AOM: Diplomatic Immunity

I'm adding a house rule to Army of Magic to try out.  (Skip to the bottom of the rules post if my reasoning about why/why not is painfully boring.)  The concept has met with criticism from friends based on it being too restrictive, but more on that and why I hope they'll experiment with this in a moment.

The Initial Thought

In my last post I mentioned that I like the Dethrone mechanic introduced in the Conspiracy multiplayer format.  To sum it up quickly, a creature with Dethrone gets a +1/+1 counter whenever it attacks the player with the most life or tied for the most life.  My initial suggestion was that we similarly restrict creature attacks to the player(s) "most ahead".  Probably a bad idea, as it was met with some very sound reasons not to even attempt this.

Cons

First and foremost in aversion to this approach is the observation that in Magic, life is a resource, one of several resources.  Just because a player has the most life does not mean they are "winning" or "ahead" in the game.  Conversely, a player with very low life (even negative life) may be a significant threat.  Second is the argument that multiplayer Magic is a free-for-all simulated brawl to the death, it can be brutal by nature, and only the strongest will survive.  By this logic, if a person builds a consistent deck and uses good battle strategy, they deserve to win games and shouldn't "have their hands tied" by being restricted on whom they may or may not attack.

Pros

AOM is a multiplayer format by design, inspired by EDH/Commander, which has a philosophy "designed to promote social games of magic."  The EDH core philosophy goes on to say "House rules or 'fair play' exceptions are always encouraged if they result in more fun for the local community."  I've been made acutely aware in discussing rule changes that "fun" is subjective, but let's establish some assumptions based on a correlation between "social" and "fun":

• More Casual == More Fun.  In AOM, like in EDH, as players and friends we want to talk.  We want to relax and joke and discuss more than just the details of the game.  Casual play is naturally less competitive than dueling, and we can't take the game too seriously and still enjoy ourselves.  This doesn't require ignoring the rules, but it may mean occasionally sacrificing the most effective battle strategy for allowing another player to keep enjoying the game experience.
• Longer Games == More Fun.  It's not a tournament, and we're not facing off with another player with a goal of winning as quickly as possible and moving on to the next match.  A 1-on-1 duel is like a cage match; a multiplayer game is more like a complex war between several factions.
• Staying In the Game == More Fun.  Good battle strategy often calls for eliminating one threat quickly so one can focus on other threats.  I'm suggesting that AOM isn't designed for perfect battle strategy.  Remember that it simulates a war, not a battle, and wars suffer from the complications of politics, diplomacy, and orders that may be hard to swallow (like "Hold your position and do not engage the enemy.")  If the players are sitting at the table to play the game, it won't be fun for any of them to be quickly eliminated.

As an inverse illustration of the last point above, one of my friends doesn't highly enjoy Magic; he plays out of courtesy to his nerdy friends like me.  I can't speak for his reasons, but I can imagine he doesn't appreciate the level of hostility inherent in the game combined with the element of luck--if you have terrible card draw, you'll probably lose regardless of the strength of the deck you took time to construct.  Given this particular friend's dislike for the game as a whole, he specifically contradicted the assumption that Staying In the Game == More Fun.  From his perspective, the game isn't incredibly enjoyable in the first place, so if I'm not going to win, please kill me quickly and put me out of my misery.

The above perspective and the assumptions before it are a few reasons I invented AOM.  I believe that the universal restrictions to deck building and the Diplomatic Immunity house rule I'm adding will make for longer, more casual, more participatory, more balanced, more fun games that players will want to stay in to play.

So what is the benefit of restricting attacks based on some measure of power/threat in game?  Multiplayer free-for-all games present a challenge to players: who should I attack?  How many blockers should I keep?  It's easy to form both grudges and temporary alliances based on the politics of the game, and if you happen to be targeted or even bullied by multiple opponents it's sometimes difficult not to take it personally when you're quickly dispatched from an otherwise lengthy game.  See above, Staying In the Game == More Fun.  Another difficulty may lie in not wanting to target a specific player to avoid hurt feelings between friends.  Personally, I've found these problems to be most severe in 3-player games.

Some formats already exist that help to address these issues.  Star format pits each active player against a 2-opponent team, but it typically requires 5 players and in its purest form involves 5 mono-colored decks.  Emperor and Two-Headed Giant both establish teams so everyone knows who their friends and enemies are, but again they restrict number of players and have other limitations that complicate the rules.

