Magic the Gathering format: Fun 40 (2025)
This post dives deep into "Fun 40," a custom Magic the Gathering format designed for maximum enjoyment, featuring 40-card decks built with vintage cards and specific house rules against frustrating mechanics. The author showcases six personal decks, aiming to inspire others to craft tailored MTG experiences. Hacker News readers largely embrace this customizable approach, debating what truly constitutes 'fun' in Magic and how to balance accessibility with expensive, powerful cards.
The Lowdown
The author, ibobev, introduces "Fun 40," a custom Magic the Gathering format inspired by a 2026 event that emphasized personalized gameplay and 40-card decks. Driven by a desire to recapture a "magical weekend," the author meticulously crafted six distinct decks, each adhering to a set of house rules designed to maximize player enjoyment and interaction.
- Format Origins: The concept emerged from a 2026 event, "Quest for Urza's Chalice," where participants built 40-card decks from custom boosters, encouraging trading and diverse deck construction.
- Defining Fun: The format prioritizes active gameplay, allowing for comebacks, diverse card aesthetics (including white-bordered and Beta cards), and smaller deck sizes. It explicitly excludes mechanics like discard and land destruction, deemed "unfun," though it tolerates mild prison effects.
- Signature Decks: Six unique decks are presented: White/Green, Green/Red, Black, Red, Bant, and Red/Black. Each deck highlights specific card choices, often featuring valuable vintage cards like Beta Serra Angels, Erhnam Djinn, and Shivan Dragon, with explanations for their inclusion and how they contribute to the fun.
- Power Inclusion: Powerful artifacts like Moxes and Sol Ring are included, but with a stated philosophy of not being found "in abundance," aiming for a balanced power level within the custom format.
Ultimately, "Fun 40" serves as a blueprint for players to customize their Magic experience, fostering an environment of interaction, nostalgia, and personalized strategy, with the author inviting further community suggestions for refinement.
The Gossip
Crafting Custom Cardplay
Many readers lauded the article's celebration of bespoke Magic the Gathering formats, sharing their own experiences with alternative deck sizes, "house rules," and community-driven play styles like Cube Draft or "Danger Room." This highlights a shared desire among players to tailor the game to their preferences, often moving away from official tournament structures for a more personalized and balanced experience.
Debating Desired Dynamics
The author's explicit list of "fun" elements, particularly the exclusion of discard and land destruction, sparked a lively discussion. While some agreed that these mechanics detract from enjoyment, others argued they are integral to Magic's strategic depth or even fun to employ. The choice to include powerful, expensive cards like Moxen was also debated, with some seeing it as a contradiction to a "fun-first" ethos if not carefully balanced.
Dollars and Decks
The significant cost of the vintage cards showcased in the article led to a discussion on Magic's accessibility. Commenters debated whether the game is inherently expensive, with some pointing out that competitive formats can be costly, while others emphasized numerous budget-friendly ways to play, such as limited formats, pre-constructed decks, or proxy cards. The conversation also touched upon the controversial "Universes Beyond" crossover products, seen by some as a money grab but by others as a source of renewed interest and thoughtful design.