Here at magic-league.com we offer a large variety of formats. Many of these are mainstream, but some others are out of the loop. We've already had �Block Party� and �Rainbow Stairwell� with quite some success. The following list aims to get rid of the entire process of digging through the forums for a list of those formats, and introduce players to formats they may have never heard of.
Enjoy!
Unless stated otherwise, decks must have a minimum of 60 cards and you may only use a maximum of 4 copies of 1 card. If you use a sideboard, it must be 15 cards. If a format doesn't state any bannings/restrictions and doesn't say which sets are legal, the format will be announced together with an official format. In example: "Extended Highlander" will mean the Extended bannings will apply and that you may play cards from all sets legal in Extended.
- Block Party
- Tribal
- Chaos Mode
- Peasant Magic
- King�s Magic
- Rainbow Stairwell
- 5-Color
- B.Y.O.B
- Chameleon
- Highlander / Singleton
- 237 Magic
- BYOT2 (Bring Your Own T2)
- Mindmaster
- Prismatic
- Backdraft
- Precon War!
- Make Your Own Standard
- Elder Dragon Highlander
Block Party
In Block party you can play a deck from any of the following Blocks:
| Alice | Mirage Block | Rath Cycle |
|---|---|---|
|
Ice Age Alliances ColdSnap |
Mirage Visions Weatherlight |
Tempest Stronghold Exodus |
| Urza's Block | Masques Block | Invasion Block |
|
Urza's Saga Urza's Legacy Urza's Destiny |
Masques Nemesis Prophecy |
Invasion Planeshift Apocalypse |
| Odyssey Block | Onslaught Block | Mirrodin Block |
|
Odyssey Torment Judgment |
Onslaught Legions Scourge |
Mirrodin Darksteel Fifth Dawn |
| Kamigawa Block | Ravnica Block | |
|
Champions of Kamigawa Betrayers of Kamigawa Saviors of Kamigawa |
Ravnica: City of Guilds Guildpact Dissension |
All cards banned in any Block are banned in Block Party. Here you have the block bans.
Tribal
Rules:
- Decks must be at least 60 cards.
- Sideboards are NOT allowed. If a deck has a sideboard, please remove it before joining a tourney.
- Zombie, Goblin, and Elf based decks are banned for the simple fact that they are good OUT of tribal format. Let alone them playing in such a restricted format. (They are unbanned in type 2 tribal for card pool reasons).
- Examples of some creature types are birds, dwarves, clerics, angels, thrulls, rats, spirits, cats, vampires, soldiers, beats, moonfolk, specters, horrors, minions, shamans, kavu, giants, dragons, drakes, beasts, samurai, trolls, mystics, snakes, monks, insects, slivers, bringers, zubera, and wizards.
- Decks must fit stated format!! (Extended, T2, Vintage, Legacy)
- You can have multiple colors.
- Decks must have at least 1/3 of a certain creature type. This number is always rounded up. We'll use clerics for example. If you have a deck of 60 cards, your deck has to have at least 20 clerics. If your deck has anywhere from 60-63 cards, you must have at least 21 clerics.
- Engineered Plague
- Tsabo's Decree
- Circle of Solace
- Endemic Plague
- Peer Pressure
- Skullclamp
- Extinction
- Slate of Ancestry
- Artificial Evolution
- Umezawa's Jitte
- Unnatural Selection
- Story Circle
- Martyr of Sands
- Enduring Renewal
Chaos
Go into Apprentice, click on OPTIONS > Preferences > Alternate/Chaos Mode
- The Chaos Phase is before your Untap step.
- Phasing is considered an "at the beginning of your turn" effect.
- No spells or effects may be played during the Chaos Phase unless otherwise instructed.
- All triggered effects still resolve during the Chaos Phase, but neither player may respond to them.
- At the end of your Chaos Phase, roll a Chaos Roll. This roll must always
be resolved as well as possible.
- You MUST take the roll. No matter what, the chaos roll must be attempted. If there are no targets, then it will simply be countered upon resolution (fizzle).
- All rolls are considered to be controlled by the person who made the roll.
- All costs for rolls must be paid, regardless of the number targets available.
- If a roll lacks legal targets, fulfill all abilities of the roll that are possible. (Example: If Fumarole is rolled and there are no creatures in play, you must still pay three life and destroy a land.)
- All chaos rolls are colorless in nature. (Example: A Dark Banishing roll can target a White Knight.)
- All cards that are untargetable by spells or effects can not be targeted by chaos rolls that require a target.
