Magic: The Gathering Formats

Prior to participating in a Hordes & Boards Magic: The Gathering event, please review the format rules below for more information on how to play a specific Magic: The Gathering event hosted by Hordes & Boards. Our most common formats are Commander, booster/sealed drafts, and Two-Headed Giant. And, as always, be on time and prepared to play!

How to Play Magic: The Gathering

Standard

PLAY RULES/MODIFIERS

Standard games are one-on-one with a 60 card minimum for the main deck (up to 15 card sideboard). Winner is determined either by best of one, or best of three games. These games should last standard length for a game (about 20 minutes on average).

Standard is a dynamic format where you build decks and play using cards in your collection from recently released Magic sets. Evolving gameplay and fresh strategies make it one of the most fun and popular ways to play Magic.

How does set rotation work?

Each year, new Magic sets are released and added to Standard. Once per year, when the fall set releases, the four oldest sets in Standard rotate out.

What Sets Are Legal in Standard?

Wilds of Eldraine
March of the Machine: The Aftermath
March of the Machine
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
The Brothers' War
Dominaria United
Streets of New Capenna
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
Innistrad: Crimson Vow
Innistrad: Midnight Hunt

Commander

PLAY RULES/MODIFIERS

This format is for four players per game and deck sizes are 99 cards + 1 commander card. The game duration for this format should be about 20 minutes per player.

The Commander format is all about picking your hero and building a deck around them. In this casual, multiplayer format, you choose a legendary creature to serve as your commander and build the rest of your deck around their color identity and unique abilities. Players are only allowed one of each card in their deck, with the exception of basic lands, but they can use cards from throughout Magic's history.

COLOR IDENTITY

A card's color identity can come from any part of that card, including its casting cost and any mana symbols in its text. Every card in your Commander deck must only use mana symbols that also appear on your commander. Colorless cards are allowed as well.

COMMAND ZONE

This is where your commander resides during the game when they are not in play. At the start of the game, each player puts their commander face up into the command zone. A commander can be cast from the command zone for its normal costs, plus an additional two mana for each previous time it's been cast from the command zone this game. If your commander would be put into your library, hand, graveyard or exile from anywhere, you may return it to your command zone instead.

COMMANDER DAMAGE

A player that's been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the course of the game loses the game. The commander is tracked across zone changes for this purpose (for example, if one player takes control of another player's commander, any damage that commander already dealt is still counted).

PLAY FREE-FOR-ALL MULTIPLAYER

If you're playing a game of Commander with three or more people, you play against each other in a free-for-all multiplayer format.

Each player starts with 40 life, places their commander face-up in their command zone, and draws a hand of seven cards. Players are seated randomly in a circle and turns progress one player at a time in clockwise order around the table.

During gameplay, a player may choose to attack any other player, regardless of their position on the table, and can also choose to attack multiple different players during their attack phase. Permanents, spells, and abilities can also target any player around the table (as long as they don't explicitly say they must be used on "you").

No matter the outcome, Commander gives players the tools to express themselves through strategy, skill, and a whole lot of deck building fun.

For more information about the Commander format, visit https://mtgcommander.net/

Two-Headed Giant

PLAY RULES/MODIFIERS

Play, plan, and battle as a team. In Two-Headed Giant, the life total is shared and starts at 30 life. In Two-Headed Giant, each two-player teams shares a starting 30 life and takes their turn simultaneously. The team does not share any other resources other than life. For instance, any reference to "you" on a card still applies to the individual holder.

Effects that read "each opponent" or "each player", however, affect each team member separately. Players can block any creature(s) that are attacking them, their teammates or Planeswalkers their team controls.

The team that goes first skips their first draw step.
Constructed: Only four copies of any non-basic land card are allowed to be shared between teammates. 60 card deck.
Limited: Players share a card pool. Players pool the cards they open and build decks together. 40 card deck.
Commander: 99 card deck + a Commander card.

How to draft: First, players sit around a table in a semi-circle. Each player then opens a booster pack and picks a single card without showing the other players.

Each player then passes the remaining cards to the left, and continues drafting from the new cards they get from the player on their right. This continues until all of the cards in those packs have been distributed (drafted). Then each player opens a second pack, but this time, pass the pack to the right. After all those cards are drafted, you do the same with the third pack, passing to the left again. At the end, each player will have about 45 cards (along with any number of basic lands) which they can use to build a 40 card deck.

Booster Draft

PLAY RULES/MODIFIERS

A format for up to 8 players to open card packs, then play one-on-one games on the spot! Each deck should have at least 40 cards and should last an average length for a game (about 20 minutes).

How to draft: First, players sit around a table in a semi-circle. Each player then opens a booster pack and picks a single card without showing the other players.