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Widely known as Magic: The Gathering's most social way to play, Commander just got a seasonal makeover just in time for the holidays. As part of a holiday-themed video, creators Josh Lee Kwai and Jimmy Wong demonstrated a four-player match titled "Holiday Countdown."

How the Holiday Variant Works

Fundamentally is a simple mechanic superimposed on a regular Commander game. A rotating marker travels to each player. Upon reaching the current player's turn, the game temporarily stops. Each participant privately decides if they will be being Naughty or Nice with the help of indicator cards.

The participants flip their choice simultaneously. They then carry out the consequence linked to their decision, beginning with the player who has the marker. This marker is then passed clockwise. The holiday round counter advances a single increment, and standard Commander resumes.

The choices become more significant over time progress, designed to be carefully crafted.

Escalating Outcomes

The initial phases offered small, table-wide advantages for choosing Nice, like gaining life or Clue tokens. Conversely, The Naughty choices often gave more targeted upsides, often to the detriment of someone else. One round allowed those choosing Naughty get a 4/4 flying Reindeer token. Anyone who picked Nice created a small artifact token creature for each player.

Santa's Big Showdown

On the eighth round, Father Christmas himself arrived, transforming the experience. Based on how often each player selected Nice versus Naughty, Santa gave out sealed “gifts”. These looked like deck boxes, but held Magic booster packs with different rarities.

• The nicest player got a high-value special pack.
• The next kindest player got a another type of Collector Booster.
• A special guest got a less powerful booster pack.
• The least nice player essentially received coal: a historically poor booster pack acting as a punchline.

Every card opened could then be playable for the duration, used as a bonus with mana treating it as colorless. The kinder participants, their present became a significant advantage. Whereas, the naughty players basically received a disadvantage.

Trying the Game Yourself

Although the original showcase had significant custom components, it's one that anybody can easily try at home. Each player plays with their standard Commander deck, and all you'd need would be four different booster packs of varying value.

One potential challenge is that if players are aware beforehand what being nice gets you, then everyone might aim for the top prize. One might mix it up by using other methods, like selecting cards from a communal pile or letting players pull cards they own from outside the game.

Based on how the format played out, Countdown to XT-Mas stands as a fun method to add holiday cheer when playing with friends. It adds a layer to the social interplay at the table in a fun and manner, resulting in a memorable way to play among MTG enthusiasts this season.