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May 21, 2012 -- 4:32AM, GreenBuster wrote:

I have no issue with cards such as Fractured Powerstone or Command Tower.   I am just fine with a card having an additional effect in a casual format.  

I do agree that Command Tower should have had some effect within the normal game, but as it only goes in EDH decks there really wouldn't be an issue with suddenly having a blank card in the deck.

 Fractured Powerstone, on the other hand, is basically a Mind Stone without the card drawing effect and has additional use if the deck is used with planechase cards.  I see no issue with that.

I view it as the difference between the normal Lego blocks (e.g. 2x4 yellow, 1x1 white) and the more specialized ones (e.g. Gringott's sign).  It's true that the Gringott's sign doesn't harm any Lego creations, since those that aren't Gringott's will just not include the Gringott's sign, but at the same time, those ultra-specialized pieces diminish the modularity of Lego, which is what makes it so great.  If it were taken to the extreme, with each piece special-made for one particular set, those sets could look incredibly detailed and accurate, but they'd be that much less useful for new creations.

As it stands, Magic cards are intercompatible, and the same cards can be used in every variant (though some will not have the same power level everywhere).  Command Tower , however, isn't a Magic card: it's a Commander Magic card.  It's not just that its ability isn't as powerful outside the Commander variant; it's that it's completely meaningless (and of literally no value) there.  Ditto for Fractured Powerstone 's second ability and the Planechase variant.  They're the Gringott's sign of Magic.

I don't think one or two (or four, if you count the multiplayer-specific abilities on [c]such cards are the end of the world, but I don't want them to start a trend.

May 21, 2012 -- 10:14AM, GreenBuster wrote:

"901.3. In addition to the normal game materials, each player needs a planar deck of at least ten plane cards and the game needs one planar die. Each card in a planar deck must have a different English name."

That quote is from the current rules, and we know it'll be different when the rules are updated for Planechase 2012.  We just don't know exactly how yet.

The old planar decks didn't have phenomena, so for backwards compatibility, 10:0 will almost certainly still be legal, and the new planar decks have two phenomena, so 8:2 will also be legal.  If those are both legal, 9:1 will probably also be legal.  And the infinite loop means that 0:10 will almost certainly not be legal.  Aside from that, though, it's guesswork.  It could well be that there need to be at least 10 distinct cards, of which at least 8 are planes, but I don't think we should jump to conclusions either way yet.

May 21, 2012 -- 3:52PM, chronego wrote:

May 21, 2012 -- 3:01PM, Qmark wrote:

Call me crazy here, but "at least ten plane cards" could very well remain "at least ten plane cards".

Not if the products are shipping with 8 plane cards and 2 phenomena each. They're not going to ship a product that is marketed as "all you need to play this format" and make it illegal in that format...

There's a difference between playing straight out of the box, and 'rolling your own'. 
More than likely, a variant on the War of Attrition Exception will be invoked again.