Magic the Gathering format: Fun 40

This is my favorite alternative form of Magic:

https://articles.starcitygames.com/articles/the-danger-room/

"I have a feeling that roughly 25% of games are decided by a player drawing too few lands, 25% of games are decided by a player drawing too many lands, 25% of games are decided by a player having a legitimate bomb not get answered immediately, and the last 25% of games are the ones that everybody hopes for where there is a ton of back-and-forth on both sides. I wanted to create a format that eliminated those unpleasant 75% of games that are unfulfilling and foster a format where ALL of the games were as interactive as possible."

I stopped playing MtG around 1994. It is extremely unusual to see decks of cards I mostly recognize.

This is cool. 40 card decks are great! In addition to being physically ergonomic, I find 40 cards to be a fun deck-building size. With about 17 lands, you get 23 choices to make of what to include outside of that, which feels like a sweet spot between deck-building expressiveness and decision fatigue.

As an aside, I'm convinced that a big reason WotC (and FLGS) are pushing commander so hard is because 100 card decks means you get to sell more cards.

That looks really fun, the problem being deck assembly. My issue with modern magic is the complexity of the ever-changing rules and playing against people who have put time into it, that laugh maniacally as they combo you. The asymmetrical play makes board games more appealing.

I especially love the art and simplicity of revised and third editions.

> What is fun?

> Here is a list of things that make a game of Magic The Gathering fun to us.

> No Discard. It sucks to have no spells to play.

> No Land destruction. It sucks to be unable to cast spells.

I've always enjoyed these kinds of house rules that let you customize TCGs to your own liking.

A while back, I bought a bulk box of common Pokemon cards and put together some decks where I limited the cards to basic or stage 1 Pokemon, no high-impact coin flips, and a single EX card per deck. I found that setup to be more enjoyable than the official format.

I love 40 card MTG. It's one of my fav ways to play. If you play a bunch of games in a row with someone it starts feeling like chess, much more deterministic when you're used to their deck. Getting two foundations boosters and shuffling them is such a great way to play. I'll definitely take a look at this

What I've done a couple times but it is kind of a pain because it messes up the sorting of my collection is to make "packs" out of my collection and draft with friends. It's a lot easier to just buy a booster box and draft from that. But at least with old cards you don't have to contend with Sephiroth, the Ninja Turtles, and My Little Pony.

Random fact that I learned recently but I find it interesting: the create of MTG is a direct descendant of a US President. President James Garfield was his great-great grandfather.

That's what I love about MTG - the flexibility. For example, here's a new format I created to help even the playing field with new players: https://mrbluecoat.blogspot.com/2026/05/new-unofficial-mtg-f...

i wish this gave more details about the format! would love to know what the overall card pool ended up being, and which decks performed best.

small plug but i run a format of magic of my own, a (non-Commander) multiplayer format that lets players play three games with side boarding. i think it's pretty cool, if anyone here wants to check it out! it's called Coalition, and we have rules and decks at https://mtgcoalition.com

This is essentially just MTG limited -- draft or maybe team draft. Draft is my favorite part. Though I don't necessarily agree with the "things that make magic fun". Mill/Discard/Land Destro decks are fun, janky decks that rarely come together and it's fun to try and make them work.

"Moxes/Sol Ring. They are a nice touch if not found in abundance."

Seems odd when followed by every 40 card deck having all color-relevant moxen and sol ring...

What is all this talk of "Candy"?

Just as a heads-up for non-magic players, each of those 40-card decks contains several multiple-thousand dollar cards. I wouldn't be surprised if those 240 cards cost over $50,000.

It's light on details for talking about a "format". How many cards were in each packs? Did players get just one, or were many distributed to players? Were they randomly put together or seeded in some way? Was there a thought around rarity distribution like normal packs?

On the topic of fun 40 card decks, after my partner and I thoroughly (winston) draft through a bunch of packs in a set, I like to make a battle box of a few 40 card decks which are more coherent than the average limited deck.

