Type Chip, version 3.0
The Rules

1/28/99 - Editor's Note: Version 3.0 contains changes to the banned list (added Stroke of Genius and Windfall) and an update to the "play as worded" rule based upon our play group's experience. This may get updated again if the upcoming 6th edition rule changes cause previously balanced cards to become unbalanced.
- Mike

The rules and their discussion:

DECK SIZE

The deck must be a minimum of sixty cards, there is no upper limit to how big a deck may be.

CARD LIMITS

• There is no limit to the number of copies of basic lands allowed in a deck.
• Other than basic land, there may not be more than two copies of any single card (defined by the English equivalent of its name) in a deck.
• A deck may not contain any copies of a banned card.
• If a deck contains any copy of a card listed as part of a conditional ban then the deck may not contain any copies of the other card listed as part of that conditional ban.

WHAT CARDS ARE LEGAL FOR TYPE CHIP?

Except for banned cards (See "Banned Cards" below), cards may be used from ANY Magic Set, Expansion, or Promotion which utilizes standard Magic Card backs. So-called "marked cards" because of the production method used (e.g. Alpha and Mirage have slightly different corners) are allowed.

PROXIES

You may only use a proxy for a card if you have the genuine article on your person and swap it for the proxy as soon as it is played. If you play a proxy and cannot produce the genuine card you will automatically forfeit the game. If you cannot produce the genuine card in a tournament event you will automatically be disqualified from the event.

Even though the nature of the game is pure capitalism, one of the premises around which Magic is designed is that not all of the spells are equally available. Anyone can learn to cast a Fireball, but can that same mage summon the mighty Shivan Dragon or harness the power of the Abyss?

Playing with proxies of cards you don't own goes against the grain of Magic. It removes the collecting aspect and turns it into a "What ridiculously powerful deck can I think of this week?" game. Further, proxies make game play difficult for everyone except the proxy player. Card rulings may be difficult or even impossible to make without a reference of exactly what the card says. It is not uncommon to see players who don't even know exactly what the card they are substituting does. Finally, no player should be expected to look across the table at all your cards and infer that the Plains sitting with all your other lands is "actually" a Royal Assassin because you scrawled "Royal Assasin" on it.

SLEEVES

Card sleeves are a necessary part of preserving the fun we all call Magic. Sleeves should and will be allowed. No player may force you to play without sleeves, although they may require you to replace them if someone acting as a judge determines that they're marked (alternately, they could just make you switch the cards in the sleeves around).

CARD WORDING

Version 2.0 of this rule set stated that all cards play as worded unless there was official errata. In the last year or so, it has become evident that much of WOTC's errata is showing up in the form of new wording on existing cards. Therefore, this rule is being changed for version 3.0.

All card now play as their most recent wording. If a disagreement arises due to the use of an older card, use the most recent printing readily available. If the "godbook" is available, use it; if Oracle is available, use it. If two versions of the same card are available, use the newer one. If none of that is available, the card works as it is written.

While it feels unreasonable to expect players to either purchase or memorize every new card version printed, allowing different versions of the same card to work differently creates an environment of various rules arguments that should be unnecessary.

CHEATING

While it shouldn't be necessary to include this rule in a format designed for fun play, sadly, it probably is.

Any form of cheating, whether stacking the deck, purposely not shuffling sufficiently, drawing more cards than allowed, using deliberately marked cards, including more than two copies of non-basic land, etc., etc. will be treated with extreme prejudice. In casual play, players may use their own judgement (staking to an anthill followed by drawing and quartering is suggested ). For tournaments, however, the player will be ejected and banned from any future events (and then staked to an anthill).

RESTRICTED CARDS

Absolutely nothing is restricted. If a card is so unbalanced or powerful that the inclusion of even two copies per deck creates a broken environment then that card is too broken to include at all. Allowing these cards to be included in decks, even in "restricted" numbers, creates a situation where too much of the game is dependent on blind luck and not how the luck of the draw is played out.

Note: This means certain cards that are restricted under DCI rules are unrestricted under Type Chip. For any card where the inclusion of two copies per deck does not create a broken environment, that card will not be restricted (i.e. banned).

