Magic the Gathering - The Hydra (pt2)

=== New Hydra Rules

    Before we dig into interesting rules we could add, I want to take a moment and look very closely at the Hydra's turn. What the Hydra does in it's turn ties very closely to the alternate rules that it uses.

    On a basic level the challenge deck does only 2 things during its turn. (1) cast a card, and (2) deal damage based on the number of Head cards on the battlefield.

    The first item involves revealing a card from the library and provides the same basic function as drawing a card in normal magic.

    The second involves dealing damage to each opponent, and serves the same basic function as attacking with creatures in normal magic. In the challenge deck's case, this damage occurs outside of combat near the end of the turn however - and the following turn sequence reflects that:

Beginning Phase
    Untap: The Hydra untaps any tapped permanents.
    Upkeep: The Hydra has no Upkeep.
    Draw: Reveal the top card of the Hydra's library. The Hydra casts that card without paying its mana cost.
Main Phase: The Hydra has a main phase, but performs no actions in it.
Combat Phase: The Hydra has no Combat Phase.
Main Phase 2: The Hydra has no second main phase.
End Phase
    The Hydra deals 1 damage to you for each untapped card named hydra head it controls, and 2 damage to you for each untapped elite head it controls.   
    Any "At the beginning of the Hydra's End step" triggers are put onto the stack, and are resolved.

    You may be wondering why I gave the Challenge deck a Main phase if it performs no actions in it.

    Without this main phase, the Hydra only has turn based actions and triggers to resolve - as a result the allied team only has limited chances to play instants on the Hydra's turn. Namely, during it's main phase (which we added), or at the end of the turn with triggers waiting on the stack. Without allowing the players to cast instants on that main phase, a large number of instants and flash spells become about as useful as a sorcery. I felt it was important to maintain tactical differences between the two spell types. Also it will become handy later when we consider how to ramp up the Challenge deck.

    Also note my interpretation of the draw step and hydra damage is that these are turn-based actions. Turn based actions occur automatically during certain phases of the turn, and cannot be responded to as they do not use the stack. Fair warning: others may choose to interpret them as regular triggers which DO go on the stack and can be responded to.

= Drawing Cards

    One of the simplest things you can do to make a challenge deck more difficult is to give it multiple cards a turn. Think about this: in a 3 player game (3 heros against the Hydra), on each hero turn the heros draw 3 cards (1 per player), while the Hydra reveals and casts 1 card. Card advantage is of course a resource that is integral to the game as land or life.

    So how many cards should the Challenge deck get for its draw step? The obvious minimum is one. I have had successful tests adding an extra card draw at 4 players, and a third at 6 - so that's what I'm going to recommend. Whatever number you choose for your group, insert it into the following rule as N.

    * Replace Draw step: Reveal the top N cards of the Hydra's library. The Hydra casts those cards without paying their mana cost [Cast the spells in the order they are revealed].

    The other thing you might be interested in including is the following rule which allows the challenge deck to take advantage of cards such as Howling mine or Font of Mythos. Thus far my testing is inconclusive on this. Currently we think the rule might be too strong for the challenge deck.
   
    Optional* If the Hydra would draw a card, instead reveal the top card of the Hydra's library. The Hydra casts that card without paying its mana cost.

== Creatures

    As we mentioned before the addition of creatures to the Challenge deck has somewhat limited utility. The challenge deck never gets an attack step, thus creatures that are good to include in the challenge deck are effective blockers, or creatures that we can use for their triggered or activated abilities.

    If you put non-head creatures in a Challenge deck, you'll need some rules to determine when the Challenge deck uses their abilities or uses them to block.

Activated Abilities
    * The Challenge deck can activate any activated abilities only once per turn.
    * The Challenge deck will activate relevant activated abilities: Hero's beginning of combat step, Hero's End of Combat step,  Hero's End step, and the Challenge deck's main phase - and at no other time.

    Playtest note: I personally feel that these guidelines for activated abilities need improvement. The trouble is that activated abilities are so diverse, it's hard to come up with rules that will cover most of them.

Declaring Blockers
    * The Challenge deck will declare blockers to protect elite heads only.
    * The Challenge deck will block creatures with the most power to least power.
    * The Challenge deck will not assign multiple blockers to a single attacker, unless it has to (menace).
    * If the Challenge deck can declare blockers in such a way as to deal lethal damage to one or more attacking creatures, it will do so for as many creatures as possible.

= Non - heads as Heads

    Let's face it, it would be pretty awesome if you could run whatever creatures you wanted in a challenge deck and they simply counted as heads. There is however one chief concern if you want to go this route. The 'Heros reward' that is printed on the default heads is actually a vital piece of the challenge deck experience. It serves 2 important functions.

    First, it provides the heros with some life points as they kill heads. Without some incremental life gain in the early to mid game the challenge deck would actually eliminate the poor heroes a lot easier. Second, they provide some back-and-forth swings that provide for interesting gameplay. As a result this is a feature that we wish to preserve when we start turning non-heads into heads.

    Let me point out that it is entirely possible to use any combination of Challenge deck heads, creatures that count as heads, and creatures that don't count as heads (discussed above). However, whatever rules you implement for your custom challenge deck determines how you build it. That is - you should determine what counts as what before building the deck.

    If you choose to use this option, then these creatures (who do not have head printed on them), gain errata to have the creature type 'Head' and gain Heroes Rewards abilities as follows:

    This is my current, largely experimental configuration.   

