Variant: Division Anthology Extended (DAX)

N

Notepad

Guest
Making a format variant that I am about to test out with Orgg, and perhaps write some articles on. Maybe one each for both here and PoD.

Anyway, DAX uses Extended-legal cards, but it requires you to use at least 3 of every card from every legal set. Your sideboard does not count for these requirements, only your main deck. When the set numbers get high enough, as in True Extended, the requirement will drop to at least 2 of every card. For now, though, testing is with the Online Extended set.

Basic lands count as meeting the requirements, though this makes for some really interesting interactions. Do you use your 7e and 8e slots for basic lands? Or do you use them for Wrath of God and Counterspell?

Currently Online Extended (where we're testing this) has the following sets:
7e, 8e, IPA, OTJ, OLS, MDF, C

In a little less than a year, both Online Extended and True Extended will merge, making the legal sets:
7e, 8e, 9e, IPA, OTJ, OLS, MDF, CBS, R

For now, however, three of each of the 15 sets means 45 cards are a must-have, with 15 extra slots.

(Currently, with 15 sets, a requirement of 4-per-set would make sense, but such a thing would exist for only one month, until BoK comes out online. There will never, ever, be such a low number of sets on Extended, so may as well never use the 4-card rule. Instead the more regular 3-card.)

What this takes off of is the very first Pro Tour, where I think the requirement was at least 2 cards from each legal set. A nice requirement, but why not make it more interesting by turning as much of the deck as possible into requirements? It also takes off the Anthologies box set, where two decks each had to have one of every card from the Magic sets in existence.

What's the point of this?
-Like Prismatic, it lets you enjoy parts of your collection you'd otherwise not get to play.
-Brokenness is considerably reduced. Affinity? Madness? Tribal? What? You can still make attempts at such decks, but they'll be nowhere near as psychotically unfair as their normal Extended versions. This means a more level playing field.
-Metagame Overload on Strategy! Yeah, if you really love strategically figuring out how to thwart your enemies, this should prove a real challenge. Where will the card slots be used up? Oh, man.

I could write on and on with theory, but I think I'll save that for an article or two. For now, I just wanted to post the idea to open it up for any feedback. Also, want to get some testing done online before really speaking much about the theory (in case new ones turn up, or existing ones are totally disproven).
 
J

jorael

Guest
Sounds very cool! Great variant to do some more competitive gaming at home. It requires a lot of deckbuilding skills, so I like it.

3 or 2 cards per set doesn't matter much. A set is a huge cardpool to make selections from. I take it that it may be up to 3 different cards from one set?
 
N

Notepad

Guest
As long as you have 3 cards from each set, that is all that's needed. They can be different cards. For example, you can choose Volcanic Hammer, Shock and Goblin Raider as your three cards from 7e. Or, you could choose three copies of Volcanic Hammer.

This is ABSOLUTELY FUN just trying to build a deck. I spent a good half hour going through ideas finding that they'd fall flat with other sets needed (goblins tend not to work so well anymore...heh. Sligh is still good, though.) You really have to think about your card choices, especially in the valuable 7e, 8e, Inv, Ody, Ons, Mir, and Kami slots. The best staple cards are in those sets, but those are also the only sets you'll be getting your basic lands from. Do you spend yout extra 15 slots on all basic land to make sure you have staples, or do you use the main sets for land and use the extra 15 slots for power cards from small expansions? Hmm... Quite fun!

In the end, I just went with a very casual design. Will have to see how it does.
 
M

Mikeymike

Guest
Wow, this is really, really cool.

It pretty much forces you to crack the 60 card limit, unless you want to try to dedicated 39 with no basic cards. Nah.

Alright, here's my own 80 card limit. I need some kid of focus. 40% land too...

Say 7,8 are giving you 6 lands for now
39 dedicated to 13 different sets
26 other lands
9 free slots

I:
P:
A:

O:
T:
J:

O:
L:
S:

M:
D:
F:

C:

......and I will come back to finish this off at a time when I don't need sleep.
 
N

Notepad

Guest
I didn't break it down mathematically when I worked on my deck. What I did was just start pulling out the three best cards from each small set. If something really shone, it would get maxed. Then, I went through the main seven sets and picked out lands I needed versus staple spells. That was a hard part, but I ended up with a workable deck.

Dang. Just tried to upload the MTGO file. Looks like it ain't allowed. Will have to export the text list later. Too tired right now...
 
O

orgg

Guest
I'll say one thing: Assuming that most will want the sixty card ceiling, this format is HARD.

I just wrote a note to Sef about modifying the rules to be a little less stringent and more like the Pro Tour rules (which, by the way, was five cards from each set avaible in either deck and sideboard).

Allowing sideboards to soak up slots makes the sixty card rung achievable(a good thing, in my book), and still keeps things interesting.

I don't think forcing someone to go over sixty cards is a good idea... if some kind of limit isn't enforced, it's just a format for Battle of Wits. I don't want to see the "60/SETS" formula become more complicated and force "X%" of each set into your deck (like Tribal did online).

Keep it simple is my recommendation, and more testing on that line will have to be done.

I also think that basic lands feel like a copout, and shouldn't count as being from a certain set.
 
N

Notepad

Guest
Argh, totally forgot about the deck list! Orgg sent me some ideas that I'm reading over, so there might be some changes to the format. There are a bunch of hurdles using the X/SETS formular behind the format. Might be doing some tweaking.

Dunno, still have to read through Orgg's long message. :D Only got to his belly aching over having to use main set slots for lands. :p :p :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top