Type X Rules
Revised Edition

For Fun Games in M:TG
By Sean "Mad Dog" Roney

[Restricted] [Banned] [Errata] [Updates]

Introduction

NOTE: This is not a Mad Dog Rant, nor is it humor. It is a serious post about rules for fun games in M:TG.

Alrighty, I guess its time for this revision to be written. In the first week alone following my posting of the Type-X (TX) rules I got a little over 80 messages about them. Many of you congratulating me for the great rules, while a few of you questioning if I actually do smoke the rabbit poop I talk about in my humor signatures. Then, in the time to follow I've gotten a steady stream of requests for revisions here and there (Totaling to about 50 after that first week). To all of you good people who made suggestions without yelling or flaming, this revision is for you.

Let me explain a moment what happened and why these rules needed to be revised. When I said in my original post that TX had been playtested, I was telling the truth. However, we did not playtest to the extreme of anal retentiveness. Like I said, many of us who did have the power cards were honorable enough to use only a few if any in our decks. With the congrats as well as the complaints, many of you pointed out that some people would abuse these rules to make it a T1 with a way longer restricted list. You were right. I've taken your suggestions into account and have compiled new rules. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions and took the time to explain why you thought that rule change should have been done. Thanks even to the people who flamed about the rules, because each and every one of you had a point to make and most of those points were used in these revisions.


New Rules:
All "New Rules" remain exactly the same as they did from the first TX rules.


Restricted List
Ancestral Recall
Bad Moon
Ball Lightning
Berserk
Black Vise
Blacker Lotus
Blood Lust
Bottomless Pit
Braingeyser
Candelabra of Tawnos
Capsize
Chain Lightning
Chaos Orb
Common Courtesy
Contract from Below
Counterspell
Crusade
Dark Ritual
Deflection
Demonic Tutor
Denied
Dissipate
Equilibrium
Ertai, Wizard Adept
Exhaustion
Fastbond
Fireblast
Force of Will
Fork
Gauntlet of Might
Gerrard's Wisdom
Giant Fan
Hammer of Bogarden
Hatred
Hymn to Tourach
Hypnotic Specter
Incinerate
Ivory Tower
Juzam Djinn
Kird Ape
Kismet
Library of Alexandria
Lightning Bolt
Mana Crypt
Mana Drain
Mana Leak
Maze of Ith
Mind Over Matter
Mirror Universe
Mox Diamond
Necrologia
Nether Void
Norwood Priestess
Null Brooch
Once More with Feeling
Orcish Lumberjack
Overrun
Propaganda
Rebirth
Recall
Regrowth
Rogue Elephant
Serendib Efreet
Serra Angel
Shahrazad
Sinkhole
Sol Ring
Squandered Resources
Squirrel Farm
Strip Mine
Swords to Plowshares
Talas Researcher
Temple Elder
Temporal Manipulation
Thawing Glaciers
The Abyss
Thunderbolt
Time Warp
Timetwister
Tinder Wall
Vampiric Tutor
Volcanic Hammer
Wheel of Fortune
Zuran Orb

Restricted List Explained
Many of the cards on the restircted list are ones that make tourney decks work. Without four of a card of these cards, many favorite and staple tourney decks crumble, leaving way for fun decks. Others on this list are just too darned fast (like D. Ritual) and had to be limited to make sure other, slower fun decks would get a chance to work.


Banned List
Amulet of Quoz
Apocalypse
Armageddon
Ashnods' Coupon
Balance
B. F. M.
Black Lotus
Bureaucracy
Cataclysm
Channel
Charm School
City of Solitude
Cursed Scroll
Doomsday
Ensnaring Bridge
Extinction
Free-for-All
Gerrymandering
Handcuffs
I'm Rubber, You're Glue
Jester's Cap
Jester's Sombrero
Jokulhaups
Land Tax
Mind Twist
Mine, Mine, Mine!
Mirror Mirror
Moat
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Necropotence
Nevinyrral's Disk
Oath of Druids
Oath of Lieges
Oath of Scholars
Peacekeeper
Pyschic Network
Ricochet
Stasis
The Cheese Stands Alone
Time Walk
Timmy, Power Gamer
Underworld Dreams
Volrath's Motion Sensor
Winds of Rath
Winter Orb
Wrath of God

