In Encounter Magic, the players form a group and go up against a dungeon or "encounter." This is similar to Dungeons & Dragons, but with Magic cards. One player is the game master and controls the encounter deck. The rest of the players each have a deck, but take turns together and share one life total as in two-headed giant or Archenemy.
The encounter deck can be a normal Magic deck with lands, spells, creatures, equipment and so on. What's different is that the deck represents a dungeon, or a series of encounters for the players to battle through.
Setup:
At the start of the encounter, each player selects a creature from his deck to enter the dungeon with. This creature starts in play. Otherwise, players play normally. However, since they are on the same team, they can share information, talk about strategies, and even see each others' cards. They share one life total, but they do not share mana. They can't play each others' spells or pay costs for another player.
The game master flips over a few cards from the encounter deck. This represents the first room the players will enter. Lands are set aside. Creatures are put into play. And all other spells are played immediately. The game master chooses the targets.
Attempting the Encounter:
The players take their turn simultaneously, drawing, playing spells, and attacking together. But, instead of attacking the opposing player (there isn't one), they attack the creatures in the encounter directly.
When the game master takes a turn for the encounter deck, if the dungeon controls no creatures, the game master flips over the top few cards of the encounter deck. This represents the players moving to the next room of the encounter. If the dungeon controls at least one creature on the start of the game master's turn, no additional cards are flipped over. They have to keep fighting in the current room until it is cleared.
The encounter deck will never have lands in play, doesn't use mana, and doesn't have cards in hand. Instead, its spells are played immediately and for free. Mana-based and life-based activation costs are ignored. Each ability may be used once per turn. If the game master would draw a card, it is flipped over and played instead.
Beating the Encounter:
A typical encounter will have a "boss" creature, represented by a legendary or otherwise awesome creature, in the last room of the encounter. This will require the game master to "stack" the deck by inserting the boss creature some number of cards from the bottom of the encounter deck.
To win, the players must run the encounter deck out of cards and kill the boss creature. But, the boss creature is indestructable as long as there is at least one card left in the encounter deck.
An Example:
Let's say that two players are ready to face an encounter. They each have a deck. A third person, the game master, also has a deck.
The two players each set aside one creature from their deck to enter the room with. The game master decides that a creature with a converted casting cost of 3 or less is okay for this encounter.
The game master sets aside a legendary creature, shuffles, and puts the legend 7 cards from the bottom - face up to make it more exciting!
The players shuffle and draw hands as normal. The game master flips over the top 5 cards of the encounter deck revealing 3 lands, a Lightning Bolt, and a Goblin Balloon Brigade. He Bolts the players for 3 direct damage, sets the lands aside, and puts the creature into play. The game is on.
The players take a turn as normal, but simultaneously. When it comes time to attack, they send one creature out to attack the Goblin. They hold the other creature back just in case. The Goblin dies. They don't want to do anything else right now, so they end the turn.
Since the "room is empty" because the dungeon controls no creatures, the game master immediately reveals the next 5 cards to represent that the players have moved into the next room of the encounter and plays out the cards as described above.
Other Rules:
Building a deck specifically for the encounter can be a lot of fun. There are no specific rules for building the encounter deck. You can include as many or as few lands as you want. The same for creatures and other spells. Build a goblin encounter with a dragon at the end. Throw some mini-bosses in along the way. You can even stack the deck in a specific order instead of shuffling to make each room work just the way you want. But watch out for cards that are only good on another player's turn. Those spells won't do you much good since the encounter deck never holds back spells.
To make a dungeon encounter more challenging, start players with a lower life total or flip over 7 cards for each room. Make it so that each time a land is flipped over, two traps are triggered instead of one. Give all of the creatures in the encounter more toughness or Undying. Or, when two lands are flipped over in a row, curse the players by putting a Curse card in front of them.
If equipment is left in an "empty room," the players may "pick up" that equipment and use it for the rest of the encounter. If other artifacts or enchantments are left in an empty room, they are set aside as the players move into another room.
