ALT; Rules for Alternate Legacy Tribal

Eldariel · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 181

This is an alternate format; ALT uses slightly different Tribal-rules. I find the normal rules to be horrendously lacking, I decided to create something that would work better. Since it's not a priority for Wizards, I don't expect them to update the official rules any time soon, hence rather using improvised rules to improve the enjoyability of the format than slavishly following Wizards.

Short rules:
-ALT doesn't have banned tribes. Only individual cards are banned. See bottom of the post.
-The format allows sideboards. You must have 15 or 0 sideboard cards. After sideboarding, your deck must still have the required amount of cards of the tribe.
-ALT has a creature type errata issued to a Kraken, some Colossi, Vampires, Artifact Creatures, Urza-block manlands and older Tribal Lords to make them playable in certain tribes. Only additional tribes are given, none are removed, except for old Tribal Lords. See the bottom of the post.
-Cards that make tokens of a type count as that type for making the deck. Call of the Herd counts as an Elephant. Forbidden Orchard and Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai count as Spirits.
-Cards with ability to become a creature of some type count as that type for making the deck. Phyrexian Totem counts as a Horror, etc.

Full rules:
-Your maindeck has to be at least 60 cards with no maximum limit. Your sideboard has to be exactly 15 or 0 cards.
-Deck must be legal in the stated format. For the purposes of ALT, that will mostly be Legacy, but if another format is specified, make sure your deck is legal with the sets and the Banned & Restricted-list of that format.
-Your deck has to be legal for ALT. That means, it can't contain cards listed as 'Banned' in this post.
-Your deck must be built around a tribe. This means that you pick one creature type (creature card's type line after 'Creature -') and build your deck so that 1/3rd, rounded up, of the deck's cards are of the tribe you chose. That would mean, in a 60-card deck, that your deck has to have 20 Wizards, Orcs, Goblins, Leviathans, Angels or any other tribe you've chosen. In a 61 to 63-card deck, you'd have to have 21 cards of that tribe, and so on.
-Card belongs to a tribe if it has the line 'Creature - Tribe' (Aven Brigadier counts as a Bird for a Bird-deck and a Soldier for a Soldier-deck), it produces a token of the Tribe (Battle Screech counts as a Bird for making a deck) or it can turn into a creature of the Tribe (Mishra's Factory counts as an Assembly-Worker for the purposes of making a deck) or can allow the enchanted card to turn into a creature of the chosen type (Genju of the Spires counts as a Spirit for the purposes of making a deck).
-Supertypes like 'Artifact', 'Legendary', 'Land', 'Enchantment', 'Instant' and 'Sorcery' are not tribes. A deck with 20 Artifact Creatures or Legendary Creatures of different types is not legal. Only creature subtypes that appear after 'Creature -' line are legal. This also means that you cannot use land-, enchantment- or spell-subtypes, such as Forest, Swamp, Shrine or Arcane as the basis of your deck. Only creature types apply.
-After sideboarding, in games 2 and 3, your deck still has to have at least 1/3rd of its cards as cards of your Tribe. Otherwise the deck is illegal and you'll have matchloss.
-ALT errata provided in this post overwrites Gatherer-wording for the cards listed for ALT-tournaments.

The list of banned cards follows. I'll list them by the type, first the banned cards that don't belong to a tribe, and then all the banned cards that are a part of some tribe, arranged alphabetically by tribe.
Banned non-tribe cards in Tribal:
-Survival of the Fittest
-Cranial Plating
-Arcbound Ravager
-Engineered Plague
-Tsabo's Decree
-Extinction
-Circle of Solace
-Endemic Plague
-Skullclamp
-Umezawa's Jitte
-Story Circle
-Anarchy
-Dystopia
-Moat
-Vedalken Shackles

Banned Clerics
-Daru Spiritualist
-Martyr of Sands

Banned Elves
-Deranged Hermit
-Fyndhorn Elves
-Priest of Titania
-Wellwisher

Banned Goblins
-Goblin Lackey
-Goblin Piledriver
-Goblin Ringleader
-Goblin Warchief
-Goblin Welder
-Siege-Gang Commander

Banned Humans
-Dark Confidant
-Martyr of Sands

Banned Rebels
-Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
-Task Force

Banned Slivers
-Crystalline Sliver
-Hibernation Sliver
-Sedge Sliver
-Sinew Sliver
-Winged Sliver

