MTG Proxy Ante

I've been playing a regular Magic game for years with a couple friends. We're old school so we like playing with ante related cards. We also have a closed universe because we started burning out around Ice Ages. We combined these two elements into what we call Proxy Ante.

We all go in on a box of cards.

Then we start playing like we are playing for ante. You remember those rules: after you deal a hand you place the next card off your deck in the middle of the table, winner gets the cards. Except, for each card dealt into the middle of the table, we draw a card out of the ante box and place that on top of it. We are really playing for those cards... the proxy ante. At the end of the game, that card from our deck goes back to us.

So, this way, ante cards can be used but none of us risk losing really nice, expensive cards. Although we all do have the possible problem that a card we want and like ends up out of play in the middle of the table instead of in our hand.

The other aspect of this system is that it introduces new cards into our limited universe without causing the usual arms-race problems. All proxy ante is marked on its face to show that it is legal in our limited (Ice Ages and before) format. In order to spread the wealth a little, while also rewarding good play, the winner of a game gets first pick of available proxy ante, not all the proxy ante.

In fact, we recently decided to up the ante by dealing out roughly 3 proxy ante for each real ante. In addition to allowing the winner to pick first, the winner also gets more ante then the rest of the table, selecting one more card then the 2nd place finisher and 2 more then the 3rd place guy, etc.