Magic: The Alternative

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* MAGIC: THE ALTERNATIVE *
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INTRODUCTION
------------

The idea of the Magic: The Gathering card game is an excellent one,
but I think the need for Wizards of the Coast to profit from it has
been detrimental to the game, and that the game is not the best that
it can be. I will explain the problems that the game now faces, my
solution to these problems, and the benefits of my solution.

Though I don't think it makes me any more or less qualified to
undertake this project, I will state that I am a level 1 DCI judge in
the hopes of convincing the reader that I am knowledgeable of the
Magic rules and capable of completing this project.

THE PROBLEMS
------------

1) The formats do not contain good cards.

In order for WotC to make money, they have to keep selling cards, and
it is much more profitable for them to continuously design new cards
rather than keep printing the same cards over and over again--with
perhaps minor revisions from printing to printing--as it forces people
to purchase the game multiple times. With just one unchanging set,
players could get four of each card and then never need to buy more.
This means that a lot of different cards get printed. However, there
are only so many good cards. What I mean by a "good card" is not a
powerful one, like Black Lotus, but those with flavor, balance, and
simplicity, like Shock or Crossbow Infantry. The smaller formats,
block constructed and standard, have some of these good cards, but not
enough. Most of the cards are complicated, or are useful only in
certain, rare situations. How many different standard decks do you
remember seeing the last time you were at a tournament? The last time
I judged one, I kept seeing the same cards over and over again at
every table. The larger formats, extended, type 1.5, and type 1, have
a lot of the good cards, but they have a lot of broken cards as well.
Players who wish to have any chance at winning in these formats will
not play the more balanced cards, but the broken ones. When players
can regularly win on turn three, the game's outcome becomes determined
more by chance than by skill, and I find this distasteful as well. The
end result is that the game lacks variety and structure in the smaller
formats and balance in the larger ones.

2) The rules always increase in number and complexity.

Because there are so many different cards printed, there needs to be
some way to make them all different. The only way to do this is to
continually expand the rules. This does not make for a better game, it
only makes for a more complicated one. The rules should be short,
simple, and yet allow for great strategic depth.

3) This is not a result of WotC's profit motive directly, but it is
still a problem nonetheless. The game is designed for two players, but
I and many other experienced players find multiplayer games to be much
more enjoyable and strategic than simple one-on-ones.

This is a problem for WotC to deal with, because in order to
seamlessly integrate multiplayer into tournament Magic, they would
need to extensively revise the comprehensive rules. WotC is very
concerned about changing things for the casual player. Although the
rules complexity continually increases, casual players hardly notice
because the subtle complexities that require the comprehensive rules
don't come up very much, and when they do, most casual players make up
their own rules to deal with such situations. Casual players (the
group that accounts for most of WotC's profit) don't want to learn a
complicated game, only to have to learn it all over again. So, WotC is
not going to make Magic a true multiplayer game, because they don't
want to make casual players choose between learning the new system, or
abandoning Magic. It's too risky a move for WotC to make.

THE SOLUTION
------------

These problems cannot be solved by WotC, because they stem directly
from their need to profit from the game. The only way these problems
can be addressed is if the game were maintained by the Magic-playing
community. I have attempted to solve these problems by creating my own
variant of Magic. There are numerous benefits of this variant, which I
have listed below.

THE BENEFITS
------------

1) It's FREE! All you have to do is print out the cards as proxies,
and stick them in opaque sleeves. I have even found that shuffling is
easier when only a thin piece of paper is in the sleeve, as opposed to
a thick Magic card.

2) A much better turn structure that allows all players to be active
each turn, no matter how many players are in the game. The game will
slow down as the number of players increases, but there is no way to
avoid this and retain the interaction between all players in the game.

3) The rules will be kept as simple as possible, although learning the
new system may take some time.

4) New game mechanics, including lands with mana costs, a keyword for
creatures that can block multiple attacking creatures, and more.