Banned Wizards
-Dark Confidant
-Grim Lavamancer
-Meddling Mage
-Patron Wizard

Banned Zombies
-Undead Warchief

These are a subject to change, but this list is in effect for now. Furthermore, the following cards have a special erratum applied to make them more Tribal-friendly. First, old Tribal Lords:
Kobold Overlord
Creature - Kobold
First Strike
Other Kobolds you control have First strike.
1/2
Other Kobolds get

Kobold Drill Sergeant
Creature - Kobold
Other Kobolds you control get +0/+1 and have Trample.
1/2

Orc General
Creature - Orc Lord
T, sacrifice an Orc or a Goblin: Other Orcs get +1/+1 until End of Turn.
2/2

Faerie Noble
Creature - Faerie Lord
Flying
Other Faeries you control get +0/+1
T: Other Faeries you control get +1/+0
1/2

Zombie Master
Creature - Zombie Lord
All other Zombies have "B: Regenerate this creature."
All other Zombies have Swampwalk.
2/3

Baron Sengir
Legendary Creature - Vampire Lord
Flying
Whenever a creature dealt damage to by Baron Sengir this turn is put into a graveyard, put a +2/+2 counter on Baron Sengir.
T: Regenerate target Vampire.

Next, Urza-block manlands:
Faerie Conclave
Faerie Conclave comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add U to your mana pool.
1U: Faerie Conclave becomes a 2/1 blue Faerie creature with flying until end of turn. It's still a land.

Forbidding Watchtower
Forbidding Watchtower comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add W to your mana pool.
1W: Forbidding Watchtower becomes a 1/5 white Wall creature until end of turn. It's still a land.

Spawning Pool
Spawning Pool comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add B to your mana pool.
1B: Spawning Pool becomes a 1/1 black Horror creature with "B: Regenerate this creature" until end of turn. It's still a land.

Ghitu Encampment
Ghitu Encampment comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add R to your mana pool.
1R: Ghitu Encampment becomes a 2/1 red Nomad creature with first strike until end of turn. It's still a land.

Treetop Village
Treetop Village comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add G to your mana pool.
1G: Treetop Village becomes a 3/3 green Treefolk creature with trample until end of turn. It's still a land.

Normal Creatures changed:
Thing from the Deep
Creature - Kraken
Whenever Thing from the Deep attacks, sacrifice it unless you sacrifice an Island.
9/9

Sengir Bats
Creature - Vampire Bat
Flying
Whenever a creature dealt damage by Sengir Bats this turn is put into a graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on Sengir Bats.
1/2

Vampire Bats
Creature - Vampire Bat
Flying
B: Vampire Bats gets +1/+0 until end of turn. Play this ability no more than twice each turn.
0/1

Vampire Hounds
Creature - Vampire Hound
Discard a creature card: Vampire Hounds gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/2

Bloodfire Colossus
Creature - Colossus Giant
R, Sacrifice Bloodfire Colossus: Bloodfire Colossus deals 6 damage to each creature and each player.
6/6

Krosan Cloudscraper
Creature - Colossus Beast Mutant
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Krosan Cloudscraper unless you pay GG.
Morph 7GG (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
13/13

Krosan Colossus
Creature - Colossus Beast
Morph 6GG (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
9/9

Artifact Creatures with Creature Types added:
Arcbound Worker
Artifact Creature - Assembly-Worker
Modular 1 (This comes into play with a +1/+1 counter
on it. When it's put into a graveyard, you may put
its +1/+1 counters on target artifact creature.)
0/0

Frogmite
Artifact Creature - Frog
Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs 1 less to play for each artifact you control.)
2/2

Auriok Siege Sled
Artifact Creature - Juggernaut
1: Target artifact creature blocks Auriok Siege Sled this turn if able.
1: Target artifact creature can't block Auriok Siege Sled this turn.
3/5

Juggernaut
Artifact Creature - Juggernaut
Juggernaut attacks each turn if able.
Juggernaut can't be blocked by Walls.
5/3

Otarian Juggernaut
Artifact Creature - Juggernaut
Otarian Juggernaut can't be blocked by Walls. Threshold - Otarian Juggernaut gets +3/+0 and attacks each turn if able. (You have threshold as long as seven or more cards are in your graveyard.)
2/3

Colossus of Sardia
Artifact Creature - Colossus
Trample
Colossus of Sardia doesn't untap during your untap step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay 9. If you do, untap Colossus of Sardia.
9/9

Darksteel Colossus
Artifact Creature - Colossus
Trample
Darksteel Colossus is indestructible. ("Destroy" effects and lethal damage don't destroy it.)
If Darksteel Colossus would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Darksteel Colossus and shuffle it into its owner's library instead.
11/11

Phyrexian Colossus
Artifact Creature - Colossus
Phyrexian Colossus doesn't untap during your untap step.
Pay 8 life: Untap Phyrexian Colossus.
Phyrexian Colossus can't be blocked except by three or more creatures.
8/8

That's all. Enjoy. Also, please don't post here, if you have comments, you can PM me or contact me online. I'll be updating this, but I'll always add a note of the last time, an edit performed and what was changed. Hopefully no changes need to be done, but I'm a bit sceptical about that. We'll see, I guess. Happy Tribal Magic!

