Hey guys. Today I’ll be going over the cards I want to try for a new Magic the Gathering format. This is a casual, shared deck (and graveyard) format that takes inspiration from the Dandan (Forgetful Fish) format. It’ll mostly be my wife and I playing. I wanted a fun format where we could share a deck and graveyard. This is how we play Lorcana in our format we call The Battle Tower. Maybe I’ll do a post over it next (let me know if you like Lorcana and want casual Lorcana content). The point of this post is to get my early thoughts down.

Okay. There’s plenty of great resources over the format of Dandan, so I won’t be going over it here. However, I will touch on the basics real quick.

Dandan is your beatstick in this format. While  Crystal Spray acts as removal playing on Dandan’s Landhome mechanic. Memory Lapse covers the other game inside the game. You and your opponent share a deck. So Memory Lapsing their spell puts it on top of the share deck for you to draw.

So if this is a new format, what creature are we picking, and what gimmicks are we using?

Aegis Turtle is our beat stick. It’s worth noting he wasn’t my first choice. I searched tirelessly for a 0/4 for 1U with no other text (aka a vanilla creature). Im not saying it doesn’t exist. Just that I couldn’t find a perfect one. Weight Advantage also wasn’t my first choice for an ability to deal damage based on power, but it was the cleanest, most simple option. Both players begin with Weight Advantage in play (or just have a picture of it handy as a reference).

These replace Dandan’s removal package. The idea is you target your opponent’s turtle, making them a 5/0, killing it. One thing I love about Dandan is how it takes cards that aren’t good in the grand scheme of magic and gives them a home. Inside Out was already on my radar as it was a pauper all star back when I was getting into pauper. Twisted Image had a place in modern at one point being able to kill Spellskite. It’s cool to give these old cards a new home.

Memory Lapse returns to this format as the main counter spell of choice. Brainstorm is a legacy All-Star and I expect it to do the same here. No, we don’t play fetch lands, but we’re all about messing with the opponent’s draw.

Here’s a list of other cards we will be trying in this format.

Notable omissions

As far as Diminishing Returns is concerned, its mostly because I don’t own it. But I also don’t like the idea of winning by deck out. Right now I think we will just shuffle up if we run out of cards. Commit//Memory is another option if I want another piece of interaction that fixes the graveyard without giving into decking as a strategy. We will have to play test more.

Ive read Acknowledge Knowledge is a bit of a notorious card. I like the card, but I’ve heard this card can snowball and feel unfair. I’ve seen people playing Chart a Course as an alternative. I feel like, for right now, Flame of Anor simply replaces AK and is more versatile.

Predict and Portent are on my TCG buy list. I like both in theory, but I don’t own either. These could certainly work their way into future versions.

Interesting cards I might try.

Freeze in Place seems pretty solid in this format. It slows down a pretty aggressive turtle and the scry 2 is always nice. Giant’s Amulet is either perfectly tailored to this format or an absolute trap. So it creates a 4/4 and then makes it a 4/5 perfectly staying within our divisible by 20 rule. It also makes a wizard allowing you to trigger the bonus effects on Flame of Anor. I like the idea of it, I’ll be testing it out. Devour in Flames is another card that could be perfect for this format. Yes. islands aren’t as impactful as they are in Dandan, but we have some utility lands that we could reset.

Counter Spells.

Arcane Denial is meant to be the feel-good counter spell. Im not sure if it’s worth it letting your opponent draw so many cards. Though it could mess up opponent’s scry. Dissolve is weaker than the other options, but it casts a wider net and gives a scry. Stern Scolding is extremely narrow. It has some merit because it can counter your opponent’s T1 Turtle if you are on the play. Deprive is probably less impactful in this format where islands don’t matter as much. Again, there are 2 lands where it matters. Of course Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast is arguably the best counterspell in this format as it counters almost everything, but red mana is at a premium in this format.

Lands

Temple of Epiphany and Izzet Boilerworks are probably our two best options for Red Blue. Temple allows for scrying, while Boilerworks resets some valuable lands. Halimar Depths is great in a shared deck format. Lonely Sandbar can be bounced back for cycling purposes. Mystic Sanctuary is one of the best lands for blue decks to get back those important spells.

Other land options.

Right now, these are two lands I’m debating on adding. Castle Vantress is super interesting because it adds more value to islands (making cards like Deprive and Devour in Flames more interesting bouncing back basic islands.). Desolate Lighthouse worries me a little that it would become like AK, a snowball for the player who has it.

So these cards are the current pool of cards I’m looking at. The list will be around 80-100 cards. Feel free to try your own build. I’ll post a deck list when my wife and I have finalized a list. I could playtest cards like Serum Visions, Treasure Cruise/Dig Through Time, or Preordain, too. So the next update could have completely different cards, but this is where I’m starting.

Keep in mind, all cards are two of except Aegis Turtle (8x), Memory Lapse (currently 8x but could fluctuate), Inside Out (4x), Twisted Image (4x), Invert//Invent (4x), Brainstorm (4x). Those are the core cards for now. Everything else should be 2 of.

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Thanks for reading! Have a great day.