900. Casual Variants

128 rules in this chapter

900.1 — This section contains additional optional rules that can be used for certain casual game variants. It is by no means com…
900.2 — The casual variants detailed here use supplemental zones, rules, cards, and other game implements not used in traditiona…
901.1 — In the Planechase variant, plane cards and phenomenon cards add additional abilities and randomness to the game. The Pla…
901.2 — A Planechase game may be a two-player game or a multiplayer game. The default multiplayer setup is the Free-for-All vari…
901.3 — In addition to the normal game materials, each player needs a supplementary planar deck of at least ten plane and/or phe…
901.3a — A planar die is a six-sided die. One face has the Planeswalker symbol. One face has the chaos symbol. The other faces ar…
901.5 — Once all players have kept their opening hands and used the abilities of cards that allow them to take an action with th…
901.6 — The owner of a plane or phenomenon card is the player who started the game with it in their planar deck. The controller…
901.7 — Any abilities of a face-up plane card or phenomenon card in the command zone function from that zone. The card’s static…
901.7a — A face-up plane card or phenomenon card that’s turned face down becomes a new object.
901.8 — Planechase games have an inherent triggered ability known as the “planeswalking ability.” The full text of this ability…
901.9 — Any time the active player has priority and the stack is empty, but only during a main phase of their turn, that player…
901.9a — If the die roll is a blank face, nothing happens. The active player gets priority.
901.9b — If the die roll is the chaos symbol, chaos ensues (see rule 311.7). The active player gets priority.
901.9c — If the die roll is the Planeswalker symbol, the “planeswalking ability” triggers and is put on the stack. The active pla…
901.9d — Rolling the planar die will cause any ability that triggers whenever a player rolls one or more dice to trigger. However…
901.10 — When a player leaves the game, all objects owned by that player except abilities from phenomena leave the game. (See rul…
901.10a — If a plane leaves the game while a “planeswalking ability” is on the stack, that ability ceases to exist.
901.10b — Abilities from phenomena owned by a player who left the game remain on the stack controlled by the new planar controller…
901.11 — After the game has started, if a player moves the top card of their planar deck off that planar deck and turns it face u…
901.11a — A player may planeswalk as the result of the “planeswalking ability” (see rule 901.8), because the owner of a face-up pl…
901.11b — The plane card that’s turned face up is the plane the player planeswalks to. The plane card or phenomenon card that’s tu…
901.11c — If a player planeswalks when there is more than one face-up plane card, that player planeswalks away from all such plane…
901.12 — A Two-Headed Giant Planechase game uses all the rules for the Two-Headed Giant multiplayer variant and all the rules for…
901.12a — Each player has their own planar deck.
901.12b — The planar controller is normally the primary player of the active team. However, if the current planar controller’s tea…
901.12c — Even though the face-up plane or phenomenon is controlled by just one player, any ability of that plane or phenomenon th…
901.12d — Since each member of the active team is an active player, each of them may roll the planar die. Each player’s cost to ro…
901.13 — In multiplayer formats other than Grand Melee, plane cards and phenomenon cards are exempt from the limited range of inf…
901.14 — In Grand Melee Planechase games, multiple plane cards or phenomenon cards may be face up at the same time.
901.14a — Before the first turn of the game of the game, each player who will start the game with a turn marker sets a starting pl…
901.14b — If a player would leave the game and that player leaving the game would reduce the number of turn markers in the game, t…
901.15 — Single Planar Deck Option
901.15a — As an alternative option, a Planechase game may be played with just a single communal planar deck. In that case, the num…
901.15b — In a Planechase game using the single planar deck option, the planar controller is considered to be the owner of all car…
901.15c — If any rule or ability refers to a player’s planar deck, the communal planar deck is used.
902.1 — In the Vanguard variant, a vanguard card allows each player to play the role of a famous character. Each player will hav…
902.2 — A Vanguard game may be a two-player game or a multiplayer game.
902.3 — In addition to the normal game materials, each player needs a vanguard card. Each vanguard card is placed face up next t…
902.4 — Each player’s starting life total is 20 plus or minus the life modifier of their vanguard card.
902.5 — Each player’s starting hand size is seven cards, as modified by the hand modifier of their vanguard card.