- If a roll forces you to resolve multiple rolls, ignore that roll unless you are currently on your last roll. (Example: If you roll "Roll 3 times" and on the second of these three you roll "Roll 3 times" again, ignore that roll and re-roll your second roll.)
- At the beginning of the game, after turn order has been decided and all
players are satisfied with their opening hands, the first player rolls
in EnchantWorldLand.
- EnchantWorldLands are considered Enchantments and can be affected by all things that affect Enchantments, but will not affect or be affected by an Enchant World card coming into play.
- EnchantWorldLands are not considered to be lands.
- When a CounterRoll or RollFork is used, it resolves as though it were a roll, and can therefore be affected as though it were a roll.
- When a player drops below 1 life, they are healed to 0 life and must
perform a Spite Roll.
- A Spite Roll is a Chaos Roll, and if the roll allows the player to gain life, they are able to remain in the game.
- No spells or effects may be used between the healing to 0 life and the Spite Roll.
- Only a Roll that gains you life will have any effect. Ignore any non-lifegaining Roll.
Peasant Magic Rules
Authorized cards
Decks may consist of at least sixty cards, containing:
- Cards from any published Magic set wherein cards were assigned a rarity value by WotC. This includes Starter, and Portal, but does not include promotional cards or cards from pre-built sets like Vangaurd. Unglued and unhinged are also not allowed due to the fact some cards do not translate well to online play.
- No more than five (5) uncommon cards. In Peasant Magic Tourneys that permit Sideboarding, these cards may be present either in the deck or in the sideboard.
- No rare cards.
- At least 55 common cards.
- There may be no more than four copies of any single card except basic land. Snow-covered land counts as a basic land.
If a card is listed with two different rarities in two different editions, use the most common rating for calculating rarity. p> Exceptions:
Strip Mine is officially an uncommon card, even though it had a version that was rated as common. This is a change from the general rule to limit strip mines in tourneys because of power.
Restricted / Banned cards:
Cards that are restricted or banned in Type 1, Type 1.5, and other DCI constructed tournaments are allowed in Peasant Magic, with the following exceptions, up to four (4) copies permitted in a deck. The following cards are banned for purposes of peasant magic due to irrational expense and/or being broken in peasant:
- Jeweled Bird
- Timmerian Fiends
- Bronze Tablet
- Brain Freeze
- Ali From Cairo
- Bazaar of Baghdad
- Berserk
- Candelabra of Tawnos
- Diamond Valley
- Juzam Djinn
- Library of Alexandria
- Mana Drain
- Mishra�s Workshop
King�s Magic
Here are the rules of King�s Magic:- No more than five (5) uncommon cards; the rest are basic lands and rares.
- No common cards.
- There may be no more than four (4) copies of any single card except basic land.
Rainbow Stairwell
In this format, you must build a deck that is EXACTLY 58 cards and without a sideboard. The deck is structured in a way that you must use all 5 colors and artifacts in the deck. Your deck must consist of 6 cards from each color and artifacts as well as 2 of each of the ten Dual Lands (Tundra, Scrubland, etc) and 2 lands of your choice. The 6 cards must contain one of each converted mana cost of that color up to 6.
FOR EXAMPLE: your White section might look like:
*Converted Mana cost of 1 * Mother of Runes (W)
*CC of 2 * Disenchant (1W)
*3 * Exile (2W)
*4 * Wrath of God (2WW)
*5 * Serra Angel (3WW)
*6 * Catastrophe (4WW)
You repeat this for all 5 colors and for artifacts. Your deck must have 36 cards and 22
land for a total of 58 ; no more, no less.
- Cards that mention Non-Basic Lands. Like Blood Moon and Primal Order.
- Spells with X in the casting cost.
- Carpet of Flowers
- Survival of the Fittest
- Wasteland
- Dust Bowl
- Ghost Quarter
5-Color Magic
Color Rules & Guidelines
Minimum deck size and color requirements:
- 250 cards minimum.
- No more than four of any card (except basic lands).
- At least twenty (20) cards of each color are required. Multicolored cards count toward any one of that card's colors.
The Banned & Restricted list of 5 color Magic can be found here:
http://www.5-color.com/showpage.php?page=banned
In Magic-League play, ante isn't used, so ante cards are banned too.
- There are four different 5-Color mulligans, 0-Land, 1-Land, All-Land (land-based), and Paris. For the purposes of mulliganing, there is absolutely no distinction at all between mana-producing lands and non-mana-producing lands.
- After the players have determined which player goes first, shuffled, players may mulligan.
