Forgetful Fish

Forgetful Fish
DCI Sanctioned
Paper
Magic Online
Magic Arena
Rules
Type	Constructed
Multiplayer

Forgetful Fish or Dandân is a casual constructed Magic: The Gathering format that revolves around the eponymous Dandân, a creature from Arabian Nights. Unlike most formats, both players share the same base blue deck and even the same graveyard. Forgetful Fish was created by Nick Floyd between Spring 1996 and Summer 1997, but gained attention when Rhystic Studies spotlighted the format in 2023.

Description

The variant resembles a board game as players do not bring their decks. Instead, there is just one communal deck shared between the players. Forgetful Fish features an 80-card deck. The “Forgetful” part comes from the eight copies of Memory Lapse, while the “Fish” part is from the ten copies of Dandân. The rest of the deck features a slew of blue instant and sorcery spells to take advantage of the top of the deck, the stack, and The Fish. The only effect that can deal damage in the format is Dandân.

Forgetful Fish is played much like any other game of Magic. Players start at 20 life, they draw a hand of seven, they discard at the end step if they have more than seven, and they can lose the game if they draw from an empty deck.

Players opening hands are dealt like a game of poker, one card for the first player, one card for the second player, and repeat. If an effect causes both players to draw a card, the active player deals the cards in the same fashion as the opening hands, starting with themselves. Both players also share a graveyard. If an effect returns a card from “your” graveyard or library, it refers now to the shared graveyard/library. Also, the “owner” of a card is its caster.

Concerning mulligans, players may first take one or more free mulligans for hands containing less than two lands or spells, revealing any hand not meeting these criteria; then, once the previous criteria have been met, they may opt to take further mulligans for which standard rules apply.

Typical decklist

File:Dandân.jpg

Forgetful Fish

Download/Export

• Text
• MTGO
• Apprentice
• OCTGN
• decklist.org

Creatures (10)

10 Dandân

Instants (34)

4 Accumulated Knowledge

2 Brainstorm

2 Crystal Spray

2 Dance of the Skywise

8 Memory Lapse

2 Metamorphose

2 Mind Bend

2 Mystical Tutor

2 Predict

2 Ray of Command

2 Supplant Form

2 Unsubstantiate

2 Vision Charm

Sorceries (4)

2 Diminishing Returns

2 Mystic Retrieval

Lands (32)

2 Halimar Depths

18 Island

2 Izzet Boilerworks

2 Lonely Sandbar

2 Mystic Sanctuary

2 Remote Isle

2 Svyelunite Temple

2 Temple of Epiphany

External links

• Original format design by Nick Floyd (Google docs)