902.5a — If a player takes a mulligan in a Vanguard game, just like in a normal game, that player shuffles their hand back into t…
902.5b — A player’s maximum hand size is seven, as modified by the hand modifier of their vanguard card.
902.6 — The owner of a vanguard card is the player who started the game with it in the command zone. The controller of a face-up…
902.7 — Any abilities of a face-up vanguard card in the command zone function from that zone. The card’s static abilities affect…
903.1 — In the Commander variant, each deck is led by a legendary creature designated as that deck’s commander. The Commander va…
903.2 — A Commander game may be a two-player game or a multiplayer game. The default multiplayer setup is the Free-for-All varia…
903.3 — Each deck has a legendary creature card designated as its commander. This designation is not a characteristic of the obj…
903.3a — Some cards have an ability that states the card can be your commander. This ability modifies the rules for deck construc…
903.3b — If a player’s commander is a meld card and it’s melded with the other member of its meld pair, the resulting melded perm…
903.3c — If a player’s commander is a component of a merged permanent, the resulting merged permanent is that player’s commander.
903.3d — If an effect refers to controlling a commander, it refers to a permanent on the battlefield that is a commander. If an e…
903.3e — If an effect refers to a characteristic of “your commander,” it can find the appropriate player’s commander and see its…
903.4 — The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color i…
903.4a — Color identity is established before the game begins.
903.4b — If a commander has a static ability that causes a player to choose its color before the game begins, that choice applies…
903.4c — Reminder text is ignored when determining a card’s color identity. See rule 207.2.
903.4d — The back face of a double-faced card (see rule 712) is included when determining a card’s color identity. This is an exc…
903.4e — If a card has any alternative characteristics, such as those of adventurer cards (see rule 715, “Adventurer Cards”), tho…
903.4f — If an ability refers to the colors or number of colors in a commander’s color identity, that quality is undefined if tha…
903.5 — Each Commander deck is subject to the following deck construction rules.
903.5a — Each deck must contain exactly 100 cards, including its commander. In other words, the minimum deck size and the maximum…
903.5b — Other than basic lands, each card in a Commander deck must have a different English name. For the purposes of deck const…
903.5c — A card can be included in a Commander deck only if every color in its color identity is also found in the color identity…
903.5d — A card with a basic land type may be included in a Commander deck only if each color of mana it could produce is include…
903.6 — At the start of the game, each player puts their commander from their deck face up into the command zone. Then each play…
903.7 — Once the starting player has been determined, each player sets their life total to 40 and draws a hand of seven cards.
903.8 — A player may cast a commander they own from the command zone. A commander cast from the command zone costs an additional…
903.9 — A commander may return to the command zone during a Commander game.
903.9a — If a commander is in a graveyard or in exile and that object was put into that zone since the last time state-based acti…
903.9b — If a commander would be put into its owner’s hand or library from anywhere, its owner may put it into the command zone i…
903.9c — If a commander is a melded permanent or a merged permanent and its owner chooses to put it into the command zone using t…
903.10 — The Commander variant includes the following specification for winning and losing the game. All other rules for ending t…
903.10a — A player who’s been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the course of the game loses the game. (Th…
903.11 — If a player is allowed to bring a card from outside the game into a Commander game, that player can’t bring a card into…
903.12 — Brawl Option
903.12a — Brawl is an option for a different style of Commander game. Brawl games use the normal rules for the Commander variant w…
903.12b — Brawl decks are usually constructed using cards from the Standard format.
903.12c — A player designates either a legendary planeswalker or a legendary creature as their commander.
