🔗 Share this article

Widely known as Magic: The Gathering's most social way to play, the Elder Dragon Highlander format is getting a festive update perfect for the holidays. During a recent episode, personalities from a popular channel played a four-player game titled "Holiday Countdown."

The Mechanics of the Holiday Format Works

Fundamentally is a simple layer added on top of a normal EDH match. A designated marker travels between players. Once it arrives at the active player's upkeep, the game briefly pauses. All gamers privately decides if they will be being Nice or Naughty via choice cards.

All players turn over their choice at the same time. After that, they apply the consequence linked to their selection, beginning with the person holding the token. It then gets passed to the right. The countdown ticks up one notch, and standard gameplay resumes.

These decisions become more significant with each passing round go on, seeming finely tuned.

Increasing Effects

The initial phases granted small, table-wide boons for the Nice path, including life gain or Clue tokens. Conversely, The Naughty choices typically offered more specific upsides, usually at the expense of another player. For instance let those who picked Naughty create a powerful airborne Reindeer token. Anyone who selected Nice generated a small artifact token creature for each player.

The Grand Showdown

When the last phase, Saint Nick himself arrived, turning the game. According to how often a participant was Nice versus Naughty, Santa handed out wrapped prizes. They appeared to be deck boxes, but held Magic booster packs of varying value.

• The nicest player received a premium special pack.
• The next kindest player got a another type of premium pack.
• A special guest ended up with a less powerful set.
• The most mischievous player got the worst prize: a historically poor set that's essentially a joke.

Every card opened could then be used for the duration, played from outside the game using mana treating it as colorless. For the nicer participants, their gift became a huge advantage. However, the naughty players were given a punitive gift.

Trying the Format with Friends

While the original showcase included considerable polish and preparation, this is a concept that anybody could easily replicate with friends. Each player plays with their standard EDH deck, and the only extra items required are four different MTG packs of varying value.

One potential issue could be that if everyone know the rewards in advance the prize for being Nice, then everyone try to get the most valuable gift. One might mix it up in different ways, for example selecting cards together or letting players pull specific cards from outside the game.

Based on the entertaining match, Countdown to XT-Mas stands as a festive way to spread some joy when playing with friends. It changes the social interplay between players in a fun and manner, resulting in a memorable experience for Magic fans this season.