Hi folks! Community formats are an absolute staple in TCGs. They tend to become so popular that they get recognition from the games' main company because they would just be losing out on their own players if they don't.

Yu-Gi-Oh! uses retro formats like Goat and Edison. Pokemon has Gym Leader Challenge.

Magic: The Gathering though? We've got loads of them. We've got Cube Drafts. We've got Commander. We've got Battlebox. We've got... Forgetful Fish?

Forgetful Fish is a format originally created by Nick Floyd sometime in late 1996 but was officially shared online by him in 2016. It centers around two eponymous cards: Dandan and Memory Lapse.

The idea of the format is simple. You play a 1v1 game of Magic with your opponent using a single 80-card deck. You share your library and your graveyard with your opponent, but otherwise the rules of the game are the same. 20 life, you can still lose to decking out, nothing new.

There are a few other rules to make the game relatively fair. One is that in addition to the standard mulligan, you can also take a free mulligan if you draw a hand with less than two lands or spells. The other is that if players are drawing cards simultaneously, you draw them one at a time, alternating back and forth.

It's that simplicity that has spawned an absolutely skillful and delightful format to play. That 80-card decklist was carefully crafted to not only teach you to plan ahead but also come up with a long-term strategy to win. It helps you master how to garner card advantage in a format where you and your opponent start on absolute equal footing.

The OG Decklist

OG Forgetful Fish | Dandan | Matt Newnam

• Creatures (10)
• 10 Dandan

• Instants (34)
• 2 Brainstorm
• 2 Crystal Spray
• 2 Dance of the Skywise
• 2 Metamorphose
• 2 Mind Bend
• 2 Mystical Tutor
• 2 Predict
• 2 Ray of Command
• 2 Supplant Form
• 2 Unsubstantiate
• 2 Vision Charm
• 4 Accumulated Knowledge
• 8 Memory Lapse

• Sorceries (4)
• 2 Diminishing Returns
• 2 Mystic Retrieval

• Lands (32)
• 18 Island
• 2 Halimar Depths
• 2 Izzet Boilerworks
• 2 Lonely Sandbar
• 2 Mystic Sanctuary
• 2 Remote Isle
• 2 Svyelunite Temple
• 2 Temple of Epiphany

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First and foremost, the only way to deal damage to your opponent is with Dandan, the "Fish" half of the format title. This 4/1 Fish has two important abilities on it. The first is that it can't attack unless your opponent controls an Island. The second is that if you don't control any Islands, you have to sacrifice them.

Second, the "Forgetful" half of the format's title revolves around Memory Lapse. You'll see versions all over the place, but eight copies of Memory Lapse is usually standard for most lists. Memory Lapse is a counterspell that essentially tries to steal what your opponent plays, since it returns it to the top of the library. They pass after you Memory Lapse and boom, you draw the card.

Finally, the deck is filled with all sorts of other Blue spells. Accumulated Knowledge draws you cards but fuels your opponent's next one. Diminishing Returns can act as both a hand reset for both of you and even as a win condition if the deck has a low count in it. Vision Charm can act as a Wrath of God whereas Dance of the Skywise can save your Fish by turning it into a Dragon.

The overall strategy of the game, in Nick's own words, is "Control the draw, control the game." Basically, if you can use cards like Memory Lapse and Brainstorm to control what resolves and what you steal, all while dealing with your opponent doing the exact same thing to you, then you'll win.

From the Chaos Vault: Secret Lair Dandan

On March 16th, our fine friends at Wizards of the Coast officially (it was revealed at MagicCon Atlanta in 2025, but this is the real one) released the Secret Lair version of Forgetful Fish, with some changes. Here's their list below, you can also find an article by Carmen Klomparens here along with some of the theory behind the card selections.

OG Forgetful Fish | Dandan | Wizards of the Coast

• Creatures (10)
• 10 Dandan

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Control Magic

• Instants (28)
• 2 Brainstorm
• 2 Crystal Spray
• 2 Magical Hack
• 2 Mental Note
• 2 Metamorphose
• 2 Predict
• 2 Telling Time
• 2 Unsubstantiate
• 4 Accumulated Knowledge
• 8 Memory Lapse

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Capture of Jingzhou
• 2 Chart a Course
• 2 Day's Undoing

• Lands (34)
• 20 Island
• 2 Halimar Depths
• 2 Haunted Fengraf
• 2 Lonely Sandbar
• 2 Mystic Sanctuary
• 2 Remote Isle
• 2 Svyelunite Temple
• 2 The Surgical Bay

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The main takeaway from SLD's list is that the list is entirely Mono-Blue, instead of the original Blue with a splash of Red for Mystic Retrieval's Flashback ability. Some notable cards include Capture of Jingzhou (AKA Time Warp AKA Temporal Manipulation) and Day's Undoing, while cards like Mystic Retrieval and Vision Charm (sort of) were excluded.

While some might argue that these just helped to beef up the value on the SLD, I have a few thoughts.

First, Day's Undoing is, in my opinion, a neat throwback to the original 90's list which included Timetwister. Diminishing Returns eventually replaced it because Timetwister wasn't an easily attainable card for most people, and Carmen alludes to Day's Undoing being a stronger option due to its lower mana cost and essentially the same effect. I'm a fan, personally.

Capture of Jingzhou, though, is one I'm personally less a fan of. It can create scenarios where opponents can lose out of nowhere due to being able to just resolve it with two Dandan in play. In Forgetful Fish, you can see almost everything coming (ironic format name aside) and there is generally a constant slow burn if both players are playing well.

Supplant Form is the original big mana card in the list and I think it should stay that way, especially since it can't outright win you the game most of the time, compared to how a five-mana Time Walk can.

Finally, I'm glad that they removed Mystical Tutor. No notes there, the card is mediocre at best.

Library content aside, I would love to talk about the art in the SLD version. It comes with 46 borderless foil cards and 34 retro frame cards, using updated formatting and the SLD set symbol, making it one of the most unique Secret Lair releases to date.

For the borderless foils, there are four different Islands that you get five of each, all in gorgeous full art. You get the iconic Fish, Dandan, in two different art, also five of each. You get eight copies of Memory Lapse and four copies of Accumulated Knowledge, along with two copies each of Mystic Sanctuary and Magical Hack.

I don't know about any of you, but I'm really hoping someone doesn't keep this together and can get me a copy of that Mystic Sanctuary, it's phenomenal.

For the retro frame cards, some are cards that have not been in retro frames before, such as Unsubstantiate and Chart a Course. Halimar Depths, Haunted Fengraf, and Day's Undoing are especially nice in those frames, so those will have some solid value as well.

Finally, they've also included two copies of Vision Charm, also in Borderless Foil, as the bonus cards for this, to make it slightly customizable out of the box. Carmen mentions in her article that they opted against it in the main list due to it shutting down solid tempo-starts. I'm in the camp of those that believe it should be included, but I'd love to hear your thoughts as well.

Final Thoughts

Forgetful Fish is one of those easy formats that literally anyone can pick up and play, provided you at least know the basics of Magic's rules. It's great at teaching you some obscure card interactions, like dealing with changing text on cards or how to Brainstorm effectively. It has a massive community online, from a Dandan Discord to the ForgetfulFish Reddit. Give it a try, especially if you managed to snag a copy of the Secret Lair one!