The Library of Babel
The quest for knowledge springs eternal. The elementals will do whatever it takes to get there. For knowledge is power, and in the depths of the endless shelves lies the key.
Rules:
Players choose one of 12 roles at the start of the game, linked to each element, encourages to foster diplomatic relations between players, aside from pure deckbuilding skill. They do not act as factions, however; this is an individual competition with one winner.
The winner is determined by a series of matches (Best of 5), round after round, without elimination. The first player to attain a certain number of knowledge points, either via winning matches or through their roles. For the purposes of this Trials tasks, I will arbitarily set it to 40.
Winning a game 3-0: 4 points
Winning a game 3-1: 2 points
Winning a game 3-2: 1 point
(All roles are EoR)
- Sorcerer: Give a player other than yourself 6 additional upgrades during their next match. If they win, gain 1 knowledge point.
- Cultist: Grant a person an instant loss during their next match. They start the game, entering 0-1. Gain 1 knowledge point if they win 3-2, or 2 if they win 3-1.
- Tutor: You may choose an additional player (who is not playing directly against you). If they lose, you may replay his match, under the same deckbuilding restrictions as him. You gain knowledge points as normal if you win.
- Scribe: Name a card. Excluding you, all players must use at least 3 copies of the chosen card in their deck.
- Publisher: Name a deck that previously won a match in the last 2 rounds and publicly reveal your choice. You must play with that deck, exactly, ignoring all other deckbuilding restrictions. Gain double knowledge points for winning.
- Arsonist: Name up to 3 cards in an player's deck in an player's deck (who is not playing directly against you). That player must swap out these cards for Relics. If they lose, gain 1 knowledge point.
- Enchanter: For every 2 Alchemy cards added into your deck (excluding Nymph's Tears), gain an additional knowledge point whenever you win a match.
- Priest: You start the event with 0 upgrades. Whenever you lose a round, gain 3 additional upgrades, permanently.
- Courier: Whenever you win a match, you may use their abilities during the next round.
- Timekeeper: You may restart a game during your match this round, BEFORE your first turn. If you do not, gain 1 additional knowledge point if you win.
- Smuggler: Name a player (who is not playing directly against you) and give him 6 additional upgrades and a guranteed first turn on all 3 matches. (restart the game if he starts second). If he wins, gain 1 knowledge point, while the player loses 1 knowledge point.
- Bookkeeper: All Bookkeepers collectively determine the matchups to be played.
Deckbuilding rules:
6 upgrades per player, unless otherwise stipulated in your roles
At least 25% of the deck must be in-element
The top 5 cards used across all decks in the previous round is not allowed to be used in the next round. (This signifies the power of knowledge from these cards being used up and being unavailable for use)
For every Shard used, you may use 2 less upgrades.
For all ya
Elementals: Do you like Sundials and stalling people for eons? Do you like making your opponents cry with a classic Ghostmare? y..yeah... nah. This ruleset will shut off decks that rely on key cards to win their games. While Time-based rushes may be possible, they tend to be much slower than their other elemental counterparts due to the rather high costliness of their midrange creature (Ghost of the Past costs 6/7
quanta) AND it is likely to be burned away/used up anyway. The next viable options are Golden Nymph and Devonian Dragon, both expensive creatures.
Well, what do we do then? I think that such a rush may be possible, with Eternity still generally available, not used outside Time as often, to stall out problem creatures AND lock out their next draw.
Alexandria Rises Yet Again
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55q 55q 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5ro 5rs 5rs 5rs 5rs 5rs 7q5 7q5 7q5 7qb 7qb 7qb 8plPharaoh may give us some quanta issues with such a high casting cost, but im going to use a little-known and underappreciated card - Precognition! Don't think of it as some useless card; it allows us the ability to see what our opponent is up to, and provides a neat cantrip, thinning our deck for the stuff we do need so that quanta-screwing would be not as bad here. Ditto for Electrum Hourglass, albeit repeatable but more expensive, and also more well-known.
So, what would we be up against usually? Other elements would have rushes of their own, and will be less affected due to the many choices of creatures at their disposal: Life, for example, has a number of low-costing creatures, so such a ban would not affect it as adversely. Adrenaline also allows it to give such their creatures extra punch, taking down the time player quickly.
Sample Opponent
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5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 8pnIt might be difficult for the Time player to outrush the life player even on the nut draw, hence he might have to play a more stalling game, using Eternity or CC on the opponent's creatures before he gets overrun.
And hey, just for fun, why not I bake up another deck too!
Not Emrakul, but I still promise to end you
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5rl 5rl 5ro 5rr 5rr 5rr 5rr 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 622 622 622 622 622 7q5 80g 80g 80g 80g 80g 8puOh, those aren't Precogs. Those are
Pledges!Yep, I'm crazy, but why don't we use the Task 2 card for a deck! I tried putting it in a Phasetal rush, which usually is run Death/Aether or Mono-Aether, but I can make it a Aether-Time duo. Usually with such a duo it is pretty hard to construct a deck because of how expensive and/or lopsided quanta balancing has to be, but no problem this time. We'll be pumping out those insects left right center, with Pledge not only reducing the cost of the expensive drawing engines but also the Recluses obtained off Fractal! After casting Fractal, all your
quanta is gone anyway, so the time delay of Pledge into these spiders is a non-factor. Then you can pump em all out for a measely 1
! The use of Pledge also allows us to use less pillars in the deck, allowing for more rushy goodness!