For more on what is considered to be a broken card see the section on banned cards.

BANNED CARDS

The banning of a card is a serious matter. It is not a minor decision to completely ban the inclusion of a card in a deck. Cards which are banned from Type Chip are banned for one of the following reasons:

1. The card involves Ante. Ante has its place, but it is not in a level and constructed environment open to everyone.
2. The very play of the card requires arbitrary and difficult to enforce rulings. Currently, the only examples of this are Chaos Orb and Falling Star. As fun as these cards are, without creating a special subset of rules to cover matters such as how a person may arrange and re-arrange his cards and when it is legal to do so, etc., it is impossible to satisfy everyone. It is simpler to ban the problem cards than it is to change the rest of the play environment around these two cards.
3. The card is demonstrably broken. To help achieve consensus on which cards should be banned "brokeness" must be as explicity defined as possible. The four cases for brokeness are:
   1. The card is an "I win" card. These fall into two categories (with some overlap):
      1. The first few turns should be for the build-up of the rest of the game, not the entire game itself. Cards which are keys in winning within the first three turns will be banned or, when appropriate, eliminated through a conditional ban. As a rule of thumb, any two card (plus land) combo which can win the game by the third turn unless countered is prohibited in the Type Chip environment. Note: This is not intended to apply to early turn wins based around "luck" cards like Mana Clash. If you can win on turn one with Mana Clash, congrats, you deserve it.
      2. Magic is supposed to be a strategic game. Some cards break this by deciding the game almost in and of themselves. A card which can win the game essentially just by being played regardless of your total resources or your opponent's life total, deck size, defenses, strategy, etc. is not in the interest of promoting fun and strategic play and should be eliminated from the environment.
   2. The card breaks the normal development pace of the game by providing an unbalanced and permanent mana source in the first turn of the game.
   3. The card provides significant card advantage without real drawbacks. As a rule of thumb, any card providing, in a single step/activation, a two card or greater card advantage without real game limitation is probably broken. Note: Cards are defined as cards in the hand, not in play.
   4. The card provides an advantage that is completely unbalanced by the cost of playing the card. This is the hardest to define clause, it is hoped that the cards banned under clause 3d will give a measuring stick for any future cards that might be banned under it.

FWIW, there are no banned cards with the exception of Zuran Orb from any expansion since Legends for any reason other than Ante. Hopefully, this means so long as the WOTC R&D team continues to do their job, it will be unnecessary to ban any further cards (however, there might be further conditional bans. See "Conditional Bans").

Note: Again, there will be cards banned under DCI rules which will actually be permitted under Type Chip.

The list (and why the card is banned):

Reason 1. Ante

• Amulet of Quoz
• Bronze Tablet
• Contract from Below
• Darkpact
• Demonic Attorney
• Jeweled Bird
• Rebirth
• Tempest Efreet
• Timmerian Fiends

All of the above cards are banned for the simple reason that they involve ante.

Reason 2. Arbitrary ruling necessary

• Chaos Orb
• Falling Star

The questions/arguments created by the play of these cards is not something that needs to be tolerated in any open playing environment. (eg. Player B feels he was cheated because he got stuck at the cramped end of the table and couldn't lay his cards the way he would have liked . . .)