RPG-style Play (loot!):
This format works great for an ongoing campaign where the players start with a basic set of cards to build decks from and earn cards (loot!) by playing through the encounters. The loot cards can be randomized packs or specific cards chosen by the game master. Players can add these cards to their decks, customizing as they go to "build their characters" and "level up." If equipment drops in the dungeon and players pick it up, that equipment becomes part of their deck for the next encounter and so on. Encounters can be customized for different difficulty levels and even themed with certain creature types.
Rules Clarifications and Notes:
The "dungeon master" is not a player. Because it is not a player, cards that affect players will not affect it. It does not have a library or graveyard. It doesn't have a hand or a life total. It can't be poisoned. Certain cards don't work against the dungeon like they would against another player.
You can play with the dungeon on auto-pilot. In this case, the dungeon follows some simple rules each turn.
- Every creature that can attack, does attack.
- Every ability that can be used, is used.
- Positive spells and abilities are always used on the dungeon's creatures.
- Negative spells and abilities are always used against the players (or their creatures).
- The target for spells and abilities is always the creature with the highest power that is a legal target (and can be meaningfully affected).
- If a spell or ability can target a player, it does.
Traps do not trigger in the first room of the encounter. If a land is revealed by the encounter deck in the first room, it is simply set aside instead of triggering a trap.
Traps:
The traps are really what makes this format tick. They give the dungeon an unpredictable advantage and force the players to make strategic decisions about attacking and blocking to clear a room.
A trap is a special kind of card that's not a Magic card and not "in the game." It can't be affected directly by the players. When the players move into a new room, all of the traps that have been triggered in the room they are moving out of are cleared (set aside).
Traps follow a simple format. When a land card is revealed by the encounter deck, it triggers a trap. The dungeon master immediately flips over the top trap card from the stack and does what it says.
Some traps have an effect that happens once. Other traps continuously affect the game until the room is cleared.
Sample Traps:
I write these down on index cards so that they are easy to shuffle and flip over. You could keep the list handy a roll a D8 instead, though.
- Reveal three more cards. Lands revealed this way do not trigger a trap.
- Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
- All creatures gain deathtouch this turn.
- All creatures you control gain deathtouch.
- Whenever you cast a spell, copy that spell and select new targets.
- Deal 2 damage to target creature.
- Whenever a creature you don't control attacks, that creature deals 1 damage to itself.
- Whenever a creature you control attacks, that creature deals 1 damage to target creature.
Sample Encounter Deck:
Here's an encounter deck to get you started. Think of this as a low-level deck for your players to test out the format. It should be challenging enough to give the players a good fight. In fact, the boss will probably kill the players and require them to rework their own decks to beat the encounter.
Encounter: Goblins and Dragons
Boss: Hellkite Charger
Room Size: 4 cards
Starting Traps: x-1, where x is the number of players
Starting Player Creature Size: 3 mana
Shock
Goblin Piker
Goblin Arsonist
Goblin Fireslinger
Pitchburn Devils
Incinerate
Mountain
Mountain
Act of Treason
Goblin War Paint
Flameborn Hellion
Goblin Arsonist
Madcap Skills
Concussive Bolt
Accorder's Shield
Dragon Hatchling
Mountain
Blisterstick Shaman
Sharpened Pitchfork
Goblin Piker
Goblin Tunneler
Homing Lightning
Hellraiser Goblin
Greatsword
Mountain
Demonmail Hauberk
Goblin Piker
Goblin Chieftain
Goblin War Paint
Mountain
Pitchburn Devils
Mountain
Lava Axe
Burn the Impure
Hellkite Charger
Sample / Starter Character Decks
This is mostly a note for me at this point, but if you think in terms of a generic RPG with character classes, you could build starter decks with a certain character theme using Magic cards for use in this format. For example, a fire mage deck might include 15-20 cards with some mountains, burn spells, and small red creatures with haste. The player with this deck could build it up over time as they play through various encounters and earn cards (loot!). A paladin character deck might be white with plains, small soldier creatures, and some enchantment-based control elements.
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