The Game of Life

Building off the last article, this is a quick Multiplayer variant that can add spice to an otherwise tepid game.

In this variant, life never disappears; it is passed between the players. Instead of a life total, each player begins the game with 20 poker chips, counters, whatever. (Using "fingers and toes" as a symbolic unit not recommended.) Whenever you deal damage to another player with a spell, effect or creature, that player must give you a number of chips equal to the damage. For example, if you cast Lightning Bolt on a player, he loses three chips, you gain three chips. (Even better than Lightning Helix!)

When a player has zero chips, he is out of the game. If one of your cards deals damage to you or causes you to lose life, you lose chips to the "bank," which is empty at the beginning of the game. Whenever you gain life from a spell or effect, take chips from the bank. If there aren't enough chips - as will usually be the case - you're outta luck. In addition, you may attempt to bribe other players by giving them chips, but a player who takes a bribe is not required to keep his word. Likewise, a player who promises a payment is not required to follow through on the pact.

Parting advice: with this variant, seriously watch out for Transcendence decks.

Multiplayer Madness

You and several of your friends sit down to play a big game of "chaos" multiplayer Magic fresh and full of enthusiasm. Three hours later, nobody is willing to do anything offensive, except for the guy who attacked early on - and he was ganged-up on and killed two-and-half hours ago. Now it's down to whoever played the least card-drawing and is decked last. Or maybe you got mana-screwed with only one land. For the first seven turns, your opponents took pity on you. Eventually, when you still had no land, they decided to put you out of your misery. Now, you've got to sit around for two hours - relegated to watching reruns of NBC's Saturday night "Thrillogy" - while your friends have fun.

Sound like your multiplayer games? If you've ever tried playing a large game with five or more players, you've probably run into these problems, and quite a few other ones as well. Fortunately, there are ways you can improve your multiplayer experience. Here are some of the common problems players encounter and a few solutions:

Enchant Enchantment

Local enchantments always want to be stuck on something else. Enchant creature, enchant player, even enchant world! Perhaps most accommodating of all is the enchant permanent, which can be stapled to anything at all, even... well, even another local enchantment, come to think of it. Is there something that can be done with this fact?

Consider this: play Indestructibility on one of your cards. Now play a second Indestructibility, enchanting the first one. Lastly, use Simic Guildmage to make the first Indestructibility instead enchant the second one (which is enchanting it in turn.) The result is two auras that are only kept in play by virtue of enchanting the other. Oh yeah, and in this case, they happen to be indestructible, too? Weird stuff.
"Something here is indestructible."
"What is?"
"The indestructibility."