- The first player examines her opening hand and if she qualifies to take a land-based mulligan and wants to, she reveals her hand and announces which mulligan she is taking. The second player may then declare that he �rides� the mulligan. The first player then reshuffles her deck and draws a new hand of seven cards. If the second player �rides� the mulligan he also reshuffles and draws a new hand of seven cards, and this does not count towards the second player�s mulligans. Repeat this process until one of the following cases is true: The first player chooses to keep her hand, or has taken all three Land-based mulligans, or is ineligible for any more land-based mulligans (e.g. has 2-6 lands in hand).
- Once the first player is done with her land-based mulligans, the second player repeats this process in the same way. The first player may ride the second player�s mulligans as above.
- Once both players have completed their land-based mulligans, the first player may take as many �paris� mulligans as she wants. To �paris�, a player announces that they are taking a paris mulligan and then reshuffles their deck and draws a hand of one fewer cards. The other player may not ride a paris mulligan. No land-based mulligans are allowed after paris mulligans.
- After the first player has announced that she will take no more paris mulligans the second player may take as many paris mulligans as he wants. Once the second player announces that he will take no more paris mulligans the game begins.
Build-Your-Own-Block
The difference between BYOB and normal block constructed formats is that the editions you use don't have to necessarily belong to the same block. Instead, you build your own block. As the block formats are build of the basic edition (for example Mirrodin in the MR-Block), and the following 2 expansions you choose any one basic set as your basic edition and any 2 expansions (as listed in Columns A, B, and C).| Column A | Column B | Column C |
|---|---|---|
|
Ice Age Mirage Tempest Urza's Saga Mercadian Masques Invasion Odyssey Onslaught Mirrodin Champions of Kamigawa Ravnica |
Alliances Visions Stronghold Urza's Legacy Nemesis Planeshift Torment Legions Darksteel Betrayers of Kamigawa Guildpact |
Coldsnap Weatherlight Exodus Urza's Destiny Prophecy Apocalypse Judgment Scourge Fifth Dawn Saviors of Kamigawa Dissension |
The difference between BYOB and normal block constructed formats is that the editions you use don't have to necessarily belong to the same block. Instead, you build your own block. As the block formats are build of the basic edition (for example Mirrodin in the MR-Block), and the following 2 expansions you choose any one basic set as your basic edition and any 2 expansions (as listed in Columns A, B, and C).
All cards banned in Legacy (T1.5) and in any of the block formats are also banned in Bring Your Own Block.
Chameleon
The only spells in your deck are those that require more than one color of mana to cast. This includes both "gold" cards. The minimum deck size is 60 cards. Each deck must have 2 of each of the "Dual Lands" (Tundra, Scrubland), and may contain any number of additional lands.
Any Legacy (T1.5) legal card conforming to these rules may be played with the exception of the following banned cards:
- Wasteland
- 1996 World Champion
- Crystalline Sliver
- Hibernation Sliver
- Coalition Victory
Highlander / Singleton
Highlander decks are composed of only one of any card with the exception of basic lands.
237 Magic
For this format, you build a deck out of cards with a converted mana cost of two, three, or seven (and basic lands). You can play cards with buyback as long as the original spell has a converted mana cost of two, three, or seven. Concerning split cards, both sides of the card must meet the requirements.
Counterbalance is banned in 237 Magic.
BYOT2 (Bring Your Own T2)
In this format, you choose a Type deck from the T2 formats below and take a deck from these sets into a tournament. Note the Magic-League changes to the format.| Current | Champions of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa, Saviors of Kamigawa, 9th Edition, Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpact, Dissension | ||||||||
| Aug 2005 | Mirrodin, Darksteel, Fifth Dawn, 9th Edition, Champions of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa, Saviors of Kamigawa
|
Mindmaster
Rules:
- Each player drafts 1-3 booster packs of 15 cards. You will do this before each game, and there is no need to save any of these decks. No matter how many booster packs drafted, only move 15 to your hand. This becomes your deck for that game. You will do this before each game, and there is no need to save any of these decks.
- You may mulligan what you draft. To do this, you redraft your cards. For each time you do this, at the start of the game, you remove a card in your hand from the game.
- You start with the entire deck in your hand.
- You no longer have a library.
- You still have a draw step, however you do not a draw a card in this step. You cannot draw at any point in the game.
- Players draw their hand before deciding who goes first. Rather than rolling, the players bid an undisclosed amount of health for the right to go first. Whoever bids highest, wins. Only the person who bids the highest amount loses health. In case there is a tie, rebid until there is a winner.