Enter Diplomatic Immunity.  As the tides of war ebb and flow, power shifts from one player faction to another, and orders descend from above to avoid valuable targets: potential allies and lesser threats who can be dealt with another day.  The key benefit is that nobody feels threatened/targeted for long, unless they make themselves a bigger threat.  Everyone stays in the game longer as equal powers strain to tip the scales in their favor.

The Actual Rule Already...

All opponents to the active player can attain a state of Diplomatic Immunity on each turn by meeting 3 conditions:

• No planeswalker on the battlefield AND
• Less non-land permanents on the battlefield than another opponent AND
• Less life than another opponent

The active player cannot attack or target an opponent with Diplomatic Immunity.  The active player may target the permanents of an opponent with Diplomatic Immunity, and effects that apply to each or all opponents or players still apply.  In essence, a player with Diplomatic Immunity has hexproof until end of turn and cannot be attacked in combat.  All effects that add or remove non-land permanents including permanents with Flash, and all effects that alter life totals, can immediately change the status of Diplomatic Immunity.  Examples:

• If an opponent who has Immunity casts a creature card with Flash and subsequently ties for most non-land permanents, he or she loses Immunity and may be attacked and targeted.
• If each opponent takes 2 damage but one prevents the damage, and an opponent without Immunity then meets all three criteria (no planeswalker, less permanents, less life), he or she gains Immunity.
• If an opponent gains Immunity during a combat phase but was already under attack, the attack proceeds and combat damage will be dealt.
• If an opponent gains Immunity during a turn but a spell targeting that opponent is on the stack, the spell resolves but has an illegal target so the effect will not take place.

I welcome comments!  Let me know if you think this will or won't work, what benefits or challenges you suspect it may cause, and of course your actual experience if you try it out!

Tweaking AOM

We've played a few games and had a few discussions about Army of Magic, my friends and I.  One friend didn't see anything special or any added benefit in the new format, but several stated that there's something there worth exploring.

I won't argue that Magic: the Gathering isn't primarily designed to be balanced.  It was designed by WotC to make money, by encouraging players to buy more and more cards to stay current and make better, stronger decks.  The game follows its purpose very well: buying more MTG cards is addictive.

But as I stated to my friends earlier this evening, the primary goals of the AOM format are as follows:

1. To bring balanced but diverse decks together in multiplayer gameplay.
2. To achieve casual, fun play with competition still being attainable.
3. To blend the best elements of the Constructed and EDH/Commander formats.
4. To avoid rules that require players to buy more cards in order to be competitive.

One of the things noticed in playtests is that mana ramp and inexpensive Generals threw the game off balance.  With multiple Generals or with low-mana-cost Generals, the increased mana cost of {2} per cast was no significant deterrent to avoiding creature removal when it came to casting an effective General repeatedly.  In answer to this, the rules are hereby modified.

From now on, if there is a rule change I will change the consolidated rules post but I will leave my introductory post unchanged for historical reasons.  Let's see how different the rules are a year from now!

One rule change I haven't made but have been discussing with friends is a concept similar to the Dethrone mechanic introduced in the Conspiracy format.  I'd like to introduce a rule that encourages players to attack the strongest players, giving the weaker players a chance to catch their breath and stay in the game longer.  I see the point that life total does not always equal "winning or losing", but like I said--it's a concept I'm exploring.  I see little difference in requiring players to attack the opponent(s) with the most life and the Assassin Format, other than that life totals will typically be fluctuating whereas in Assassin, each player is only targeting one other.

So down to the (current) rules:

These are the rules for a new rarity-restricted format for Magic: the Gathering that I call...

Army of Magic

Philosophy: for everyone to have fun.  AOM is designed as a casual play format, and probably won't take off on the tournament circuit.  I play with my girlfriend, our kids, and our friends, and the idea is for everyone to have a shot at winning every game if they play their hands right.

Deck Construction: remember the numbers: 3 - 6 - 9 - 12.  Remember these numbers and you can most likely remember the limits of deck building.

