2 player Vtes Variant: Fauxtes by David Wilson Prince of Ann Arbor www.vtes.org There have been many 2 player discussions over the years, an idea occurred to me today that I wanted to share: An idea that may work for 2 players is, Both players bring two decks, flip a coin to determine who is player A and who is player B. Player A flips a coin, rolls a die, etc to randomly select 1 deck, referred to as A1. The other deck is set aside for player B, referred to as Ba2 and a faux deck Player B flips a coin, rolls a die, etc to randomly select 1 deck, referred to as B1, The other deck is set aside for player A, referred to as Ab2 and a faux deck Then you seat a four deck game. Player A plays two decks: A1, and Ab2, Player B plays two decks: B1, and Ba1, A1 bleeds B1, B1 bleeds Ab2, Ab2 bleeds Ba1, Ba1 bleeds A1. randomly determine who goes first. Play occurs normally, although players should be careful about considering themselves as playing 2 decks. As soon as a deck is ousted, play changes, no player bleeds herself, so if A is bleeding his initially cross table ally, then B plays the deck that turn. If B is acting A is blocking etc. You win if your randomly selected deck wins, not your faux cross table deck. If only faux decks are left in the game, no player wins. The format could definitely use some polish, but I think it captures the spirit of the game. Further rules illustrated through Scenario: A is ousted, so A is now playing Ab1 and Ba1 part time. As soon as the oust happens, 4 cards are randomly selected from each hand of Ab1 and Ba1, these are the common hand of each player when they play that deck. The new part time player draws 3 cards from the lib, these cards are playable by that deck only when that player plays that deck. Afterwords, each player redraws to their private hand only, until each player has a private hand for each deck. Finally if the table reaches a 2 player state with a 'real' deck left in the game, the player who was part timing the faux deck shuffles their hand back into the library. Now you have a normal 2 player variant. Each player must continue to try to win, as per normal tournament rules, which will undoubtedly be a little uncomfortable, but think of it as helping the computer player win... Another example: A1 is ousted, so the table is B1 => Ab2 => Ba1 On B1's turn, when she bleeds, votes, etc, Ab1 and Ba1 are played by A, yeah a little tricky but player A should act in the best interest of each of the decks he is playing. On Ab2's turn, player A plays the turn, if he bleeds, votes etc, Player B plays his deck and deck Ba1, in the best interest of each deck. On Ba1's turn, player A now plays this deck, player B plays his deck and Ab2's deck. The above is why I suggest separate hands. I will write this up more clearly if people are interested in the format. I will call it Fauxtes pronounced "Foe Tes" I moved this conversation form http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad/browse_thread/thread/c510263bc245d10b/07474583182a2b1f#07474583182a2b1f Also if I copied this format from someone, please let me know, I don't recall what I've read in the past and it is possible I conjured up someone's idea and thought it was my own.