“What would Magic be like if it was Hearthstone?” 🤔

It's about time to find out! ☝️🤓

Hearthstone: the Gathering makes the following changes to Magic's rules/mechanics:

• (Modified) implementation of the Hearthstone Class system (via the ten 2-color Ravnican guilds)
• Communication of deck construction & strategy before the start of game one (via the Class system mentioned above)
• Replacement of Magic's mana system with (a slightly modified version of) Hearthstone's (Rampant Growth effects still work, but Growth Spiral effects do not)
• Deck size of exactly 30
• Starting hand size of 4
• Hearthstone mulligans
• Best-of-1 games (Best-of-3 may still be played)
• No sideboarding (if playing Bo1 games)

All other Magic rules/mechanics are unchanged.

You may be asking: “Why?” That’s a great question!

• Makes drafting & deck construction quicker
• Gives players a chance to play even more Magic due to consistent land system
• Allows for a higher-than-average curve
• Emphasizes decision making in combat/card advantage
• Removes mental energy spent on keeping track/planning on the RNG of Magic’s mana system
• Allows players to mulligan based on opponent’s chosen “Class”

Detailed Class System Rules

1. There are 10 classes: every 2-color Guild of Ravnica. (Azorius, Dimir, Rakdos, Gruul, Selesnya, Orzhov, Izzet, Golgari, Boros, Simic)
2. The draft occurs as normal.
3. After the draft and during deck construction, players choose one of the ten Ravnican guilds. Based on the chosen guild, that player's lands tap only for the colors of mana within that guild (i.e. if you choose Izzet, your lands all have "T: Add U or R."/are Volcanic Islands).
4. At the beginning of each game (before players draw their opening hand), players reveal their chosen guild.

Detailed Mana System Rules

For these rules, the term "mana" is synonymous with "lands".

1. Players start the game with 0 mana.
2. At the start of players’ turns (untap step), they add 1 to their total mana, then refresh (untap) all their mana.
3. Players are limited to a total of 10 mana. (Ironically, there are cards in Hearthstone that break this limit, but since this cube only uses Magic cards, that can’t happen here.)
4. Mana can be spent as though it were any color and lands are basic.
5. The player going second creates a Treasure token at the start of their first turn (during their untap phase) as a special action that does not go on the stack (cannot be responded to).

Note: The only ramp cards that function as intended in this cube are those that tutor from deck (like Rampant Growth and Path to Exile). You simply increase your mana by 1.

(Also, in a classic Beebs fashion, I won’t be playing Universes Beyond/ D&D cards. Never woulda guessed that, huh?)