Welcome to Conspiracy week, all you kingslayers and double-dealers! To celebrate the release of the new Summer Multiplayer product, we’re doing a whole week on the wacky hilarity that can come up during your Conspiracy drafts.

What better ‘first’ to kick off this topic than the ultimate “FIRST” card,Power Play? Power Play is one of the thirteen cards with the new type of “Conspiracy”. They aren’t legal in any format but a Conspiracy draft, so don’t get any ideas about bringing these to FNM or a PTQ! Conspiracies are pretty simple- you draft them like you would any other card in the pack. They don’t go into your deck, though. When you start up your game, you can take as many Conspiracies as you want from your draft pool, and start the game with them in your Command Zone. Some of them just start out face-up (like Power Play!), and some are Hidden Agendas- we’ll get to those on Thursday.

So, Power Play starts the game in your Command Zone, and it has an immediate impact- you go first. Period. With Power Play, you and your opponents don’t determine the starting player- because that player is you. And since we’re doing multiplayer, there’s really no downside to going first- you still get to draw, and you build a board presence before anyone else. Now, the tricksy part- what if you’re not the only one making a power play at your table?!

Well, that’s actually really simple- it says what to do right there on the card. If more than one person is trying to use Power Play, you just randomize it- between those players only. So say Ajani, Brigid, Crovax, and Daxos are all playing Conspiracy. Crovax and Daxos both start with Power Play- the two of them determine which of them is the starting player. Ajani and Brigid don’t even have a chance at it! Ditto if Ajani, Crovax, and Daxos all have one- poor Brigid gets left out of their three-way bid for power. And, of course, if everyone has a Power Play, nothing changes at all- you randomly determine the starting player from among all four. Preferably with dice.

Today’s Conspiracy Tip written by Trevor Nunez