Block Formats - Commander Format

Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest MtGPQ General Discussion
1

‘Standard’ or Block specific quick battle
The current quick battle is vintage format - meaning that all sets are permitted. This should never change.
However I propose we add a ‘standard’ or restricted format of quick battle, which will always be available just like ‘vintage’ quick battle but changes up as new sets are released. At the moment the standard format quick battle will only allow decks composed of cards from Origins and kaladesh. Once a week the standard quick battle changes to a random block specific one to add variety. The block format quick battles can have block mechanic secondary objectives to encourage playing with cards in that block (rune rewards).

Block format Events with appropriate rewards
as of now there are 4 blocks in mtgpq:
Origins
BFZ/OtG
SOI/EMN
KLD

In this even, you will see nodes just like nodes, one for each block. When you select a node you will then go to an new screen with one node for each color like nodes of power. You will not be able to play in each specific node unless your selected deck has a minimum of X cards of that set/block in it which is different for each tier:

5 for bronze
6 for silver
7 for gold
8 for platinum

Once you select a node and start a fight, you are locked into it for the remainder of the event.
That node, which is block and color specific, will have secondary objectives specific to that block and color.
The event is now like a progression story event, and you will face key cards of that color.
The personal rewards will be ruins/crystals/packs from that set, with the top reward being a rare from that set IN THAT NODES SPECIFIC COLOR. If you get max points then you get a mythic from that set IN THAT NODES SPECIFIC COLOR.
**This is a great way to really narrow down your chances of getting the specific card you need as the pool you are getting cards from are only one color of cards in that set/block.

Commander Format
You choose your commander from your creature pool.

Commander deck size is 20 cards instead of 10.

The top card in your hand is locked in place and is the creature you selected as your commander. The game will ignore this card and the second card is considered the first card in your had for game mechanic purposes. This means that it is unnafected by discard, mana drain, temporary cost increases and so on.
When your commander is cast, the top slot in your had where your commander was will go dark, just like when you select a cards icon to turn it off. It will not collect mana. Whenever your commander is removed from the battlefield in any way at all, it does not go into hand/library/graveyard and is essentially exiled and the top card is turned back on and its cost is increased by 3.

This format will require deck slots.

Alternately it can be a new format altogether with no planeswalker abilities
In the planeswalker menu, at the beginning or end of it there will be 5 more Planeswalkers that are just White/Blue/Black/Red/Green/Colorless Commander slots.
All cards in your deck must be of the creatures selected as commanders color.
If a mono colored creature is the commander, then that color gets +3 and its 2 allied colores get +1 with PW gems giving mana at a +0 bonus.
If a dual colored creature is selected then both those colors get +3 and PW gems give -2.
If a colorless creature is selected then PW gems give +5 and all colored gems give +0.

2

Nice implementation of restricted formats. I like your approach of allowing lower tiers to still use some cards from other series. I do think your rewards are too generous however (too easy to get perfects and therefore tons of mythics). If they increase the drop rate of mythics in events, they will need to nerf it in the packs to keep things balanced.

The only thing I would add is that restricted formats should probably wait until we have deck slots. Its annoying enough to make small changes to each event but swapping out entire cards sets

3

I like the idea of the block formats and also think that something like that is inevitable eventually.

The Commander format seems to complicated to me. How abput just allowing larger deck size but (like paper Commander), you’re only allowed to play every card once?

4

This seems like a well thought out method, but regardless of the specifics this game badly needs two things.

  1. Set rotations to change the meta around or at least add variety
  2. Card rebalances to some very broken cards, both nerfs and buffs.

Unlike paper magic where there is little they can do after release, Hiberium can easily adjust, and rebalance cards post release. This seems like a huge advantage they could really take advantage of. Instead, I am playing the same cards for nearly a year now…

5

In the vault there is usually one rotating set (non-ORI, non-KLD; currently Tools of War).
Maybe it could be somehow incorporated into a restricted format as well.

6

They’ve already stated they don’t want to restrict what cards you can use once you own them, so I wouldn’t expect the game to follow Standard, or work on block formats.

So I expect we’ll see more blocks that rely heavily on self contained mechanics like energize and ingest. The other solution, as was mentioned, is to reduce the power on old cards to incent people to acquire and use new ones, though I feel that would be a very unpopular move.

7

The quick battle format that is newest only block specific would allow for new players to always be on a level playing field and allow others to play in a block mechanic rich environment whenever they want. The occasional rotating block format I think would be welcome if deck slots exist.

The block events I feel would be VERY popular since they would allow you to get a rare and/or mythic from a specific block and in a specific color, which would DRASTICALLY increase your odds of getting that chase card you have been wanting to complete your set or for use.

As an alternate to deck slots if it is somehow too difficult to program or code, when in a planeswalkers deck builder you should have the option to tag your favorite 20 or 30 cards and filter by favs to allow for quick deck re-construction.

Commander format, as mentioned in the original post, would not require deck slots and seems like a fun format