By Aaron Sherman
This seemingly stupid play makes up for the fact that your opponent can cast any spell without needing any mana. You will find that this comes out pretty even with a five-colour deck of commons.
By Jeffery Hunsberger
The basic scenario for this game is that you are a mage that has been entrapped on another plane, and if you do not free yourself soon, your soul will be lost for all eternity. You must fight with whatever means necessary to free yourself from this domain. In this dimension you float in a fathomless chaos devoid of substance and order, a panoply of colour and thoughts surround you as you fight to gain your freedom. Mana colour does not exist here, as all colours exist in one. You need only to concentrate on the colour you wish and it can be tapped and put into use to secure your freedom. The task is mighty. Already you can feel your form begin to fragment, chunks of thought spin off into the One. You begin to feel its pull. Resist.
Starting the Game
The game is begun by dealing cards into what is called the Timer deck. The object of the game is to do as many points of damage as you can before the cards in the Timer deck run out. The size of the Timer deck is fifteen cards. These cards are dealt off the top of your main deck and are put in a small pile to the player's right. Main decks can be be any size. Larger decks can present problems because you are less apt to draw useful cards before your Timer deck runs out.
If you feel you have too many cards in your main deck, the following variant works quite well. Shuffle well and take the first sixty cards that come into your hand and play a couple of games. Sizty seems to be a minimum for main decks as you are apt to run out of cards before you make it through your Timer deck with any less. Some interestingly high scores have been yielded this way. You don't necessarily need a bunch of "great" cards in your deck to get a high score. Just a lot of luck and a few correct decisions.
The next step is to flip the top card of your Timer deck, placing it on top of the pile, and deal three cards from your main deck. Place these cards face up in a horizontal row next to your Timer deck. These four cards form your hand. Reserve space above your hand for what are called Save slots. These two spaces will hold cards which can stay out when all the other cards go to the graveyard. The object of the game is to do the maximum amount of damage possible to your imprisoning enchantment in the amount of time allowed for by the Timer deck.
Turn Sequence
* A card does not have to be in an Save slot to attack, just summoned.
Step-By-Step
When you summon a creature, it has no summoning sickness, unlike in the regular M:TG rules. When all of your mana is exhausted you then survey the damage you have done. You will find that most enchantments are not usable in this game. The only enchantments you can use are ones that affect your summoned creatures. Some enchantments have special abilities which are listed in the section marked Special Rules etc. When you summon a creature you denote its state by tapping it or turning it sideways, for a creature must attack the turn it is summoned. After you attack with a creature, you discard it immediately.
Spells also function differently than the regular game of M:tG in that if a spell has an offensive capability you can use that spell to do damage. This is done by paying your mana for the spell and doing damage equal to the amount of mana you used to cast it. If you have a spell like Stone Rain, you could spend the three mana and do three points of damage to the enchantment. These are generally sorcery spells and they have to have something on the card which says something like, "...destroy target...".
If at any time you realize that you have mistakenly put too much land in a stack you take mana burn equal to the excess by discarding the appropriate number from the Timer deck. You do not have to move cards up to the Save slots immediately upon drawing them. You can use them and then move cards into their place. For example, if you draw two plains, and have a forest and Disintegrate in your Save slots, you can tap the two plains, the forest and use the Disintegrate (doing two damage), then move the two tapped plains to the Save slot currently occupied by the now expended Disintegrate.
Ending the Game
The game ends when you are out of Timer cards, pure and simple. You flip your last Timer card and finish out the turn and that's it. If you run out of cards in your main deck keep drawing cards from your Timer deck, trying to score points, until you have exhausted them. Tally up your score and if you have scored more than forty points of damage you have successfully escaped the mage's imprisoning enchantment. If you find that you are beating this goal regularly bump it up ten or so. This game was designed to be used with a sixty card deck straight out of the shrinkwrap so customized decks may not be suitable.
To give a standard for high scores, scores are denoted by the number of cards in the deck and the number of points as such: 60/45 (meaning sixty cards, forty five points).
