Closing this thread to move it to Variants forum.

Tome Magic thread here

Why? At just 5 players, you already have more starting life than EDH, and with no General damage to counteract it.

My tests have been 2 and 3 players so far. That rule may change. It may cap at 40, or even top out at 20. Lots of options to test. (EDIT: I'm yanking this rule to streamline until I get some more multiplayer testing in. 1v1 seems good at 20 life. Thanks for the suggestion, Intreped.)

My decks are 500+ cards with stuff like Abuna's Chant. The idea of the format is to use the cards that are sitting in the dustiest confines of your house.

Shouldn't this be in the format variations forum?

Possibly... I considered putting it there, but it's not an EDH variant. I wasn't sure it should go there either. I wasn't aiming to skirt any rules.

Anyhoo, I added some cards to the banned list.

I think Leveler will be a hoot, but I need to test it. "YOINK! There goes the blue deck."

I'd go with julam tome instead .. or well of discovery depending on how timmy you want to make your format.

The biggest issue with this is that you're setting up a group game using your decks ( or someones decks ) so the person that actually did the deck building will ( should ) , have a better handle on how to play.

To be brutally honest, I enjoy building and tweaking a deck as much as I enjoy playing it, as this format has a set deck I'd prolly give this format a pass if someone asked me to play it.

as for leveler - oh there goes the land deck hope you got the lands you needed..

I originally used Jalum Tome. Jayemdae seems to be about right on the expense of activation; You put enough investment into draws that you value each card rather than cycling out cards that initially seem suboptimal. I could even see the Jayemdae being too powerful and might look for something even pricier.

Well of Discovery I don't think I'll use because it tends to reduce interactivity.

I agree, the prospect of pitting individual creations against one another appeals to a lot of players. Some of my friends don't get into the building. I do have a better knowledge of the deck contents, but when each deck is 500+ cards, they are less predictable than when I pass out EDH decks.

This format might be especially useful for folks with significant others that don't build decks. The lack of mana screw is also less frustrating for casual players.

I also really like seeing "useless" cards that don't make my EDH decks getting some love in a balanced format.

Yep, that is my main worry about Leveler. *snip* and EDIT: There's a couple cards that work better if they can't target the basic land deck, including Clash. I'm going to implement it. Thanks for the advice, Odit.)

Thanks for the comments!

I would add an eighth library for Gold/Hybrid/Split cards.

Excellent suggestion, and I am strongly considering it.

Currently, I am still testing the basic function ratios in each color: For instance, the Black deck has 22.75% targeted kill, 4.76% discard, 61.55% creatures, 2.47% gy hate, 3.88% mass removal, etc. I track cards with multiple functions as well (like Shriekmaw).

In short, I want to nail down the vibe of each color deck first, and then see how gold affects the mix. I suspect I will be trying out your idea soon.

If anyone wishes to participate in testing, I have a Excel spreadsheet they are welcome to use to help track their deck breakdowns. It has been easier to assemble decks with it, IMO.

Oracle of Mul Daya is banned, but how about Future Sight and its magus? A land every turn for the rest of the game....

Oracle is 2 lands per turn every turn. I don't necessarily think 1 per turn is too terrible, plus the casting cost of the Future spells is very restrictive compared to Oracle's single G. Hitting the 3 colored mana seems to happen in the late late game.

Of course, I'm no expert at eyeballing, and I'll have to see how it pans out in testing.

I played several games of tome magic today.

Each tome had 66 cards. All zendikar, all commons and uncommons.

Non green tomes had 44 creatures, 15 removal spells, and 7 other spells.

The green tome had 44 creatures and 22 other spells.

The non colored tome was never drawn from and has deemed to be useless. It originally had 19 artifacts and 11 lands. The basic land tome was just 15 of each basic land, which turned out to be plenty. The basic land tome randomization is the most important detail in tome magic.

We each start with 8 cards in hand and there is no maximum hand size.

Cards that don't work like hedron crab and merfolk wayfinder were not present in the decks, neither were crap cards like caravan hurda and relic crush (relic crush is great in edh though).

Well of course in a Zendikar-based one, the Artifact tome is bad.
But give it Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Mind's Eye, Titan, Mindslaver, Simulacrum, Temporal Aperture, Coalition Relic, Gilded Lotus, Karn, Bosh, Memnarch, Crucible, etc and it is way different.

Thanks for the report!

Yeah, the artifact deck has been a challenge for me to balance... The first iteration had too much muscle.

I also originally had a bunch of non-basics in the colorless deck like RAV Karoos. The decks easily became rainbow decks, which wasn't quite the vibe I personally wanted. I was aiming for 3 color, but that's of course just a preference.

What was the color spread with 15x each basic?

After some more testing, we went with onlainari's suggestion for the basic land deck.

Also, I streamlined the rules a lot. I added a "One Effect, One Library" rule that eliminated a lot of other notes the confusion of targeting libraries.

Please LMK if there are other cards with wierd interactions.

Thanks again everyone that is providing feedback!