There's been a decent talk about custom formats in the recent weeks and months I've seen, so I wanted to drop a little idea I've been tossing around to myself (and a few friends) recently for a format that mixes Standard and Expanded in which each player has two decks, your regular deck formed of 50 cards instead of 60 and using the Standard format, as well as one of 10 cards using a modified Expanded format to only allow Black & White cards.
The idea came up as I'm from an area that prefers Standard but has Expanded cards floating around. I understand that Expanded is an entirely different format and consists of generally stronger cards than in the current Standard rotation (Blacksmith, Laserbank, Night March etc.) and so I wanted a format that would mix the two up a little, keeping the more 'toned down' feeling Standard has while introducing Expanded cards into the fray.
This can also be used to improve draw consistency and allow players to guarantee drawing cards of a specific purpose (for example Vespiquen decks favouring draw supporters in their side deck, disruption decks favouring disruption cards etc. to ensure they draw their most necessary cards):
- Your Main deck consists of 50 cards and follows the Standard format, allowing cards from XY- Primal Clash to the latest legal set (XY- Evolutions / Steam Siege currently)
- A 'Side' deck of 10 cards is kept to the side of your main deck. This deck follows a modified Expanded format and allows cards from all Black & White sets (BW- Base Set up until BW- Legendary Treasures).
- Each card in the 'Side' deck may only have 1 copy. You may play prints of a card in your Side deck that exist in your Main deck so long as the total count between both decks does not exceed 4, and your Side Deck only has 1 copy of the card (ie you may play 1 Crushing Hammer GEN within your Side deck and 3 within your Main deck, but not 1 within your Side Deck and 4 within your Main deck).
- At the beginning of each players turn they roll a dice, if it is a 5 or a 6 that player may choose to draw from their Side deck instead of their Main deck (if they do not or can not, they draw from the Main deck). If they 'fail' this roll they may put 6 damage counters on their Active Pokémon and draw from the Side deck instead of the Main deck at the beginning of their turn.
- If a player intends to draw from the Main deck they do not have to do the dice roll.
- Side and Main decks must be sleeved differently (or one deck must be sleeved while the other unsleeved)
- Deck searches may only be done on the Main deck. Cards are always shuffled from the Discard pile or any other area back into their original deck.
The idea came up as I'm from an area that prefers Standard but has Expanded cards floating around. I understand that Expanded is an entirely different format and consists of generally stronger cards than in the current Standard rotation (Blacksmith, Laserbank, Night March etc.) and so I wanted a format that would mix the two up a little, keeping the more 'toned down' feeling Standard has while introducing Expanded cards into the fray.
This can also be used to improve draw consistency and allow players to guarantee drawing cards of a specific purpose (for example Vespiquen decks favouring draw supporters in their side deck, disruption decks favouring disruption cards etc. to ensure they draw their most necessary cards):