Welcome to 3 Card Magic, the world's best minimalist Magic format!
What's 3CM? The basic concept is simple: make a deck consisting of any three Magic cards, and try to beat all the other decks! If you're new here, you should start by reading the 3CM Primer. Deck submissions should be PM'd to me, CommanderJim, or emailed to [email protected].
The Rules
Deckbuilding Each player creates a deck of three Magic cards following the banned list, and any additional restrictions imposed by the current format. (See Round Types below.) Decks are submitted to me via private message with "3CM" and "Deck" somewhere in the title. My deck is finalized before reading these PMs; if you'd like me to send you a verification PM with my list in it, just ask. You may update your decklist up until the deadline. (Unless you've asked me to share my list with you.)
If you send me a deck that can't win against a deck with three blank cards, I'll ask you to confirm that you're aware of this fact. This rule exists to prevent people from accidentally submitting decks that don't work, while still allowing Karn Liberated decks and other such shenanigans.
Gameplay After the round is closed, each deck plays against each other deck twice, once going first and once going second. Normal Magic rules apply to a game of 3CM, except for the following exceptions.
Players don't lose the game for drawing from an empty library.
If the original source of a random effect (i.e. coinflip) comes from one player's deck, the other player chooses its outcome.
Effects that get cards from outside the game (Wishes, Research // Development, Ring of Ma'ruf) cannot be used to find anything.
Games are played with the contents of both decks known to each player at all times. Players will always play optimally and to win.
Scoring When the round is closed, a spreadsheet of all the decks and matchups is posted, to be filled in by the players. Players are encouraged to double-check the matchups graded by other players, since mistakes are often made when complicated decks are involved. A win is worth 3 points, a draw is 1 point, and a loss is 0 points.
Round Types A season consists of four rounds: two vanilla and two alternate formats. Vanilla: These rounds follow normal rules, but have a banned list that changes every season. Alternate Formats: These rounds use special rules that might effect deckbuilding, gameplay, or both!
Fabulous Prizes When a round is done being graded, prizes are awarded! Grand Prizes are given out at the end of the season. Round Prizes: The winner of each round may suggest an alternate format (in either category) to be put on the poll next season. Consolation Prizes: The lowest-scoring player of each Vanilla round picks one card from that round's winning deck to add to the next season's Vanilla banned list. Grand Prizes: The top-scoring players of the entire season each get to make some number of changes to the Vanilla banned list, based on their rank. Each change allows that player to either add a card or remove a card. First place gets three changes, second place gets two, and third place gets one. Note: A card may not be unbanned if it was newly banned at the start of the season.
Tiebreakers 1. Head-to-head: Whoever has the most points from games against other the other tied player(s) wins the tie. 2. Match-Wins: Whoever won the most games wins the tie. (Ignore draws.)
Previous Seasons
Season 1 Season 2 (Winners: thatmarkguy, CommanderJim, Yarium) Season 3 (Winners: Hello World, purple shrimp, mjack33) Season 4 (Winners: razorborne, masterofdoom, thatmarkguy) Season 5 (Winners: razorborne, door (dooooooooooor), Hello World) Season 6 (Winners: POSValkir, thatmarkguy, door (dooooooooooor)) Season 7 (Winners: CommanderJim, thatmarkguy, GobO_Scarlet) Season 8 (Winners: CommanderJim, thatmarkguy, mjack33) Season 9 (Winners: thatmarkguy, silasw, POSValkir) Season 10 (Winners: vlord, thatmarkguy, silasw) Season 11 (Winners: POSValkir, mjack33, silasw) Season 12 (Winners: Rubik, POSValkir, CommanderJim) Season 13 (Winners: thatmarkguy, Rubik, POSValkir) Season 14 (Winners: Rubik, Golgari_Spy, thatmarkguy) Season 15 (Winners: Golgari_Spy, thatmarkguy, Rubik) Season 16 (Winners: thatmarkguy, POSValkir, Golgari_Spy) Season 17 (Winners: door (dooooooooooor), thatmarkguy, Golgari_Spy) Season 18 (Winners: Golgari_Spy, Edacade, door (dooooooooooor)) Season 19 (Winners: thatmarkguy, POSValkir, Zlehtnoba) Season 20 (Winners: CommanderJim, POSValkir, Golgari_Spy) Season 21 (Winners: CommanderJim, thatmarkguy, POSValkir)
Scoreboard
Your average match points for each round are summed together to generate your score. Rank|Name|Total Score|Round 1|Round 2|Round 3|Round 4 1|Zlehtnoba|14.33|2.33|2.50|5.00|4.50 2|mark777|13.83|5.00|0.00|4.50|4.33 3|thatmarkguy|13.67|3.33|2.50|4.50|3.33 4|Edacade|11.17|1.33|5.00|2.50|2.33 5|CommanderJim|10.17|4.33|4.17|0.00|1.67 6|Golgari_Spy|9.50|0.00|3.17|3.00|3.33 7|POSValkir|9.00|4.00|3.50|1.50|0.00
Past Round: Collector Submit a 3 card deck, and mark one of those cards. You start the game with all three cards in your hand and with a countably finite number of copies of the marked card in your library. Players can lose for drawing from an empty library. Extra bans: anything that has or gives ripple, anything that lets you search an opponent's library, Battle of Wits, Beck // Call, Glimpse of Nature, Grindstone, Manamorphose, Sphinx's Tutelage Note: I removed the "blank opponent" part from the discard rule. So turn-1 Despise is now illegal. Begins Friday, December 23rd Ends Wednesday, December 28th
Past Round: You Can't Win Each player begins the game with an Abyssal Persecutor card on the battlefield. (It does not have summoning sickness on your first turn.) Begins Friday, December 30th Ends Wednesday, January 4th
We're trying some new things this season! The discard rule has been changed to instead ban any deck that can reduce an opponent's hand size at all before they take a full turn. So turn-1 Duress is out, but turn-2 Mind Rot is in. Remember, you can't just have turn-1 discard and not use it until turn 2. If your deck is at all capable of forcing discard on turn 1, it's illegal. I'm also temporarily replacing the Vanilla Redux with a Vanilla Land format to see if that's a format people might enjoy. Both of these changes are experimental. Some may stick, some may be reworked, and some may be undone entirely. Have fun!
