[PPP] Lejay's Kindle Wagic
(4000 Card Cube)
[PPP] Lejay's Kindle Wagic
Cube ID
Art by Paolo ParenteArt by Paolo Parente
4000 Card Peasant Vintage Cube5 followers
Designed by lejay
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$12,303
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Mana Pool$3377.04

[PPP] = Pre-historic Peasant Pile
I don't play cards from after 2017 with the exception of a special edition from 2018 with a low power level named "Global Series: Jiang Yanggu & Mu Yanling".

This is a very fun multiplayer format that happens to be very cheap (or even free if you just use what you already have) since you only use commons and uncommons.
Please don't focus on the huge number of cards or on the few very expensive cards I play. You would still have a ton of fun with a small pile of 150 cards or a Mana Drain proxy (or no Mana Drain at all).

Article in french / Article en français : https://archive.ph/rgfsq
Musics for your games :
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDhIT2RiAXcoKD_Bxo9O-lQ/playlists


BASIC RULES:

There are six shared libraries. One for cards in the list, one for plains, one for islands, one for forests, one for mountains and one for swamps.
As you probably guessed basic land libraries are face up, main library is face down.

On each draw you choose to draw from the library you want. Thus this format completely skips mana full and mana death miseries. Your mana management just consists of choosing to draw just enough lands to optimize your hand.

With a draw spell that draws you three cards, you can for example draw two cards from the main library and choose to draw the basic land you need with the last draw effect.
Same with cards you reveal from libraries and milling. Predict is a draw two by naming swamp and revealing from the swamp library. Mulch can give you 4 lands 100% of the time.

Rules for starting hands are :

  1. Each player takes 7 spells from the main library
  2. Any player with less than two creatures in his 7 cards can reveal his hand, put it in the aether zone, and draw a new hand of 7 spells
  3. Once they kept, players can replace as many cards as they want from their hand with basic lands.
  4. Then the game starts, each player draws on his first turn including the first player to act.

Other than that, the main rules are those of the Magic you know. Each player has his own board, defense, graveyard and twenty life points. You start with zero land in play and can play one land per turn. Free for all is the main variant, but there are other rules for 2 vs 2, and at 5 players Pentacle is also a good variant.


GENERAL IDEA AND INTEREST OF THE FORMAT

The idea of having only cards printed as common and uncommons is that things will remain rather balanced since these cards are supposed to be the main constituents for limited formats.
In a way 1993-2017 Wizards of the Coast defined what the top power level should be and I only define what is good enough to be worth it.
Incidentally this way your list can be built for very cheap if not for free with what you have at home.

Games are also more balanced in multiplayer than in duels as one guy becoming too strong will lead others to league against him temporarily. Games offer plenty of choices, not just on tactics and strategy, but diplomacy also has to be taken into account (don't target/attack the same guy for too long or don't show too much your strength) and frustration is rare since mana issues don't really exist. In my mind this is exactly what magic should have been.

The last major point is that this format is particularly complementary to the cube format.
A good cube evening would require 6 or 8 or 10 players while this format is optimal for 3-4-5 players and the list could be tweaked for good duels. So even if you play cube regularly wih your group, there is still value in building your list for when you are only 2-3-4-5 players to be available.
Besides going directly to the fun part without drafting and deckbuilding stages is very nice and you should enjoy playing with the mix of unusual cards and old favourites.
Of course if your players love draft or sealed it is also perfectly fine to use the cards of the list to create boosters.


A FEW JUDICIOUS BANS :

I had to "ban" some cards for greater good. First very stupid cards in the context of the format like Treasure Hunt, Trepanation Blade, Symbol Status (unless you take the time to select your lands), Sylvan Library, Soothsaying or Sensei's Divining Top.
Second stupid-annoying cards like un-cards with Gotcha that are not Laughing Hyena (Deal Damage, Kill! Destroy!, Spell Counter...), annoying cards like Common Courtesy or Artful Looter, and the more serious but stupid Land Tax.
My First Tome, the former best card, has also been banned. It isn't as annoying as cards above, but the games will be better without it. Probably more because of its power level than because of how it slows the game. Artifacts are the rarest type in my list and so are artifact removals; that was also one of the reasons for it to be too good.
I never played with Buzzing Whack-a-Doodle but I dont like the semi-randomness of the card and as a draw engine my experience tells me it's too cheap. So in a way it's banned.
Glasses of Urza was a good and interesting card but it slows the games too much.
Stone-Cold Basilisk screwed up games and Booster Tutor is nonsense if you just use 15 cards from the pile.