- During your mainphase, you can create a basic land card (other than snow) proxy and put it into play. If you are playing Coldsnap, you may create one snow land. You do this once per turn, and up to a maximum of 10 times for the entire game. If a land proxy is destroyed, it is placed within the graveyard like a real land would be. (Rather than RFG for token effects).
- The rest of the game plays like a real game of magic.
Mechanic Changes:
Drawing a card:For where any card would write "Draw a card" you simply substitute the words: "Gain 2 life."
- Ex: Compulsive Research would be rewritten to say "Gain 6 life, then discard 2 cards unless you discard a land card."
- Ex: Zur's weirding would be rewritten to say Whenever a player would gain 2 life, you may pay 2 life. If you do, that player doesn't gain 2 life.
During your draw step, you may choose and discard X (X being the dredge amount) cards. If you do, put this card from your graveyard to your hand.
- Ex: You may choose to discard 2 cards during your draw step to put Moldervine Cloak from your graveyard to your hand.
When you pay the trasnmute cost, you discard it, and put a card with equal converted mana cost to the transmuted card from your graveyard to your hand.
- Ex: You may transmute Dizzy Spell to return Caregiver from your graveyard to your hand.
Gain 1 life per 2 cards milled, rounded up.
- Ex: Glimpse of the Unthinkable reads as Gain 5 Life.
- Ex: Screeching Sliver, All Slivers have "T: Gain 1 life"
Tromp the domains - This card only gives +2/+2 max rather than its +1/+1 for each basic land.
Cards on Library:If a card is put onto the top or bottom of your library from anywhere, it is removed from the game.
Library effects:Library -> Play: If it�s a land, create one and put it in play. These do not count towards you 10 land limit (Farseek). If it�s a non-land, Put it from graveyard to play (Chord of Calling). This includes revealing cards from the top of your library (Coiling Oracle if top card is a land).
Library -> Hand: If it�s a land, create one and put it in your hand. These do not count towards you 10 land limit (Green Seeker). If it�s a non-land, put it from graveyard to your hand (Mystical Teachings). This includes revealing cards from the top of your library (Coiling Oracle if top card is a non-land).
Library -> Top of Library: If a card asks you to search for a specific card and put it on your library, you must search your graveyard and removed-from-game it. For each card you do this with, you gain 2 life. For instance, Congregation of Dawn would require you to remove 3 creature cards from your graveyard from the game, and you gain 6 life. Goblin Recruiter would allow you to remove any amount of goblins from your graveyard from the game for 2 life each.
Library -> Graveyard: This goes from hand to graveyard (Entomb).
Library manipulation: If cards would be placed from the top X cards of your library back on top, gain 2 life. If a card from the top X cards would be placed in your hand, gain 2 life. (Telling time = 2 life, Sage of Epityr = 2 life.) However, if a card has an activated ability to look at the top X cards and manipulate them, it does nothing (Sensei's Diving Top).
Cards that are based on hand size, or allow you to discard X cards: Your hand size counts as 4, unless it is lower. Then it counts as that. This allows sudden impact to hit for 4, maro to be 4 for a 4/4, but also allows hellbent to eventually activate. If a card allows or forces you to discard X cards, you may discard up to 4. This is known as "the rule of 4."
Revealing cards from the top of your library for an effect: For cards such as Sinbad or Erratic mutation, reveal the top card(s) of your graveyard instead. Complete all other instructions using those revealed cards.
How to play in Apprentice:
If you are playing rated, this format can only be done in Apprentice. You must follow the steps for this completely or be punished accordingly.
Joining a Mini:Mini's will be run as though other format-constructed; however, what deck you join with is irrelevant. The deck you submitted is a ghost deck, and is only there to put your name into pairings.
Connecting: After you are paired, find your opponent, and connect with any deck of differing size than the Mind Master format. For example, if you are drafting one pack (15 cards), then do not connect to your opponent with a 15 card library 0 SB already loaded.
Rulings (conncections): If someone fails to do the above step, have them reconnect with different decks. If they have drafted already, it�s a game loss to whomever joined with an illegal deck.
Drafting: Once connected, and the decks are checked, both players do File -> Sealed Deck Generator. Load the set(s) that you are playing under booster and hit Generate. If you like the pack you get, say keep, then transfer all the cards from the sideboard to the maindeck.
Rulings (drafting): If a player accidentally hits Generate again, he is forced a mulligan. If a player closes the window by accident, remind him to go to Sealed Generator and hit the Output tab. The generated cards will still be there. Players should only take 30 seconds per pack to decide whether or not they keep it. Past this, follow the rules for slow-playing or stalling.