• There are no color restrictions in AOM.  Include whatever colors/color identities you feel you can play with the lands and deck sizes available.
• Up to 3 Generals.  Generals can be 1 to 3 creatures of your choice.  Rarity, Legendary status, and color don't matter except in keeping up with the totals below.  Just remember that these creatures will be available to play from your Command Zone similar to a Commander in EDH at an increasing cost every time you play one.  You can only cast a General when no other General is in play.  Planeswalkers cannot be Generals, even if the card says "[this] may be your Commander".  These are Generals, not Commanders.
• Generals are singletons, regardless of rarity.  You cannot include more than 1 copy of each General in your deck.
• Up to 3 Mythic Rares, only 1 copy of each.  Any mythic rare spell, including a General, counts toward this total.  Planeswalkers are typically of Mythic rarity, so they can be in your deck, just not as Generals.
• Up to 6 Rare Lands, only 1 copy of each.  Other than this cap, see Lands below.
• Up to 9 Rare Spells, with no more than 3 of those Mythic.  So 3 Mythic + 6 Rare = 9 total Rare slots.  If your deck has 1 Mythic Rare, you can have 8 Rares; 2 Mythic, 7 Rare, and so on.  Again, Rares and Mythic Rares are Singletons--you can only have one of each in your deck.
• Up to 12 Uncommons, at most 2 copies of each.  "Two-ofs" can be included of Uncommons, but there is a firm maximum of 12.  So an AOM deck could have 6 distinct Uncommons with 2 copies of each, or it could have 12 Uncommon Singletons, or any mix in between.
• No maximum of Commons, at most 4 copies of each.  So you can add any number of distinct Commons, and you can have 1-ofs, 2-ofs, 3-ofs, and 4-card sets of each specific Common.
• Lands: no maximum on Basic Lands; at most 4 copies of each Uncommon Land; up to 6 Rare Lands, only 1 copy of each.  So lands do not count toward spell rarity totals.
• Generals count toward rarity restrictions.  Example: 1 General is Mythic Rare and 2 are Rare: the deck may contain up to 6 additional Rares, with at most 2 of those being Mythic Rares.
• Deck size >= 80 cards.  No maximum deck size as long as you can shuffle it.

Legality / Ban List:

• Modern-legal cards follow the deck construction restrictions above.
• Conspiracy block cards follow the deck construction restrictions above, except that draft-specific cards such as Conspiracies are not allowed/do not apply unless distributed to players as a house rule.
• Commander-legal cards are allowed, but count as Rare regardless of the printed card rarity.
• Land Destruction is Banned.  Land destruction and any card that says "destroy ___ land(s)" is strictly forbidden.  Land control (tapping land, taking control of a land, etc.) is perfectly legal within the deck construction limits.

Gameplay:

• Unless otherwise noted or I missed something, the game is played following Standard Constructed MTG rules or the house rules your playgroup has agreed to follow.
• Players begin the game with 30 Life.
• Mulligans: each player draws 7 cards, and may mulligan by laying down the cards drawn and drawing 7 again, repeating this process until an acceptable hand is drawn.  Players should not abuse this privilege.
• Players roll dice to see who goes first; the starting player draws a card on his/her first turn.
• Generals: each player will have chosen 1 to 3 creatures as Generals.  These champions will begin the game face up in the Command Zone, which functions similarly with the zone of the same name in the Commander/EDH variant.
• A casting counter should be kept in the Command Zone for each General, incremented each time the specific General is cast from the Command Zone.  Each time a General spell is cast from the Command Zone (whether the spell resolves or not), the mana cost is increased by the converted mana cost of the spell for each time the General was previously cast from the Command Zone.
• A General may only be cast when no other General is in play (on the battlefield) under its owner's control.
• Suspend is an exception to the above rule; a General with Suspend may be exiled when another General is in play under its owner's control and is still cast when the last time counter is removed.  The following rule still applies.
• If a situation arises in which a player controls more than 1 General he or she owns, one General must be chosen by the player to be immediately sent to the graveyard or back to the Command Zone.
• If a General would be put into a library, hand, graveyard or exile from anywhere, its owner may choose to move it to the Command Zone instead.  This is a replacement effect, so triggers such as "dies", "goes to graveyard", etc. do not apply.

Army of Magic (AOM) - an MTG Variant

These are the rules for a new rarity-restricted format for Magic: the Gathering that I call...

Army of Magic

Philosophy: for everyone to have fun.  AOM is designed as a casual play format, and probably won't take off on the tournament circuit.  I play with my girlfriend, our kids, and our friends, and the idea is for everyone to have a shot at winning every game if they play their hands right.

Deck Construction: remember the numbers: 3 - 6 - 9 - 12.  Remember these numbers and you can most likely remember the limits of deck building.