Another variant for those who regularly surpass forty damage is to try and score as many points as you have cards in your main deck after dealing the Timer deck (deck size - fifteen) or try to score as many points as you have cards in your main deck.
Special Rules and Exceptions
Some cards will not allow you to do anything and must be discarded:
This just basically means that you have a wasted spot and that much less of a chance of surviving. Cards that give you life can only be used once (even artifacts). They function by adding the appropriate amount of cards to the Timer deck.
Instant Death
If, at any time during the game, you have 8 mana producing lands out you are dead from extreme mana burn. You lose.
By Bruce Zimov
Object of the Game
To get four creatures out that cannot attack without being destroyed by a blocker.
Layout
There are four card slots arranged in a square, a graveyard, a mana stack, and an global area for global enchantments and global artifacts.
Initial Setup
Shuffle the deck and draw cards to fill the first slot. If the card is a creature, go to the next slot and repeat. If the card is a global enchantment or a global artifact, place the card in the global area. Then, continue to draw for that slot. If the card is a local enchantment, local artifact, instant, interrupt, or sorcery, play it in the slot, and continue to draw for that slot. All cards drawn for that slot belong to the creature at the top of the slot. If Land is drawn, put it in the mana stack. All cards are played face up. Continue until all four slots have a creature at the top. The casting cost of all creatures is zero. Other cards in the creature's slot are considered to be in the creature's spell bag. Costs for the creature's spells are paid when they are cast out of the bag.
Play
After the deal, there will be four creatures some of which may have spells they own. There may be global enchantment or artifacts that affect the entire play environment, and there may be mana in the mana stack. Mana in the mana stack is available to any creature on its turn. Once a land is tapped for mana, it is destroyed and goes to the graveyard.
Attack
Creatures can only attack creatures in slots adjacent to them. Their spells can affect any slot. Target creatures must defend an attack if able. The creature in the upper right hand slot goes first. He can attack a neighbor, play a spell, or pass. The play moves counter-clockwise around the four slots.
Damage Resolution
If a creature takes lethal damage, then it and all of its spells, artifacts, and enchantments go to the graveyard. Then, draw from the stock for a new creature as before.
General
If any text on a magic card makes no sense to this game, it is not valid. For example, life affecting spells make no sense and are ignored. This is an extremely fun game with the right deck.
Winning
The game ends when no creature can burn any other creature, and when no creature can attack without being destroyed by a blocker. If an isolated creature cannot be blocked or is unblockable, it counts as being in balance toward the win conditions. When these conditions are met, you have achieved A Balance of Power. You lose the game if the library is exhausted. I have no official rule on Feldon's Cane and the like, except don't use it if it's not fun.
This variant has you play a game of magic against a series of tables that require 1d10. The order of play for Deep IQ's turn is simple: roll on the current action table, figure out if attacking is good for it, and attack if it's a good idea. Then end it's turn. Be sure to keep in mind that Deep IQ plays as well as you do (i.e. you have to make some decisions for it); the rule is, if you would attack or block if you were in its position, then it would. If there's more than one choice on one of Deep IQ's rolls, make the decision as though you were in its shoes. Yeah, you can cheat if you want, but cheating to beat a die and a piece of paper is about as gratifying as kissing your sister.
The table roughly corresponds to the amount of mana Deep IQ has available. It's first roll will always be on Table 1. Every time you roll for Deep IQ, check the Advancement range. If the roll falls within the range, move Deep IQ up one table (use a token to keep track). When you cast a spell like Armageddon or Jokulhaups, Deep IQ will move back to Table 1. When you destroy one of its lands (with a spell like Stone Rain), move it back one table.
Whenever Deep IQ gets a creature token, roll again on the token chart to determine the creature's abilities. Apply the number in brackets as a modifier to the roll. (Same thing goes for the Spooky Chart.) If Deep IQ's action is something you can't do, treat the result as "Do nothing."
