Togorian and I were talking today, and he brought up how any Open format in any game eventually begins to degenerate because card interactions litterally increase exponentially with each new set.

The reason why "Golden Age" seems to be the standard for casual play, at least among what I have seen, is because casual players want to be able to play with *ANY CARD* they wish, and this will always be the case. However, I started to think, that this doesn't neccessarily mean that he/she wants to play with *EVERY CARD* they wish.

So here's my question ... as this game progresses into the future, is it conceptually feasable for a "psuedo-open" format to be developed for casual-play?

For example, seperating sets into some sort of "blocks", and allowing a player to play any "block" they want, but only cards from one block.

Or not letting any players play cards that are more than 10 sets apart.

Something like that; some way to give casual players a format where they can play *anything* they want, but card interactions won't increase exponentially.

haven't given it much thought ... too distracted by Dr. Who.

Was just curious if this was feasible or not.

I think the closest you're gonna get is silver or modern ages. You could always play some random Avengers/Heralds Marvel Modern or the first 8 sets as a "silver age" etc.

-Mike

Decipher tried this (sort of) with Lord of the Rings. I think the best way to describe it would be "failure."

The better plan for a Casual Open format, which by its nature doesn't lend itself as well to any sort of true formalization, would be to simply ban problem cards. Something similar to this is done with Yu-Gi-Oh's Advanced format, I believe, which keeps access to the most powerful cards restricted, forcing players to seek other tricks. Of course, the main issue with doing anything like this outside of a small playgroup is that there will inevitably be some disagreement as to what card(s) are too powerful for the group.

In a small playgroup, it's easier to just restrict what decks are played when certain jank ones are busted out, I'd imagine... UDE setting any primary list like that discussed above would be interesting, assuredly.

Yeah, the idea of a 'open casual' format is the ability to be able to play, for example, Emperor Joker or Rigged Elections and other 'fun' jank.

However, if you allow Rigged Elections, you allow the whole Titans team as well ...

So, pretty much Golden + Bannings would be the 'ultimate' casual format ... pretty much whatever is in the top 8 of a Golden PC would be banned out of existence to allow for more 'casual fun'.

House rules [or a jank code of honor] would likely be the way the format would work. Players would collectively agree what they feel is 'stupid/busted/broken/not fun to play against' and collectively agree to not play that.

Seems like the best solution, most casual players I've seen just plain out don't run High Voltage for that very reason ... they don't like it's impact on the environment.

I wouldn't go so far as banning everything in the top 8 of a Golden PC out though. Alot of decks are very powerful without being degenerate, and alot of decks that have made a Golden top 8 at some point are no longer too dominating.

Example: Curve Sentinels. Still very playable, but not something I think would cause any problems in casual play.

Ideally though, although I think this is a statement that some people may disagree with, I hope UDE keeps ontop of the Golden-Age ban-age whenever it's needed.

absolutely agree, not every top 8 deck is terrible to play against, curve sents is a good example of a solid deck that is in no way busted. good guys, brotherhood, migga city and glock are other good examples of decks that have t 8'ed but are not degenerate.

I think the best way is to have a golden format with a ban list so broken combos can be stopped but everyone else can play what they want.

On a side note infinite combos can pop up anywhere, take the new modern infinite loop (flash/torch) as the perfect example.