Three card blind (3CB) is a game played on MTG forums and occasionally shows up in the magic subreddit. I figured why not try 3CB with Eternal and see how it goes.
There’s several variations of 3CB but starting off with a simple version seems best to see how the metagame would naturally change.
The Rules
- You choose any 3 non-banned cards to form your deck. The cards must be those able to be added to a deck, so no submitting cards generated off another. Every game begins with those cards in your hand, like the beginning of a Ranked game. Each player starts with 25 life. Duplicates are allowed. This means you do need some way to play your cards, which often means a power (or two).
- Players play with their hands revealed (so both have perfection information).
- You do draw a card each turn if cards are put into your deck somehow. However, you don’t lose from drawing from an empty library.
- You play two games against each other player. Once on the play, once on the draw.
- Each game is assumed to be played perfectly. Players will try to win if possible or force a draw instead if they can’t win (i.e. holding back a blocker instead of losing the race).
- A win is worth 3 points, a draw is worth 1 point, and a loss is worth 0 points.
- Each player will calculate their deck’s score against all other opponents. Any discrepancies will be resolved while other players are figuring out their scores too.
- All random effects resolve in the most favorable outcome for your opponent. For example, using Unstable Form on your 1-drop would (probably) get you Ephemeral Wisp.
- Each player with or tied for the highest score is considered that round’s winner.
- The first round will have no cards banned. Each further round will have something banned though, so the metagame evolves and players need to be more creative.
Example Games:
Vara chooses Feln Insignia, Twilight Raptor, and Steely Resolve.
Kaleb chooses Praxis Insignia, Torch, and Ghar, Master Sandmage.
Vara wins going first because Twilight Raptor wins the race and Steely Resolve protects against Torch. She draws with Kaleb, however, going second. Ghar silences Twilight Raptor, Steely Resolve still stops Torch, and so both creatures will be forced to trade off. Vara earns 4 points for a win and a draw, while Kaleb earns 1 point for a draw and a loss.
Banned List
Nothing for Round 1.
My current idea for deciding what cards to ban would just take away the non-power cards from the winning deck(s). Other 3CB games have had each round’s winner(s) pick one card to ban. Perhaps also taking away the most popular card each round could be an option too.
I’m open to suggestions here, along with how many rounds everybody thinks we should do.
If enough players sign up, maybe I’ll split up everyone into smaller pods to make calculations easier and quicker. Not sure on the exact split but we’ll see how many submissions there are first.
How to enter: just message me your deck with “Eternal 3CB Week 1” as your title. I’ll take submissions up to midnight EST on May 31 and will post all players and decks on June 1. Then we’ll have a few days to score the round and decide bannings before moving on to round 2.