There will be times when there's no clear cut rule for how you should handle something (like a Winter Orb or Stasis). Is such cases, come up with an appropriate penalty (such as -5 to all Table die rolls) which lasts until Deep IQ can get rid of your offending artifact or enchantment.
Finally, keep in mind that beating Deep IQ isn't a walk in the park. If you can win even half of your games, that's an accomplishment.
Table I
1-8) Do nothing.
9) Bury your best creature.
10) Put a 1/1 token into play (-4).
Advancement Roll: 1-9
Table II
1-4) Do nothing.
5-7) Put a 2/2 token into play (+0).
8) Move Deep IQ up to Table 4.
9-10) Remove your best creature from the game.
Advancement Roll: 1-8
Table III
1-3) Do nothing.
4) Put a 2/2 token into play (+2).
5) Put a 2/1 token into play (+4).
6) Destroy your best land.
7) Move Deep IQ up to Table 5 and put a 1/1 token into play (+0).
8) Put a 1/1 token into play (+1) and Deep IQ gets a free roll on Table 2.
9) Bury your best creature.
10) Destroy your best artifact or roll on Spooky Chart (-2).
Advancement Roll: 1-7
Table IV
1-3) Do nothing.
4) Put a 4/4 token into play (+3).
5) Bury your best creature.
6) Destroy your best artifact or enchantment.
7) Remove your best creature from the game.
8) Bury your two best creatures or you take 4 damage.
9) Put a 2/4 token into play (+7) or roll on Spooky Chart (-1).
10) Roll on Spooky Chart (+0).
Advancement Roll: 1-4
Table V
1-3) Do nothing.
4) Put a 3/4 token into play (+4).
5) Put a 2/2 token into play (+2) and Deep IQ gets a free roll on Table 3.
6) Destroy your best creature, enchantment or artifact.
7) Put a 4/4 token into play (+1).
8) Destroy all lands or put a 4/1 token into play (+3).
9) Bury your best creature or roll on Spooky Chart (+1).
10) Roll on Spooky Chart (+2).
Advancement Roll: 1-4
Table VI
1-3) Do nothing.
4) Bury all lands, creatures and artifacts or put a 2/4 token into play
(+3).
5) Put a 4/5 token into play (+6).
6-7) Destroy your best creature or you take 6 damage.
8) Destroy your best artifact, enchantment or land.
9) Remove your best creature from the game or roll on Spooky Chart (+3).
10) Roll on Spooky Chart (+4).
Advancement Roll: None
Token Chart
1 or less) No extra abilities.
2) +1/+0 and flanking.
3) Regeneration. If Deep IQ uses this ability, subtract 2 from its next
roll.
4) +0/+1 and banding.
5) First strike.
6) Protection from: Black (1-3), White (4-6), Red (7-8), Blue (9) or Green
(10).
7) Landwalk: Swamps (1-3), Mountains (4-6), Islands (7-8), Plains (9) or
Forests (10).
8) +2/+2, flying, phasing.
9) Unaffected by summoning sickness and trample.
10) (Roll two more times on this table, with no modifier.)
11) Flying and T: Deal 1 damage to target creature or player.
12) Protection from a colour (see #6) and doesn't tap to attack.
13) When creature comes into play, bury one of your creatures at random.
14) Flanking and cannot be targeted by spells or effects.
15) Protection from a colour (see #6), landwalk (see #7), one more roll with
the same modifier and your weakest creature becomes unblockable.
16) T: Remove target permanent from the game.
Spooky Chart
1 or less) Deep IQ plays an enchantment token. While this is in play, all of
its tokens gain +1/+1.
2) Deep IQ plays an artifact token. While this is in play, reroll the first "Do
nothing" result of every turn.
3) Deep IQ plays an enchantment token. While this is in play, Deep IQ gets +1
to all die rolls.
4) Destroy all of your creatures, or all of your artifacts, or all of your
enchantments. Treat Deep IQ's next roll as "Do nothing."