Last edited by CommanderJim on Tue Jan 10, 2017 2:26 am, edited 17 times in total.
Hey there! I'm sure you have some questions about this season, but let's start with a recap of last season, shall we?
With Black Lotus banned, last season felt comparatively low-power. Players who still wanted to cast big spells had to patiently wait for their Icatian Stores to fill and their Lotus Blooms to, well, bloom. In a world of waiting, one man dared to be fast, playing turn-1 Tidehollow Sculler to ruin whatever his opponents plans may be. That man was thatmarkguy, and his aggressive sculling put him in first place. The next round was full of decks that were all ready to do something on turn one. One deck even summoned a 5/5 indestructible lich, but the winning turn-1 play was Golgari_Spy's Bitterblossom. Combined with Mishra's Factory, that two-mana Faerie engine could not be beat. Our first alternate round was Storm Scale, where the great and powerful Storm Crow decreed that no deck could beat her, and we obeyed. Many players honored the Storm Crow with similar cards like Dream Thrush, Pili-Pala, and Wu Light Cavalry. I myself picked two controlcards that happened to be useless against the almighty bird, while still being versatile tools against the pretenders. In our final round (Auras!), every permanent could get a free Aura with the same mana cost. One very popular choice was combining using the Elemental Resonance of a leyline to get four mana every turn. Another option was to perform an Unhallowed Pact with a nice, plump Blood Vassal to get infinite black mana. Using this ritual, I summoned Emrakul, the Promised End, bringing an end to both my opponents and to the season.
This time around, no one unbanned anything! We're getting closer and closer to the point where we're all playing with Forests and Grizzly Bears.
I always like seeing what people come up with when more and more of the usual options are taken away. We've also got a new discard rule and a new form of Vanilla to try out! At the end of the season we'll do some voting to see what people did and didn't like. But for now, let's get ready for some 3 Card Magic! Whoo!
New Round: Vanilla Begins Saturday, December 10th Ends Wednesday, December 14th
Joined: Oct 04, 2015 Posts: 4649 Location: Alchemist's Refuge
Identity: Male
Preferred Pronoun Set: he/him/his/his/himself
Shhh! I wanna win with the Fastbond LifegiftFireball deck I came up with.
Disclaimer
I actually just did a search for cards that would break Fastbond (was looking to see if there was something with Buyback that gained life equal to the number of lands you controlled), this is not an actual list I had prepared for Vanilla Land
Joined: Oct 04, 2015 Posts: 4649 Location: Alchemist's Refuge
Identity: Male
Preferred Pronoun Set: he/him/his/his/himself
Actually, I suppose technically the decklist I just gave would be illegal since it wins before a blank opponent gets a turn. It'd have to be Fastbond Near-Death Experience {counterspell of some description} to conform to deck restrictions.
Essentially I am agreeing with adding Fastbond to the banlist for the purposes of Vanilla Land. Exploration and anything else that gives early (non-infinite) extra land drops should be left alone so they're options for the consolation prize ban.
Why not just do what every other person on the planet does and have players draw a vanilla land at the beginning of their turn? Allows more strategy but doesn't cause anything massively stupid.
Why not just do what every other person on the planet does and have players draw a vanilla land at the beginning of their turn? Allows more strategy but doesn't cause anything massively stupid.
I was following MTGS's example, so your definition of "every other person on the planet" may need to be revised.
There will be additional bans. MTGS has their own separate banlist for this format, and I'm still trying to decide how much of it is necessary here.
Joined: Oct 04, 2015 Posts: 4649 Location: Alchemist's Refuge
Identity: Male
Preferred Pronoun Set: he/him/his/his/himself
The new rule is that T1 disruption is illegal. Just let the T2 disruption all be legal until somebody bans them. There's no need to ban a hundred cards before we have a chance to see what they do with the changes. Just the obviously broken ones (Fastbond).
No it's turn 1 Discard is illegal. Brain Maggot is still fine.
Turn one Brain Maggot is definitely not legal. The rule specifically bans reducing the number of cards in your opponent's hand before they can take a full turn.
No it's turn 1 Discard is illegal. Brain Maggot is still fine.
Turn one Brain Maggot is definitely not legal. The rule specifically bans reducing the number of cards in your opponent's hand before they can take a full turn.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum
Login
Register
Card Search
NGAWiki
Search
