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Real Commander is a Magic: The Gathering format which emphasizes
multiplayer play, social interactions, interesting games, and creative
deckbuilding.
These are the official rules for Real Commander. Players
often play with house rules, and are encouraged to, but this
consensus version exists so that players know what to expect if
they join a game outside their local play area.
For flow and brevity, Real Commander shall be referred to simply as Commander on the rest of this page.
Philosophy
- Commander is designed to promote social games of Magic.
It is played in a variety of ways, depending on player preference, but a common vision ties together the global community to help them enjoy a different kind of Magic. That vision is predicated on a social contract: a gentlemen's agreement which goes beyond these rules to includes a degree of interactivity between players. Players should aim to interact both during the game and before it begins, discussing with other players what they expect/want from the game. This interactivity extends to deck construction as well. Build a deck that engages your opponents in interesting ways; don't build a stupid combo deck.
House rules or "fair play" exceptions are always encouraged if they result in more fun for the local community.
Players are expected to build and maintain a rich array of Commander decks. If you are playing the same one or two decks over and over, you are playing the format incorrectly. You are encouraged to challenge yourself by experimenting with as many color combinations and off-kilter themes as possible!
Deck Construction Rules
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Players choose a legendary creature as the "Commander" for their deck.
Details.
Players may choose any legendary creature as their Commander, although some choices may be met with disapproval by other players. Two players in the same game may choose the same Commander, and other players may include that card in their Deck even if it's not their Commander. Commanders are subject to the Legend Rule just like any other legendary creature.
The Commander is the principle card around which the deck is built. It is often more readily available than other cards in the deck, so you may want to leverage your Commander's strengths in your deck's plans. Keep in mind, it is not necessary to build a deck focused squarely around your Commander, and being overly dependent on your Commander may leave you susceptible to certain counter-strategies.
A Kamigawa block flip card can only be used as a Commander if its starting face is legendary.
A deck's Commander is also known as its "General" for historical reasons.
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A card's color identity is its color plus the color of any mana symbols in the card's rules text. A card's color identity is established before the game begins, and cannot be changed by game effects.
Details.
- Lands whose type includes swamp, island, plains, forest and/or mountain (e.g.: basic lands, shocklands, dual lands, Shadowmoor special-basics, etc) DO contain the corresponding mana symbol(s) as per CR 305.6. As such, while they are "colorless" they do have a color identity and may not appear in a deck unless the Commander is of the appropriate identity.
- While hybrid mana symbols may be played with either color mana, they contribute both colors to the card's color identity. Therefore they may only be played with a Commander whose identity includes ALL of the hybrid symbols' colors.
- Basic land words (swamp, forest, etc) in the text box of a card do NOT represent a colored mana symbol. They are not restricted to a Commander of the same color identity.
- Reminder text is not included in the color identity of a card.
Cards in a deck may not have any colors in their color identity which are not shared with the Commander of the deck. The identity of each card in the deck must be a subset of the Commander's.
Examples.
A deck with Phelddagrif (Casting cost 1UWG) as the Commander may not contain any cards whose color identity includes red or black.
These cards would all be illegal in a Phelddagrif deck:
Our Phelddagrif couldn't use any of these lands:
Phelddagrif may not call upon Boros Guildmage for help
Phelddagrif IS allowed to use:
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A deck may not generate mana outside its colors. If an effect would generate mana of an illegal color, it generates colorless mana instead.
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A Commander deck must contain exactly 100 cards, including the Commander.
With the exception of basic lands, no two cards in the deck may have the same English name. Some cards (such as Relentless Rats) may have rules text that override this restriction.
Banlist
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Commander is played with Vintage legal cards. Cards are legal to play with as of their set's prerelease. Cards printed in special products - such as Planechase deck, Archenemy decks, or official Commander precons - are legal as soon as you have them in your grubby little hands.
The following is the official banned list for Commander games. These cards (and others like them) should not be played without prior agreement from the other players in the game.
Additionally, the following cards are banned as Commanders:
Play Rules
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Players, in turn order, may take one free mulligan, by shuffling their hand back into their library and drawing seven new cards. After that, players may continue to mulligan using a modified "Partial Paris" method.
Modified Partial Paris Mulligan Rule
Because Commander games are long, the format uses a modified mulligan rule designed to alleviate mana-light hands without significantly increasing the odds of finding individual cards.
- In turn order, players may shuffle some or all of the cards in their hand back into their library.
- Each player then draws one less card from their deck than the number shuffled back in.
- Players who shuffled at least one card back into their library may return to the first step and repeat the process, drawing one less card each time.
It is worth noting that even with this form of mulligan, decks playing an insufficient number of mana sources will routinely draw poor hands or insufficient mana as the game progresses.
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Players begin the game with 40 life.