5) Deep IQ gains 5 life and moves up to Table 6 if it isn't already there.
6) You take 10 damage.
7) Deep IQ plays an artifact token. While this is in play, it gets two table
rolls every turn and takes the best one.
8) Destroy all of your lands of one basic type (whichever is most
inconvenient). Treat Deep IQ's next roll as "Do nothing."
9) Remove the top 20 cards in your library from the game.
10) Deep IQ plays an artifact token. While this is in play, your best creature
is considered tapped. If you lose your best creature, the next best creature
becomes tapped, and so on.
11) All of Deep IQ's tokens get a free roll on the token chart (+0). These
abilities are permanent.
12) Deep IQ plays an enchantment token. While this is in play, it gets a free
roll on Table 2 every time one of its permanents is destroyed or buried.
13) Deep IQ gains 20 life.
14) Destroy all of your permanents. Treat Deep IQ's next roll as "Do
nothing."
Try to empty your hand and have no cards left in play. If you run out of cards, or take twenty damage, you lose. You may not discard from your hand. Your creatures may attack each other. Lands and other permanent cards can be destroyed using the appropriate spells. You may also destroy any card in play by paying its casting cost in life points. Lands may be discarded from play at a rate of one per turn, at no cost in life points; additional lands may be removed at a cost of eight life points each.
By Tulse X. Luper
Begin by creating a solitaire deck. A deck of forty cards selected at random from a larger Magic stock is acceptable; you can experiment with larger decks and constructed decks, though those might not be as great a challenge. Now create a list of eight creatures for the opposing force. These are not represented by cards, but are written down, with characteristics determined by rolls of a die. Roll once for each of these characteristics:
You may not target your non-existent opposing player, but things like life-draining spells may be applied to an enemy, with the effect of reduced power for the remainder of the current turn. Life reduction aimed at an owner/controller through a spell placed on an enemy is rendered as bonus points in your favor.
Cards which are impossible to play in the solitaire context are construed as penalty actions against you, in effect as soon as you draw the card. If you have enough mana to meet the casting cost of one of these cards, you must tap it and activate the penalty; otherwise, discard the spell.
For other out-of-context cards, you'll have to be creative in setting the penalty. In general, try to render the penalty as a card sacrifice, discard, enchantment, or a point reduction.
When attacking enemies, you may use a combination of creatures and spells. Unlike regular Magic, there is no summoning sickness, so creatures may attack on the same turn they are cast. A creature may only attack once per turn - tap the card per normal. Creatures may gang up on an enemy, in which case you add the power and toughness values for the gang and compare that to the enemy's rating. A power greater than or equal to an opposing toughness kills the opponent, and if an enemy's power is greater than or equal to your gang's toughness, then all creatures in that gang are damaged fatally, unless they have banding ability, in which case you determine damage assignment. Trample damage awards bonus points above an enemy's toughness. Regenerating creatures must first be attacked at double their toughness rating or higher - this removes the regeneration ability, and the enemy must be attacked subsequently at the normal toughness rating to kill it.
The colour/ward value indicates both the colour of the damage the enemy does and the type of damage immunity the enemy possesses. Any life derived from spells, artifacts, etc., is expressed as extra points. Any life used to power spells is deducted as a penalty. Circles of Protection may be activated once to prevent a penalty of a certain colour from affecting you, and once for each creature you wish to protect from a penalty spell or damage from an enemy.
The game ends when all enemies are destroyed or you run out of cards. Tally points in the following manner:
By Jack Lloyd
The objective of The Fortress is to capture the fortress by killing all of your opponent's creatures and getting lucky on die rolls.
Creating A Deck
You play with a deck consisting only of land, fifteen creatures and one artifact. It is wise to put 3/3 and 4/4 creatures in, with low costs and no special abilities, for no special abilities are used in this version. No cards are restricted or banned, but you may only have three copies of each creature.