Banned List Explained
The banned list is to make sure four types of cards do not ruin fun games: Force, Overpower, Shutter, and Random. Cards like the Motion Sensor, which force a person to do something they would not have wanted to do are just not fun. If you want to cluck to your own Mesa Chicken, that's fine, but it isn't fun to be forced to because of a Beauracracy. Overpowers are just to stinking powerful. Things like Black Lotus, the original Moxes, and even Time Walk are just too mucch for a fun game. Shutters are cards that are able to shut out an entire strategy with one card, and if the opponent isn't prepared (since preparation isn't part of fun games), then they're screwed. Things like City of Solitude, Wrath of God, and Ensnaring Bridge are good examples of shutters. Random cards aren't just ones that make a coin flip to see what happens (that's a big part of some fun games). Instead, they're cards like Amulet of Quoz that leave the entire game itself on one random act.


Errata List
Card Name Card Errata
Blacker Lotus Text Box should be "T, Remove Blacker Lotus from the tournament: Add four mana of any color to your mana pool."
Bronze Tablet Text should be "Bronze Tablet comes into play tapped. 4, T, Remove Bronze Tablet from the game: Remove target permanent an opponent controls from the game."
Censorship There should be a last sentence at the end of the text: "If owner of Censorship ever says [blank] word, then Censorship is sacraficed as an interrupt."
Channel Text should be "Pay X life, Remove Channel from the tournament: Add X colorless mana to your mana pool."
Chaos Confetti Text Box should be "4, T: Throw Chaos Confetti onto the playing area from a distance of at least five feet. Any cards it lands on are destroyed. Remove Chaos Confetti from the tournament afterwards.
Contract from Below Text should be "Remove your hand from the game, remove the top card of your library from the game: Draw an amount of cards equal to the number of cards removed from your hand when you cast Contract from Below."
Darkpact Text should be "Remove the top card of your library from the game: Take any card you own that has been remove from the game, except for the one removed by Darkpact, and put it on the top of your library."
Deep Wood Card type should be "Instant"
Defiant Stand Type should be "Instant"
Demonic Attorney Text should be "Target an opponent. If that opponent does not concede the game, then all players must take the top card of their library and remove it from the game."
Divine Intervention Text should have an additional two sentences at the end "If Divine Intervention goes to the graveyard from play, remove it from the tournament. If the game ends in a draw because of Divine Intervention, remove it from the tournament."
Extinguish Card type should be "Interrupt"
False Summoning Card type should be "Interrupt"
Jeweled Bird Text should be "T, Remove Jeweled Bird from the game: Take any one card other than Jeweled Bird that you own that has been removed from the game and put it into your hand. Draw a card."
Just Fate Card type should be "Instant"
Mind Twist Text should be "Remove Mind Twist from the tournament: Target player discards X cards at random."
Mystic Denial Card type should be "Interrupt"
Rally the Troops Card type should be "Instant"
Rebirth Text should be "Each player may set their current life total to 20. Each player that does this must take the top card of his or her library and removes it from the game."
Scorching Winds Type should be "Instant"
Shahrazad Text should have an activation cost that says "Remove Shahrazad from the tournament:"
Squirrel Farm Should say "Target opponent" instead of "Target player"
Tempest Efreet Text should be "T, Remove Tempest Efreet from the game: Target opponent chooses a card from his or her hand at random. That card is removed from the game."
Timmerian Fiends Text should be "BBB, T, Remove Timmerian Fiends from the game: Remove target artifact an opponent controls from the game."
Warrior's Stand Card type should be "Instant"

Errata List Explained
Channel and Mind Twist retain their errata even though I put them on the banned list. This is just in case anybody would like to play with this errata. The original intent of TX was to let any player use any card they had in their collection, including the ante cards, and the Portal non-Sorceries. These errata make players capable of doing that, at least with the ante and Portal and a few others.


Updates

Due to the success of your opinions last time around, I encourage you to make any new suggestions you may have about the revised TX rules. Just send them to madcanine@yahoo.com and I'll see how I can fit your suggestion into the newer rules. And yes, I do expect to make a Third Edition of these rules, just not anytime soon I hope. However, your opinions will show whether or not I'd need to change the rules again. Also, I'd be happy to hear your experiences with TX, good or bad. "Game Reports" are alright and I enjoyed reading the handful that got sent in about the player's experiences with TX.

I bid all of you a good day and good gaming.