Can an unsolvable format be created? Part 2

In part 1 we talked about using a point system to ensure that most decks in the format are roughly the same power level.

Unfortunately, the point system only works for a small format and can not be updated as new cards are released.

Now I present a theoretically unsolvable format that you can play right now with any of the decks you already have!

Here are the full rules.

The idea behind the Parley rule is to prevent raw card power from determining the strength of a deck. 

If you have ever tried to play a casual game with a friend you probably noticed that your decks were not balanced. This is fine for the first few games, but gets boring after a while since the games become predictable. With Parley each game is balanced regardless of traditional deck power. 

Mana screw and mana flood are no longer a problem. If you get bad mana you can simply wait until you draw all the cards you need. The parley rule will keep you safe long enough to set up an interesting board. 

The size of the meta game is expanded. A healthy meta game in a traditional format has at most 15-20 decks, but in some cases can have as few as one or two. In Parley the size of the meta game is limited to the number of decks with win conditions. At the time of writing there are about 15 thousand Magic Cards printed. The number of possible combinations of cards that make legal decks easily dwarfs the number of atoms in the universe. In other words Parley is a deck builders dream!

To build a winning Parley deck you don't have to copy a netdeck. In fact using a well known deck is probably a disadvantage. The best Parley deck is the deck you build yourself. Since neither player can win until both agree that the board looks more or less even you will want to build decks with cards and combos that are difficult to evaluate. 

Now this format is only theoretically unsolvable. In the next month or two I'll be hosting a Parley tournament and will post an update with lots of pictures and results. I'll be offering some nice prizes and really try to put this format to the test. I plan on playing a traditionally weak old school deck. I'm sure my opponents will bring lots of modern powerful cards.

The main idea behind Parley is to use bargaining to balance decks before players actually battle. But how do we know that bargaining is balanced? Economists have been studying this problem for decades, and as far as I can tell from the research bargaining is balanced. 

I'm excited to see what happens!

Making a Magic Card Box

Heres another box I made. This time I experimented with a metal bezzle. 

The inside of the lid is lined with stained sheet metal.

I chose brass because it is stiffer than copper.

I went down to my local metal warehouse (Schorr Metals) and picked up some cheap scrap brass. 

I used a Dremel tool to cut the brass with a Dremel Cut-off wheel attachment. 

To fold the brass. I took an exact-o-knife and used it to file a groove. I knew the groove was deep enough when I could feel the metal starting to give way by hand. 

Once I could feel it giving I clamped it down and folded the bend. 

Although this box does not wobble or squeak. It is rather heavy. Also I don't really like the way metal feels. I learned a lot making it, but I don't recommend it, it just does not feel as nice as a solid wood box. 

Can an "unsolvable" format be created?

Today I want to talk about the concept of creating an "unsolvable" TCG format.

The idea is simple, just assign a power level to each card and then limit the total power level of each deck.

I built a simple version of this idea using 93/94 here: https://equilibrium94.github.io/#

My implementation has yet to be balanced, but I think the idea has a lot of potential.

The benefits are:

* Netdecks don't oppress creativity.

* You get a format with a large number of Tier 1 decks, maybe up to 60.

* Each Tier 1 deck can have a 50-51% win rate vs other Tier 1 decks on average.

* The vast majority of the card pool is playable.

* Decks can be balanced with greater precision than banning, restricting, or re-writing cards.

I think the idea works well for static formats like 93/94, and will also work well for digital TCG's like Hearthstone and Shadowverse.

Unfortunately, I don't think it can be implemented for modern paper TCG's since as new cards are introduced the power level of each card would need to be updated.