Before The Game Starts
Divide the deck into two parts, creatures in one, land and artifact in the other. Shuffle the creature deck, then draw any number of cards less than eight, depending on how tough you want your opponent to be. These are your opponent's creatures. Lay them out in a separate area from your cards. Now shuffle the remaining cards together.
The Rules
You start off with twenty life. If at any time your life reaches or goes below zero, you suffer total defeat. The game is played as normal Magic: The Gathering, except for the following differences:
The opponent blocks as follows: He uses the creature with the lowest power/toughness that can still kill your creature and survive. If he can not kill yours with any of his, he uses the creature with the lowest toughness that can survive blocking. If he can not survive blocking your creature with any of his, he uses the one with the lowest power that can still kill your creature. If he cannot kill or survive yours he uses the one with the least total of power/toughness.
When There Are No More Creatures...
If you are alive until the turn after there are no more opposing creatures, then you attack the Fortress with all of your creatures. Count the total creature damage you are dealing to the fortress. Roll 3d6. Then look at the following table:
By Karl Strayhorn
Simply use this as an opponent to play against. Randomly assign the Deck Tester's colour, and all targets will be chosen in the order of greatest expense when resolving effects. Keep a sheet of paper to record all effects currently in play and defending and attacking creatures for the Deck Tester.
Destroying 5 lands or dealing enough damage will be a victory. Attackers will attack each turn, effects adding to draw add 1 roll for Deck Tester. Good Luck!
Random Colour Generator (1d6)
1) White
2) Blue
3) Black
4) Red
5) Green
6) Artifact
Turn Roll (3d6)
3) Attacker gains rare ability
4) Summon 3/3 attacker
5) Defender gains uncommon ability
6) Attacker gains uncommon ability
7) Defender gains common ability
8) Summon 1/1 defender
9) Summon 1/1 attacker
10) Attacker gains common ability
11) Common event
12) Player takes 2 damage
13) Player discards a land
14) Player discards 1 card at random
15) Player takes 4 damage
16) Rare event
17) Deck Tester gains 4 life and 1 land
18) Player takes 6 damage
Common Abilities (1d6)
1) +1/+1
2) Flying
3) +0/+3
4) Regeneration token
5) +2/+0
6) +1/+2
Uncommon Abilities (1d6)
1) +2/+2
2) Trample
3) First Strike
4) Banding
5) +3/+0
6) +2/+3
Rare Abilities
1) +3/+3
2) Unblockable or double blocker
3) Deals player 1 damage per turn
4) Does not tap to attack
5) Random color protection
6) +3/+4
Common Events (1d6)
1) Destroy player creature
2) Destroy player enchantment
3) Destroy player artifact
4) Player discards 2 cards at random
5) Summon 2/2 flying Attacker
6) Summon 1/3 flying Defender
Rare Events
1) Howling Mine artifact
2) Universal regeneration tokens
3) Kismet enchantment
4) Armageddon sorcery
5) Destroy all player enchantments
6) Deck Tester gains 10 life and 2 land
Copyright (c) 1994 by Dean Maki. All rights reserved.
Introduction
The war has been long and bloody. Both you and your enemy have suffered hard and heavy losses through your countless assaults and counterstrikes. Your resources are dwindling fast, and at times it seemed that you were about to lose control of it all. Fortunately, your enemy is in the same position. You stand in the middle of an uneasy, precarious balance. A balance which could shift in either direction with no warning at all.
After what seemed to be eons of studying and incantations which nearly drained you of all your strength, you have located a place of immense power. Power which could be used to banish your enemy from the face of the world forever. You ready the remainder of your troops to set for this place where victory will be yours.
Shortly thereafter you catch a spy. Too late, the ogre had already informed your enemy of your plans and is also preparing his assault on the place of power. You are in need of utmost haste. Your enemy's last reported position of Ghazban is days closer than your current holdout in the Kerr Ridges.
When you arrive at the foot of the mountain, you realize that your fears were not unfounded. Already the face of the mountain is dotted with countless campfires. Your advanced scouts report many sentry patrols. Your enemy is nearing the place of power near the mountain's summit.
