Type 4: Limited Infinity is awesome. I’ve gained infinite (well, a lot of) life by casting Spinal Embrace on Crowd Favorites. I’ve killed people by using Captain’s Maneuver on their own attacking Serra Avatar. I’ve cast Heed the Mists and decked myself because I flipped over Gleemax.

However, after having played it for about a year with the same group, even Limited Infinity gets a bit stale. Everyone in our group has a style that works for him, and while tactics change slightly from draft to draft, the general strategy does not. That’s why I decided to shake things up a bit by introducing Vanguard cards.

(Note: Only use this variant if you already have some Limited Infinity/Type Four experience. It’s meant to force people to try different things, not to introduce new players to the format. See it as an expert-level expansion pack instead of an update.)

Abe Sargent already wrote an article about the Vanguard cards, so I won’t repeat everything he said here. In a nutshell, each player effectively becomes a character from the novels for the duration of the game. This typically means that you’ll have a different starting hand size, a different life total, and a character-specific ability.

I’ve found that a variant on the “random stick” method works best in LI: shuffle all the cards and deal everyone two facedown characters. Then proceed with the actual LI draft. Once you’re done, everyone chooses one of the two character cards and sets aside the other. I haven’t tried Abe’s "bitching" rules, but my gut tells me that it’s too broken for LI. Feel free to experiment with it after a few drafts, though.

The fun here is that you don’t know what the other players are, so you can assemble killer decks if the table doesn’t read you correctly. The format also encourages bluffing, as you can simply pick a “bad” card very high to convince the table that you’re a certain character, which allows you to draft around your actual Vanguard card. Finally, it allows creativity – if a “control player” has the choice between Multani and Mishra, then he’ll be forced to draft a different deck this time.

However, the Vanguard cards were clearly not made for LI. Some are way too broken (I’m looking at you, Urza) and others are worthless (like Sisay, a.k.a. Captain Sissy). Here are the twelve characters that have been working for my group, and a brief overview on ways to abuse them. Simply scroll down to the bottom of the article if you don’t like spoilers.

Ertai makes all your creatures untargetable, which is obviously a huge boon. Pick utility creatures even higher than normal (e.g. Chainer, Dementia Master, Glarecaster, Ertai, Wizard Adept himself) and be sure to draft a healthy dose of recursion as well. Hatedraft some Wrath of God effects if there’s nothing interesting left, as those cards are just about the only way for your opponents to actually kill your creatures.

Gerrard is a very good card for control ("fortress") players, but be prepared to draft instants over just about everything if you choose to be him. Not only will you be forced to discard if you have no instants, you’ll also be very vulnerable in the early game without a lot of answers – people know that you will be a huge threat later on, and people know that you’re vulnerable at the moment. It’s also smart to draw your two cards each turn as inconspicuously as possible. If you gloat, then you’ll deserve everything you get.

Gix is my favorite character. Picture this: you cast Survival of the Fittest and put every creature from the deck into your graveyard. Cast Timmy, Power Gamer next turn, recur every creature from your graveyard (except Anger and maybe Glory) and smash for a lot. Someone has a Rout? No problem. Just repeat it next turn, or even get back the horde at instant speed with Twilight’s Call, or burn out the Rout player with Bosh, Iron Golem and/or Soulblast.

Even if the table turns against you, you can still take some punishment before going down, especially with Forbid (drawback: mock your opponents) and Beacon of Immortality. Gix is also simply insane if you manage to draft the Riptide Shapeshifter combo (Riptide Shapeshifter + Chainer, Dementia Master + [Glarecaster + Vampiric Dragon] OR [Bosh, Iron Golem + Draco]), as it lets you cast a “counterspell me or die” card every turn. Finally, Illusionary Mask + Bloodfire Colossus often wins instantly.

Mishra isn’t very subtle, but he’s still rather effective. Everything that gives haste is a first pick, especially In the Web of War. Drafting a few late-game bombs is recommended – you’ll dilute your deck by drafting too many Planar Portal-like cards, but you will need some card advantage engine in the late game to survive. Obviously, casting Intuition or Gifts Ungiven for incarnations (Genesis, Glory, and Anger) is the best way of doing this (instant speed, stays within the theme), but you’ll be hard-pressed to draft more than one incarnation.

Multani is a bit like Mishra, but you’re playing with three cards less. Regardless, Multani is very strong when you draft token producers like Hunting Pack, Artifact Mutation, Symbiotic Wurm, and Verdant Force. Card drawing is also important to fill up your hand, and it can occasionally act as a combat trick. This is one of the few characters that work well as either an aggro player or as a control player, as you’ll need both card drawing and creature spells.

There’s also Rofellos. He wants token producers, too - yes, dying tokens still give you cards. The difference is that his ability is very subtle; it's not irritating or threatening at all, and it's much more suited for the long game. With him, you can easily cast hordes of creatures, knowing that they’ll be replaced when they die. Recurring creatures with Rofellos is also very unfair, especially if you have something like Quicksilver Amulet out, and all Control Magic effects now effectively cantrip. The only drawback is that you’ll start with five cards, which is huge in the long game.

Selenia gives both a nice life boost and an extra card. She’s also a good “rattlesnake”: just cast a huge creature and watch attackers fly elsewhere. Obviously, look for huge flying men and don’t draft too many bombs – you’re trying to fly under the radar here. She’s a bit underpowered, but that’s actually an advantage in certain groups.

Everyone’s favorite cabin boy Squee starts out with a huge hand and an ability that makes every control player drool. He’s also incredible for combo/"broken stuff” players, as you’ll know exactly when the group has run out of counters and other answers. However, some people find his ability to be very annoying and will kill you quickly. This depends on your group, but caution is advised.

Starke is like Gerrard, but his ability is less broken and he starts with a larger hand, which gives him a better chance to actually reach the late game. Still, you’ll get very good card selection with him (remember that you can stack any card from your hand back), which is an overwhelming advantage in the long game. I personally think that he’s the best character if you want to play dedicated control.

Tahngarth gives your dudes haste. He’s very abusable with “tap: effect” cards, like Captain Sisay and Arcanis the Omnipotent, and with “saboteur” effects like Phage the Untouchable. Aside from that, he just smashes hard and can take a beating himself. He’s another character that can play both control and aggro.

And so we finally arrive at the most broken card in the stack. Tawnos is insane. Everyone knows how good Vedalken Orrery is in Type Four. On top of that, this guy also lets you start with ten cards in hand! If you’re drafting him, then my advice is to drop all caution and just pick the most broken cards possible, with minimal instants and counterspells – the table will gang up on you anyway. Try to sneak through broken spells after a counterwar happens over a less broken card.

Finally, Volrath doesn’t attract as much attention as Gix does, which is a huge plus. Furthermore, he starts with a much larger hand and is still quite good at recurring critters like Bosh, Iron Golem and Riptide Shapeshifter. However, he’s not as good in the late game, where politics are irrelevant anyway. He’s still a good control card, though — a bit like Starke, actually.

Well, there you have it! Twelve characters, twelve styles, and twelve ways to abuse them. I hope that you’ll have as much fun with Limited Infinity as our group has — and if you don’t, then maybe this variant can get the creative juices flowing once again. Game on.

Adriaan Schipper
adriaan_schipper at hotmail.com

P.S. - For those who scrolled down, I personally use these characters: Ertai, Gerrard, Gix, Mishra, Multani, Rofellos, Selenia, Squee, Starke, Tahngarth, Tawnos and Volrath.