I also banned all tutors when I was around 500 cards as they were slowing down the game (we only play the Supply half of Supply/Demand). I later added some tutors that search for one card in particular and I have the searchable cards apart, like for tokens, in a deckbox. The searchable cards are listed in the maybeboard of the list, along Vanguards for the Vanguard variant.

I also banned most of the spells that discard three cards or more to a player because that player was very often just out of the game with no real chance of coming back. At least after a lethal fireball he can walk around doing whatever he wants instead of being some sort of a zombified player. Besides these spells are often an expensive or uncertain investment, the prime beneficiaries of the interaction are the other players.
Exceptions in the list that can discard3 are Bog Down (you would kick for the final duel only), Scandal Monger (everyone will end up with no cards in hand and the set up part is interesting) and Delirium Skeins.
Orcish Settlers or Volcanic Awakening are similarly very high investment cards that are too rough and will technically zombify players, so they are banned too. You could divide targets between opponents but in most games it won't happen. I also don't play some curses for similar reasons because the enchanted opponent would punch you hard (in the game) if he doesn't have an enchantment removal and it's his only plan. And this would in the end benefit other players.

I don't play Monarch cards in the pile but I have a Monarch variant described at the end.

The last pure power level ban was Granny's Payback (7G sorcery: you gain life equal to your age). We're too old now so you just won't lose the game if you wait for the right time to play it. A big problem is that the card is almost impossible to stop (just counterspells), similarly to the banned Diamond Valley (I play the less powerful lands).
Not sure if Surestrike Trident can be categorized as banned. It has never been interesting to play with but it ends games as long as you have a decent sized board. Similarly to some cards like Curse of the Nightly Hunt, it is either catastrophic or kills the guy (and the game), but with better odds than most. I kept this unfun variance card mostly because it was the only artifact doing big damage repeatedly, so when I figured out I could add the missprinted french 8th Edition of Rod of Ruin that deals 3 damage, I did the swap.

Interpret the Signs and other big draw spells are very strong but the card advantage should be slowly undermined by an alliance.
The current best card in the pile may be Ongoing Investigation (games can be long). It does more than drawing cards but demands time and mana (and choices), and the alliance of opponents has a decent chance of having or drawing and enchantment removal. So all in all it's less unfair than Diamond Valley or Granny's Payback.
Treacherous Terrain is a very powerful stupid card I considered a lot for a ban, but in the end I chose to keep it as the card of hope, so that players in desperate situations don't give up because they could draw it. Even though for gameplay considerations I prefer powerful cards when they are conditional (Acidic Soil).


NO RECENT SETS UPDATES

Except for Unstable and "Global Series JY&MY" I stopped updates from new sets after Modern Masters 2017 (Aether Revolt and Magic Origins are in, Amonkhet is not), disliking the continuous power level increase and the big (and bigger) updates it would require each time. Rather than playing the best cards I like to stay on low power level and play with old fashion cards that are not outclassed by too many of the most recent ones, producing longer games with player decisions having more weight.
I initially wanted to keep adding cards until Dominaria is released (there were rumors already) but Amonkhet was outclassing too many good cards in my list and cheap cycling is really strong in the format (Cast Out!). I also really didn't like the Pirates and Dinosaurs theme of Ixalan (+Charging Monstrosaur is a big jump in power level) which settled my decision even though I had already bought what I liked from Amonkhet. Another good point I realized afterwards is that I don't have to deal with Commander related texts from Commander 2018 and beyond.

You can of course view things differently, especially since one of the basic ideas is to give life to your unused commons and uncommons sitting at home.
If you want to build a "miniwagic" small list from an infinite card pool, I would suggest selecting the cards by focusing on choices they offer first rather than on power level. Another option is to select an era of magic in particular, like the few blocks you are most attached to. Or even your favourite plane, which should be 2 or 3 blocks. In this case, tribal and other specialized mechanics will become interesting.