• There are no color restrictions in AOM.  Include whatever colors/color identities you feel you can play with the lands and deck sizes available.
• Up to 3 Generals.  Generals can be 1 to 3 creatures of your choice.  Rarity, Legendary status, and color don't matter except in keeping up with the totals below.  Just remember that these creatures will be available to play from your Command Zone similar to a Commander in EDH at an increasing cost every time you play one.  You can only cast a General when no other General is in play.  Planeswalkers cannot be Generals, even if the card says "[this] may be your Commander".  These are Generals, not Commanders.
• Generals are singletons, regardless of rarity.  You cannot include more than 1 copy of each General in your deck.
• Up to 3 Mythic Rares, only 1 copy of each.  Any mythic rare spell, including a General, counts toward this total.  Planeswalkers are typically of Mythic rarity, so they can be in your deck, just not as Generals.
• Up to 6 Rare Lands, only 1 copy of each.  Other than this cap, see Lands below.
• Up to 9 Rare Spells, with no more than 3 of those Mythic.  So 3 Mythic + 6 Rare = 9 total Rare slots.  If your deck has 1 Mythic Rare, you can have 8 Rares; 2 Mythic, 7 Rare, and so on.  Again, Rares and Mythic Rares are Singletons--you can only have one of each in your deck.
• Up to 12 Uncommons, at most 2 copies of each.  "Two-ofs" can be included of Uncommons, but there is a firm maximum of 12.  So an AOM deck could have 6 distinct Uncommons with 2 copies of each, or it could have 12 Uncommon Singletons, or any mix in between.
• No maximum of Commons, at most 4 copies of each.  So you can add any number of distinct Commons, and you can have 1-ofs, 2-ofs, 3-ofs, and 4-card sets of each specific Common.
• Lands: no maximum on Basic Lands; at most 4 copies of each Uncommon Land; up to 6 Rare Lands, only 1 copy of each.  So lands do not count toward spell rarity totals.
• Generals count toward rarity restrictions.  Example: 1 General is Mythic Rare and 2 are Rare: the deck may contain up to 6 additional Rares, with at most 2 of those being Mythic Rares.
• Deck size >= 80 cards.  No maximum deck size as long as you can shuffle it.

Legality / Ban List:

• Modern-legal cards follow the deck construction restrictions above.
• Conspiracy block cards follow the deck construction restrictions above, except that draft-specific cards such as Conspiracies are not allowed/do not apply unless distributed to players as a house rule.
• Commander-legal cards are allowed, but count as Rare regardless of the printed card rarity.
• Basic lands have indestructible.  The original rule in AOM was that land destruction was banned; there are numerous reasons that non-basic lands should be able to be targeted and removed in various instances.  To protect from blanket effects (e.g. "Destroy all lands") and abusive land targeting, basic lands are automatically granted indestructible.  Whenever a player targets a basic land he or she controls, that land loses indestructible.  (Therefore, if a player turns a basic land into a creature, it is not indestructible after being targeted.)

Gameplay:

