New “Forgetful Ship” MTG Minigame Puts Black Mages to the Test

Last updated on November 13, 2025

Phoenix Fleet Airship | Illustrated by Ben Hill

Since the dawn of Magic, players have been inventing new ways to play the game. As we all know, there are a million different ways to sling cardboard. WotC lists 26 formats on their site: From popular formats like Commander and Standard, to oddball formats like Archenemy and Freeform.

This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. MTG's vast legion of fans has generated significantly more than 26 formats to play in the game's 30+ year history. Pauper Commander is a community managed format in which you can put any uncommon creature in the command zone with a deck full of commons. Pendragon is a Commander variant that puts a legendary equipment in the command zone alongside a common creature.

The game is intentionally modular, it lends itself to a gigantic variety of options. Enter one of the most unique community led formats out there.

Forgetful Fish

Dandân is essentially an MTG minigame named for the classic card, of which the deck runs 10 copies. As a matter of fact, it's the only creature in the deck. In this format, two players share one highly interactive deck and duke it out. It's known as Forgetful Fish because of its two hallmark cards: Dandân and Memory Lapse.

The format was invented by Nick Floyd in the spring of 1996. Since then, WotC has officially recognized the format, even doing an entire Secret Lair print of a Dandân deck.

As I mentioned earlier, Dandân heavily relies on interactive gameplay. Lists typically feature cards like Memory Lapse, Vision Charm, and Brainstorm. A well-built Dandân deck will encourage both players to manipulate the top card as they try to find 1 of the 10 creatures in the deck.

Forgetful Ship

And, now, an extremely creative gamer has developed their own version of Dandân with a special twist: It's mono-black.

Yesterday, redditor u/Tagazok2012 shared a post in r/magicTCG explaining they'd created a new Dandân variant, cheekily named “Forgetful Ship.” It all revolves around the new Avatar: The Last Airbender card Phoenix Fleet Airship

Instead of 10 Dandân, you'll get 8 Phoenix Fleet Airships. You'll notice that, if you control 8 or more Airships, they become artifact creatures without having to be crewed. The deck is stacked with cards like Eviscerator's Insight that will help you draw cards and easily satisfy the Airship's end step trigger. It'll be a nonstop fight to get as many 4/4 fliers as possible.

How Does it Play?

There aren't a ton of top card manipulation effects in black, but this list features options like Volrath's Dungeon, Painful Memories, and Lost Hours, all of which add a ton of spice to existing Dandân gameplay.

Almost all of the deck's removal and card draw require you to sacrifice creatures or discard cards, so you'll have no issue triggering your Airships. My personal favorite reanimation spell of the bunch is one I've never seen before researching this story, Scrounge. This hilarious spell will invariably be forcing countless players to give their opponents an Airship.

Forgetful Ship, much like Forgetful Fish, is a great way to get experience points in a very specific form of gameplay. I mostly play Commander, and playing Dandân has really helped me learn more about the value of thinking ahead and holding up interaction.

Forgetful Fish is all about manipulating the top of the deck and choosing your counterspells and draws wisely,.Forgetful Ship is about knowing the exact right time to use your removal, and knowing when it's safe to sacrifice nontoken creatures. Each removal spell is a risk, each “sacrifice a creature, draw two cards” is a risk…your opponent might have Beacon of Unrest (or Scrounge!) in hand.

Wrap Up

Magic itself is an infinite combo. All cards, the game pieces we've come to know and love, are bound only by the limits of your imagination. WotC will keep printing new cards, and players will continue to think outside the box. We salute you, u/Tagazok2012, and we're stoked to try out your Mono-White Dandân variant too!