Next morning at the break of day, you start your assault. This is unlikely to be the final battle, but it is probably the most important.
Object
To climb the Magic Mountain, bringing up enough forces to destroy the forces occupying it.
Code
Fast effects includes instants and interrupts.
- any spell <-> Black
$ sorcery {-} White
@ Artifact (-) Blue
f Fast effect |-| Green
s Summon >-< Red
e Enchantment [-] any colour
Setup
First you need to create a solitaire deck. This deck should compose of sixty-five cards with the following distribution (you can substitute an artifact for any non-land card, to a maximum of four artifacts):
___________________________ | [^] [^] [^] [^] [^] | [^] - Face down occupying forces | | | | [*] - Land Deck | | | | [&] - Spell Deck | [-][-][-][-][-][-][-] | | [*] [&] | [-] - Spell Card |_________________________|
The Play
Start by flipping over the top card in your spell deck. If you are able to, you can place this card on the next row, touching two cards in the row below it. If you are unable to play the card immediately, you must place it face up in your discard pile. You can place a card from the spell deck on two adjacent cards in a row if any of the following apply:
Continuing Play
If, after placing any card on your mountain, you are able to legally place the first face up card in your graveyard on your mountain, you may do so. If you are unable to move any cards from your graveyard to the mountain, draw another card and continue. Artifacts are wild cards. That is, they may be placed on any set of cards and any card may be placed on an artifact if it has something in common with the other card upon which it is placed.
If you draw the last card from you spell deck and cannot legally place it or complete the mountain, you have failed to climb the mountain and lose immediately.
When the Mountain is Complete
When the mountain is complete, trace a path from the top card to the bottom of the mountain. These cards represent the forces you will use to overthrow the occupying forces. The path is chosen as such: starting with the top card, choose one of the cards it is touching in the row below it. Repeat with the chosen card until you choose a card in the bottom row.
After having chosen your forces, turn over the five cards representing the occupying forces and do battle. You may want to remove the chosen cards from the mountain at this point.
Battle
Both you and your "opponent" draw from your mana deck. You and your enemy use mana to power your cards. A card is considered powered when it has received enough mana to satisfy its coloured mana requirement. Artifacts cannot be powered. They are under a damping field.
Draw a card from the mana deck. If any of your cards are able to use that coloured mana place it on the card. If the card is powered, you may use it. Otherwise, draw a card for your opponent. If your opponent can use this mana, it shall be used. If any choice is involved, follow this order:
Creature Battle
Powered creatures can attack any one creature of the opposing forces. If more than one creature is powered, they may attack the same creature. Compare power vs. toughness and remove any dead creatures from play. The opposing forces will always assign damage to kill the greatest number of creatures. Powered creatures of the opponents will attack the creature with the highest power, providing it can survive the attack.
Only flyers can launch an attack against a powered flyer. If a landwalker is powered, it can only be attacked by another landwalker of the same type. If a powered creature has a special ability, it may be used. Special abilities which have an activation cost must be powered separately at the cost written on the card. These abilities can be "stacked" or saved up by paying for more than one use. If part of the cost to use the special ability requires that the card become tapped, the creature will become unpowered.
Spell Battle
Powered damage dealing spells with an X as the casting cost will have X large enough to do exactly the amount needed to kill the creature it is targeting. Spells of this nature powered by the opponent will be targeted at your creature with the highest power. Powered counterspell effects can be targeted at sorceries, instants and interrupts, whether powered or not. They cannot be targeted at creatures; they have been summoned long ago. If a spell is counterspelled, it is removed from play. Counterspells by your opponent will first target your counterspells, then your damage dealing spells. Counterspells with an X as part of the casting cost will have X large enough to be exactly the amount needed to counter the target spell. X-spells which do not cause damage or counter spells will have an X equal to three.
