Playing Magic: The Gathering - Creating Your Own Fun Games

Magic isn't only about tournament play, and anyone who feels that the game is getting stale playing only in tournament level games needs a break now and again. These are some suggestions for some fun games you can organize for your friends and teammates to pass the time.

One of the most fun games in Magic is in a format called 5-color. This is a widely known version of Type I, which requires a 250 card deck, with an 18 card minimum in each of the five colors, where most search effects are restricted (i.e. only one may be played in each deck). Games in this format are usually played for ante, either in regular form, with forced trade-backs, or potentially just for show. Whoever has the lowest converted mana cost in their ante card goes first, and in tie situations, you can roll a dice, or go by the lowest first letter in the ante card's name. Games are played the same manner as regular games, although the player who goes first always draws a card, even on their first turn. This type of format is a lot of fun, can earn you a lot of new cards, and a great way to break up the monotony of regular matchups.

Small drafts can be fun too, though they can be a bit pricey if you keep buying new packs and draft sets. Any even number of players will work, but typically it's best if four is used as a minimum. A fun variation is to have each player buy their own packs of any set, because as long as there's 15 cards per pack, you'll always be even. For prizes, you take the rare and foil cards out of each deck. The player who wins gets his pick of the first two cards, and the second, third and fourth player each get their pick of the next one. Continue through all of the players if you wish, or set a cut-off point, at which finishers below would get no choice. The prize draft continues in this manner until all the cards are gone.