Dandan Inspired Formats
(5 min. read)
5 years ago today,
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave 
passed away. Last night, Bereaved Survivor 
joined her husband in death peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by their seven children.
Skullbriar was many things to many people— A coworker, a friend, a father, but to
Bereaved Survivor
, he was a loving and supportive husband.
As a young man, Skullbriar served his country in the Vietnam War. 
After his years of service, was admitted to
University 
where he studied agriculture and met his future wife. They were married 3 years later. Friends have said that Skullbriar could often be seen riding his
beloved motorcycle 
until it was totaled in an accident and had to be sent to the
junkyard. 
As the couple aged, his wife recalled how every morning he would prepare his favorite food for breakfast — a bagel with cream cheese. 
The Skullbriar household was a place of laughter and joy. Anyone visiting the house would hear the kids cackling with joy as they played with their their
favorite 
toys. 
The centerpiece of their home was a
curious and amusing statue 
given to the family by Skullbriar's uncle. And no visitor would forget how the whole family doted on
their beloved pet cat. 
Skullbriar would tell coworkers of his dreams of moving to the countryside one day. He said he always wanted to become a cattle rancher. His death was tragic, but ultimately,
it was how he would've wanted to go. 
The funeral for Bereaved Survivor is to be held at The Fair Basilica 
.
A Eulogy for Skullbriar and his Wife is a 1v1 shared deck Magic format inspired by Dandan. It creates a unique subgame using an existing game not unlike video game mods. As you noticed, this format also has some silly lore.
The original Dandan format that inspired this one is named after the iconic fish, but everyone knows what really made it unique was Memory Lapse. Both players use a single shared deck, so Memory Lapse functions more like a weird draw spell rather than straight removal. Whatever you hit with it goes on top of the deck ready for you yourself to draw.
A Eulogy for Skullbriar and His Wife sets itself apart by not focusing the shared library, but the shared graveyard. When a creature enters the graveyard, it's available for either player to bring back with a resccurection spell. The format also found unique identity by focusing on the battlefield and the energy mechanic.
When designing a game, it's easy to hyperfocus on your source of inspiration. I personally was stuck for a long time trying to one-for-one replace cards in Dandan like a Ship of Theseus. And honestly I think this thought process is very common among Dandan fans considering how many versions of "Dandan but with Lightning Bolts" i've seen.
Did you notice a pattern when I was describing Skullbriar and Dandan? Dandan is about Memory Lapse (an instant) interacting with the shared library, while this format is Skullbriar (a creature) interacting with the shared graveyard. They both are “X Card plus shared Y”. In order to inspire others making their own formats I'll make a random table to roll on using this hueristic. Ideally one could use this as a spark to break away from copying Dandan one-for-one.
| d8 | Shared Zone | Key Card |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hand | Creature (big) |
| 2 | Library | Creature (small) |
| 3 | Graveyard | Land |
| 4 | Battlefield (lands) | Instant |
| 5 | Battlefield (nonlands) | Sorcery |
| 6 | Exile | Artifact/Enchantment |
| 7 | Command Zone | Planeswalker |
| 8 | All Cards of a Specific Type | Planechase |
For example, shared Library + key Instant is the type original Dandan falls into. Let's give this table a rip.
Looking at the table, 5 & 5 means sorcery plus shared nonlands. Ok, whenever a player casts a nonland it goes into a shared battlefield. And the key card is a sorcery. Maybe… Sweltering Suns? Creatures are shared between players, but anyone can wipe the board? And 4 toughness creatures are key because they survive the board wipe. We might be getting somewhere.
A funny quirk is that if you play a creature, your opponent is the first to attack with it because it loses summoning sickness on their turn. This effectively makes aggro impossible. And because all creatures are shared the only creatures that can block are defenders. So lets add with one of them. And while i'm at it i'll add a creature the wall can successfully block.
So far it seems the game is about making sure there’s more 2/2s on the board during your turn and more defenders on your opponent’s turn. Crazy idea: both players start at 1 life? Now the game is all about that one good turn. All it takes is one good attack to win. A visual aesthetic is also starting to form here, maybe it’s the end of the world with fire raining from the sky. The werewolf is interesting because it if flips it can kill the wall, so controlling when the werewolf flips is important.
With only 1 life this is very all-gas-no-brakes. I’m worried it won’t be interactive, just players dumping their hand, but of course if you just dump your hand your opponent will have those resources too. I can’t tell if there’s anything cool here. But I know I won't know for sure unless I playtest it. This wall is really boring though, so for the readers edification i've including some other cool defenders that could replace it.
Larder zombie is neat because this format still has a shared library, so controlling the top card is important. Note: If you tap the zombie your opponent can't use it to block your creature, but there need to be four creatures in play for that to happen.
If four of these are in play it pseudo softlocks the game because a single flipped werewolf will never break throgh. (The first strike will mean it never gets to deal damage and kill a wall). Maybe cycling makes this interesting?
Play this and let your opponent gain a life if they have a land? Dangerous considering everyone starts at 1 life.
So there’s an example of how to use the Dandan Inspired Formats table. If you want to know more about specifically A Eulogy for Skullbriar and his Wife you should check out the Cube Cobra page.
