# Crossroads - A new game mode for your best multiplayer experience

#Introduction

It's Friday night. Magic with your friends. You cannot wait to play! But which game mode do you choose?
You want to play casual, but Commander free-for-all takes too long. You're not in the mood for cutthroat competitive 1v1, but you still want your decisions to matter. You've tried Two-Headed Giant before but it did not convince you.

Now maybe, at a moment like this, you will remember this post!

Let us share the favorite game mode of our playgroup with you - **Crossroads**. It is an easy to play 2v2 mode that uses a slim rules set very similar to FFA.
You can play it with decks of any format you like - be it Commander, Standard, Modern, or Masques Block Pauper Oathbreaker. Your decks are ready to play this multiplayer game mode.

For us, and maybe also for you, Crossroads strikes an amazing balance between serious and casual play!

#Crossroads Rules

**I. General**

- There are two teams, A and B, of two players each.
- All players play their own, separate turns - just like in a free-for-all pod.
- Turn order alternates between teams in an A-B-A-B pattern. So once player A1 ends their turn, player B1 is next, followed by A2 and then B2.
- Each player has their own life total, which is inherited from the format the decks were otherwise built for.
- There is one free mulligan.
- The player who begins the game does not draw a card during their first draw step.
- There is no hand-sharing, but players are encouraged to openly share information whenever it is beneficial.
- When a player loses the game they are out of the game, but either team only wins when both opposing players are defeated.

**II. Move Step and Combat**

Crossroads features intuitive combat rules that allow creatures of either player to block attacks targeted at their teammate and teammate's planeswalkers.
This limits the strength of heavily focussing on one player with aggressive strategies. For blocking, each player's position counts as a separate frontline on the battlefield.

- Creatures enter the battlefield positioned at their controller's frontline.
- At the end of the combat phase, the Move Step takes place. Here, the active player can assign creatures they control to a position on either allied frontline. Only creatures without summoning sickness can be moved. Control over them does not change and creatures do not become tapped due to moving.
- When a player is attacked, they may declare any creatures placed at their frontline as blockers.
- A player may only attack one or more opponents with creatures they control and only during their own combat step - no matter at which frontline they are placed.

#Advantages over other 4-player game modes

Crossroads incentivizes proactive and lower curve strategies. Trading and denying resources right away is a worthwhile strategy.
One of our gripes with free-for-all (FFA) is how it rewards inactivity and reactive gameplay far more than proactive players who make the first move. The players who invest resources to develop or control the board are often left at a disadvantage, compared to those who just watch, ramp and draw cards. In this 2v2 setting, however, this becomes impossible. Your teammate will die if you stay inactive or just protect yourself. Crossroads games are faster and see much more action than your typical, slow FFA.
Two-headed-Giant (2HG) faces issues where the board state reaches a stalemate too easily and hand-sharing slows the pace. Players are pushed to whisper for decision making, and discussions can cause frequent delays between turns. Too often one player makes most, if not all, decisions for their side.

In contrast, Crossroads creates room for tactical information sharing, bluffing and individual decision-making. Positioning blockers makes combat decisions meaningful.

#Conclusion

Crossroads features advantages of multiplayer Magic without suffering its common disadvantages - like chaotic boardstates and a lot of downtime between rounds. Every single Bolt matters, since tempo and fighting for resources become far more relevant than in typical FFA games.

Crossroads provides a great multiplayer experience, allowing for different kinds of playstyles and strategies to flourish.

We'd be happy to see you test this game mode and adapt it to your own playgroup's needs. Please share what you think of it and ask any questions you might have.
Thank you for reading!

#TL;DR

- new multiplayer game mode: Crossroads
- 2v2, but separate turns/life totals
- individual frontlines (as in FFA)
- turn order: A-B-A-B
- move creatures to block for your teammate
- win by defeating both opposing players
- try it, enjoy it, spread the word