Reason 3a. "I win" card

• Channel
  This card is just too easy to abuse. If you get Channel and any X cost burn spell in your hand at any point in the game and your life is one point higher than your opponent's, he had better have a counterspell or the game is over. It is possible to win on turn three without *ANY* fast mana with Channel, and turn two wins aren't hard too pull off.
• Mirror Universe
  A nasty, evil card. Though it costs 6 to cast and leaves you vulnerable for a turn before its nefarious ability can be utilized, if your opponent doesn't destroy the Mirror or you before your next upkeep, you almost certainly win (unless you were an idiot and cast it too soon ). Once it's on the table, that's it, take it out or the game ends.
  Many, many cards are game enders, the game is built around them. The problem with Mirror Universe is that it "breaks" the rules of the game. The point is no longer to damage your opponent, deck him, or even kill him with poison counters, the point is to do as little as possible until you get the Mirror. It effectively forces your opponent into killing himself. If he's trying to win and you get the Mirror, oops, he was really doing all that damage to himself. If he knows you have the Mirror and isn't trying to kill you, you can just mana burn yourself. Similar to Balance in that unless your opponent is holding a counterspell when you cast it, or has an artifact destruction spell in hand that you don't have a counterspell for, he's gonna get seriously reamed regardless of how well he's played the rest of the game.
  Admittedly, it is not the most game breaking card on the banned list, but with the exception of Millstone and Poison decks, this one card neutralizes almost every strategy in the game. Similar to Berserk in that allowing it changes the environment around the card.

Reason 3b. First Turn Unbalanced Mana

• Mox Emerald
• Mox Jet
• Mox Pearl
• Mox Ruby
• Mox Sapphire
• Sol Ring
  Though none of these cards do anything in and of themselves, they give such a massive and unbalanced early mana advantage that they become virtual must haves because they accelerate the development of the person playing with them with no drawbacks (the AL Mox Monkey notwithstanding .
  Beyond purchasing your own moxes there is little to do against them. By time the non-mox player catches up with the mox player the game is likely over or swung too far in the favor of the mox player. Given that under Type Chip up to *TEN* moxes would be allowed it is too ugly to contemplate.
  The Sol Ring is perhaps even more unbalanced than the moxes - a first turn Sol Ring means that most decks will be able to cast almost any 4 mana spell on the second turn without penalty - this breaks the environment .
• Mishra's Workshop
  This card is so narrow in purpose that its ban was almost overlooked. However, it is nothing less than a Dark Ritual for Artifact decks which can be used every turn and doesn't cost a card, this is not balanced no matter how it's looked at.

Reason 3c. Unbalanced card advantage

• Ancestral Recall
  a one mana, one card instant that nets you two new cards, replaces itself, and leaves the mana to use them. WAY too efficient at any point in the game.
• Balance
  The problem with balance is this: NOTHING short of a counterspell does you any good against it. If someone is playing a (insert Wrath of God, Jokulhaups, Nevinyrral's Disk, Armageddon or other happy fun card) kind of deck, there is strategy around it by not playing all of your cards, holding back some reserves for when your opponent nukes the board. If your opponent is playing hand destruction you can get around it by playing as much of your good stuff as possible, strategically holding stuff you don't need as much to attract his hand destruction spells towards those cards. If your opponent is playing Balance your counterstrategy consists of, well, hoping he doesn't draw the Balance.
  It is broken in that with minimal planning (a deck based mostly on artifacts, enchantments, sorceries and instants), one card and two mana will cause your opponent to lose all/most of his cards in hand, creatures, and lands at once. If this wasn't enough to ban it, the casting cost makes it a contender for being banned under 3d.
• Braingeyser
• Stroke of Genius
  Although these cards are too mana intensive to be abusive except in the late game, it is this potential for abuse which earns their ban. It does require 3 just to gain a two card advantage with Braingeyser. At this cost it is effectively worse than Library of Lat-Nam, which for 4 will let you gain that same two card advantage or search through your library for any card.
  The weak link is that it can do more than provide a two card advantage. If you have enough mana it can provide any amount of card advantage, limited only by the available mana and your deck size. While not the most powerful of the banned cards, it is safer to eliminate than allow. (e.g. picture a R/U burn deck with Mana Flare and Drain Power, now add two Braingeysers ...).
  Stroke of Genius may cost one additional generic mana, but the fact that it's an instant means you don't have to pre-decide whether to take advantage of it. You can until it is safe (end of opponent's turn). In play, it has proven to be slightly more powerful than Braingeyser.
• Library of Alexandria
  With minimal strategy in game pacing you can quickly reach a point where you can play 2 cards every single turn of the game and never empty your hand. Extra draws should not be effectively free.
• Mind Twist
  Making your opponent discard X cards for X mana plus a single B is too damn good. If it's countered, you're even. If it's not countered you just effectively took away X turns of your opponent's. Less abusive than it used to be in Type I with the moxes, but still too ugly to have two in a deck (cf. Mind Warp - for the same four mana which nets you a two card advantage with Mind Twist you can't even make your opponent discard a single card).
• Time Twister
• Wheel of Fortune
• Windfall
  These cards are *almost* balanced because they affect your opponent as well as yourself. Almost balanced is not enough, though. Because the Twister/Wheel/Windfall deck is built around these cards they will almost always net that player a significant card advantage, effectively making them a Mind Twist/Braingeyser in one. In play, Windfall (although slightly different) has proven to be just as effective in almost all situations as Wheel of Fortune.

