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Widely considered MTG's most social way to play, the Elder Dragon Highlander format is getting a holiday update perfect for the holidays. During a recent show, creators Josh Lee Kwai and Jimmy Wong played a four-player game dubbed "Countdown to XT-Mas."

How the Festive Variant Works

At its core is a simple layer added on top of a regular Commander match. A designated indicator moves to each player. Upon reaching the current player's turn, the game briefly pauses. Every player privately decides whether they're being Nice or Naughty by using choice cards.

The participants flip their choice together. After that, they carry out the effect linked to their own choice, starting with the person holding the token. The token is subsequently handed to the right. The countdown moves forward by one step, and standard Commander resumes.

The choices become more significant with each passing round progress, designed to be finely tuned.

Increasing Choices

At the start provided small, table-wide boons for choosing Nice, such as life gain or Clue tokens. In contrast, The Naughty options usually provided more targeted benefits, frequently at the expense of another player. For instance let players who picked Naughty get a powerful airborne Reindeer token. Those who picked Nice generated a 1/1 Toy creature token for all participants.

The Grand Finale

When the last phase, Santa Claus himself arrived, transforming the game. Based on the tally of a participant was Naughty versus Nice, Santa gave out sealed “gifts”. These looked like deck boxes, but contained MTG booster packs worth different amounts.

• The kindest player received a premium Collector Booster.
• Another friendly player got a different Collector Booster.
• One player received a less powerful booster pack.
• The most mischievous player drew the short straw: a famously bad set that's essentially a joke.

Every card unwrapped immediately became playable for the rest of the game, used as a bonus with mana as though it were all colors. The kinder players, their present wound up being a major boost. Meanwhile, those who chose Naughty basically received coal in their stocking.

Playing the Variant Yourself

While the original showcase included significant production value, the format is something players can easily try in their own playgroup. Participants plays with their standard EDH deck, and the only extra items required would be four different MTG packs with different worth.

A possible challenge could be that if everyone know the rewards in advance the best pack's identity, then everyone try to get the most valuable gift. You could mix it up in different ways, such as selecting cards from a shared pool or allowing participants to use cards they own from outside the game.

From the successful demonstration, Countdown to XT-Mas stands as a fun way to spread some joy when playing with friends. It complicates the social interplay between players in a fun and manner, making it a unique experience among MTG enthusiasts this season.