I think people get too hung up on the formats in sanctioned tournaments. People says "magic is expensive", but that's not true! Modern decks in the metagame are expensive. You can play magic on the cheap an infinite number of ways. There's near endless opportunity for replay value in 3 packs per person!

FUN? How can it be fun without discard and land destruction?

Sounds like Gen-Z mtg

i wish this gave more details about the format! would love to know what the overall card pool ended up being, and which decks performed best.

Just as a heads-up for non-magic players, each of those 40-card decks contains several multiple-thousand dollar cards. I wouldn't be surprised if those 240 cards cost over $50,000.

This is my favorite alternative form of Magic:

https://articles.starcitygames.com/articles/the-danger-room/

Alternatively you give everyone a free mulligan and if they decide to start with <3 lands in their hand or no mana ramp that's on them.

My issue with guaranteed lands is that they remove the randomness of some lands. I am not guaranteed to get my "no maximum hand size" land and my rogue passage to make my creature unblockable in a typical game of commander. I have to plan for it by using stuff like expedition map.

As an aside, I'm convinced that a big reason WotC (and FLGS) are pushing commander so hard is because 100 card decks means you get to sell more cards.

Powerful argument for Tiny Leaders as a format.

(I still want to make a Commander deck which can be split in half, have one or two Commanders added, and work as a Tiny Leaders/Duel Deck pair)

I especially love the art and simplicity of revised and third editions.

Magic is best played in a shared house. We all pretty much stopped buying cards when we went our separate ways. We do occasionally get a draft box in and have a night of it when we get the chance.

Pairs particularly well with cannabis and ample free time. God I miss Magic.

I don’t play much, but some people who play the “commander” format build decks that are carefully balanced against each other. My buddy and I had a blast collecting most of the Lord of the Rings set and playing games of Hobbits vs Sauron, Gandalf vs Galadriel, etc.

That’s how I first played it when I was 14 too. My friend hand a deck of each color and we just took turns playing them.

You might be able to find someone who has built 4 balanced commander decks and you can just play

I play casually on rare occasion and mostly play unmodified or very slightly modified pre-constructed commander decks. Best way to play casually IMO.

New rules were always added to each set. I do think deciding on a common "power level" is an issue in casual play. To that end, the commander team set up power level brackets to categorize your decks. This is one of the reasons I like limited though, or if deck building seems daunting, jump start.

> What is fun?

> Here is a list of things that make a game of Magic The Gathering fun to us.

> No Discard. It sucks to have no spells to play.

> No Land destruction. It sucks to be unable to cast spells.

I've always enjoyed these kinds of house rules that let you customize TCGs to your own liking.

I had a friend back in 4th Edition who ran a blue/black deck stuffed with counters and discard stuff like Counterspell and that damn Hypnotic Specter, a flying creature that made you discard a card every time it hit you.

And not just a card: A CARD AT RANDOM.

We used to joke about how obnoxious a Specter equipped with a Viridian Longbow would be.

> No Land destruction. It sucks to be unable to cast spells.

I have yet to find someone actually running land destruction in their deck, it's such a hated mechanic.

Agreed. Playing the same pair of decks with a friend over and over is so fun -- you really start to learn the decks, and the early game becomes extremely tactical.

This is a pretty common format called cube.

You can grab a list from somewhere like cube cobra. Buy the cards, or use an online draft tool or print a bunch of proxies and play. Its a fun way to play with cards that are just sitting in bulk boxes and play without having to buy a whole booster box

> But at least with old cards you don't have to contend with Sephiroth, the Ninja Turtles, and My Little Pony.

I thought you were joking, unfortunately you weren't. Money really has no taste.

Check out the Cube Draft format.

https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Cube_Draft

Random fact that I learned recently but I find it interesting: the create of MTG is a direct descendant of a US President. President James Garfield was his great-great grandfather.

Huh, the more you know. I've seen Richard Garfield's name mentioned a bunch over the years, but somehow I've never seen this fact brought up before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garfield