Reason 3d. Grossly Undercosted/Overpowered

• Berserk
  Severely undercosted for the dual effect of doubling a creature's current power AND giving said creature trample. The "balance" of the creature being destroyed at the end of the turn is usually irrelevant because there is no end of turn when this card is played. This card would be a great card even if cost ; for , it is too much. Very close to an "I win" card - in relatively easy to perform combos, twenty or more damage can be delivered by turn four with this card and its potential for destruction usually only grows as the game progresses. The allowance of two Berserks in the environment would change the way the game is played; it would change Type Chip into the rock-paper-scissors environment it seeks to escape.
• Black Lotus
  Although this is the most overrated card in the Magic universe, being little more than a superior Dark Ritual for all five colors, its 0 casting cost makes first turn swings too much in favor of the Lotus owner.
  One of the primary intents of Type Chip is to create an environment where players of varying monetary resources can compete on a mostly even field. The advantages netted by this $250 card are undeniable - it grants fast mana to colors which otherwise have no fast mana (and shouldn't under the design of the game). If two decks were identical except that one deck had two Black Loti, the Lotus player would have a game-swinging edge which has nothing to do with deck design or skill of play. It would be a direct example of money buying the game and that is contradictory the intent of this format.
• Black Vise
  Banning this card took a lot of consideration. It serves a necessary role in the Magic ecosystem; it is the primary threat against card mongers. Had the Vise never been restricted in Type 2 it is unlikely that Necro would have become so dominant nor would Land Tax have been as big of a power card. However, even with the wider variety of cards in Type Chip, it's still not that fast of an environment. Any properly constructed deck can cast a first turn Vise if it gets one, this is almost always at least five, and usually six or more, damage for 1 mana; and like the Energizer Bunny, the threat keeps going and going for that 1 mana with no upkeep.
  The damage of two Lighning Bolts or a turn seven fireball for one colorless mana on turn one is too cheap. Losing a third of your life with no counterstrategy readily available other than having a first turn Force of Will or a second turn Disenchant/Divine Offering/Crumble (and still taking as much damage as a Lightning Bolt) is not balanced. While it would be preferred if the fixed Black Vise, the Miser's Cage, were an uncommon and not a rare, this card will have to serve the same "predatory" role in the Magic ecosystem.
• Demonic Tutor
  It's not the ability to get spoilers which earns this card its ban, it is that this card effectively doubles your chance of drawing any given card in your deck but doesn't cost a card slot or draw because it immediately replaces itself. It has no drawbacks whatsoever. Putting two into a sixty card deck is like getting to have a fifty-eight card deck with four copies (for the purposes of calculating the odds of drawing one of that card) of whatever card you decide on that game. It's too damn good and a total no-brainer for 1B.
• Ivory Tower
  This card nets too much for nothing. It only costs 1 mana and one will hit the table on turn one in about 1:4 games earning 3 life every single turn from turn two on for nothing. Just for playing a slow deck you can gain an additional 30 life by turn ten. Get a second one into play and your opponent will have to do 7 damage every single turn just to stay ahead of the Towers.
  It isn't the game delaying, it's the free Stream of Life every turn that bans this card. As true as it is that you don't win the game by increasing your life total beyond 20, this card can make it so your opponent will never kill you unless he first deals with the Towers - how many decks can deal 7 or more damage every single turn? The Tower is not overly powerful, just overly cheap for it's effect.
• Land Tax
  A no-brainer card that whether it is drawn on turn one or twenty is a "Wow, my deck's going to do THAT MUCH BETTER!!!"
  For one and no upkeep this enchantment will:
  1. Grant mana superiority. Save the lands up for a turn or two and then start playing them one per turn until you can cast anything you want.
  2. Nullify land destruction, especially your own Armageddon.
  3. Gain card advantage greater than Braingeyser and Library of Alexandria combined. Draw all the land you need without spending your usual draws PLUS don't waste mid and late game draws on land when you don't need it.
  The card is both broken in casting cost as well as in terms of card advantage. With Black Vise banned there would be no reason not to play with this card.
• Time Walk
  One card nets you an extra untap and attack phase and neutralizes it's own draw for U2. It's the ultimate cantrip and far too good for a card with zero drawbacks.
• Zuran Orb After MUCH consideration, this card finally got the axe because it does too many things too well for its casting cost:
  1. Effectively neutralizes the effects of global land destruction effects by giving you ten to twenty life while you nuke everyone's mana. This extra life gives a buffer while you rebuild that the other players don't have unless they also had Zuran Orb in play. Since you probably wouldn't be nuking all the land unless you had an advantage, it's just that much more powerful.
  2. Completely eliminates a wide variety of strategies based on the manipulation of the opponent's land. It is impossible to negatively enchant or otherwise affect a Zuran player's land because he can simply Zorb it away. Even land destruction decks are seriously hampered by the Zuran Orb - every time a land is targetted for destruction, the Zuran Orb player gains life.
  3. Provides a permanent instant speed source of life gaining that can be used at any time fast effects are legal - makes the Zuran Orb player *much* harder to kill. So long as the player has lands, he isn't dead.
  4. Alleviates late game land draws. One of the drawbacks to playing with a high mana percentage is that you risk "wasted" draws in the mid and late game when you've already built up your mana resources. The Zuran Orb turns all of these "wasted" land draws into a instant which gains two life. Not as good as drawing your Fireball, but certainly better than drawing another land.
  Each of these abilities would not earn the ban by themselves, it is that the Zuran Orb does all four for a casting cost of 0 compounded with an activation cost of 0. Given the power of the card, it costs too little to gain so much.

