Magic: Trippin' (Casual)

Google Doc here provideds printable decklist, rules, and notes, as well as "slowtrip reminder cards" to print: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Cf4NFx1ZlHE1ISS7aYYnbrBTR6H30yYbKax5iubK3qI/edit?usp=sharing

This Magic: the Gathering variant is designed to play with two players who draw from the same 80 card library built completely of the cards from Magic’s long past known in player slang as “cantrips.” Players generally have no draw phase in a game of Trippin’ and the way to draw cards is to play cards. With the standard rules removing all casting costs, the game moves quickly and spell stacks can get quite complex as players fight to make their opponent’s cantrips fizzle and deplete his hand.

RULE CHANGES
A game of Trippin’ is played like any game of Magic except for the following rules changes.

The two players share a library and a graveyard. A card that refers to the “owner” of a card, is treated as referring to that card’s “controller” instead.

To begin the game, each player draws a opening hand of 10 cards instead of the normal seven. The standard mulligan rule applies with added emphasis on making sure the player has creatures to play or might be able to eliminate creatures.

There is no hand size limit.

There is no land in the Trippin’ deck. Casting costs are ignored and players may play spells any time allowed by their card type without paying mana costs.

At the beginning the active player’s draw step each round, he checks to see how many cards each player has in hand. He draws a card only if his opponent has four or more cards in hand than he does. If the hand sizes are within three of each other, he does not draw.

The deck purposefully contains both “fasttrips” and “slowtrips.” Fasttrips are those that say “Draw a card” or “When (card name) enters the battlefield, draw a card.” Slowtrips are those that were printed in earlier sets (and Coldsnap as an Ice Age block set) and say “Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn’s upkeep,” or ”When (card name) enters the battlefield, draw a card at the beginning of the next turn’s upkeep.” One issue with the old slowtrip cards, is that they were easy to forget at the next turn’s upkeep. For ease of play and remembering to draw cards gained through slowtrips, I created the Slowtrip Reminder card. A player takes a Slowtrip Reminder card anytime he or she successfully casts a slowtrip and adds it to his hand. Then at the beginning of the next upkeep, the player returns his Slowtrip reminder cards to the pool and draws cards equal to the Slowtrip Reminder cards he returned. If both players would draw cards at the beginning of the same upkeep, the active player’s card draws go on the stack first, followed immediately by the nonactive player’s card draws. This is a regular stack and can be added to prior to anything on the stack resolving in priority order. It is recommended to have at least 10 Slowtrip Reminder Cards on hand when playing Trippin’.

If the deck runs out of cards, reshuffle the graveyard into the library before the next card is drawn. Players cannot lose by being forced to draw from an empty deck. However, if the stack is empty and any player has no cards in hand (including slowtrip reminder cards), that player loses the game no matter the life totals.

The stack works as normal, but can get quite complex. Players should allow time for their opponent to respond and make sure his opponent passes priority before beginning resolution of the stack each time a spell is cast or resolves.

OPTIONAL RULES - The following rules are optional and can add new elements to a game of Trippin’ if both players agree to use them.

Ego Trip: If the stack is empty and any player has no cards in hand (slowtrip reminder cards do not count), that player loses the game. This rule makes drawing slowtrips a liability in the late game and an overconfident player might find himself suddenly without cards in hand.

Group Trip: This is simply a multiplayer game of Trippin’. The starting hands should be reduced by two for each added player. A player draws a card during his draw step if any opponent has four or more cards in hand than he does. The usually complicated spell stacks can get even worse in multiplayer and players are encouraged to develop their own system to pass priority and keep spells on the stack and their resolution organized so draws are taken in the correct order as spells resolve.

Guilt Trip: Each player must discard a card from their hand during their ending phase cleanup step. This puts a clock on the game and often comes down to who runs out of cards first. Good for a quicker game when time is short.

Head Trip: Instead of the first player to run out of cards in his hand losing the game, a player running out of cards in hand simply ends the game and the player with the higher life total is the winner. As a tiebreaker, the player who has run out of cards is the winner. This becomes a rush to empty one’s hand when ahead in life, even by fizzling one’s own spells.

Long Trip: For a longer, slightly less surreal game more typical of standard Magic, reintroduce land and mana costs. Players play cards in their hands face down as lands of the appropriate color, one per turn on their main phase as in standard Magic. Sleeve each card in a sleeve of its color. Once a card is played as a land, it is a land for the rest of the game. Players get a draw phase as in normal Magic, and players should begin the game with the standard seven cards in hand instead of ten, but there is still no hand size limit.

Power Trip: Whenever an instant or sorcery spell is cast, its caster may immediately choose to forgo the card draw granted by that spell (regardless whether the card draw is upon resolution or during the next turn’s upkeep) in order to copy that spell. He may choose new targets for the copy. The copy also forgoes the card draw.

Quick Trip: For a faster game, treat all slowtrips as though they were fasttrips. In this variant the deck will deplete every few turns and the player going first has some additional advantage. The starting player receives one less card in his starting hand.

Round Trip: Once you’ve tried all of the above variant rules, combine one or more of them to explore the chaos that envelopes.

STRATEGY
The trick to winning in a game of Trippin’ is to run your opponent low on cards or so that he only has fewer options in his or her hand. Since there is usually no draw step, any card that is cast but does not resolve, means one less card for your opponent. Remove the targets of his spells so that the cantrip fizzles and no cards are drawn whenever you can. Eventually, your opponent will be unable to stop your creatures.

Knowing what cards, and how many copies of each card are in the deck helps when anticipating what cards might be played against you and how to fizzle them. You can sleeve each card in a sleeve of its own color so players can better guess what cards their opponent holds in hand. This also facilitates the Long Trip optional rule.

There is seldom a reason (but not never a reason) not to play a spell as soon as you can since it will be replaced as long as it resolves. Play cards judiciously. Deal an extra point of damage to your opponent when you can if the damage does not cost you a card and will not currently aid you with the creature battle. That being said, there are a number of cards that are powerful enough in the right situation to make it worth holding on to in anticipation of that situation arising. Nearly any spell that can remove a target or make a target illegal should be saved for those moments where that is a possibility. Other cards worth holding on to for key moments include, Abeyance, Aphotic Wisps, Arcane Denial, Burnout, Cease-Fire, Dark Dabbling, Equal Treatment, Remand, and Shatter Arc.

Arcane Denial and Remand, though they appear to be counterspells, are almost always better used on one’s own spells in a game of Trippin’, especially when that spell would be countered or fizzle upon resolution otherwise. These are one of the few ways to add extra cards to your hand. In a pinch, Arcane Denial can be used to counter an opponent’s spell, but Remand on an opponent’s spell can, at best, only reorient that spell to the top of the stack or wait to start a new stack, since the countered spell can just be played again without mana.