Alternate formats apply ruleset and/or banlist changes to offer varied game experiences.
Petpet Battles
Build a deck of 20 cards. All cards must be unique, except Codestones. You may only include Codestones, Equipment, Food, Legends, and Potions.
Rather than a pool of 5 Neopets, use a single Petpet. Games last only one round. Petpets have a max level of 3 and a maximum Attack, Defence, and Agility of 5.
Pauper
Decks may only include Common and Rare cards (or higher rarity alt-arts of Common/Rare cards). All other rules remain the same.
Other card games typically only allow Commons, but these slots are overwhelmingly Basic Pets.
Brush Buff
Follow the official banlist, but apply the following erratas to cards:
Rainbow Paint Brush may now paint pets to ANY (non-lab-ray) colour.
Fire Pets now have the ability "This Neopet cannot have its agility reduced or be frozen (unfreeze it if frozen when painted).
Starry Pets now have the ability "If this pet rolls a Critical Success, add 1 to the total success count (only add 1 additional success when rolling multiple dice). This pet's Critical Successes when rolling defence can block opposing Critical Successes."
Rainbow Pets now have the ability "While you have no other cards in the Battledome, this pet gains 1 Attack, 1 Defence, and 1 Agility.
Royal Pets now have the ability "Once during each player's Battle Phase, you may play 1 equipment with "Meridellian" in its name from your Discard Pile.
Point Buy
Ignore the game's official banlist. Instead, construct a list of cards worth anywhere from 1-5 points. A deck may not include more than a specified point total (e.g. 5). Here is one sample list.
Sample List
5 Points
4 Points
Naia
Giant Spyder Web
3 Points
Darigan's Orb
Illusen's Comb
Lab Ray
Count Boris
2 Points
Illusen
Jhudora
Fyora
Judge Hog
Zombified Peasants
The Thieves Guild
1 Point
Lab Ray Scientist
The Breadmaster
Meuka
Lady Frostbite
Nilo
Vira
Faerie Hot Dog
Giant Spyders