For rare cards that became uncommons later I use the release date of A25 as the date limit. This limit choice isn't just symbolic (MtG's 25th anniversary set), I also think it is the right one. This way I have nice iconic and not too powerful cards from A25 and Iconic Masters but can't add the strong and too easy to cast Angel of Retribution (uncommon in Battlebond), the too strong Angel of Despair (uncommon in Ultimate Masters), the boring Feral Hydra (uncommon in Battlebond) or the very stupid Thorn Elemental (uncommon in Dominaria).


OTHER RULES I USE:

Face down creatures (MORPH and gigamorph) cost two mana instead of three. You still can't counter them with Spell Snare (cc=0). I removed the rule stating that you have to reveal a morph that leaves a zone since its only purpose in competitive is to prevent cheating.
If you really don't like changing the text of morph cards with a rule, you can have players start with a Dream Chisel in play. This is something I have been considering for a while and another benefit would be to permit the addition of some nice cards needing an artifact (large but non-exhaustive list here: https://www.magic-ville.com/fr/decks/showdeck?ref=1019235&decklanglocal=eng)

The AETHER ZONE is the zone where I put everything that is reshuffled into the library, put on the bottom of library, mulliganed, removed by AWOL...
Exile zone is face up and individual whereas Aether zone is face down and collective.

A very nice rule I use and strongly advise is AETHER CYCLING (or Domain Cycling) .
Aether Cycling is cycling a card from your hand by putting it into the aether zone to draw a card.
You can "Aether Cycle" any card at any point for UWRGB, it functions with the stack like normal cycling does.

The OWNER of a card is the player who removed the card from the library (if you drew it, milled it into your graveyard, manifested it into play or exiled it). So Five-Finger Discount doesn't make you the owner.

When ONE OF THE PLAYERS DIES, each card HE OWNS is put into the aether zone.
So the rule affects permanents, hands, graveyards (important for Kindle / Flame Burst), and cards in exile (matters with some eldrazis).
Remember to remove cards like Pacifism and Control Magic owned by the deceased player.
Same for creatures owned by the deceased player but controlled by another.
(For the most part, remember there is a difference between a creature stolen with Control Magic and a creature stolen via Griptide)

A PLAYER CAN'T DIE UNLESS THE STACK IS EMPTY.
The idea is to prevent more often the too powerful and annoying situation of a player being low on life and threatened by lethal instant speed damage by another player, who keeps him alive just so that he is a nuisance to third parties. Thanks to this rule, the practice is a lot riskier for the player holding the damage (a big fireball on him would resolve, a big enough life gain would supress the "Sword of Damocles" effect etc...).

ENERGY COUNTERS can be used AT SORCERY SPEED (only in your main phases and if the stack is empty) for generic uses.
-spend one counter to give a creature you control +1/+0 until end of turn. You can't play this effect more than once on the same creature on the same turn (in short, no +2/+0, +3/+0 etc...).
-spend two counters to give a creature you control haste.
-spend three counters to give a regeneration shield to a creature you control. The regeneration shield disappears at end of turn, like all other regeneration effects do.

You can play your LEGENDary cards from your exile zone. The idea is to give meaning to the "Legend" subtype with something that isn't too strong in general (Legendary cards are often strong by themselves). The added value will be rare enough for that matter while sometimes creating new interesting interactions. It also gives more value to all the cantrippers that exile a card in a graveyard, which is welcomed.
This rule is the only rule attached to the legendary type, I say so in case Clone would copy Bladewing the Risen, which would be pretty cool.

You exchange spells you don't like in your starting hand for SNOW-COVERED basic lands. This is the only way to get snow-covered basic lands since basic land libraries only contain basic lands that aren't snow-covered. The idea is to be able to play very particular cards that play with snow lands and vary their value depending on the game.

You take turns CLOCKWISE. And similarly you pass priority CLOCKWISE (sometimes you need to be precise with rules, for example to know who counters a big spell).