Special Rules
Effects which cause a powered card to become tapped unpower it. Effects which cause a unpowered card to become tapped remove the target card from the game. Effects which cause an unpowered card to become untapped powers it. Powered cards cannot benefit from "untapping".
If you are forced to pick up extra cards, take them from the land deck. Remember that you are allowed to place only one land per turn. The extras must be discarded immediately. If you are forced to discard, discard from the top of the land deck. This includes the card which would normally have been drawn by the wizard targeted by the effect. These cards are out of play for the remainder of the game.
If an effect calls for the destruction of a land, destroy the next land card to be drawn by the wizard targeted by the effect.
Upkeep costs for creatures must be paid immediately upon powering of the creature. Upkeep costs must only be paid once for each powerup. If the cost cannot be paid upon powerup, then the creature will refuse to serve you and walk from the battle field. Unpowered creatures do not require upkeep payment.
Effects which cause the emptying of a mana pool will cause all cards of the target wizard to become unpowered. Cards that would normally have been drawn from your library due to some effect must be drawn from the cards remaining in your mountain.
End of Game
The game can end in any of the following ways:
By Michael Mikaelian
Ever wanted to challenge yourself to a Magic duel? Here's how! All you need is a deck (either a deck you use all the time or a sealed deck), the rules below, and a slightly different way of approaching the game. Solitaire Magic won't improve your timing skills or the menacing glare that intimidates opponents. It will, however, improve your card memory skills, including your ability to estimate how likely you are to draw a card based on how many cards you've seen.
Setting Up the Table
Take your deck, shuffle, and deal out seven traditional solitaire stacks - the first has one card, the second two, and so on. As long as a stack contains any cards, the top one is always turned face up. The remaining cards are your deck. You start with no hand and an empty graveyard. There are no life totals, so don't worry about that. The goal of the game is to eliminate all the cards in these seven stacks before cycling through your deck three times.
Mandatory Plays
Lands must be moved up above the stacks, where the aces would go in standard solitaire. Each different land type is placed in its own pile. If more than one copy of a card is ever face up or in your hand, move it to a stack with that card on top. In other words, if two stacks both have Hurloon Minotaurs on top, you must move one Minotaur on top of the other one.
The Seven Stacks (And How to Get Rid of Them)
The cards on top of each stack have many uses. If the card is a permanent, it's considered in play, unless it's a local enchantment. If there's more than one card face up on a stack (which could happen if you've drawn multiple copies of a card), all those cards are in play. For the purposes of card text, you don't control any of these cards. However, you may play these cards by paying their costs as described below.
A card on top of a stack may be targeted as if it were in play, in a player's hand, or even as if it were being cast. For example, AEther Flash is on top of a stack, and you'd like to get rid of it. You could play Disenchant, Power Sink, or Duress - from your hand or from another stack. Because those cards could target AEther Flash either in play, while being cast, or in hand, you could use any of them to remove it from that stack.
Creatures on the stacks can also be destroyed in combat. In Solitaire Magic, attacks are declared against a stack, not a player. The Magic creature-combat rules apply. Your creature is considered to be attacking, and all the creatures in the pile are considered to be blocking. Since there are no turns, creatures do not suffer from summoning sickness. Remember, this will usually just be one creature - unless you're facing a stack of identical creatures like the Hurloon Minotaurs above.
Sacrifice Your Lands
Instead of playing lands and tapping them for mana, you sacrifice lands to generate mana (and the sacrificed lands go from the top row to the graveyard). In order to play a card or an ability, you must sacrifice a land that produces at least one colored mana of the card you're playing. All other costs are ignored. If a source provides more than one mana, the extra is lost. For instance, sacrificing a swamp to play Dark Ritual will only allow you to play one spell or ability requiring at least B. If a spell or ability has X in its cost, X is 1, plus 1 for each additional land you sacrifice or mana source you play.
