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Legend of the Five Colors

This variant is played with normal Magic cards, but uses rules from the Legend of the Five Rings CCG. In L5R, players represent families or clans; there are no great families in Dominia, so planeswalkers must choose a "color" to represent instead. The basic land for your chosen color produces twice as much mana. The object is to destroy all four of your opponent's provinces.

Setup

Each player has two decks, each containing at least thirty cards. The first deck - the dynasty deck - contains lands, creatures, global enchantments (including Enchant Worlds) and artifacts. The second deck - the fate deck - contains local enchantments, sorceries and instants. You may not have more than one of any given enchantment or more than three of any other type of card in either deck. This includes basic land.

Rules Changes

The planeswalker handles the fight from behind castle walls, so there's no such thing as "player damage." All spells that deal damage may only affect creatures; spells that only deal damage to players are banned.

There is no "responding" in L5R; all effects resolve after they are announced and costs are paid, without stacking. In combat, players take turns performing actions, defender first.

Ignore the following abilities: trample, first strike, banding, poison, shadow, landwalk and landhome. Protection from X, in addition to targeting restrictions, is treated as a battle action that taps one opposing creature with X.

The Turn Sequence

At the start of the game, shuffle your dynasty deck and deal four cards face down in front of you, side by side. The four spaces where the cards reside are your provinces. Draw a hand of five cards from your fate deck. Each player starts the game with one basic land that corresponds to his chosen color. This land does not count against the three-per-deck limit.

Straighten

Your tapped cards untap.

Events

Turn the cards in your provinces face up, starting from the left. If an enchantment turns up, bring it into play immediately at no cost. If the enchantment has an activation cost, you must use it during this phase or not at all. In any case, it affects all players, and any player can pay its activation cost. Events remain in play until your next straighten phase, when they are discarded.

Upkeep

If you've got upkeep costs to pay, now's the time.

Actions

During this phase you may play sorceries and local enchantments from your hand. If any creatures in your provinces are immune to summoning sickness, you may pay their costs and bring them into play now. Finally, if you have any legends in play, you may initiate duels (see below).

Battle

After all this preparation, you're ready to fight. The attacker decides which of the defender's provinces, if any, will be attacked and assigns his creatures to them. The defender then gets to assign his creatures in defense. Non-flying attackers and defenders are assigned before those with flying. This means that ground based defenders will be committed to defend their provinces before flying attackers are even assigned. Note that tapped creatures cannot defend.

The defender gets to choose the first province battle to resolve and may take the first battle action. Legal battle actions include artifact and creature fast effects and instant spells. Fast effects only affect the battle being resolved and creatures in that battle. Creatures using fast effects must be present at the battle; artifact fast effects may be used at any battle.

Battle actions that inflict damage, destroy or bury creatures or remove them from the game resolve immediately, taking those creatures out of the battle unless immediately followed by an action that regenerates, prevents or redirects damage.

The attacker and defender take turns performing actions. After both players have passed in succession, compare the total power of the attacking creatures at the province to the total toughness of the defending creatures and vice versa. If you tapped a creature to use its fast effect, it doesn't add its power to the army, but it does add its toughness. Creatures tapped by an effect or spell add neither. If that total power exceeds the total toughness of the opposition, the opposing army is destroyed. It's possible for both armies to destroy each other in a tie. Otherwise, each player assigns damage to the other player's creatures in any way he chooses. Then tap all surviving attackers.

If the attacking army exceeds the defender's total toughness by six or greater, the province is also destroyed. Any card in that territory is discarded. Slide the remaining cards together and move on to the next province, if any, being attacked.

Recruitment

You may bring cards from your provinces into play by paying their costs. Lands enter play tapped, and you can only bring one into play in a turn. If you bring any walls into play, they are "attached" to the province from which they come; they may not be assigned to defend another province. If you wish, you may discard any cards in your provinces to make room for new cards. Refill empty spaces with face down cards from your dynasty deck.

End of Turn

Draw a card from your fate deck. If you have more than seven cards in your hand, discard down to seven cards. All damage done to creatures in battles disappears now. You may add one province for every five life you gained this turn. At this point, it is considered polite to say, "The table is yours," to show that your turn is finished and your opponent may straighten.

Legendary Combat

Any legend in play has the ability to challenge any other creature - including another legend - to a duel of honor during the actions phase. To duel, tap the legend and declare an opposing creature as "the challenged." The controller of the challenged has the option to "strike," calling the duel to an end, or "focus," laying a card from his hand face down before him. The legend's controller may now do the same. If a player has no cards in hand, that player must strike. When strike is called, total the casting costs of the legend and its focus cards and compare the total to those of the challenger and its focuses. The one with the lower total is destroyed; a tie taps both characters immediately.

History

This variant was created by Jason Schneiderman.