    All Commons => Standard Hydra Head. When this leaves the battlefield, each opponent gains 2 life.
    All Uncommons => Standard Hydra Head. When this leaves the battlefield, each opponent gains 2 life.
    All Rares (including Mythics) => Based on Converted Mana Cost (CMC).
    CMC <=3: Standard Hydra Head. When this leaves the battlefield, each opponent gains 2 life.
    CMC 4-5: Elite Head. When this leaves the battlefield, each opponent gains 2 life, and draws a card.
    CMC >=6: Elite Head. When this leaves the battlefield, each opponent gains 4 life and draws a card.

    If you have only creatures counting as heads in your custom Challenge deck then do the following to set up your game:
    *Shuffle the Challenge deck. Starting on the Bottom, remove the first N creatures that count as a standard head. N = the number of heads you wish to start with for this game. Put those heads onto the battlefield, and shuffle the remaining cards. Those cards become the Challenge deck's library.

    Also keep in mind when building your Challenge deck using this option, at least half the creatures in the deck should count as standard heads, and you should remain around 35% heads (or 22 cards in a 60 card deck).

= Instants

    The hydra Challenge Deck does not include any instants. Because the challenge deck only casts spells during its main phase, the additional utility of an instant (the ability to play it at any time), is lost. However, I see no reason why to exclude instants from your custom challenge deck.

    If you do include any instants in your custom challenge deck, they essentially will take the place of, and function identically to a sorcery.

= Land

    The hydra Challenge Deck does not include any land. Because the challenge deck casts it's spells for free, the addition of any land to the deck only serves if the deck can spend that mana (say on activated or triggered abilities), or the land provides some utility function beyond simply tapping for mana.

    There is another issue I would like to address here however, and that is abilities that "reveal cards from the top of their library until they reveal a land card" that appears on Mind Funeral, Undercity Informer, and Consuming Aberration. These abilities create awkward moments when they are played against the default challenge deck.

    Because no lands are in the deck, the entire library is revealed, and put into the graveyard. This does not win the game on the spot (The heroes only win if the challenge deck has no heads at the end of any turn) - but it does make the game a lot shorter.

    So, no. You are not allowed to put land into any challenge deck. To put it another way, Land are illegal cards for challenge decks.

    Although the rules implications of this are far from clear, it is my personal opinion that if lands are illegal, the action of "revealing a land" from the library becomes an impossible action. If you recall, the challenge deck simply ignores illegal or impossible actions or effects.

= Mana

    If we prohibit land from being in the Challenge deck, we still have to answer a question about mana. Players new to the game often mistake land for mana. These two are actually different things. Land are the physical cards (plains, island, swamp, etc). Mana is the mystical magical energy that players use to cast spells and pay for costs. Land usually makes mana, but there are lands that do not generate mana, and non-lands (such as llanowar elf) that can generate mana.

    * The challenge deck never pays 'X' costs in any spell or ability. X is always 0.
    * The challenge deck automatically pays any imposed costs. Examples: Rystic Study, Mana Leak, Propaganda, Leonin Arbiter.
    * If a card has an additional finite cost- the challenge deck pays that cost. Examples: Kicker
    * If a triggered ability asks for a mana payment, the challenge deck may pay that cost. Examples: Echo
    * The challenge deck can pay for any activated ability that requires mana that also uses the tap or untap symbol. 

    The following rule is entirely optional, but allows the challenge deck to pay for 'X' costs, or activate abilities that don't have the tap/untap symbol.

    Option * Setup - put a die (such as roll-down d20) on '1' next to the challenge deck.
    * At the beginning of each challenge deck turn, increment this die by 1, and the challenge deck has that much mana to spend. This mana does not drain out of the mana pool as phases or steps end. It does go away when the Challenge deck untaps the following turn. This mana is any color, and can only be spent on the following items:
    - Pay 'X' costs.
    - Activate abilities
    - Pay additional costs on spells it casts.
    - Pay for any triggered abilities.
    - Pay for any schemes, planes, or hero cards that the challenge deck may have access to.

= Life Gain

    By default the Challenge deck does not have a life total, and therefore cannot gain life, lose life, or pay life for various costs. Personally I feel as if attempting to give the challenge deck a life total causes the entire experience to loose focus. The challenge deck is a unique scenario that is quite a bit different than normal magic. Attempting to give the challenge deck a life total for any reason makes the experience a bit too much like regular magic - which isn't the direction we should move in.

    For those fellow customizers who want to play in this realm, I think the following rule is necessary:

    * A challenge deck never gains any benefit from any 'heroes reward' ability.

    I want to note something that my playgroup tried - and it didn't work. I toyed with the idea of turning any lifegain the challenge deck would receive into activations of Reito Lantern or Soldevi Digger. Both of these artifacts basically take cards in the graveyard, and put them onto the bottom of the deck.

    So as I mentioned, It didn't work. After we changed the deck to be 35% heads, the challenge deck does a good job of maintaining pressure throughout it's whole library. If the deck can also reliably send cards from its graveyard back to the deck, then players may get a sense in the middle to late game that the scenario can actually last indefinitely. While I never tested it, I'm pretty sure that with enough constant life-gain or reshuffle effects, It may be possible to create a scenario that is in fact unbeatable.

    This is obviously not the end goal, and is not a lot of fun. So I give this word for the wise for others who want to experiment with their own challenge decks.

=== More Challenge decks to come.

    Hopefully I've provided enough tools and options for people to continue to have fun with their challenge decks for quite some time. I'm quite a fan of this alternative way to play the game. I also would like to encourage others out there to share their own experiences with the challenge deck (modified or not). Playtesting custom builds can only improve the knowledge base.

    I also fully expect that as future challenge decks come out (we're expecting the next one in February) we may gain more tools to customize our individual challenge deck experiences. Until then, make sure you are having fun!