"The Borg" Horde Deck (Casual)

This is a listing for a HORDE DECK. A Horde deck is a self piloting deck that allows a number of MTG players to engage in cooperative play against it; similar to the Archenemy variant where the Horde IS the Archenemy. This cooperative variant allows for up to three players to team up against the Horde; each contributing 20 life to the cumulative life total of the team (60 life total). DO NOT ADJUST THE SIZE OF THE DECK TO SCALE THE HORDE'S POWER LEVEL. Many other Horde Primers erroneously claim this as a valid way to tune the power of the Horde deck, however, I have discovered through at least 100 hours of gameplay that scaling the number of setup turns prior to the Horde's initial turn is a much more simple and accurate way to adjust the power level of the game. I would recommend giving yourself a three (3) turn head start against this Horde. After a game or two, if you keep losing against the (Borg) Horde, give yourself an additional setup turn (or two). This Horde Deck can confidently handle up to five (5) cooperative players (at 100 life total), however, I would suggest reducing the number of setup turns to zero (0). Another recommend alternative to adjusting the power level of the game experience would be through the adjustment of the cooperative players starting life total, e.g. 40 versus 60 life. NEVER adjust the size of the Horde Deck for these purposes. REMINDER: This is an EXPERT Level Horde Deck, so prepare yourselves accordingly.

For this particular Horde experience, I have assembled a number of cards from the catalog of Magic the Gathering spells which (I feel) best represent, both functionally and thematically, what it would feel like to do battle against the Borg Collective from the Star Trek series. For further information on the form and function of playing against a Horde deck, please see the rules outlined below.

HORDE DECK RULES:

A Horde Deck is a deck comprised of a minimum of 100 cards; which is ultimately a mixture of a number of creature tokens (avg. of 60 to 65) and non-Planeswalker spells. A Horde Deck contains ZERO land cards - they are not needed.

The Horde Deck ALWAYS has infinite mana.
The Horde Deck's creatures ALWAYS have Haste and attack if able.
The Horde Deck's creatures CANNOT Block in the Combat Phase (unless specifically targeted to do so)
The Horde Deck NEVER (I mean, NEVER) can make decisions.
The Horde Deck's Life Total is EQUAL TO the number of cards in it's library.
The Horde Deck will ALWAYS "do what it needs to do" to minimally satisfy a particular board state.
The Horde Deck's creature tokens are considered to be creature cards while in the graveyard.

Infinite Mana -
Providing the Horde deck with infinite mana solves a lot of issues, e.g. against opposing Stax pieces, etc., but it also invites a number of building constraints for the deck's construction. For example, you could never reasonably include Sphinx's Revelation in a Horde Deck because upon revealing the spell, the deck would automatically pay an infinite amount into the spell's cost and subsequently lose the game because it had attempted to draw cards beyond what is in it's library. Beyond being an irresponsible deck building choice, no Horde deck should ever automatically lose to itself. With that said, by including a card like Asceticism, it is understood that as long as the spell remains on the battlefield, the Horde deck will always activate the regeneration ability X times prior to combat (X = the number of creatures it has on board). I feel like all of this is obvious, but you'll always have those "BUT ACTUALLY" folks whose sole purpose in life is to complicate things.

Haste & Cannot Voluntarily Block-
The way that the Horde Deck functions as part of taking its turn is by revealing cards from the top of the Horde Deck's library - during the first main phase - until a nontoken card is revealed. All of those cards are resolved in the same order they were revealed, one at a time. I recognize that this is a slight deviation from the normal operations of MTG, however it is a necessary function to expand the design space of the Horde Deck variant. Otherwise, the only spells that would be included are permanents with static effects. The change allows for the inclusion of Instants and Sorceries without negatively affecting the Horde Deck's gameplay. All other players, however, are obligated to play under normal timing restrictions. Once the creatures have entered the battlefield - and subsequent effects are resolved - the Horde Deck moves to the Combat Phase and all of the Horde's creatures who are able to attack do so. What this means is that most, if not all, of the Horde creatures will be attacking every turn. There may be circumstances, however, where static effects on the battlefield may prevent this and leave the Horde's creatures in an untapped position. If/when this occurs, by virtue of both the Horde Deck's inability to block and also its inability to make decisions, e.g. choose blockers, the combat damage of the cooperative players will go unblocked. The only possible occurrence where a Horde creature will block is when it is made to do so via a spell or ability; though it's highly likely the spell will have the actual caster make that decision versus the Horde itself.

Horde Deck Decision Making -
The Horde Deck cannot make decisions, e.g. "choose," "target," etc. The End.
Okay, in the weird rare circumstance that the game state requires the Horde Deck to make a decision, e.g. "Will of the Council," "Join Forces," or "Tempting Offer," the Horde Deck abstains from the decision process and its vote or action is not counted. The Horde Deck will however "search it's library," "fail to find," and subsequently shuffle its library in response to a resolved Assassin's Trophy targeting one of its permanents. Should any spells be added to the Horde Deck that reference "creatures target player controls," by virtue of this card's inclusion into the deck it is understood that the default "target player" is the Horde Deck itself. For example, the spell Repopulate says to "shuffle all creatures from target players graveyard..." Because this spell was added to the Horde Deck during the deckbuilding and curation phase, it is largely understood that the intended target would be the Horde itself based on the deckbuilder's intention, not the Horde's intention, e.g. the decision was already made FOR the Horde and not BY the Horde.

The Horde's Life Total -
Because the Horde Deck's life total is represented by the number of cards in it's library, any event which reduces said life total causes the exact number of cards to be milled from the top of the Horde Deck's library into its graveyard. DO NOT CHANGE THE ORDER OF THESE CARDS IN THE GRAVEYARD. As you may have guessed by now, any event which causes the Horde Deck to gain life is reconciled by taking the appropriate number of cards from the Horde's graveyard and replacing them on top of the Horde's library. That said, the Horde CAN NEVER have more life than the total number of cards which can be represented by the entirety of the Horde's Deck; minus any exiled cards or "cards put in another zone (whatever that means)." Once the Horde Deck's library is empty, it loses the game when it fails to "be able" to reveal ANOTHER card from the top of it's library.

The Horde does what it has to do -
On rare occasion, the Horde Deck will be asked to comply with specific game actions. Certain actions can be ignored, such as the effect associated with Howling Mine, because the Horde technically DOES NOT draw a card during its draw phase. Other game states, such as a resolved Cataclysm, will be satisfied by dividing each of the Hordes permanents into piles, as specified by the spell, e.g. creatures, enchantments, etc., to have one permanent of each type selected AT RANDOM to remain on the battlefield as part of the spell's resolution process. Lastly, but not finally, in the event that a spell or ability cause the Horde Deck to "draw a card," such as Jace Beleren's first ability, the drawn card will be placed temporarily into a pile representing the Horde's hand of cards. All of those cards (the Horde's hand of cards) will be placed on the stack together and resolved ONLY AFTER the Horde's initial main phase reveal from the top of it's deck on it's turn.

A useful information source for the variant: https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Horde_Magic