This project is not yet complete. In order to become complete, the
comprehensive rules for the game and the cardlist would need to
written. These tasks would require a lot of my time. Before I continue
working on the project, I need to know if there actually are any
people who would use it and would like me to finish it. If you do,
please send me an email at [EMAIL PROTECTED] (change the 4 in the
username to an a). I have included a very rough list of the changes,
in no particular order, that would be made to Magic's current
comprehensive rules, as well as a few cards that demonstrate the
differences in wording. The listed cards may not necessarily make it
into the final cardlist, they're just there to show what the cardlist
will look like. Please note that I intended for the following list of
changes to be a reminder to myself of what I'd need to do to the
comprehensive rules. Nothing is set in stone, everything is subject to
change. There probably will be additional changes. If you have any
questions, send them to the above email address.

RULES CHANGES
-------------

Names of cards all in the set {A, B, ..., Z, a, b, ..., z, <space>}.
No weird characters like in the names of certain Arabian Nights cards.
Maximum length of card names to be determined.

There are three speeds. Instant: doesn't use the stack. Fast: can be
played like an instant in MTG. Slow: Can only be played during the
main phase when the stack is empty. The types and their default
speeds: Sorcery [S], Land [I], Enchant [S], Artifact [S], Creature
[S]. Any card can have any speed. The default speed for activated
abilities is [F]. Mana-producing abilities should be preceeded by [I].
Mana abilities will not be defined in the MTA rules. Please note that
there is no need for instants, since an instant is just a [F] sorcery.

Creatures don't need to have subtypes.

There are no steps, only phases.

There are no supertypes. There is nothing legendary and nothing basic.
Players may have a maximum of four copies of a card in their decks,
unless the card has only the land type and its mana cost is 0. All
non-basic (a term not defined in MTA, but you know what I mean) lands
should have a converted mana cost greater than 0.

Keywords: flying, regeneration, protection, trample, haste,
first-strike, multiblock, banding. More may be added. Keywords cannot
contain spaces.

There must be exactly 64 cards in a deck (I like powers of two).

There must be exactly 16 cards in a sideboard during match play (I
like powers of two).

All players take turns together. One player has the lead, the lead
passes to the player to the immediate left of the player with the lead
on the next turn. The player with the lead is the first player to
receive priority after resolutions and at the beginning of phases.

All players draw 8 cards at the beginning of the game and may mulligan
as in MTG (drawing one less card each time). The draw phase of the
first turn is skipped for all players.

Turn Structure
   * Beginning Phase
      * First, each player untaps all permanents he controls. All
players do this simultaneously.
      * Then, each player draws a card.
      * Then, players may play spells and abilities.
   * First Main Phase
      * Players may play spells and abilities.
   * Beginning Of Combat Phase
      * Players may play spells and abilities.
   * Declare Attackers Phase
      * Starting with the lead player and moving left, each player
declares a set of attacking creatures from the set of untapped
creatures he controls. For each attacking creature, the player
declares a player that creature is attacking.
      * Players may play spells and abilities.
   * Declare Blockers Phase
      * Starting with the lead player and moving left, each player
declares a set of blocking creatures from the set of untapped
creatures he controls. For each blocking creature, the player declares
a creature (or more, if it can) from the set of attacking creatures
that are attacking that player. For each attacking creature that is
blocked by more than one creature, that attacking creature's
controller declares how the attacking creature's combat damage is
distributed. For each blocking creature that blocks more than one
creature, that blocking creature's controller declares how the
blocking creature's combat damage is distributed.
      * Players may play spells and abilities.
   * First Combat Damage Phase
      * This step is skipped if no attacking or blocking creatures
have first-strike.
      * Combat damage is put on the stack for all attacking and
blocking creatures with first-strike. Combat damage is an ability that
is not triggered or activated and is controlled by no one.
      * Players may play spells and abilities.
      * Combat damage resolves exactly like in MTG.
   * Second Combat Damage Phase
      * This step is skipped if all attacking and blocking creatures
have first-strike.
      * Combat damage is put on the stack for all attacking and
blocking creatures without first-strike. Combat damage is an ability
that is not triggered or activated and is controlled by no one.
      * Players may play spells and abilities.
      * Combat damage resolves exactly like in MTG.
   * Second Main Phase
      * Players may play spells and abilities.
   * End phase
      * Players may play spells and abilities.
      * Then, everything from the cleanup step of MTG happens.