EDIT: Made the post easier to read, removed excessive text, etc. Hope it's clearer now.
EDIT#2: Gave Arcbound Worker an errata that turns it into an Assembly-Worker, making an Assembly-Worker-deck with Mishra's Factory, Mistform Ultimus, Urza's Factory and Assembly-Worker (the brethern working together again!) legal!
EDIT#3: Some more Artifact Creatures (and 3 non-Artifact Creatures too) recieved a creature type. Juggernauts and Colossi are both ready for tournament play now!
EDIT#4: Some more creatures with Vampire-names recieved the Vampire-type.
EDIT#5: Deranged Hermit is now banned.
EDIT#6: Turned Thing from the Deep into a Kraken. A Kraken-tribal is now officially legal.
EDIT#7: Thanks to some awesome folk out there helping me test this format out (Dapug, Jacois especially) noticed that Survival-decks and Affinity are still busted.

scwizard · Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 5

Looking good there Eldariel. I've really enjoyed the tournaments you've hosted.

Now win one of them with a Faerie deck running Faerie Conclave under the new rules Smile

EDIT: I fear the 43land assembly decks that will get made now :O

scwizard · Joined: 14 Nov 2005 Posts: 5

Also someone needs to play a Mutant deck at some point because that would be sexy.

ykpon · Joined: 25 Nov 2006 Posts: 9

dont like more than half of these rules. heres my opinion: http://www.magic-league.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6937

Z_E_R_O · Joined: 26 Jul 2006 Posts: 6

After playing around in the format, I believe that Angel Reanimator is overpowered and warrants some bannings. Ever since I started playing with the deck, I have made it to every tournament final except for one, where I lost to the mirror.

Here are my tournament results.

http://www.magic-league.com/tournament/info.php?id=34352&view=decks

http://www.magic-league.com/tournament/info.php?id=34408&view=decks

http://www.magic-league.com/tournament/info.php?id=34438&view=decks

And Leonin5's playing Angel Reanimator.

http://www.magic-league.com/tournament/info.php?id=34441&view=decks

http://www.magic-league.com/tournament/info.php?id=34488&view=decks

Looking at our histories, both of us have always made it to the finals (excluding the time when I faced him in the mirror). Even with sideboards, it is very hard to stop Angel Reanimator with just Tormod's Crypt (the only hate that's really played in the sideboard) and the only two things are maindecked that can stop it are Edicts and Swords to Plowshares.

If angels were to receive bannings, here would be my recommendations based off tournament experience.

- Akroma, Angel of Wrath

- Razia, Boros Archangel

- Platinum Angel

These two are the three prime suspects because they just pwn pretty much every creature in combat while being able to play offense and defense at the same time. Platinum Angel is VERY good for it not only just wins you the game, but it buys you alot of time to kill your opponent before your opponent finds an answer for the angel, and Angel Reanimator can dig faster than most (if not every) deck in the format packing Careful Study / Intuition / Mystical Tutor / Cephalid Coliseum / Hapless Researcher / Brainstorm.

CalebD · Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 24

After playing against the deck, looking through the decks competition, looking through the past tournaments and years of experience on **** making decks for crazy/new formats I'd have to disagree.

The angel deck is good and consistent, but it runs no disruption, and most of the relevent disruption it boards is for the mirror. It's not that hard to disrupt, simple creature removal does the trick. Once people start realizing that creature removal is good in a format requiring 1/3 of your deck to be creatures the format should shift a bit.

I mean, the format is still young, people are still playing bad decks. I threw my deck together ten minutes before the start of the last one and still beat it, even playing against leonin with angel reanimator in the finals. How? I ran good disruption, something no one else seemed to be doing.

No ones abusing humans. No one's abusing assembly workers. Next tournament I play in I'll probably be running one of those two, and I expect to beat any angel deck I meet.

CalebD · Joined: 04 Apr 2007 Posts: 24