What is the name of this 90's Planechase-like Magic format?

Question

I have a vague memory of an unofficial Magic format from the 90's, that was similar in some ways to Planechase or Vanguard. In addition to the players' regular decks, there were cards that applied rules changes from "outside the game" ("command zone" by modern terminology), like Vanguards or Planes. A lot of the "command" cards were based on World Enchantments; some may have been based on other enchantments or artifacts with static abilities. I don't remember if each player picked one like Vanguard, or there was rotation like Planechase.

There was a site that listed the rules and had images of the "command" cards for making proxies. I saw it around 2001-2003, and it seemed a little old then.

Does anyone know what this format was called, or any extant sites with information about it?

Answer 1

This sounds a lot like the Chaos format.

Chaos is a casual multiplayer format for Magic: the Gathering where the players add a Chaos Deck to the game to create new and exciting challenges. Chaos Magic is a variant of Free-for-All and might be considered an early form of Planechase.

The Chaos deck consists of 20–30 cards selected by some of the players involved. The player who goes first is designated the Chaos player; before that player untaps at the beginning of their turn, that player flips a card from the Chaos Deck face up on the table. That card is considered "in effect" until the Chaos player flips a different card after a full series of turns. The active Chaos card isn't in play and can't be affected by spells or abilities. Any player may use any abilities granted by the card, or, if it has a specific effect, each player immediately resolves the effect.

The earliest reference I can find to this is the "Mixing It Up" article on wizards.com (archive link), posted 11 December, 2007, which describes a few formats including Chaos Magic.

Answer 2

I think you might be referring to the "World Enchantment" format, also known as "Worlds". In this format, players would bring their own decks, but in addition to those decks, there would be a shared pool of "world enchantments" that would affect the game. The enchantments would be placed face-down on the table, and each turn, the active player would reveal the top card and apply its rules for that turn. Some versions of the format had players vote on which enchantment to use. I did some research with Google but wasn't able to find any website mentioning the format, but I am pretty positive to have read about it in a magazine in the late 90's.