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Mountain Magic Introduction The war has been long and
bloody. Both you and your enemy have suffered hard and heavy losses
through your countless assaults and counterstrikes. Your resources are
dwindling fast, and at times it seemed that you were about to lose
control of it all. Fortunately, your enemy is in the same position. You
stand in the middle of an uneasy, precarious balance, a balance that
could shift in either direction with no warning at all. After what seemed to be eons of studying and incantations that nearly drained you of all your strength, you have located a place of immense power, power that could be used to banish your enemy from the face of the world forever. You ready the remainder of your troops to set for this place where victory will be yours. Shortly thereafter you catch a spy. Too late, the ogre had already informed your enemy of your plans and is also preparing his assault on the place of power. You are in need of utmost haste. Your enemy's last reported position of Ghazban is days closer than your current holdout in the Kerr Ridges. When you arrive at the foot of the mountain, you realize that your fears were not unfounded. Already the face of the mountain is dotted with countless campfires. Your advanced scouts report many sentry patrols. Your enemy is nearing the place of power near the mountain's summit. Next morning at the break of day, you start your assault. This is unlikely to be the final battle, but it is probably the most important. Object To climb the Magic
Mountain, bringing up enough forces to destroy the forces occupying it. Setup First you need to create a solitaire deck. This deck should compose of sixty-five cards with the following distribution (you can substitute an artifact for any non-land card, to a maximum of four artifacts):
Separate the land cards from the rest of the deck. Shuffle the land deck and the spell deck separately. Clear a rather large section of your table. Place the land deck on one side of the table and the spell deck on the other side. Turn over the first seven cards from your spell deck and place them in a row at the foot of the table. This represents your initial forces. From an unused deck of cards, choose five cards at random and place them face down without looking at them at the head of the table. These represent the forces occupying the mountain. These cards should be non-land cards. The Play Start by flipping over the
top card in your spell deck. If you are able to, you can place this card
on the next row, touching two cards in the row below it. If you are
unable to play the card immediately, you must place it face up in your
discard pile. You can place a card from the spell deck on two adjacent
cards in a row if any of the following apply:
Continuing Play If, after placing any card
on your mountain, you are able to legally place the first face up card
in your graveyard on your mountain, you may do so. If you are unable to
move any cards from your graveyard to the mountain, draw another card
and continue. Artifacts are wild cards. That is, they may be placed on
any set of cards and any card may be placed on an artifact if it has
something in common with the other card upon which it is placed. If you draw the last card
from you spell deck and cannot legally place it or complete the
mountain, you have failed to climb the mountain and lose immediately. When the Mountain is Complete When the mountain is
complete, trace a path from the top card to the bottom of the mountain.
These cards represent the forces you will use to overthrow the occupying
forces. The path is chosen as such: starting with the top card, choose
one of the cards it is touching in the row below it. Repeat with the
chosen card until you choose a card in the bottom row. After having chosen your
forces, turn over the five cards representing the occupying forces and
do battle. You may want to remove the chosen cards from the mountain at
this point. Battle Both you and your
"opponent" draw from your mana deck. You and your enemy use
mana to power your cards. A card is considered powered when it has
received enough mana to satisfy its colored mana requirement. Artifacts
cannot be powered. They are under a damping field. Draw a card from the mana
deck. If any of your cards are able to use that colored mana place it on
the card. If the card is powered, you may use it. Otherwise, draw a card
for your opponent. If your opponent can use this mana, it shall be used.
If any choice is involved, follow this order:
You are allowed to place
only one land card per turn. You and your opponent continue to take
turns drawing cards until the mana deck is empty or one of the forces is
eliminated. After a card is used, it becomes unpowered and must be
powered again before it is reused. Creature Battle Powered creatures can
attack any one creature of the opposing forces. If more than one
creature is powered, they may attack the same creature. Compare power
vs. toughness and remove any dead creatures from play. The opposing
forces will always assign damage to kill the greatest number of
creatures. Powered creatures of the opponents will attack the creature
with the highest power, providing it can survive the attack. Only flyers can launch an
attack against a powered flyer. If a landwalker is powered, it can only
be attacked by another landwalker of the same type. If a powered
creature has a special ability, it may be used. Special abilities which
have an activation cost must be powered separately at the cost written
on the card. These abilities can be "stacked" or saved up by
paying for more than one use. If part of the cost to use the special
ability requires that the card become tapped, the creature will become
unpowered. Spell Battle Powered damage dealing
spells with an X as the casting cost will have X large enough to do
exactly the amount needed to kill the creature it is targeting. Spells
of this nature powered by the opponent will be targeted at your creature
with the highest power. Powered counterspell effects can be targeted at
sorceries, instants and interrupts, whether powered or not. They cannot
be targeted at creatures; they have been summoned long ago. If a spell
is counterspelled, it is removed from play. Counterspells by your
opponent will first target your counterspells, then your damage dealing
spells. Counterspells with an X as part of the casting cost will have X
large enough to be exactly the amount needed to counter the target
spell. X-spells that do not cause damage or counter spells will have an
X equal to three. Special Rules Effects that cause a
powered card to become tapped unpower it. Effects that cause an
unpowered card to become tapped remove the target card from the game.
Effects that cause an unpowered card to become untapped power it.
Powered cards cannot benefit from "untapping". If you are forced to pick
up extra cards, take them from the land deck. Remember that you are
allowed to place only one land per turn. The extras must be discarded
immediately. If you are forced to discard, discard from the top of the
land deck. This includes the card that would normally have been drawn by
the wizard targeted by the effect. These cards are out of play for the
remainder of the game. If an effect calls for the
destruction of a land, destroy the next land card to be drawn by the
wizard targeted by the effect. Upkeep costs for creatures
must be paid immediately upon powering of the creature. Upkeep costs
must only be paid once for each power up. If the cost cannot be paid
upon power up, then the creature will refuse to serve you and walk from
the battlefield. Unpowered creatures do not require upkeep payment. Effects that cause the
emptying of a mana pool will cause all cards of the target wizard to
become unpowered. Cards that would normally have been drawn from your
library due to some effect must be drawn from the cards remaining in
your mountain. End of Game The game can end in any of the following ways:
History This variant was created by Dean Maki. |