunt on the other
hand, is a valid Master creature, a valid Hunter
creature, and a valid Wolf creature.)
The basic rules in a nutshell:
Play with at least ninety cards in your deck,
and with at least 30 tribe cards.
A minimum of 25 tribe creatures must be in your
deck.
Each non-basic land card may only be played
once, except for tribe cards.
Creatures that are not of your tribe are banned.
Now whenever multiplayer is played, there is
always the risk of a single game lasting longer
than the Roman empire. This might sometimes be
caused by excessive life gaining. So when
organizing a multiplayer tournament, the following
rules are recommended by the RVWM:
1. Anytime an amount of life is gained, this
cannot be more than five life. Exempla Gratia: A
Stream of Life cast for eight will don it’s caster
only five life.
2. Life gaining spells cannot be cast with
buyback. For example, Worthy Cause now sucks.
3. A permanent with the ability to grant life will
only do so when the life granted isn’t given to
its controller. So an Ivory Tower basically does
nothing, and a Spirit Link does nothing as well. A
Grollub, on the other hand, still has all of its
abilities, since the life-effect is only
beneficial to opponents. Sol'Kanar the Swamp King
is still a savage facesmasher that lays tight
beats, but you won’t mise any life from him
anymore.
There are a few more rules that are occupied with
making multiplayer tournaments more fun. They are:
1. Color hosers are out of the question. The
definition of a color hoser used for this rule is:
A card that benefits from the existence of more
than one other card of a certain color or type.
Good examples of hosers are Flashfires, Perish,
Crackdown, and Compost. Hosing abilities imbued in
creatures or lands just cannot be activated. So a
Northern Paladin looks to the North, my son, and
only finds himself to be an overcosted Hill Giant.
Nota Bene: A Red Elemental Blast is no hoser,
since it doesn’t profit from the existence of
multiple blue cards. It only takes down one of
them. (Hey, I played with two Red and two Blue
Elemental Blasts while playing with my Elemental
tribe; they proved quite useful.)
2. Tribe hosers are out of the question. You
thought Tivadar’s Crusade would be the nuts? You
thought Spike Cannibal would be les noisettes? You
thought Suleiman's Legacy would be die Nüssen?
That Extinction would be de nootjes? That Tsabo’s
Decree would be przypis? Well, you can take your
tasty crunchy snacks somewhere else, for those
kind of cards are all banned, as is the following
list of cards:
Ashnod’s Altar
Balance
Celestial Convergence
Channel
Chaos Orb
Coat of Arms
Conspiracy
Demonic Tutor
Doomsday
Divine Intervention
Earthcraft
Falling Star
Goblin Bombardment
Limited Resources
Mind Over Matter
Mind Twist
Memory Jar
Phyrexian Altar
Portcullis
Planar Portal
Price of Progress
Primal Order
Regrowth
Reins of Power
Shaharazad
Strip Mine
Thieves' Auction
Time Walk
Unnatural Selection
And remember: Outbreak and Engineered Plague are
already banned by the rules.
4x Craw Giant
4x Karplusan Giant
4x Frost Giant
4x Heartwood Giant
4x Bloodfire Colossus
4x Bloodshot Cyclops
4x Giant Spider
4x Giant Caterpillar
4x Giant Trap Door Spider
2x Giant Growth
1x Thawing Glaciers
1x Hammerheim
1x Pendelhaven (Go Butterfly!)
1x Sol Ring (Counts as a land because it is so
cheap.)
18x Snow-covered Forest
18x Snow-covered Mountain
complete list without further ado.
1x Lure
1x Mana Flare
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Creeping Mold
1x Desert Twister
1x Shiv’s Embrace
1x Gaea’s Embrace
1x Furnace of Rath
1x Fanning the Flames
1x Stormbind
1x Fireball
1x Earthquake
1x Hurricane
1x Pyroclasm
1x Steamblast
1x Hammer of Bogardan
1x Kaervek’s Torch
1x Rolling Thunder
1x Fireball
1x Incinerate
1x Lightning Bolt
1x Goblin War Drums
Emperial Regards,
Stijn van Dongen,
Team RVWM