Horde Variant

Alex Stephenson
Thursday, January 5, 2012 - 18:00

If you play a lot of casual Magic, then you may have already heard of the new horde variant. I was first exposed to it here: http://www.quietspeculation.com/2011/09 ... invasions/ . I immediately became interested in it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I’m a zombie buff. I can recite George Romero’s Dawn and Day of the Dead in completion. I’ve always loved the zombie tribe’s significance to Magic. Secondly, and perhaps a little more profoundly, I love the idea that Magic doesn’t have to be person vs. person competitive. This variant actually allows for cooperative player vs. environment gaming. It’s almost like playing an extremely simplified Dungeons and Dragons. The rules are pretty straightforward. A horde deck is constructed of zombie token cards, and flavorful destructive black cards. Originally, the player decks, or survivor decks were meant to be 100 card Commander decks. We took some liberties and decided to make flavorful class specific decks that are 60 cards and singleton. Each class deck was designed with a specific role in mind: either tanking or support. If you browse to the end of the article, you can see some examples of both our horde and survivor decks.
In the two player game, each player still draws a seven card hand, and may mulligan for free until satisfied. This is yet another liberty we’ve taken with the rules. It’s casual enough where you shouldn’t feel guilt for mulling for free until you get a reasonable opening hand. Players then proceed to take three turns in a row and draw a card on their first turn. This has the purpose of allowing the players to build a damage buffer zone against the horde deck’s assault. Taking three turns in a row is only done at the beginning of the game. Players deal damage to the horde deck by milling cards off the top for each point of damage dealt. Competitive players are probably thinking something like, “Why wouldn’t I just run a card like Traumatize and annihilate the zombie deck every time”? This would of course make the variant not fun and certainly not flavorful. It’s the same reason you wouldn’t use cheat codes in a video game.
After the players finish their third turn, the horde deck takes its turn. Cards are cast from the top of the library until a non-token card is cast. Zombie creatures controlled by the horde deck have haste, must attack each turn if possible, and cannot block. The exhilaration of the variant comes from the fact that each horde turn could very easily be your last. Maybe the top of the deck is just a Gluttonous Zombie, or maybe it’s a stream of fifteen zombie tokens and then a Barter in Blood.
Jake Faas and I have been extensively playtesting this format trying to find the perfect, harmonious balance point, or basically the point at which the players are just as likely to win as they are to lose. We’ve already found planeswalkers to be too powerful, and even certain cards like Notorious Throng have proven to be too strong. What I’ve noticed of myself is that it’s hard to step out of a competitive mindset and it’s hard to play Magic with a certain degree of balance in mind instead of the usual, “What’s the most efficient way to brutally stomp my opponent consistently”? mentality.
Give the format a try, and be creative! Write us and let you know what you think. Have fun with it. Try and find a way to balance having more than two-players in a game, which is a current problem we’re trying to balance out. Should the players take less turns in the beginning? Should they draw fewer cards for their opener? Should life totals be shared? Help us balance this fun and original format.

Our current horde deck list:

45x Zombie tokens
10x Zombie Wizard tokens
5x Zombie Giant tokens
4x Fleshbag Marauder
2x Gluttonous Zombie
2x Bad Moon
2x Unbreathing Horde
2x Skaab Goliath
2x Infectious Horror
2x Barter in Blood
2x Tresserhorn Skynight
1x Waning Wurm
1x Makeshift Mauler
1x Plague Wind
1x Call to the Grave
1x Forsaken Wastes
1x Noxious Ghoul
1x Vengeful Dead
1x Underworld Dreams
1x Death Baron
1x Bloodbound March
1x Syphon Flesh
1x Lightning Reaver
1x Soulless One
1x Stitched Drake
1x Army of the Damned
1x Patriarch’s Bidding
1x Massacre Wurm
1x Mortal Combat
1x Vedalken Ghoul
1x Grave Pact
1x Unnerve

So, I should probably explain how we make decisions for the zombies and how some of the zombie cards work when certain situations arise. If, for example, the horde deck casts two zombie tokens and then a Fleshbag Marauder, all the spells cast go on the stack and the spells resolve starting with the last spell cast, in this case the Fleshbag Marauder. The horde deck always chooses the Fleshbag Marauder just cast as its creature to sacrifice. Zombie wizard tokens from Alara Reborn fill a unique role. When they resolve, each player discards a card. They can be very crippling in multiples. If the horde deck resolves Patriarch’s Bidding, they automatically name zombies. We’ve made the Massacre Wurm in the horde deck’s creature type “zombie” for the sake of interacting with other cards in the deck. For the blue Innistrad zombies like Stitched Drake, the horde deck exiles the top creature card of their graveyard instead of choosing one to exile.

Cleric survivor deck - Support:

1x Undead Slayer
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Clergy of the Holy Nimbus
1x Bonds of Faith
1x Nova Cleric
1x Kor Sanctifiers
1x Devout Lightcaster
1x Hedron-Field Purists
1x Exorcist
1x Children of Korlis
1x Icatian Priest
1x Order of Leitbur
1x Master Apothecary
1x Avacynian Priest
1x Order of the Stars
1x Disciple of Grace
1x Militant Monk
1x War Priest of Thune
1x Suture Priest
1x Obsidian Acolyte
1x Soul Warden
1x Noble Templar
1x Doubtless One
1x Order of Whiteclay
1x Thunder Totem
1x Cleanse
1x Guardian Zendikon
1x Celestial Crusader
1x Magus of the Disk
1x Angel’s Grace
1x Celestial Purge
1x Saltblast
1x Journey to Nowhere
1x Inquisitor’s Snare
1x Congregate
1x Victory’s Herald
20x Plains
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Secluded Steppe
1x Kabira Crossroads
1x Springjack Pasture

Beastmaster survivor deck – Tank:

1x Master of the Wild Hunt
1x Spore Frog
1x Mold Shambler
1x Garruk’s Companion
1x Hunting Moa
1x Mongrel Pack
1x Garruk’s Packleader
1x Rysorian Badger
1x Great Sable Stag
1x Mirri, Cat Warrior
1x Indrik Stomphowler
1x Engulfing Slagwurm
1x Saber Ants
1x Keeper of the Beasts
1x Mold Adder
1x Ambush Viper
1x Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
1x Beacon Behemoth
1x Leatherback Baloth
1x Krosan Tusker
1x Protean Hydra
1x Spectral Bears
1x Obstinate Baloth
1x Basking Rootwalla
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Quagnoth
1x Rampaging Baloth
1x Lead the Stampede
1x Hunter’s Feast
1x Predatory Urge
1x Gloomwidow’s Feast
1x Symbiosis
1x Call of the Herd
1x Primal Command
1x Green Sun’s Zenith
1x Evolution Charm
20x Forest
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1x Treetop Village
1x Slippery Karst

These are a couple of examples of survivor decks that we play with. A lot of the cards put into these decks were put in with the mindset of having interesting interactions with other survivor decks or the horde deck itself. For example, the Clergy of the Holy Nimbus is an infinite blocker against the horde deck because the horde deck cannot pay to have it not be regenerated. If the Mold Adder in the Beastmaster deck is resolved on turn one and sticks around he can single handedly decimate the horde deck. Email me if you’re interested in seeing some of the other survivor decklists we’ve made.