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Chess: the ultimate game of strategy. It’s a game of movement and tactical position advantages on the board. It’s about knowing what pieces are vital to your success, and what pieces you can sacrifice in any given situation. But this is a Magic website; why am I talking about chess? Today’s variant mixes the tactical, board-controlling strategies of chess with the creatures and spells of Magic. I’m talking about Magic: The War Game. 2-4 players compete to take the advantage on a 3x5 grid, and eventually control the other players’ bases. The rules for this one are a little more complicated, so you may want to get a pen and paper. Also, War Games generally take a while, so this is for your game night, not when you’ve only got a half-hour to spare. If you are looking for a great way to spend an evening with your friends, however, grab a bowl of snacks, a couple cans of soda, and get ready for a great mental challenge. Set Up To begin the game, take 15 lands, three of each basic type, and shuffle them together. Then place the lands, face-up, in three rows of five. Next, each player places a card face-down in front of them. This isn’t a card from your deck, and doesn’t necessarily have to be a Magic card. This is that player’s stronghold. When one person controls all strongholds, they win. When you are set up, your board should look like this:
One side note: You may want to use a piece of large construction paper or poster board or something like that to draw a large 3x5 grid, and then place the lands in the squares. There may be times when a square will hold 2 or more creatures, and you need to be able to distinguish which creatures are in which squares. Decks are a minimum of 40 cards with no basic lands. Each player draws 5 cards to start, with no mulligans allowed. Turn Structure The turn structure for The War Game is fairly different than a regular game of Magic. The turn looks like this:
Game Play
After the supply phase comes the healing phase. In this variant, damage doesn’t wear off at the end of turns. Instead, you must pay supply points to heal creatures. One supply points removes one damage, but you can only heal any creature twice during a turn. Any creature with regeneration heals one wound for free; this heal doesn’t count against your two heal limit. Also, any upkeep costs or effects happen during this phase. Once you have healed all the creatures you want to heal, the movement phase begins. Each creature may make one move to the left, right, forward, or backwards. Creatures with flying can move diagonally as well. Even tapped creatures can make a move. Landwalk creatures have special movement rules. If a landwalk creature makes its initial move into the terrain that it “walks”, that creature may make an additional move that turn. Remember, the initial move must be to the special terrain, so this can only be used once. Islands complicate things further. Only creatures with flying, Islandwalk, or Islandhome may enter Island terrains unaided. Other creatures need to be carried by a creature with one of those three abilities. When a creature is carried, tap it and the creature that is carrying it. Those creatures remain tapped until the creature is dropped. Alternatively, Islandhome creatures cannot enter non-island territories unaided. They also must be carried. When an islandhome creature enters a square adjacent to an island, it may enter the island, while its carrier stays where it is.
Creatures may not enter an opponent’s stronghold unless it is empty. They can, however, declare an attack from the space adjacent to it. If the attack is successful in clearing the stronghold, then they may enter. If you control an opponent’s stronghold, they do not get to roll for supply points, and they can’t cast creatures. They are not out of the game, however. They can attempt to re-take their stronghold with creatures already on the board. Creatures may move into territories occupied by enemy creatures. If this happens, combat ensues after all creatures have moved. If two or more squares have combat, the attacker chooses in which order combat happens. Any creature who’s color matches the area it is in (like a green creature in a forest square), it gets a +1/+1 bonus. To start combat, players can play instant speed effects that boost a creature’s power or toughness. No sorceries. After all those effects resolve, total up the power of all the untapped creatures of both the attacked and the defender. The attacker divides up the total damage any way he or she chooses amongst the defending creatures. There is no creature vs. creature combat. A player cannot assign more damage to a creature than its current toughness. Once attacking damage is assigned, the same is done by the defender.
Once damage is assigned, players may play instant spells or use any Circle of Protection-like effects to prevent damage. After any effects resolve, the damage is dealt. Any creature receiving lethal damage is removed from the game. There is no graveyard. Following Combat is the casting phase. Here you use any supply points to cast sorceries or more creatures. One supply point is required for each mana, color doesn’t matter. When a creature is cast, it is placed in your stronghold. Your stronghold has a limit of three creatures. If it is full, you cannot cast new creatures until there is a vacancy. If you have any unused supply points, they carry over to the next turn. You do not get burned. Finally, you have a max hand size of 8, so you must discard down to 8 at end of turn if you have too many cards. Other Misc. Rules There is no graveyard. Instead, all killed creatures and played spells are put into a “Removed from Game” pile. If a player runs out of cards in his or her library, simply shuffle the cards in the RFG pile and use that as the library. Global effects do not affect the entire table. Instead, you must choose a terrain for them to effect. You can never target an opponent’s stronghold. Creatures with targeting abilities can only target
creatures in the same terrain. You can only cast spells that target a creature
if you have a creature in the same or an adjacent terrain.
The strategy used can vary greatly, depending on how you want to play it. Weenie rushes can be effective, or a drawn-out affair with a lot of beaters also works. If you do go with the weenie rush strategy, you’ll need some quick fliers to be able to jump any islands in your path. You will, however, need a lot of prevention effects, because weenies can be killed pretty easily when they get to the opponent’s turf. The weenie strategy will also force a lot of movement. Not only forward, but also sideways. Weenies will need to pick their battles carefully. One big creature can take out an entire army of weenie beaters, so you’ve got to be very careful. The fatty deck plays a little different. Here, the quick
fliers aren’t as big of a necessity, because you can build up your forces at the
shores waiting for a transport. Or, you can just take the long way around. Also,
the fatty deck is better with more opponents, because spreading out your forces
doesn’t hurt you nearly as much as it would if you were playing weenies.
Next time, I’ll be discussing Points, Squandered Magic, and Back Draft. Until then, have fun with the strategy of The War Game. ~lionden_56~ You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here. Most Popular
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A
turn starts with the usual untap phase, followed by the draw step. Next is the
first change: The supply phase. At the beginning of this phase, the active
player rolls a six-sided die. Whatever number is rolled is the amount of mana
(supply points) added to that player’s mana pool. Also, players can only use
mana abilities from creatures during this phase (Birds of Paradise for example).
Players cannot play spells that give mana. Sorry folks, no Dark Rituals allowed. 
Yikes!
This one is a little more complicated.