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.