I was recently bemoaning the loss of 5-color as a semi-real format a few years ago. The format to me was always a blast to play and I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than I've ever enjoyed EDH, which has become the big deck format of choice. I've also recently been getting back into EDH and often argue about the nature of having a "casual" format that allows for such broken interactions and plays. All of that arguing got me thinking though about whatthe most broken cards and combos in the game are. Someone else, I believe it was Stephen Mendendian, once wrote an article about unrestricted Vintage to highlight the most powerful cards and strategies in the game. The article was interesting but in my opinion kind of failed at highlighting much besides how quickly a metagame revolving around chalice of the void would evolve in such a format. With the ability to compose a mana base almost entirely of zero cost artifacts and the ability to focus on only a few spells in limited colors were limiting factors in exploring the truly broken.
So, as a thought experiment I think an unrestricted 5-color format would actually be far more interesting. For anyone unfamiliar with 5-color, deck construction requires 250 (now 300, but 250 seems better for now). It also requires that at least 20 spells of each color be played, with split or gold cards counting as any one of their colors, but not each. For example, Vindicate could be either a black slot or a white slot but not both.
Now that deck construction principles and some background have been laid out, let's get broken!
First off is the mana. 100 mana sources is equivalent to 24 in regular construction, which is a good baseline. Black Lotus and Sol Ring are the most obvious inclusions, along with some number of moxes, likely the full 20. That's 28, leaving around 60-70 slots for other options. City of Brass i.s an auto-include land, and Mana Crypt is also almost certianly worth it for more fast mana. Mana Vault I feel is more debatable and will be omitted for now. For lands I think having more variety than City, duals and fetches is likely wrong. The blue fetches are auto includes, and I think something along the lines of a 30-30 split for fetches and duals is fine, trimming down on the number of tradionally underpowered color combination ones like W/R and G/W.
With the easy part done, we move onto what style of deck we wish to play. Ithink something along the lines of Vintage Tezzeret control is almost certianly going to be the best approach. Time Vault is my vote for best win condition, using Blightsteel to actually get the kill. As such the deck I would build would focus mostly on tutors, combo pieces, draw spells, and a smattering of counterspells and other assorted solution cards.
If anyone is interested, I may actually come up with a list and post it, but right now its still just a budding idea.
My real question though is what other people think. What's the most broken approach to a large deck format with a completely open cardpool? Am I overeating Time Vault as a wincon? Would Oath be worth including in a list concept like mine? Is combo-control what you would even want to be doing? Or would highly focused Flash list be too fast for it to matter? What about just regrowing Time Walks over and over until you find a win? What are peoples thoughts and ideas on breaking magic wide open with 250 cards? Let me know what you'd play.
So, as a thought experiment I think an unrestricted 5-color format would actually be far more interesting. For anyone unfamiliar with 5-color, deck construction requires 250 (now 300, but 250 seems better for now). It also requires that at least 20 spells of each color be played, with split or gold cards counting as any one of their colors, but not each. For example, Vindicate could be either a black slot or a white slot but not both.
Now that deck construction principles and some background have been laid out, let's get broken!
First off is the mana. 100 mana sources is equivalent to 24 in regular construction, which is a good baseline. Black Lotus and Sol Ring are the most obvious inclusions, along with some number of moxes, likely the full 20. That's 28, leaving around 60-70 slots for other options. City of Brass i.s an auto-include land, and Mana Crypt is also almost certianly worth it for more fast mana. Mana Vault I feel is more debatable and will be omitted for now. For lands I think having more variety than City, duals and fetches is likely wrong. The blue fetches are auto includes, and I think something along the lines of a 30-30 split for fetches and duals is fine, trimming down on the number of tradionally underpowered color combination ones like W/R and G/W.
With the easy part done, we move onto what style of deck we wish to play. Ithink something along the lines of Vintage Tezzeret control is almost certianly going to be the best approach. Time Vault is my vote for best win condition, using Blightsteel to actually get the kill. As such the deck I would build would focus mostly on tutors, combo pieces, draw spells, and a smattering of counterspells and other assorted solution cards.
If anyone is interested, I may actually come up with a list and post it, but right now its still just a budding idea.
My real question though is what other people think. What's the most broken approach to a large deck format with a completely open cardpool? Am I overeating Time Vault as a wincon? Would Oath be worth including in a list concept like mine? Is combo-control what you would even want to be doing? Or would highly focused Flash list be too fast for it to matter? What about just regrowing Time Walks over and over until you find a win? What are peoples thoughts and ideas on breaking magic wide open with 250 cards? Let me know what you'd play.