Players can't REVEAL cards in their hand without some card telling them to do so. Information and dissuasion have been considered in the selection of cards. However they can threaten opponents openly by speaking and the opponent chooses if he believes him or not.

You can ask for a temporary ALLIANCE or propose your help but all players must hear it. Doing that in secret or negotiating for too long about ruins the fun. Alliances can be justified when one player shows too much strength, and in this case you often don't even need to formalize the alliance. But you don't want to waste everybody's time with continuous negociations nor making the game all about deceiving people.

For TAKEBACKS each player is his own judge. He knows best what was going through his mind (miscommunication/rule unawareness vs omission), but of course this rule will only work if you play with honest people. Not knowing a rule allows takebacks, this is not a tournament.

For CLASH cards the only change in the rule is that the chosen opponent will clash first (clash=reveal+do the PublicScry1). In effect, most of the time this turns Clash cards into "would you help me versus the other guy" spells.
Players can choose to reveal from the spell library or from a basic land library. So the opponent who doesn't want to help the caster of the Clash spell can simply reveal from the library and let the card on top (in some cases he won't because the card is too dangerous). The opponent who wants to offer an extra effect can simply reveal a basic land (in some very rare cases the caster will also reveal a land and not benefit from the extra-effect, which did happen once).


RULES FOR VARIANTS :

-Normal free-for-all has already been described at the beginning. If you don't like very long games (or if the last game of the day needs to be shorter), I recommend using 2vs2 with crossed teams at 4 players and Pentacle at 5 players.

-Vanguards : very nice variant, really. Half my games are with Vanguards. Check the blog posts and find the latest recap of the rules

-2 headed-giant: I do not advise. Slow and there are no comebacks.

-2vs2 en croisé / crossed teams (At 4 players, select 2vs2 for shorter games and free-for-all for longer games)
Each player faces his teammate and has his opponents on his right and left. The team starts at 35 life. Everything but life total is individual.
Defense is individual so you can attack either the opponent on your right or the opponent on the left.
You select at random the player who starts and then go clockwise, so it's first player of team A, then first player of team B, then second player of team A then second player of team B, and repeat.
This rule is useful to have shorter games, especially compared to free-for-all at 4 players. I generally use free-for-all for normal games at 4 players and 2vs2 en croisé for vanguard games at 4 players.

-Pentacle (5 players)
I think pentacle is slightly more interesting than free-for-all when you are 5 players (but most people still want free-for-all).
Each player starts at 20 life. He has two opponents which are the two players he faces and he has two allies, which are the two players on his sides.
You can target your allies or your allies' permanents if you want to, but he can just say "no" and it will be countered by the rules. You can still screw your allies if you need to with spells that don't target like pyroclasm effects.
The first player to win is the one whose both opponents are dead.

-Monarch Mode
You can add the monarch token to any variant if you want to. Its purpose is to vary your games if you play a lot since it creates new dynamics. If you are new to the format, rather play with the basic rules.
If no one is the monarch, you become the monarch by resolving two creature spells in the same turn (so a removal won't stop this but a counterspell can).
As in official rules you become the monarch by dealing combat damage to the monarch.
In my rules you also become the monarch by killing a monarch in any way, the regicide is the new king.


Personal rulings/notes on specific cards :

