#ongoing schemes

We know how schemes work because they’re not new.

Schemes were first introduced in the original Archenemy decks in 2010:

Schemes are used as part of the Archenemy multiplayer variant. Archenemy is a team variant where one player (the archenemy) faces off against a team of (un)worthy adversaries. 

(There’s no set number of players needed for the opposing team, but in both the 2010 Archenemy release and the new Archenemy Anthology: Nicol Bolas release, the decks and schemes have been balanced to work best with three opponents vs. one archenemy. The archenemy has 40 life and always plays first. The other players each have 20 life and take a shared turn as a team, like in 2HG. Their life totals are separate though.)

The archenemy is the only player with schemes, which are part of a scheme deck. The scheme deck contains at least 20 schemes and can contain no more than two (2) of the same scheme. This deck is shuffled and kept face down. All scheme cards are in the command zone for the entirety of the game.

At the beginning of the Archenemy’s pre-combat main phase, the top card of the scheme deck is moved off the deck and turned face up. This is called setting the scheme in motion. This happens before any other actions can be taken in the main phase.

When a scheme is set in motion, usually an ability will trigger. These abilities begin with “when you set this scheme in motion”. You choose modes and targets as normal. These triggers use the stack and can be responded to as normal. They’re triggered abilities and so they can be countered by spells such as Stifle or Disallow. When the scheme’s trigger resolves, follow its instructions. When the triggered ability finishes resolving (or if it’s countered or otherwise removed from the stack), turn the scheme face down and put it on the bottom of the scheme deck unless the scheme is an ongoing scheme.

Ongoing schemes function differently than other schemes, providing a static effect or repeating trigger for as long as they’re face up in the command zone. These schemes almost always will have a trigger that can cause them to be abandoned, usually at great expense to the “heroes”. When an ongoing scheme is abandoned, it’s turned face down and put on the bottom of the scheme deck. There’s no limit to the number of ongoing schemes that the archenemy can have in the command zone at any one time. Having an ongoing scheme in the command zone doesn’t stop the archenemy from setting a new scheme in motion each turn.

And that’s the basics of how schemes work!