Assassin Magic

In the average Free-For-All, people won't play threats early, because they could get ganged up on. This leads to a slow game indeed, where very little happens in the first few turns. But what if you could play threats without fear, because only one person was gunning for you? Everyone else is gunning for someone else. But you don't know who's after you...

Welcome to Assassin Magic.

I don't know if this format has already been created (probably) but I do know I came up with it myself. Here's how it works. Get a 4-6 player multiplayer game ready. Then, everyone writes down their name and puts it in a hat, or have someone shuffle them randomly. Each player draws a name, and looks at it. If anyone draws their own name, redeal. Once everyone has a hidden name, play begins.

Your objective is to beat the player whose name you drew. If they are eliminated by any means, whoever had them as a target gets 1 point, and receives the eliminated player's current target. The game ends when one player is left standing, and whoever has the most points wins.

Note: If Player A eliminates Player B, and Player B's target is Player A, ALL names are redealt randomly. If your target's on 2 life? That's part of the randomness of the game.

The idea of this format is to make aggro viable in multiplayer and to provide a fast and fun game: with a bit of bluffing. You could attack someone to make them think you're targeting them, or to make your target think that, then blindside them. Of course: you have two players to tackle: the player you're supposed to be eliminating, and the player who's supposed to be eliminated.

This also provides an element of strategy: if Player A has one point already, the rest of the table doesn't want Player A's next target to die, so they may cripple (but not kill) Player A. Of course, Player B's target is Player A, so if Player A's target is already weak and so is Player A, Player B can strike...

Potential House Rules

Last Man Standing: Award +1 to the person who is the last to survive.

Foiled: Award +1 or +0.5 to anyone who kills someone who targeted them.

Variants

Double Trouble: Each player fills in their name twice, then picks one name from a hat. This may lead to one player being targeted by two, and others by none. If a player with two targets is eliminated, add their target to the undrawn pile and each targeting player gets one point and a new target from the undrawn ones.

Two Contracts: Each player fills in their name twice, then picks two names from a hat. The two names must be different. Defeat both of your targets to win the game. If one of your targets is eliminated, you must reveal the name.

Team Assassin: Play 2v2 or 3v3 (3v3 better). Each player fills in their name, and each team picks an opposing team member. If that team member dies, your team wins the game.

Transparency: Play like normal Assassin, but all targets are revealed.

Hopefully on Saturday I get the chance to test it out, playing my R/G deck and seeing how that goes.

Until next time, may you secretly hold all the cards.