Connecting with Packs: While in your Output tab, press the New Game button. DO NOT SAVE/LOAD DECK. THIS IS CHEATING. . Hit OK and connect.
Rulings (connecting w/out packs): A player who does not follow this method, and instead chooses to Save/Load is given a game loss.
Playing: Once connected, draw your library. Go to Create a Card. In the name, write Bid. In the power or toughness field, write the amount of health you wish you bid to go first. Once this card is in your hand, hold shift to drag it face down onto the playing field. Both players flip them over and the person who bids highest loses that much health and goes first. During your mainphase, use the Create a Card command to create basic lands. Make sure to identify them clearly. (Just as a note, if you name them with capitals such as Plains, they are given the picture of a regular basic land and not a picture a token receives.)
When one player wins: Start at the drafting step, and do it again. Like always, best 2/3 wins.
Prismatic
The rules of prismatic are as follows:
- Your deck must contain at least 250 cards.
- Your deck must contain at least 20 white cards, 20 blue cards, 20 black cards, 20 red cards, and 20 green cards. Multicolor and split cards count as one color or the other, not both.
- Your deck can't have Battle of Wits in it because it is banned.
- If your starting hand has 0, 1, 6 or 7 lands in it, you can take a "big deck mulligan" for free; that is, you can reveal your hand (to prove the land count) and get back a hand of seven cards. After that, you'll have to mulligan as normal if you don't like your hand. Note that if you take a "big deck mulligan," your opponent has the opportunity to take one too, for "free." Same goes for you if your opponent takes a "big deck mulligan."
Backdraft
Backdraft is a drafting format in which players try to draft the worst decks. Players draft cards then pass the pool two spaces to the left once the drafting process is complete. The recipients of these pools build the best deck they can. The participants play the person across from them at the draft table.
Precon War!
In this format, you must Choose a deck, which is one of M:rG: Starter decks. Any Pre-Made starter deck is allowed to be used, aside from the World Championship decks. Players may not edit their decks in any way.
FOR EXAMPLE: You can choose the following decks:
- Sliver Shiver
- Max Attack
- White Heat
- Goblin Rush
- World championship Decks
- Rats Nest
- Groundbreaker
- Dominator
Make Your Own Standard
Players can choose any base set from Fifth Edition forward and pair it with any two block formats to build a deck. Any cards that appear on the Legacy banned list or a Block Constructed banned list is banned in this format.Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH)
The rules for EDH on magic-league are as follows:
Deck construction:- Players must choose a legendary creature as the "General" for their deck.
- Deck size is exactly 100 (99 + the general).
- The general's mana cost dictates what mana symbols may appear on cards in the deck. A deck may not generate mana outside it's colours; anything which would generate mana of an illegal colour generates colourless mana instead.
- With the exception of basic lands, no two cards in the deck may have the same english name.
- Unless stated otherwise, EDH is played with vintage legal cards.
- No sideboard/wishboard is allowed.
- Additionally to the format's banned/restricted list, the following cards are banned:
- Balance
- Test of Endurance
- Beacon of Immortality
- Worldgorger Dragon
- Ancestral Recall
- Sway of the Stars
- Upheaval
- Time Walk
- Yawgmoth's Bargain
- Panoptic Mirror
- Crucible of Worlds
- Black Lotus
- Moxen (Jet,Emerald,Sapphire, Ruby, Pearl)
- Coalition Victory
- Library of Alexandria
- If a player suffers 21 points of combat damage from a single general, they lose. This is an additional state based effect, similar to poison counters, but separate and specific to each general. This damage cannot be healed or undone, even if the creature is removed from play temporarily. Damage done by a creature under someone else's control is still counted towards the 21 point limit for that creature and defender.
- All generals are removed from the game at the start of the game (before drawing opening 7).
- While a general is removed from the game, it may be played. As an additional cost to play your general this way, you must pay {2} for each previous time you have played it this way.
- If a general would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, it's owner may remove it from the game instead. (This is a replacement effect.. the creature never goes to the graveyard and will not trigger abilities on going to the graveyard)
- Players begin the game with 40 life.
- Karakas's ability does not return a General to its owner's hand. (Hero's Demise can still destroy it.)
- Rune Tail, Kitsune attendant flips when his controller's life total is 60 or higher.
- If a general would be shuffled into library from the rfg zone, it's not shuffled to library instead. (Riftsweeper)
Original source: http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~geduggan/EDH_rules.html Gavin Duggan)
