Bar Battles

(Formatting and base ruleset blatantly copied from this great post)

This is a 4 player game mode inspired by the autobattler and roguelike genres. Interesting in joining the conversation? We have a discord to workshop the format here.

This is variation of the formula meant to be for four players, and additionally eschews counters and tokens for a more streamlined experience.

General Rules

1. This game is for exactly four players only
2. The game is broken into rounds. Each round has a counter associated with it. The first round counter is 3, and it increments by 1 after each round is over.
3. Everybody starts with 30 HP.
4. Each player has two zones for their cards: their hand and their sideboard. Their hand size is equal to the round counter. The sideboard is always of size 7.
5. Treasures are the unit of economy in the game
6. Treasures are in play during fights, and can be used normally, and if a treasure the battlefield it is gone forever

Setup Opening Carousel

Each player receives a treasure and two random cards, then players do a Rochester draft with a pack of eight cards in a snake draft manner.

Selecting Basic Lands

Each player selects any three basic lands as their starting lands. Players will never get more than three basics, but can exchange them later for a cost.

Gameplay Loop

Once players are setup, they run through the following loop until all but one player has lost all their hit points.

1. Three matches, each broken into the following steps
   1. Draft
   2. Prepare
   3. Matchmake
   4. Fight
2. Carousel

Match Draft

Each player "rolls a pack". Which means they take five cards, and are allowed to pick one for free. They can also take a few other actions:

• Pay a treasure to take an additional card from the pack
• Pay a treasure to "roll a new pack"
• Pay a treasure to swap out any of their 3 basics for different basics
• Trash two cards from their collection to gain a treasure

These actions can be taken any number of times, and in any order.

Prepare

Each player selects cards from their pool equal to the round counter. Those cards will be that players hand for the following fight.

Matchmake

Shuffle the four player cards, and deal them into two pairs. Those are the matchups the following fight.

Fight

The player with the lower hit points goes first. Players play a normal game of magic except they don't have a library, they do not draw a card during their draw phase, and they begin with only 10 life.

Any treasure that is still on the board by the end of the game is kept by that player (up to a maximum of 10). In addition to the treasures they had on the battlefield, give each player an additional treasure. At the end of the game, the loser takes damage equal to the round counter. If the game is a draw, both players take 1 damage.

Carousel

If any player is won all three matches they played this round, they get three treasures

Increment the round counter (increasing player hand size and player damage).

Players do a Rochester draft with a pack of eight cards in a snake draft manner.

Ending the Game

If one player has "died", their placement is locked in but they keep playing. If there are only two players "alive", they will be the only players of this round. This way everybody can still play until the end of the game, but dead players don't have an affect on the outcome of top2 and it becomes a spectacle to watch.

My Card Selection Philosophy

These are guidelines I followed while building this card pool:

1. No cards with text that functionally doesn't work in the format (card draw, mill, etc)
2. Most cards should be castable for 3 or less mana, but cards that benefit from more than 3 mana are encouraged
3. Cards with prohibitive mana costs should be powerful, the fixing in this format is not particularily good
4. No infinite value engines (like Castle Ardenvale)