Divide by 2, round up, a Magic: the Gathering rule mod.

[bobthe6th]

So, I play a good bit of magic. I like the game, but I also play a lot in school were I have 30-40 minutes max for a game. This means 1 game max most times. So I am trying to speed games up.

The idea: Divide by 2, then round up. Do this to every numeric portions of the game. 30 card minimum, 2 copies of any non-basic land cards, 10 life, cards cost 1/2 listed, power and toughness are one half and rounded up, card effects that include a number are 1/2 rounded up.

I built two decks, and they seem reasonable. The game is really sped up, as 1/1s are all the rage and hit the field fast. with 10 life, a kill is really easy.

Any massive objections?

[Kish]

So, just to clarify, does that mean a card which normally costs two black and one any-color mana now costs just the black--or does it cost one black and one any-color?

[bobthe6th]

the latter.

Though the mana division system is the funkyist part of the whole system.

[Zovc]

Your houserule is fine if no one is trying to break it.

I feel like you need to explain mana costs to me more before I understand. Also, does this half rule affect mana generated? What about cards drawn?

If so, I'm assuming it's a half, rounded up?

[Zovc]

Mulldrifter + Words of Wind Control (http://deckstats.net/deck-2323774-211a9ddc4577d0035965addcdada092e.html):
http://deck.tk/3FdQ9uHe
The idea here is that, from turn 3 on, you'll be evoking Mulldrifter for 1U and paying 1 to use Words of Wind (which you played turn 2)'s replacement effect to return Mulldrifter to your hand before you sacrifice it. Your opponent will have to return one of their own permanents to their hand. Ideally, you'll be slowing them down enough to start doing this multiple times a turn, which is hard to come back from. I'm a big fan of this combo, so it sounds fun to see how it works out here.

Because of the fact that you're not netting cards, and the way your cost reduction works, Jace Beleren and Jace, the Mind Sculptor can both combo similarly with Words of Wind.

Combo (8)
2 Mulldrifter
2 Jace Beleren
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Words of Wind

Bounce (4)
2 Boomerang (Which should just cost one blue mana, if I'm not mistaken)
2 Withdraw (Which should just cost one blue mana, if I'm not mistaken)
These "bounce" spells should help you take control of the game pretty easily. If your opponent has nothing but lands in play when you replace a draw using Words of Wind, they'll have to return a land to their hand, which is pretty much as close as you can get to erasing one of their turns.

Finishers (4)
2 Frost Titan
2 Consecrated Sphinx

Misc (4)
2 Coldsteel Heart (Mana ramp and snow mana, all in one place.)
2 Psychic Spiral (In case you're going to deck out.)

Land (10)
2 Cephalid Coliseum (Threshold should trigger at four cards, right? This should draw 2 and discard 2, right?)
2 Shelldock Isle (You start the game with a 23 card deck if you have a hand of 7 cards, so this seems pretty sweet.)
2 Mouth of Ronom (Seems like a decent kill spell in the format.)
4 Snow-Covered Island

This deck is probably not tournament viable, but I'd have fun bringing it to a tournament. I'd probably add Force of wills and maybe Dazes if I was going to do that. Anyways:

Sample Hand:
Boomerang, Jace Beleren, Frost Titan, Psychic Spiral, Cephalid Coliseum, Snow-Covered Island, Snow-Covered Island.

Turn 1, we play a Snow-Covered Island and pass turn. We Boomerang our opponent's land.

Turn 2, we draw Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I would play our second Island, then play JtMS and use his {0} ability to draw two cards and put a card from our hand on top of our deck. We draw Consecrated Sphinx and Words of Wind. We'll put Psychic Spiral on top of our deck, but it shouldn't matter too much.

Turn 3, we draw Psychic Spiral (surprise!). Presumably, our opponent has cards to play, and maybe they have a creature that attacked Jace down to 1 loyalty. We'll play Words of Wind with our two Islands, play Cephalid Coliseum, use Words of Wind's ability, and then use Jace's {0} ability. So we draw 1 card then put one card from our hand on top of our deck (the first card we would draw got replaced by Words of Wind.), A mulldrifter comes to our hand and we'll put Jace Beleren on top of our deck. Now, we'll bounce JtMS and they bounced either a creature or their only land. At the end of our turn 3, our opponent is effectively 'taking their first or second turn.'

Turn 4, we draw Jace Beleren (surprise!). depending on how far we are ahead, we can probably win the game just by playing Frost Titan. However, if we're going for security, we can play Consecrated Sphinx and make sure we start drawing more cards. Alternatively, we can play Jace, the Mind Sculptor and bounce one of their creatures if they have one. I'm a fan of the card-drawing approach so that we can hit more lands. But ultimately, this game is on lock and we can beat our opponents down with Frost Titan and Consecrated Sphinx and Jace, the Mind Sculptor is there in the event they can somehow defend themselves.

I suspect Merfolk (http://deckstats.net/deck-2323830-089302b9259895ef81c92311ee153441.html) would be very broken in this format:
http://deck.tk/5vth3JPq
Lords (10)
2 Coralhelm Commander
2 Lord of Atlantis
2 Master of the Pearl Trident
2 Merfolk Sovereign
2 Merrow Reejerey

Other Merfolk (6)
2 Cursecatcher
2 Silvergill Adept
2 Wake Thrasher

Countermagic (4)
Daze
Force of Will

Lands (10)
8 Island
2 Mutavault

[Ursus the Grim]

I'd test this out. If only to take out grizzly bears with little girls.

In all seriousness, anything that produces one colorless mana would make this ludicrously easy to break, even accidentally. The Myr combo becomes even faster. Instead of artifacts only costing half as much, they effectively cost 1/4 as much, allowing you to play them out at double speed relative to your opponents. So I'd probably refine the rules a bit.

[Zovc]

Instead of artifacts only costing half as much, they effectively cost 1/4 as much, allowing you to play them out at double speed relative to your opponents. So I'd probably refine the rules a bit.

Yeah, there's a lot that goes into the balance of magic that is beyond the scope of "numbers on cards." Consider that Giant Growth, Healing Salve, Lightning Bolt, Ancestral Recall, and Dark Ritual are all in the same cycle from the beginning of the game. They're all 1 mana for 3 of something, so they're all balanced, right?

[Ursus the Grim]

Yeah, there's a lot that goes into the balance of magic that is beyond the scope of "numbers on cards." Consider that Giant Growth, Healing Salve, Lightning Bolt, Ancestral Recall, and Dark Ritual are all in the same cycle from the beginning of the game. They're all 1 mana for 3 of something, so they're all balanced, right?

Oh, absolutely. Healing Salve is way overpowered. :smallwink:

[Kish]

I think, for this to really work, you need to do something with spells that already have a cost of 1 mana other than just leave them completely untouched (or strictly weakened, if their effect is numerical in any way). Whether that becomes "one blue mana can cast two spells that would normally cost one blue-or-anycolor-mana-each," or one-mana-cost spells not being halved in any particular, if (just as an example) Abjure, Annul, and Counterspell have the same cost, there's no reason for Abjure or Annul to exist.

[AttilaTheGeek]

I think mana would just be simpler if you took the Unhinged rules for "half-mana". That is, each land produces two half-mana, which can be spent on two half-mana costs or one thing that costs a full mana.

For example, 2BB becomes 1B, 1RG becomes 1/2 1/2R 1/2G, and 2GGW becomes 1G 1/2W.