Cheapskate Format
- Minimum deck size: 60 cards
- No more than 4 copies of any card, except basic lands
- Cards can be of any rarity
- The legal card list is updated every 4 months based on the following Scryfall search:
f:vintage ((r:c eur<0.05) or (r:u eur<=0.15) or ((r:r or r:m) eur<=0.5))
Based on Heirloom but with paper prices.
The periodic updates to legality would help keep the format fresh if it gained enough popularity to affect card prices. Unlike Pauper where some “budget” decks still cost $60+, this format should have genuinely cheap decks thanks to the rolling card pool.
This is great, I just want to throw out that MTG Online has “Penny Dreadful” as a format:
Penny Dreadful is an unofficial Magic Online budget format where the legality rules include only cards that cost 0.02 ticket - roughly one penny.
I like your idea a lot! I would certainly play this a ton.
Penny Dreadful is such a fun format. Never have time to play mtgo anymore but that is by far my most played format on there
My LGS used to have a giant tub of 10-cent cards, mostly commons of course, but occasionally you could find an uncommon or rare. I would stand in front of it for half an hour picking out the ones I liked. I probably was not actually getting a good deal, but who cares?
I wish they still had it. I would love to just scoop an armful of cards out of that bin and draft them.
I think a draft event like this would be really fun actually. I would make the trip into my LGS to do this if they offered it lol. I just like how level the playing field is and how fun those games would get. You’d play with cards never even considered before and have to make them work somehow.
Dollar Store Beejlander!!
No cards with text allowed. Only vanilla creatures.
On a more serious note I came up with a format I call “Merchant,” which is a team sealed event but both teams put up whatever cards they’re willing to trade. Could add a fun political aspect while keeping the games “pure.” Also would make decks stronger and there’s a strategic aspect to what you show in the trade pool, and what you’ll allow to go to the other team. Haven’t been able to actually put together a go at it, yet, though.
More violent and frequent rotations:
- Rotations each month
- Each rotation, the top 1% most played cards are banned for the next three rotations
- This achieves a violently rotating meta by regularly banning the most prominent cards
- The frequent shakeups prevent stagnant metagames and dominant decks
- Regular bannings keep experienced players on their toes
ebay bulk cube draft
go on ebay, find 1000+ cards for 20 bucks, shuffle, count out 360, and separate those into 12 piles without looking at them
my guess is it would be nearly unplayable, but i’d still like to try it