• Unless otherwise noted or I missed something, the game is played following Standard Constructed MTG rules or the house rules your playgroup has agreed to follow.
• Players begin the game with 30 Life.
• Mulligans: each player draws 7 cards, and may mulligan by laying down the cards drawn and drawing 7 again, repeating this process until an acceptable hand is drawn.  Players should not abuse this privilege.
• Players roll dice to see who goes first; the starting player draws a card on his/her first turn.
• Generals: each player will have chosen 1 to 3 creatures as Generals.  These champions will begin the game face up in the Command Zone, which functions similarly with the zone of the same name in the Commander/EDH variant.
• A casting counter should be kept in the Command Zone for each General, incremented each time the specific General is cast from the Command Zone.  Each time a General spell is cast from the Command Zone (whether the spell resolves or not), the mana cost is increased by {2} for each time the General was previously cast from the Command Zone.
• A General may only be cast when no other General is in play (on the battlefield) under its owner's control.
• Suspend is an exception to the above rule; a General with Suspend may be exiled when another General is in play under its owner's control and is still cast when the last time counter is removed.  The following rule still applies.
• If a situation arises in which a player controls more than 1 General he or she owns, one General must be chosen by the player to be immediately sent to the graveyard or back to the Command Zone.
• If a General would be put into a library, hand, graveyard or exile from anywhere, its owner may choose to move it to the Command Zone instead.  This is a replacement effect, so triggers such as "dies", "goes to graveyard", etc. do not apply.
• Predator vs. Prey: in a multiplayer game, the player to your left is your Prey; the player to your right is your Predator.  At all times while these two players remain in the game, you may only attack and target your Prey, unless your Predator has attacked or targeted you in the game thus far.  Once your Predator attacks or targets you or any permanent or spell you control, you are allowed to retaliate in your own defense from that point on.  When your Prey loses the game, you automatically gain 10 life, and the next player to your left becomes your new Prey.  More detailed rules follow:
• Targeting in this context applies to player/opponent and any permanent or spell the player owns or controls.  Until targeted by your Predator, you can only target your Prey.  As soon as your Predator targets or attacks you, it is "one and done"; the gloves come off and you can attack and target your Predator at will--but be careful: you get no bonus for finishing off your Predator, and when your Predator loses the game, his or her Predator gains 10 life and will be after you next.
• Blanket effects that say "each" or "all" only apply to you (the source of the effect) and your current Predator and Prey.  Even if you cast a spell with a blanket effect on your opponent's turn, it cannot affect anyone other than you, the person to your left, and the person to your right.
• When your Prey loses the game (for any reason, but typically from having a life total of zero or less), you gain 10 life.  This effect happens whether you or an opponent causes your Prey to lose.  The next remaining player to your left immediately becomes your new Prey.
• When there are two players remaining in the game, it becomes a duel with no targeting/attacking restrictions.

That's it!  I hope that players will give this variant a go and give feedback on what the play experience is like.  I enjoy deck building almost as much as playing the game, and I believe this format will foster serious creativity in construction and some intensely balanced multiplayer duels.  Thoughts, suggestions, and rants are all welcome.

--Joe

Army of Magic (AOM) - A Rarity Restricted Format for Magic: the Gathering

Unlike many of my peers growing up in the 80's, I wasn't exposed to Dungeons & Dragons, trading card games like Magic: the Gathering, and other such fantasy RPG forms of entertainment.  I didn't even own a gaming console such as the much coveted Nintendo or Sega Genesis.  Because of this, I evolved as a proud member of the PC Master Race with Ultima VII being my favorite RPG, but I never missed an opportunity to play Super Mario Bros. 3 on a friend's console.

As a 30-something, I've had to play catch-up.  Some dear friends (you know who you are) allowed me to try my hand as a DM, guiding a small band through treacherous caverns fighting evil Duergar and minotaurs.  An obsession for a while was this tremendously fun and varied card game published by Wizards of the Coast: Magic: the Gathering.

MTG Zones

The MTG Color Wheel

If you're not already familiar with MTG, I recommend simply getting someone in the know to show you how to play or at least watching videos on YouTube.  Figuring out the basics by reading "the instructions" was difficult for me--and I consider myself to be fairly intelligent with above-average reading comprehension.

But I digress.  The purpose of this blog post is to share a new format I've come up with for deck construction and play.  What I've found in playing various formats (constructed, limited, 2-headed giant, EDH) is that there's a natural tendency toward imbalance in decks, with typically the most "expensive" or "rare-heavy" decks having a significant advantage over "cheaper" or "common-heavy" decks.  There are answers to this of course, some of which are discussed at some depth by blogger "Cabel the Pauper" on Reddit and his blog, but the predominant answers seem to involve removing Rares altogether to level the playing field, with formats like "Pauper", "Peasant", and "Silverblack".

I personally feel that Rares, Mythic Rares, and special cards like Planeswalkers add a tremendous level of variation to MTG gameplay, allowing "interesting" effects to go off and challenge the other players to come up with appropriate answers.  I feel that removing these cards from play altogether would put a damper on the game.  Instead, I propose a format in which each level of card rarity has a different and specific restriction--hopefully not so much restriction as to make deck construction too difficult or time-consuming, but enough control to foster extremely selective creativity in the use of meager resources.  As I mused on my potential solution, I decided to pull features from the Modern Constructed rule set and some from the highly popular variant EDH/Commander.  Thus, I give you: Army of Magic, or AOM.  (I'll probably make another post that jumps straight to the rules.)

Army of Magic

Philosophy: for everyone to have fun.  AOM is designed as a casual play format, and probably won't take off on the tournament circuit.  I play with my girlfriend, our kids, and our friends, and the idea is for everyone to have a shot at winning every game if they play their hands right.

