Points-based ‘Limited’ for MTGO
.A while ago I came up with a new format for competitive MTG, one which would be tough with real cards but rather easy online: points-based Limited.
The concept is fairly simple: give cards points values, such as 9 for rares, 3 for uncommons, and 1 for commons. At the start of a tournament, determine the points total for that tournament, and then have the players build decks with that many points.
That’s it. Rather simple, but it tests deckbuilding skills while eliminating the luck factors associated with Sealed and Draft. (It also removes the skill in Drafting, but it would be an alternative to, not a replacement for, Draft.) Doing this with the cardboard version would be tough, because you would need to provide all the cards the players asked for, but in MTGO it seems trivial. You’d probably have to play some version where players can’t keep their cards, or where the points would be kept low (to prevent people from playing it purely to get high-value rares), but I’m sure tweaks like that would be possible.
I’d love to see this format. I think it would be extremely challenging, because small points variations would potentially have very large impacts on what decks would be viable. And to be really good, you’d have to be able to judge what decks you’re likely to encounter in the mini-metagame of the points total you’re building with.
I’ll have to find out whether this has been suggested to them already, and if not, suggest it. I don’t know if it would get me to actually play MTGO again, but since it’s not likely to happen, that’s probably moot.