The 129 Kindle and 129 Flame Burst are the only exceptions to the singleton aspect of the list. There are three important justifications for this, that I each judge worthwhile by itself.
First, without K/FB there wouldn't be as many red cards and it would be very unbalanced. Red cards, especially commons and uncommons, tend to aim for short games in duels and more often than in other colors they don't belong into this slow multiplayer format.
Second, I don't want the format to lean too much towards control even if it is tempting to make it so. I want to play as many aspects of magic as I can with simple cards that aren't too powered. That's why I ended up putting all the fireballs at 500 cards and putting a quite large selection of evasion creature at one point. Yes I like long games with grindy choices but I also want players to adapt and know when they need to be more agressive to get rid of a player; or when to sacrifice ressources to stay above, say, 7-8 life, because some opponents' choices seem quite suspicious and scary.
Third, the more I added cards the less removals we had in proportion compared to creatures, so I wanted more removals. Also, burn spells have the upside of offering different strategic paths. Knowing if the burn spell should be used on a creature or a player is typically the kind of skill I want to test in the games.
Less important reasons are to attach more choices on cards that exile in the graves and justify them more (I want them anyway to sometimes deal with recursion, incarnations, flashbacks etc...) and because it adds more complexity with the idea of not boosting other players' Kindle/Flame Burst.
And if a Kindle/Flame Burst doesn't provide the same effect than the previous K/FB, in effect it's not really the same card.
1 card out of 31 is a Kindle and 1 card out of 31 is a Flame Burst (3,225% or 6,45% if you count both). It could be slightly higher but I think this is a good and conservative number in my pile for 3 players (most common). In the event of a free-for-all game with 4 or 5 players the K/FB will be more numerous and powerful, which is probably a good thing as you don't want the games to be too long.
However in a short pile with a few hundred cards, the right number would probably be zero unless you need to solve the same issues I had with a few thousands cards.

Frazzled Editor counts all lines of text for 'Wordy', including quotes and reminder text.

I use old printed texts for Duress (Urza's Saga), Ostracize (Urza's Legacy) and Coercion (Tempest so that I have the illustration with vangard characters) because they say "Look at" instead of "Target opponent reveals", which is what we do and is way better. If other players get information it can cost you, especially when revealing instant speed removals. You will probably end up being the one attacked rather than the player who revealed the removal.

Supply/Demand is only the Supply half since searching the library for real is nonsense.

The french 8th Edition Rod of Ruin (Baguette de Ruine) has a missprint. It deals 3 damage instead of 1.

I also use a missprinted french version of Icy Manipulator that can tap or untap.

Knight of the Kitchen Sink and black border rules : it's a fact the back of cards and my tokens have black borders. But the sleeves cover morph creatures and you can legally take anything to represent a token. I prefer to use the rules that don't make Knight of the Kitchen Sink too strong so tokens and 2/2 morph creatures can block it.
Also I will consider black border = entirely black bordered. This makes my Commander Legends Cuombajj Witches a potential blocker for KotKS's protection and means you can for exemple play an unsanctioned version of Poultrygeist without penalty.

Eradicate would exile all additional copies of Welkin Hawk (4 copies in the token box).

Rite of the Raging Storm can be very strong, keep in mind you can have non aggression pacts between players about these 5/1 haste tokens. If your players never get that, you may want to ban the card.

For creature types I follow The Gatherer. Rather than checking The Gatherer everytime it's simpler to check the illustration and only check the gatherer if there is a particular doubt.
If the card looks like a human it has the human creature type (except vampires, zombies etc... of course). Same with Boars, Kors, Phyrexians, etc...
I inserted small pieces of paper to mark old spirits (qualified as ghost etc) + some other non obvious types that could be relevant (warrior, human, goblin and wizard).


List of cards that are slightly too weak or too costly to be good enough or to make the 4000 cards cut (double of the same mana is a real downside):
https://www.magic-ville.com/fr/decks/showdeck?ref=995301&decklanglocal=eng
Cards that are tagged as being in the bottom power level of the list at their mana cost and category:
https://www.cubecobra.com/cube/list/maxiwagic?f=tag%3A%22bottom+power+level%22
With these two selections, you can assess where I put the minimum power level limit for inclusions. Keep in mind the cards are evaluated with their power level in this format, which can be much better or much worse compared to duels in competitive tournaments.

How to win in the free-for-all formats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ_7E7AB3TM

Rest of the text (too long for Cube Cobra):

Treetop Rangers -> Nimbus Wings
Recently rediscovered Amrou Seekers (2W 2/2 intimidate) which has been very tempting (already was when I reviewed all the cards). I play 2B 2/1s with fear but there are about 50 more creatures able to block Amrou Seekers than to block black fear creatures. Treetop Rangers was another comparable card. It can be blocked by about 100 more creatures but flying creatures tend to be smaller.
In the end I leaned towards escaping bad variance and playing none of those two. Treetop Rangers was better than Orchard Spirit (out) because it can't be blocked by reach creatures, but it was still bad here and there so it is logical to remove this specialized card for something certainly more risky but way more fun with real choices and a big potential.
I think the cheapness of Nimbus Wings makes it better than the borderline unincluded Aerial Modification.
I also remember testing the similar Call to Serve and the "enchant nonblack creature" drawback pulled its weight.
Nimbus Wings should be fine considering my experience with Call to Serve and other cheap auras giving flying.

