🔗 Share this article

Widely regarded as Magic: The Gathering's most interactive format, the Elder Dragon Highlander format just got a seasonal update just in time for the end of the year. In a holiday-themed video, personalities from a popular channel demonstrated a multiplayer game dubbed "Holiday Countdown."

The Mechanics of the Holiday Format Function

Fundamentally is a simple layer added on top of a regular Commander game. A designated token moves to each player. Upon reaching the active player's upkeep, the game halts for a moment. All gamers secretly chooses whether they're being Nice or Naughty with the help of choice cards.

All players turn over their card at the same time. After that, they carry out the effect tied to their own choice, starting with the person holding the marker. The token is subsequently handed to the next player. The holiday round counter advances a single increment, and normal gameplay resumes.

The choices intensify with each passing round continue, designed to be finely tuned.

Growing Outcomes

Early rounds offered small, table-wide advantages for the Nice path, including gaining life or investigation clues. Conversely, The Naughty options usually provided personal advantages, often to the detriment of an opponent. One round let players choosing Naughty create a powerful airborne Reindeer token. Players that selected Nice generated a small artifact creature token for all participants.

Santa's Big Finale

When the final round, Father Christmas personally made an appearance, transforming the game. According to how often a participant chose Naughty versus Nice, Santa handed out wrapped prizes. They appeared to be deck boxes, but held MTG booster packs with different rarities.

• The kindest player was awarded a high-value special pack.
• The second-nicest player opened a slightly less valuable premium pack.
• A special guest got a less powerful set.
• The very naughty player got the worst prize: a famously bad booster pack acting as a punchline.

Each card from these packs could then be playable for the remainder of the match, cast from exile by spending mana treating it as colorless. For the nicer players, their boon became a significant boost. However, those who chose Naughty basically received a disadvantage.

Recreating the Variant with Friends

While the demonstration match included considerable polish and preparation, this is a concept that anybody could easily replicate with friends. Everybody plays with their standard EDH deck, and the additional materials needed would be a selection of MTG packs from different sets.

One potential challenge could be that if players are aware beforehand the best pack's identity, then everyone strategize for the best booster pack. One might mix it up by using other methods, such as drafting cards from a shared pool or letting players include specific cards not in their deck.

Based on how the format played out, Countdown to XT-Mas stands as a festive way to create laughter when playing with friends. It adds a layer to the strategy between players in a fun and way, making it a unique experience for Magic players in their playgroups.