Something New: The VS System Commander format

Bored with VS? Need something new in your life but don't know what it is? Why don't you try the ...

 

VS SYSTEM COMMANDER FORMAT

Not THAT commander.

As our playgroup flew through the springtime smackdown sequel event these past few months, we found ourselves playing "Commander VS" on the side between games, it reached a point where the group became much more eager to try their commander builds than they were to get their games done in a timely fashion. Perhaps you guys will like this as much as we did!

****The Commander****

- Select a unique character with a cost of 3 or less to be your Commander before building your deck. At the start of the game It begins the game in play in the "commander zone". (similar to Alter ego's and the Galactus event avatar card.)

- Commander cards cannot be targeted by effects, they cannot become stunned, KO'd, Removed from Play or returned to a players hand, nor can they otherwise be made to leave their commander zone.
(If a commander's effect text has a cost instructing a player to do any of these, the cost cannot be played and therefore. The effect may not be used.)

- Commander cards are considered to have no printed Cost, or ATK or DEF values during a game. Similarly, Commanders do not have flight or range.

- A commander may be used to pay costs such as exhausting a dr. doom commander to play a Mystical Paralysis.

- The commander may never declare an attack or be attacked.

- Commander cards can never generate a counter that is not a cosmic counter. (sorry rad-man)

- The Commander is an avatar. It is not considered to be a "character" you control. However its effect is always relevant to your field.

****The Deck****

- The Character Cards in a Commander deck must consist of the affiliations represented on the commander. Unaffiliated cards, however, cannot be used unless your commander is unaffiliated.
(So for example, if your Commander is dual-affiliated X-Men and X-Factor, All characters in the deck must also represent one of those two printed affiliations)

- *Super Uniqueness* All character cards present in a commander deck may not contain cards with the same name as the selected commander. After all, there is only ONE TRUE Dr. Doom.

- Commander decks must consist of exactly 60 cards with no duplicate non-army cards. (this includes reprints)

- Commander decks may contain 2 copies of any army card.

- Unlike the character restrictions, Commander decks may use non-character cards that feature teams not present on the commander. (Straight to the grave, and slaughter swamp under an Avengers commander for example)

- Insanity can not be declared in commander. While insanity cards may be played, all insanity card effects are considered to be blank.

***The Commander Phase****

- At the start of each turn, before the Draw Phase, there is a commander phase. Here, you may declare your commander as inactive. Inactive Commanders are flipped face down, and are considered to have no powers or keywords. At the start of the next commander phase,  inactive commanders are flipped face-up. And the owner may once again decide if their commander will be active/inactive.
(this helps if your commander has a difficult negative penalty that is not viable at certain stages of the game, such as Lizard 1-drop or Lex luthor, president lex.)

****Gameplay Rules to note****

- Endurance totals in a commander game Begin at 50. In the cases of team games, add 25 endurance for each ally on your team to a maximum of 100. (Regardless of how many allies you have)

- At the start of the game, each player selects all printed team affiliations on their Commander and all character cards in their deck gain those affiliations. In team games, friendly affiliations are automatically crossed over. Any player running an unaffiliated commander deck may not gain any team affiliations in this way. (unaffiliated commander is essentially hard mode.)

****Multiplayer Card Errata****

When playing a multiplayer game we recommend the following errata on the following cards:

 - Amazo, Ivo's Android
 - Man-Bat, Dr. Robert Langstrom
 - Sabretooth, Killer Instinct
 - Sinestro, corrupted by the ring
 - Tasmanian Devil, Hugh Dawkins
 - Trok, deep six
 - Knockout, Female Fury
 - Two-Face, Split Personality

Add the preface:

    [When this card enters play, select an opponent.]

Then Replace all effect text with instances reading:

    [your opponent(s) control(s)]

with:

    [your selected opponent(s) control(s)]

Add this additional text using a line break:

    [At the start of your build phase, you may select an opponent.]

 

****Specific Card Errata****

 - Superman, Metropolis Marvel

Errata'd text for Multiplayer:

    [When this card enters play, select an opponent.
    Superman gets +1/+1 for each opposing character the selected player controls]

Add this additional text using a line break:

    [At the start of your build phase, you may select an opponent.]


 - Fatality, Okaaran Warrior

Errata'd text for Multiplayer:

    [When this card enters play, select an opponent.

    Fatality gets +1 ATK for each character card in the selected opponent's KO'd Pile.]

Add this additional text using a line break:

    [At the start of your build phase, you may select an opponent.]

 In addition, feel free to make your own adjustments, bannings or errata based on your local playgroup. We personally feel this covers most concerns but it may not cover them all.

 ****TLDR****

Commander format VS system is actually pretty damn fun! You'll find yourself with one deck that can easily use multiple commanders for some pretty unique effects! Just remember the super-uniqueness commanders demand! an arkham deck with great white as a commander will play drastically different from the same deck running rat catcher or calendar man! My personal favorite aspect of a commander format for VS is how a highlander build doesn't typically tax my cardpool very much, so i can make sure the decks i don't want to dismantle can stay relevant for standard play. also, this format finds a use for weapon of choice and other general searchers we long-forgot about!