Rancid Earth -> Ashes to Ashes
Rolling Spoil -> Wicked Pact
The land removals with bonus effect were borderline but obviously great on certain late game boards, so their variance could have been acceptable despite me looking for slots.
When I added Rancid Earth and Rolling Spoil, I wanted to maximize the odds of having a land destruction effect targeting a good special land. Experience proved that futile (as expected), but the kill all 1/1s effect with bonus remained good often enough.
The determining factor for these swaps is that I want a strategic selection of cards that will help more X/1 creatures and punish the biggest creature on the battlefield. As I have said many times, small creatures are structurally at a disadvantage in the format, no need to make things worse. Which is why I removed almost all spot removals that kill only X/1s.
I do play -1/-1 effects to opponents' creatures, but these are instant spells. So they double as combat tricks once in a while. A feature much more likely to be valuable than a land destruction. The instant speed also helps a lot in the format.
All that said, Rolling Spoil and Rancid Earth are probably the cards the most likely to come back in the list in the future. Now, the only category of cards left I see as questionable are the specialized "destroy target artifact" instants. There are only 248 artifacts, but most non-creature artifacts tend to stay a very long time on the battlefield, so the artifact removals are ok with the long games this format offers.

Ashes to Ashes and Wicked Pact (uncommon in online editions) will not be cards easy to play, but they are included for more violence and fun.
After playing with Reckless Spite (the instant version of Wicked Pact), I am convinced Ashes to Ashes will be good enough and that the 5 life drawback should be balanced often enough for Reckless Spite and Ashes to Ashes.
I have more doubts about Wicked Pact as cumulating the sorcery speed drawback with the nonblack clause seems too restraining when you already lose 5 life (life points have way more value in this multiplayer format where survival primes). Regeneration is also a thing in my pile.

Viridian Corrupter -> Hope Charm
Viridian Corrupter is okay to dissuade evasionless creatures, but it's certainly low if there is no artifact and horrible if you are the only one to have one. But the biggest drawback has been the double green. Instant speed and no double mana seem very important for enchantment removals and artifact removals. You don't want to delay your answer nor lose a draw for a removal, and instant speed is great versus the many auras and equipments for added value in combat.
So the versatile and cheap Hope Charm seems better with more auras than artifacts in my list. First Strike option is nice, and saving an opponent for value versus another one, by giving him 2 life, would be insanely fun.

Femeref Archers -> Organ Grinder
Femeref Archers still hasn't been played in games but this was the one addition I had many doubts about because of its specialization, slowness and fragility. It is a bit expensive at cmc3, doesn't kill the biggest flyers, slows the game, and wouldn't like any boost or damage prevention effect for the flying creature.
I was influenced by it being one of the first good cards I played with, but it will return on the bench. It may come back for a try, but right now it looks inferior to everything I added.
Organ Grinder seems to compare well to unblockable creatures with similar costs in the late game. If you draw it early game, it can also be a good defender compared to an unblockable 2/1 or 2/2 given you would rather establish defense in the early game. Finally it gives you some leeway against Kindle or Flame Burst by removing the ones in your graveyard when it is relevant.
I hope the limited number of activations will make the card less scary than the alliance triggering Caustic Tar was, and that using it as a dissuasion card ("the next one to mess with me...") will work more often and for way cheaper.

Worth mentioning the monoblack count went from 608 to 611 and the monogreen count went from 611 to 608. The gap with the monoblue count (689) is also lower than ever at 4000 cards, which is pretty satisfying.

Double+Triple of the same mana (not counting regenerating creatures, tapping creatures and all cards that probably don't need the double mana until next turn) :
White: around 95 WW cards
Red: around 100 RR cards
Green: around 137 GG cards (-2)
Blue: around 166 UU cards (-1)
Black: around 179 BB cards (+2)

April 13th, 2025

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