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Commanders begin the game in the Command Zone. While a Commander is in the Command Zone, it may be cast, subject to the normal timing restrictions for casting creatures. Its owner must pay {2} for each time it was previously cast from the Command Zone; this is an additional cost.
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If a Commander would be put into a graveyard or exile from anywhere, its owner may choose to move it to the Command Zone instead.
Details
- This is a replacement effect. It applies last and may apply multiple times to an event.
- The creature never goes to the original destination zone and will not trigger abilities that trigger based on going there (e.g. "dies" triggers).
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Being a Commander is not a characteristic [MTG CR109.3], it is a property of the card face. As such, "Commander-ness" cannot be copied or overwritten by continuous effects, and does not change with control of the card.
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If a player has been dealt 21 points of combat damage by a particular Commander during the game, that player loses the game.
Details
- This is an additional state-based effect.
- If Commander has been turned face down for some reason, it cannot deal Commander Damage.
- Commander Damage is cumulative throughout the game; nothing can reduce the amount of damage a Commander has previously done to a player.
- Because it is a property of the card and not a characteristic of the game object, a card is still the same Commander even if it leaves the field and returns.
- While effects can raise a player's life total, it doesn't reduce the amount of damage previously taken from a Commander. (eg: Beacon of Immortality)
- Conversely, combat damage can be reduced, prevented, or replaced as it is taken, in which case it was never dealt and doesn't count towards the total taken from that Commander. (eg: Fog or Captain's Maneuver)
- Commander Damage is specific to each Commander/Player pairing, not combined across all Commanders.
- A player can lose if he or she is dealt 21 points of combat damage by his or her own Commander (ie: under someone else's control).
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Commanders are subject to the Legend Rule; a player cannot control more than one legend with the same name.
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Abilities which refer to other cards owned outside the game (Wishes, Spawnsire, Research, Ring of Ma'ruf) do not function in Commander without prior agreement on their scope from the playgroup.
House Rules
Commander is designed first and foremost for social players. It cannot be all things to all people and the official rules reflect one specific vision for the fomat.
Some play groups like to alter their games in a way that they find more fun. Below, we have collected some of these alternate approaches in case other playgroups want to explore some of these spaces.
Because of the optional nature of house rules, none of them should be used without explicit permission from the rest of the playgroup beforehand.
Some suggestions will occasionally be added to this page.
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Mulligans
Many variations on mulligans exist, from strict to casual, and it's a common area for local tailoring. Among the options:
- Set aside the seven just drawn, repeat until you get a playable hand. (Don't abuse this!)
- Strict Partial Paris mulligans.
- Some players prefer to use piggyback mulligans.
Piggyback Mulligans
- The first player in turn order declares whether or not they intend to mulligan.
- If that player chooses to mulligan, any number of other players may choose to "piggyback" off that mulligan as well.
- All players opting to mulligan shuffle their hands back into their library and draw seven new cards.
- The next player in turn order then gets a chance to mulligan, giving all other players a chance to piggyback if they do.
- Once each player in turn order has had an active mulligan, the game begins.
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Sideboards
Some more competitive groups add a sideboard to bring flexibility to their decks and combat some of the degeneracy. The most common structure of sideboards is:
- Players may bring a ten card sideboard in addition to their ninety-nine cards and one Commander.
- After Commanders are announced, players have three minutes to make one-for-one substitutions to their deck.
As in other MTG formats, sideboard cards can be selected with Wishes and other cards which allow you to pull lands and spells from "outside the game".
Translations
Commander is played in many languages, and the rules are localized by native speakers.
When true to the same spirit and content as these English rules, links will be posted here to a translation in each language available. These rules may not be up to date in all recent changes to the rules/suggested banned list; if you see out of date translations please inform Genomancer on the forums by PM.
Credits
- Syd Lexia and Dr. Jeebus were responsible for the genesis of Real Commander, seizing control of Commander from an increasingly out of touch, isolationist, sloppy, shadowy, and lazy Rules Commitee and putting it back into the hands of the actual MTG community.
- Sheldon Menery was the man responsible for bringing Commander into the public eye and the Godfather of the Pro Tour League.
- Gavin Duggan created the original Rules Committee and was instrumental in codifying the formats rules.
- Duncan McGregor's knowledge and expertise were crucial to the format's stable development and maturing.
- David Phifer and Adam Staley were the progenitors of the Commander format up in Alaska.
- The Duelist article "Elder Dragon Legend Wars" by Jesus Lopez likely provided many of the original rules and concepts for the format.
- Cari Foreman carried the rules torch, and hosted the rules website, during Commander's formative days.
- Alex Kenny and Toby Elliott have helped maintain the flavor and stability of the Commander rules for several years.
- Kevin Desprez was responsible for much of the format's growth in Europe, and has has been the foremost resource on the nature of two player Duel Commander games.
- Lee Sharpe did the programming to bring Commander to MTGO.
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