IntroductionA riff off the card game Flux. This is a variation of the Chaos Magic featured by the Ferret while he was writing Serious Fun a few years ago with the additional rule of stacking Chaos effects. Original article
here.
PreparationCreate a Chaos deck using various enchantments, instants, sorceries and artifacts. Suggested size of 30 cards. A ratio of 2:1 enchantments/artifacts to instants/sorceries is suggested. See below for sample list.
In the command zone, keep space for the Chaos deck and room for 5 cards to be flipped face up.
A 6 sided dice will also be required.
GameplayBefore each player's upkeep, as a special action, that player must roll the dice. That player then flips the top card of the Chaos deck face-up and puts that card into the designated space (numbered 1 through 5) indicated by the dice. If 6 was rolled, the active player may choose any space. If it is a permanent, it stays in play in the designated space. If it is an instant or sorcery, whoever flipped the card face up must cast it without paying its mana cost (After casting, it's easier to just leave it in the space where it was flipped to keep track of empty/filled spaces).
If the space the flipped card is already occupied by another card, that card is sacrificed. If a card from the Chaos deck would be put into any zone besides the Command zone or its indicated space, it goes there and then to the bottom of the Chaos deck.
Afterwords, upkeep proceeds as normal, granting any new upkeep bonuses etc.
Permanents in the command zone are controlled by the active player.
The only exception to this rule is on each player's first turn. On each player's first turn, instead of rolling the dice, the player only flips the top card of the deck and puts it into the next sequential space (ie. the first player flips into the first space, the second player into the second space... the sixth player would loop around and go in the first space, etc.)
The act of flipping cards from the Chaos deck does not use the stack and cannot be responded to. You can only respond before and after the card is flipped.
Final ThoughtsThe nature of this variant is very finicky; you will develop house rules for this format. Some enchantments/artifacts will look awesome for this format until you realize they say 'you' in the text box and then the rules lawyer of your play group will weep at the confusion.
Our playgroup more or less makes it up as we go along, with the intent to make cards works as they were intended to. We explain it to each other as if we "each had a copy of the comand zone under our own control," but that's also nonsensical, so take it with a grain of salt. To get an idea of where we are coming from, the forementioned sample list:
- Hatching Plans
- Barter in Blood
- Resurrection
- Dosan's Oldest Chant
- Ghostly Prison
- Upwelling
- Call to the Grave
- Ley Line
- Incremental Growth
- Ivory Tower
- Confusion in the Ranks
- Phyrexian Arena
- Ashling' Perogative
- Final Revels
- Grand Melee
- Pandemonium
- Soul Feast
- Reverse the Sands
- Wild Pair
- Syphon Mind
- Cowardice
- Oblivion Ring
- Tidings
- Void
- Day of the Dragons
- the 5 Hondens
The original article suggests avoiding these issues all together, so again, grain of salt.
Also, if the pseudo-rules jargon wasn't explicit enough, the purpose of the instants/sorceries is to empty spaces by replacing/sacrificing permanent cards, so the game doesnt become overly chaotic. As such, when constructing a Chaos deck, feel free to alter the ratio accordingly if your playgroup wants more constant effects or more sweeping effects etc.
If anything wasn't explained clearly, refer to the original article where the more articulate Ferret probably explained it better, or ask and I will clarifiy and update this post accordingly.
Happy gaming!