by Jason Collins
An Introduction
Anyone who knows me, knows that I come from a background in Magic: The Gathering. The original Collectible Card Game. In my teenage years, a local store ran a tournament that allowed only cards that were printed in commons, and the prize was massive. Fast forward a few (*gulp*) decades, and Magic: The Gathering has fully embraced their own Pauper Format, a format I’ve come to enjoy myself.
A few years ago a took it upon myself to run a tournament locally, allowing only Modern Age commons & fast forces figures. The tournament went over well and was very well attended. I’m sure the fact that part of the prizing being a brick of Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. helped attendance.
Teams were very unique and interesting and no player had any complaints of team prices etc. Some figures at the time showed up in quantity like the Fast Forces Atomica, but no player was dismayed by that or the contents of the winning team.
In the end, the tournament went well and I was inspired. Over time, as part of my YouTube Channel Married with Clix, I started discussing the idea of the format on one of my shows. It would eventually evolve into format discussion that deserved its own show. From there Everyman For Everyone was on the air and the format had a name and a home. The Everyman Project. While it started as a PDF, eventually it was time to give the format its own home. So with a few edits to our Married with Clix WordPress site we created this page here
And it’s there where updates and changes are made to the format while a few of the frequently asked questions can be found.
Format Decisions: Why decisions were made!
So now that we’ve discussed the origins of the format, let’s talk about the reasoning behind the decisions made for the format.
Why Everyman?
I get this question often. Why not just call it Pauper like they do in Magic: The Gathering. The reason is more in keeping with branding. When I was thinking of a name my brain was immediately reminded of a comic story where Lex Luthor creates a serum which he sells to everyone to make everyone a superhero. His goal of course, when everyone is special, no one is. This just worked with a lot of the fundamentals that this format was aiming for.
Modern Age
The reason I decided on using the Modern Age format was to maintain the forced changes that come with rotation. Since there is a distinct plan to avoid banning in-format figures, we want to make sure that any period of in-meta domination a figure might have is limited by the timer that comes with rotation.
Fast Forces
The most frequently challenged decision regarding the format is the decision to allow Fast Forces & Starter Set figures. The reason I’ve allowed them is multi-layered.
The first of which is in the fact that players need to use maps and the most frequently available source of maps is through that of Fast Forces and Starter Sets. As a result, most if not all players should not only be able to acquire them, but should be getting them in the first place.
What’s more is that those figures are marked in the same manner as that of in-set commons, with a white tab. Meaning that consistent distinction across the format should allow for easier identification of figures that would be allowed for use in the format.
The final note is the static figure packing. With the purchase of a fast forces being a static setup, all figures in the pack are the same across the board. Acquiring the figures in them is on par with collecting the commons in a set.
Just the Commons?
The reason I targeted only commons was simply because a single brick of heroclix, on average, yields an entire set of commons (with an occasional exception). As a result, any player who’s purchased a brick, or a size-able number of packs can acquire enough figures in this format to be able to compete.
A lot of my findings were based on how acquiring pieces went during pre-release seasons, in which I would attend multiple tournaments. Over the course of several Pre-releases I was able to get an entire set of commons, while often lacking in rares and quite a few uncommons.
I found the inclusion of uncommons, or rather the idea that uncommons were just as plentiful, to be an observation of those who are either purchasing cases, or just not simply purchasing individual packs at a time, leading to a slight misconception when compared to those who don’t acquire figures at the pace of those of us who are more hardcore.
The Overall Philosophy
This is the part of the discussion where we talk about the overall goals of the format.
It’s a common misconception that I’m looking for some sort of balanced format where the standard meta pieces don’t exist. While that is a side effect of the format in its current iteration, that is not the goal or the philosophy. The goal here was to create a competitive format where money is a non-factor.
It’s quite often I will watch the discussion surrounding a team that wins a Heroclix tournament and the first person to have a problem, has a problem with the price to acquire the contents of that team. Often citing that, as the only reason that player won. I made this format to put their mouth where their money isn’t. To show players that do sound off in this manner, that players matter in this game, and even a player playing with the most expensive figures still needs to know how to play this game well.
The most important part of the philosophy is not to replace the current format of determining Heroclix World/National/WKO champions. The formats in action are already great. This is intended to add to the way we play the game, while being inclusive when doing so. We’re looking to create a side event format that would also be fitting for a large prize on a local level!
That’s the format and it’s goals for it in a nutshell. Hopefully we can get a few venues to pick it up for a few events especially with the changes to Win-A-Map events and the allowance of any format. Perhaps we could see it as a side event at World’s or National’s?!