Deck Construction: remember the numbers: 3 - 6 - 9 - 12.  Remember these numbers and you can most likely remember the limits of deck building.

• There are no color restrictions in AOM.  Include whatever colors/color identities you feel you can play with the lands and deck sizes available.
• Up to 3 Generals.  Generals can be 1 to 3 creatures of your choice.  Rarity, Legendary status, and color don't matter except in keeping up with the totals below.  Just remember that these creatures will be available to play from your Command Zone similar to a Commander in EDH at an increasing cost every time you play one.  You can only cast a General when no other General is in play.  Planeswalkers cannot be Generals, even if the card says "[this] may be your Commander".  These are Generals, not Commanders.
• Generals are singletons, regardless of rarity.  You cannot include more than 1 copy of each General in your deck.
• Up to 3 Mythic Rares, only 1 copy of each.  Any mythic rare spell, including a General, counts toward this total.  Planeswalkers are typically of Mythic rarity, so they can be in your deck, just not as Generals.
• Up to 6 Rare Lands, only 1 copy of each.  Other than this cap, see Lands below.
• Up to 9 Rare Spells, with no more than 3 of those Mythic.  So 3 Mythic + 6 Rare = 9 total Rare slots.  If your deck has 1 Mythic Rare, you can have 8 Rares; 2 Mythic, 7 Rare, and so on.  Again, Rares and Mythic Rares are Singletons--you can only have one of each in your deck.
• Up to 12 Uncommons, at most 2 copies of each.  "Two-ofs" can be included of Uncommons, but there is a firm maximum of 12.  So an AOM deck could have 6 distinct Uncommons with 2 copies of each, or it could have 12 Uncommon Singletons, or any mix in between.
• No maximum of Commons, at most 4 copies of each.  So you can add any number of distinct Commons, and you can have 1-ofs, 2-ofs, 3-ofs, and 4-card sets of each specific Common.
• Lands: no maximum on Basic Lands; at most 4 copies of each Uncommon Land; up to 6 Rare Lands, only 1 copy of each.  So lands do not count toward spell rarity totals.
• Generals count toward rarity restrictions.  Example: 1 General is Mythic Rare and 2 are Rare: the deck may contain up to 6 additional Rares, with at most 2 of those being Mythic Rares.
• Deck size >= 80 cards.  No maximum deck size as long as you can shuffle it.

Legality / Ban List:

• Modern-legal cards follow the deck construction restrictions above.
• Commander-legal cards are allowed, but count as Rare regardless of the printed card rarity.
• Land Destruction is Banned.  This might just be a personal bias seeping in, I don't care.  Land destruction and any card that says "destroy ___ land(s)" is strictly forbidden.  Land control (tapping land, taking control of a land, etc.) is perfectly legal within the deck construction limits.

Gameplay:

• Unless otherwise noted or I missed something, the game is played following Standard Constructed MTG rules or the house rules your playgroup has agreed to follow.
• Players begin the game with 30 Life.
• Mulligans: each player draws 7 cards, and may mulligan by laying down the cards drawn and drawing 7 again, repeating this process until an acceptable hand is drawn.  Players should not abuse this privilege.
• Players roll dice to see who goes first; the starting player draws a card on his/her first turn.
• Generals: each player will have chosen 1 to 3 creatures as Generals.  These champions will begin the game face up in the Command Zone, which functions identically with the zone of the same name in the Commander/EDH variant.
• A single counter representing all 1-3 Generals should be kept in the Command Zone for each player and incremented each time a General is played.  Each time a General spell is cast (whether the spell resolves or not), the mana cost is increased by {2} for each time a General was previously cast by the owner.
• A General may only be cast when no other General is in play (on the battlefield) under its owner's control.
• If a situation arises in which a player controls more than 1 General he or she owns, one General must be chosen by the player to be immediately sent to the graveyard or back to the Command Zone.
• If a General would be put into a library, hand, graveyard or exile from anywhere, its owner may choose to move it to the Command Zone instead.  This is a replacement effect, so triggers such as "dies", "goes to graveyard", etc. do not apply.

That's it!  I hope that players will give this variant a go and give feedback on what the play experience is like.  I enjoy deck building almost as much as playing the game, and I believe this format will foster serious creativity in construction and some intensely balanced multiplayer duels.  Thoughts, suggestions, and rants are all welcome.

--Joe