CONDITIONAL BANS

Occasionally there will be a combo that is so unbalanced that its limitation or prevention is necessary. The DCI reacts to these combos by either restricting one of the cards being scrutinized (but still allowing this unbalanced combo) or issuing errata (i.e. changing the rules as they go along) to eliminate or reduce the efficacy of the combo (Eater of the Dead, anyone?). This is "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" since, generally speaking, the restricted card is only genuinely game breaking in the one scenario.

Instead, under Type Chip there will be a conditional ban: If you have a deck containing card A then it may not contain any of card B and vice versa.

The list (and why the cards are conditionally banned):

• Storm Cauldron and Fastbond
  This combo is like a two card Channel, only better. The combo gives unlimited *colored* mana, you can do it every turn, it's damage which can be prevented, and it isn't limited by your current life points. With any burn spell, all that is required is that your life is equal or greater than your opponent's and you win unless he counters. Even if you're behind in life you can instantly cause a draw. In a G/B deck with Drain Lifes and Soul Burns, it doesn't even matter what your life is, you win and get all the life back. While technically a three card combo, X burn spells are common enough even in a Type Chip deck as to be considered ubiquitous. Though the Cauldron costs 5, the two decks it is the most abusive in, R/G and G/B, are also the fastest in mana production - given that the Fastbond is also speeding up mana development, it is not hard to envision this combo hitting the table on turn three and game over on four.
  A two card combo doing this much is game breaking for the player who gets it (who couldn't think of something useful to do with unlimited mana?). It breaks the environment by taking away one of the primary limitations, the total amount of mana available each turn.