There are four types of abilities: static, triggered, activated, and
combat damage.

There is no summoning sickness. Creatures come into play tapped
(except those with haste). Blue cards that untap creatures should only
untap creatures that have been under their controller's control since
the start of the turn (to prevent blue from hasting its creatures).

There are no basic land types, but lands still do have subtypes. This
allows for things like "enchanted land is an island," where island is
a land subtype, NOT a basic land type.

Some things are still hardcoded into the rules. Creatures with the
"Wall" creature subtype can't attack (rather than having "<cardname>
can't attack" printed on every wall). Players can't play more than one
land per turn (rather than having, "When <cardname> comes into play,
you can't play lands this turn. This ability can't be countered,"
written on every land). I also decided to retain the rule that all
lands with the "Island" land subtype have an additional unwritten
activated ability that reads, "T: Add U to your mana pool." Similar
abilities also apply to the "Forest," "Swamp," "Mountain," and
"Plains" land subtypes.

The "[R]" on cards like Shock mean "on resolution," indicating spell
text (now called "resolution text"). All text to be followed on
resolution should be preceeded by "[R]". It's possible to have, for
example, a creature with resolution text that Shocks as it resolves
(just before it comes into play). This would be very similar to the
card "Flametongue Kavu" from MTG. If "Mystic Snake" were to be
included in MTA, it would also use resolution text rather than a
triggered ability. Resolution text is NOT a static ability, like it is
in MTG.

Lands are spells! They can use the stack if their speeds are [S] or
[F], and they can have resolution text. A land could even be countered
if its speed were [S] or [F] and a card were made that could "counter
target land."

"Multiblock X" means, "This can block X additional creatures." So, a
creature with "Multiblock 1" can block two creatures.

Cards in MTA with the same name as a card in MTG may be different from
that MTG card (see Flash Counter, as an example).

Subtypes are listed in parentheses.

In general, cards have been made slightly weaker and things cost
slightly more mana (see Spark and Shock). This was done to increase
the length of games, which decreases the luck factor. All cards in MTA
should be roughly Tier-2.

Color wheel changes: Black gets the Spirit Link ability. It's more in
line with the idea of life stealing. White has enough ways of gaining
life.

There are no color hosers.

Counters that modify power and toughness do not need to be +1/+1 (this
refers to a recent decision made by WotC).

There is no reminder text on cards. Players are expected to know how
to play the game.

CARD LIST
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- Artifacts -

- Black -

- Blue -

Name: Flash Counter
Speed: I
Type: Sorcery
Mana Cost: 3UU
Text: Counter target spell.

- Green -

- Land -

Name: Island
Speed: I
Type: Land (Island)
Mana Cost: 0
Text: 

Name: Volcanic Island
Speed: I
Type: Land (Island Mountain)
Mana Cost: 2
Text: 

- Red -

Name: Shock
Speed: F
Type: Sorcery
Mana Cost: 1R
Text: [R] This deals 2 damage to target creature or player.

Name: Wall of Stone
Speed: S
Type: Creature (Wall)
Power: 0
Toughness: 8
Mana Cost: 1RR
Text: Banding. Haste. Multiblock 1.

- White -

Name: Mason
Speed: S
Type: Creature (Worker)
Power: 0
Toughness: 1
Mana Cost: W
Text: T: Put a 0/1 white creature (Wall) token with banding into play
untapped.
T: Put a +0/+1 counter on a wall you control.