Gut Shot's not free. It costs 2 life.

But yes, technically Phyrexian mana gets around the restriction if you pay life instead of mana.

I think it leans a little towards tokenmaker decks like Mayor - a deck immediately sprang to mind that this definitely enables - but seems fair enough to me. Also towards freecasts (either Phyrexian mana or stuff like Unmask / Pyrokinesis). We've had better, we've had worse. If it has enough support to win a poll it's playable.

Double Dip: If this format wins, the format with the second highest vote is combined with the format with the lowest vote.

Alternate name: Spatial Merging

Just how do you merge formats? I mean, cool idea, but is it doable?

I'm sure there would be instances where merging two formats wouldn't work, but for the most part you just use both of them at the same time.

Really I just think it would be an interesting way to get people to also consider what they're not voting for.

Archdruids: As a turn-based action, at the beginning of each player's untap step that player gains control of all lands. This happens before untapping permanents.

Would appreciate feedback on this. It's looking like I'll get to suggest a format as Round 2 prize for Season 22 and I'm trying to decide between this and Double Dip.

I don't think you can rely on your opponents even playing lands, and unless people are deliberately trying to play a Trojan Horse strategy (Sorrow's path?) they'll just play artifact mana.

We could always ban all nonland mana sources.

But on a serious note, I suppose I could instead make my considerations between Double Dip and another format idea that I'd rather not reveal here (doesn't mess with the game rules like Archdruid does so I consider it a lot more tame in comparison and thus easier to determine on my own whether it's worth submitting).

Masterpiece Theater:
With exception to basic lands, can only use cards that have been printed as Masterpieces (including Zendikar Expeditions).

This one should be saved until there are at least two more blocks worth of Masterpieces, though.

Neat. I don't think you'd even need the basic land exemption - make people decide if they want to use a shock or a petal or Confluence or Orchard for their colored mana.

I agree that it would be pretty weak right now, there being no need for colored mana at all (Gearhulks not 3cm viable!).

Sounds interesting. Don't know about fun, but it would call for some R&D.

How about a format that says simply, "You cannot win before the opponent takes five turns"?

Would need some very precise wording so people know exactly how they interact with the rule. "You cannot submit a deck that can beat a blank opponent before that player's fifth turn is over"? "Each player begins with an emblem with five time counters on it that states 'You cannot win the game while this emblem has at least one time counter on it. Remove a time counter from this each time an opponent's turn ends"?

I was thinking no deck restrictions, but something like the clause on Serra Avenger. Your emblem idea would work, but somebody might mess it up with proliferate. So, I'd prefer an additional rule that says something like:

If a player would win the game before the opponent took his first five turns, that player does not win the game instead and his opponent's life total becomes 20.

The intent is that you can take the time to set up your powerful play/crazy combo, and see what we can come up if we don't have to worry about losing early. And if you can kill yourself in the first five turns, gain 20 life from it and set up something crazy that way, that's fine.

If the counter's on an emblem, proliferate isn't an issue. Because emblems are neither players nor permanents.



Also, I don't agree with resetting a player's life total to 20 if you somehow accidentally cause the 20th damage before their fifth turn (perhaps because they ran Furnace of Rath).

I still wasn't happy with the wording though, because it does trigger at a time when things shouldn't trigger.

But wow, zlen's "you can kill yourself and restore up to 20 during the first 5 turns" concept gives this format a hard turn from downside to upside.

The scary part is, I doubt having 4 20/20 creatures in play the first turn you're able to win would even be good enough.

The thing is, without the life reset, you can simply drop them into negative life totals ASAP, and then they die on their sixth upkeep. Which is not what I want. That processor idea is also not what I want, though.

Take three:

All players get an emblem with, If an opponent would win the game during your first five turns, they don't win the game instead. Your life total becomes 1.

So, if you want to play with the Processor, fine, but Gut Shot kills you on your sixth upkeep.

i just find some way to break wall of blood instead

How about an emblem that reads "until each player has had 5 complete turns, life totals cannot change, players cannot get poison counters, and players cannot win or lose the game". So basically the abilities of Platinum Emperion, Platinum Angel, and a dash of Melira, ensuring that players still have ground to cover once turn 6 begins.

When I made my comment, I was assuming the emblem idea was a bad one. And the only thing I said in regards to the emblem idea was that proliferate wasn't a problem for it (cause you can't proliferate counters onto an emblem).

I was assuming the idea was to replace the "can't win before the opponent has had a full turn" rule with "can't win before the opponent has had five full turns." Which would naturally disallow a LOT of stuff, and disable all these weird ass "I attempt to kill myself before my fifth turn but it's really just setting up my wincon. "

Edit: parsing of original rule, in banlist -- "Any deck that can win before a blank opponent can take a full turn. (A blank opponent is an opponent with three blank cards.)"
parsing of alternate round rule -- "Any deck that can win before an opponent can take five full turns is banned."