903.12d — A player’s deck must contain exactly 60 cards, including its commander. In other words, the minimum deck size and the ma…
903.12e — If a player’s commander has no colors in its color identity, that player’s deck may contain any number of basic lands of…
903.12f — In a two-player Brawl game, each player’s starting life total is 25. In a multiplayer Brawl game, each player’s starting…
903.12g — In any Brawl game, the first mulligan a player takes doesn’t count toward the number of cards that player will put on th…
903.12h — Brawl games do not use the state-based action described in rule 704.6c, which causes a player to lose the game if they’v…
903.13 — Commander Draft
903.13a — Commander Draft is an option for a different style of Commander game. It consists of a draft (a style of limited play wh…
903.13b — A draft typically consists of three draft rounds. In each draft round, each player opens a booster pack, drafts two card…
903.13c — In the first and third draft rounds, booster packs are passed to each player’s left. In the second draft round, booster…
903.13d — During the draft, a player can look only at cards in the booster pack they are currently drafting from and cards they ha…
903.13e — After the draft is complete, the cards a player drafted become that player’s card pool. If the draft contained draft boo…
903.13f — Commander Draft deck construction follows the same rules as Commander deck construction (see rule 903.5) with three exce…
903.13g — Commander Draft games follow the same rules as Commander games. See rules 903.6–903.11.
904.1 — In the Archenemy variant, a team of players faces off against a single opponent strengthened with powerful scheme cards.…
904.2 — The default setup for an Archenemy game is the Team vs. Team multiplayer variant (see rule 808) involving exactly two te…
904.2a — One of the teams consists of exactly one player, who is designated the archenemy.
904.2b — The other team consists of any number of players.
904.3 — In addition to the normal game materials, the archenemy needs a supplementary scheme deck of at least twenty scheme card…
904.4 — All scheme cards remain in the command zone throughout the game, both while they’re part of a scheme deck and while they…
904.5 — The archenemy’s starting life total is 40. Each other player’s starting life total is 20.
904.6 — Rather than a randomly determined player, the archenemy takes the first turn of the game.
904.7 — The owner of a scheme card is the player who started the game with it in the command zone. The controller of a face-up s…
904.8 — Any abilities of a face-up scheme card in the command zone function from that zone. The card’s static abilities affect t…
904.9 — Immediately after the archenemy’s precombat main phase begins during each of their turns, that player moves the top card…
904.10 — If a non-ongoing scheme card is face up in the command zone, and no triggered abilities of any scheme are on the stack o…
904.11 — Once an ongoing scheme card is set in motion, it remains face up in the command zone until an ability causes it to be ab…
904.12 — Supervillain Rumble Option
904.12a — As an alternative option, players may play a Free-for-All game in which each player has their own scheme deck. The attac…
904.12b — Each player in this game is an archenemy.
904.12c — As in a normal Free-for-All game, the starting player is randomly determined. All other rules that apply to the archenem…
904.13 — Archenemy Commander Option
904.13a — As an alternative option, players may play a Commander game (see rule 903, “Commander”) using the Archenemy rules. The n…
904.13b — The archenemy starts with 60 life. The opposing team has a shared life total that starts at 60 life rather than individu…
904.13c — Poison counters are not shared. If the archenemy has ten or more poison counters, they lose the game. If any individual…
904.13d — The archenemy’s scheme deck must contain at least ten cards, and each card must have a different English name.
905.1 — The Conspiracy Draft variant consists of a draft (a style of limited play where players choose cards from sealed booster…
905.1a — A draft typically consists of three draft rounds. In each draft round, each player opens a booster pack, drafts one card…
905.1b — In the first and third draft rounds, booster packs are passed to each player’s left. In the second draft round, booster…
905.1c — During the draft, a player can look only at cards in the booster pack they are currently drafting from, cards they have…
905.1d — After the draft and all actions that may be taken during or after the draft, all the cards a player has drafted become t…
905.2 — Some cards have abilities that function during the draft.
905.2a — During a draft, there is no active player or system of priority. If multiple players wish to take an action at the same…
905.2b — Some cards instruct players to reveal them as they’re drafted and then note some information, such as a number or color.…
905.2c — Some cards instruct players to draft them face up. Each such card remains face up until the draft is complete, an effect…
905.3 — A Conspiracy Draft game is a multiplayer game. The default multiplayer setup is the Free-for-All variant with the attack…
905.4 — At the start of the game, before decks are shuffled, each player may put any number of conspiracy cards from their sideb…
905.4a — Conspiracy cards with hidden agenda are put into the command zone face down. Any time a player has priority, they may tu…
905.5 — The owner of a conspiracy card is the player who put it into the command zone at the start of the game. The controller o…
905.6 — Once the starting player has been determined, each player sets their life total to 20 and draws a hand of seven cards.