[Alternative format] Deal with the Devil

Hello,

About a year before HttB ("Research area"), I organized a tournament with special rules (that is, a non-constructed tournament).


The special rules were as follows:

• At the beginning of the game, before drawing her hand, each Methuselah picks 3 cards from her library and places them face down in the middle of the table. These cards must be cards that go to the ash heap as they resolve. (No Pentex, no .44 Magnum, no Conviction, no Steely Tenacity, no Echo of Harmonies, ..) The "middle of the table" will be referred to as "common fields".
• When the game begins, the cards in the common fields are revealed.
• Any player may play a card from the common fields as if it were in her hand.
• If a player plays a card from the common fields, it is moved to a private field in front of that player instead of her ash heap.
• A player cannot play a card from her private field, but a player can play a card in another player's private field, as if it were in her hand.
• If a player plays a card from another player's private field, it is moved to this player's private fieldinstead of her ash heap.
• When a player is ousted, she takes back all her cards from common and private fields(even those that are in other players' private fields).
• When a player is ousted, all remaining Methuselahs can go through their library and add a card that matches the previous criteria to the common fields. Shuffle library afterwards.
• When a player is ousted, other Methuselah's cards in her private field are moved to the common fields.

This rule was appreciated by players, and it did help some "less obvious cards" to get played. Of course, if you're having a Deflection in there, it might be used against you in the end. But if you're having your special thanatosis / anarch / black hand card in there, who else is going to use it?

If someone wants to play this, there's a little something about the"infinite loops" that they must know: If the game is in a state that it has already reached before, then taking the move that would recreate the loop isn't allowed.
Usual example is hunting with Henry Taylor, getting blocked by a Magaji, playing Earth Meld, and doing it again.

Applied to these alternative rules, the problem might happen with combat cards.If Flash is in the common fields, and A uses it to go to long range, and then player B uses it to go to close range, the state of the game isn't the same as previously (Flash is now in front of B and not in the common fields). So A can use Flash to go to long range, but B could not use it again to come back to close range, because the state of the game where Flash was in front of A in that round of combat has already been reached previously.
If Flash is in front of B, and A uses it to go to long range, B can use it to go to close range, but A can't use it to go to long range afterwards.

I love the idea. Are decklists available somewhere ?

Any deck is valid for this format.

In that tournament, I remember some decks:
- I was playing Lutz and AUS / PRE / OBF friends.
- my predator in the finals was playing weenie presence (and I knew it, which led me to move 3 telepathic misdirections in the middle of the table, while he moved 3 charming lobbies).
- someone was playing Anarch Giovannis (and noone else played his anarch cards - Gear Up, The Mole, ..)

And did you talk about this because you just recalled it, or do you intent to prepare another tournament with that ?

(my first thought would be to put Deep Song, Flesh of Marble, Claw of the dead in the open area )

I was looking for it, and couldn't find it on this website.
There's no copyright on that, feel free to use it at will

Deep Song, Flesh, Claws is a nice option, but a single Majesty would ruin that first opportunity you have to torporize someone.

I'll try to advertise this format in my community.
Personally, i would choose Botched move, Quick Jab and Shoulder Drop cards.