OPTIONAL BANS FOR ORGANIZED EVENTS

Type Chip is primarily intended for casual play. As such, no card is banned because of problems it might cause in tournament settings. However, it is recognized that certain cards do cause excessive delays in a setting where time issues are important. The following cards may be banned at the organizer's discretion for time constrained events:

• Shahrazad
  A fun card if ever there was one but not exactly something to build a competitive strategy around. Since Shahrazad can cause delays of an epic nature it may be excluded from organized events.

WHY AREN'T THESE CARDS BANNED?

Certain cards which are banned or restricted under DCI rules simply are not game breaking enough to warrant banning under Type Chip's already semi-restricted environment. Further, some cards are banned under DCI rules because of their lack of appropriateness for tournaments.

The cards that aren't banned even though they are restricted or banned in the DCI (and why):

• Candelabra of Tawnos
  In general, it takes a three card combo to make this card truly effective (Candelabra, Mana Flare, and a burn spell). There are other combos which are powerful (Power Surge + Candelabra), but while all are obviously powerful, they are hardly worthy of banning.
• Copy Artifact
  This card was restricted in the DCI primarily because of its ability to duplicate restricted artifacts. In Type Chip the Black Lotus, Black Vise, Ivory Tower, Moxen, and Zuran Orb are banned, Time Vault has been errata'd, Feldon's Cane isn't close to a spoiler, and none of the remaining power artifacts are game breaking in multiples. There is no rationale to ban this card.
• Divine Intervention
  The purpose of a game is to win and have fun getting there. This card guarantees you won't win and ends the game - it is practically self-banning. Even if you should find yourself in such a bad situation that you would want to play this card, its high casting cost and delayed effect means that you will usually lose before then. Banning Divine Intervention is pointless.
• Fastbond
  There's exactly one combo that makes this card truly broken and that combo is removed by the conditional ban involving Fastbond and Storm Cauldron. Currently, there is no other need to ban Fastbond.
• Feldon's Cane
  Another card which was restricted in the DCI simply because it gave you another chance to use restricted cards. This is not an issue in Type Chip.
• Fork
  It takes a minimum of a two card combo plus heavy reliance on Red to make Fork effective. It is a very good card, but not game breaking. A "placate the whiners" restriction from the DCI.
• Hymn to Tourach
  A card which nets a one card advantage and requires heavy reliance on black is not game breaking, just ugly. Another card that semi-restriction will make bearable.
• Maze of Ith
  Restricted in the DCI because it slowed games down, this is not a reason to ban the card. This card is cheese, but no worse than a CoP for all intents and purposes (it even lets your opponent use the Mazed creature on the defense).
  It is not added to the optional ban list for events because it serves a genuine role in deck strategy (balanced creature control). With only two maximum in a deck, it will not slow games down any more than CoP's will.
• Recall
  Restricted in the DCI for its ability to let you re-use other restricted cards, not an issue in Type Chip, so no ban.
• Regrowth
  A very powerful and very good card, but the main reason for its restriction in the DCI was its ability to let you re-use restricted cards. It's not an issue in Type Chip.
• Shahrazad
  Banned in the DCI because it lengthens games, this fun card is not game breaking in any sense of the word (silly or annoying, but not game breaking). Game lengthening is not criteria to ban a card under standard conditions. However, there is the option to ban Shahrazad in organized events.
• Strip Mine
  There is no rationale for banning this card. It is an option open to all decks, is a one card for one card trade, and gives the very necessary ability to strategically destroy lands. In an environment potentially filled with duals, mazes, Factories, Lakes, Outposts, etc., land destruction is a critical element.
  And despite the b.s. the DCI gave about how Strip Mine was abused to gain an advantage, unless someone is playing Fastbond, they are only laying lands as fast as their opponent - the only advantage is that their opponent didn't include enough mana in their deck. Strip Mine can seal a mana screw, but then mana screws usually mean you're dead anyway.
• Underworld Dreams
  A damn nasty card, it's one of the most powerful in the environment. However, without Ancestral Recall, Braingeyser, Time Twister, or Wheel of Fortune in the environment, the only two ways left to force your opponent to draw more than one card per turn are Howling Mine and Winds of Change. Neither of these combos is game breaking.