Three Trips through the Library
As in normal Magic, you draw cards from your library. But in Solitaire, you draw three at a time and look only at the top one. Also, you don't lose the first time you've drawn all your cards. Instead, you can go through the deck three times before you lose. Place the cards you've gone through into a discard pile. When your library is empty, the discard pile becomes the library (unless you've gone through the library three times already). Library-searching effects can still be played. Harrow, for example, would allow you to search your library for two basic lands and put them into play. In this case, the lands would go directly into the appropriate land stacks above the seven stacks.
One Permanent at a Time
You can never control more than one permanent, except for local enchantments. Play that permanent below your seven stacks. Whenever you use a permanent's ability - or attack with it if it's a creature - you sacrifice it when the action is completed. You may use abilities that play as fast effects multiple times before sacrificing the permanent, such as Knight of Dusk's "BB: Destroy target creature blocking Knight of Dusk." You can play a local enchantment on that permanent (or several enchantments), and any enchantments get sacrificed when the creature does.
Your Hand - A Precious Resource
Of the three cards you draw at one time, only the top card is revealed, and that card is considered your hand. If your hand matches a card on top of a stack, it must be moved to that stack.
If you have to discard your hand (if you play Apocalypse, for example), place the top card from your hand in the discard pile. If an effect directs you to draw, take the top card from your library and make it the top card of your hand. Effects that return cards to your hand put those cards on top of your hand in any order you choose. Capsize, for instance, can move a permanent from the top of a pile to the top of your hand. Evacuation, likewise, would put all face-up creatures - plus your permanent if it's a creature - on top of your hand in any order you choose.
Aim for the Graveyard
This works the same as the Magic graveyard. All destroyed cards are placed in the graveyard, including lands sacrificed to pay for spells and abilities. Remember, your goal is to eliminate the seven stacks, so you want to put a lot of cards in the graveyard.
The Rest of the Rules
Because there are no turns, anything that happens at the beginning or end of any phase is ignored. Abilities that are played during a phase can be used at any time. As always, once you use an ability, the permanent is sacrificed. Since there are no life totals, damage is of no consequence to you, though it still gets rid of creatures. If an ability requires you to pay life, you must discard a card from your library for each life you wish to pay.
Some Helpful Hints
Try to clear stacks away early. If there are two copies of the same card on top of a stack, move the one on the shorter stack to the other copy. This will help you eliminate a stack and reduce the chance of a card in your hand matching a card on a stack.
Avoid using cards from your hand. The more cards you use from your hand, the less mana you'll have available to play the cards you're trying to eliminate. Remember that you can play face-up cards as if they were in your hand.
Before drawing cards, try to eliminate as many cards and stacks as possible using the resources already on the table. Remember, only three trips through the library!
Be careful when playing a permanent. You need to have a way to get rid of it, unless you want to control it and nothing else for the remainder of the game.
Not sure about how a card works in Solitaire? Make your own ruling - it's Solitaire, after all. Who's going to argue with you?
By Mark Rosewater
The object of the game is variable. As described below, you might have to destroy a particular card in play, or remove all the cards in the layout from play without running out of life points.
Mana Maze alters the following basic game concepts:
Getting Rid of Cards In Play
In Mana Maze, cards can be removed in five different ways:
Getting Started
Now it's time to start a game. First, build a Mana Maze solitaire deck, then decide what kind of Mana Maze game to play, as follows:
When a layout includes a "hand", that simply means that you have extra cards left over to thumb through, one or three cards at a time, to break logjams. This Mana Maze "hand" is not to be confused with the Magic "hand" that a card goes to if Unsummoned.
Building a Mana Maze Solitaire Deck
When creating a deck, here are some factors to think about:
One Final Word
If you're winning too easily, throw a few curves into your game: add some big creatures to your deck, play a closed hand, or make the goal destroying all the cards. If you're getting frustrated, check your deck. It is possible to create an unwinnable game.
You have seven turns in which to do yourself twenty points of damage. You may not count mana burn, Channel, Lich, or other "throw-away-life" effects towards this total. You may, however, attack yourself with creatures, and use spells, artifacts and enchantments originally intended for use against your opponent.