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What is Commander MTG
Commander is a casual format for Magic: The Gathering that was created by players in 2002. Commander is similar to other casual formats, such as Highlander and Old School, but has its own unique rules. When you build a deck for Commander, you can only use cards from your own collection; however, there are some special Commander-specific rules which make the format even more fun and interesting than standard formats like Standard or Modern.
The Commander format is all about picking your hero and building a deck around them.
The Commander format is all about picking your hero and building a deck around them. You can only have one legendary creature as your commander—any other legendary creatures in your deck are called "commanders" for lack of a better word, but they don't count toward the 99-card minimum.
Non-commander cards don't have to be legendary, but you may only have one copy of each card outside of basic lands in your deck. All commanders start at 40 life rather than 20, so they're harder to kill (and also easier to hit).
Each player picks a legendary creature as the commander of their deck.
In Commander, each player picks a legendary creature as the commander of their deck. It's not just any creature—it must be legendary, meaning it's got a unique name and can't be played in more than one deck.
You're also only allowed to play one commander per game (unless you have a card that says otherwise). This means that even if you have multiple legendary creatures on your team, they'll all get relegated to being part of your 99-card deck instead of being able to take the field with other commanders.
If we were playing Commander with one another later today, I'd probably start with Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker as my go-to guy since he can fly over huge swaths of land with ease and has enough mana to make almost anything happen at any time.
Tapping your commander to create a special color-identity-based mana allows players to do some pretty creative things with their decks.
Tapping your commander to create a special color-identity-based mana allows players to do some pretty creative things with their decks. It's important to know the color identity of your commander, because it will determine what cards you can cast or use that turn. For example, if you have a black/white deck with Nahiri, the Harbinger as your commander and you want access to white mana for protection spells or artifacts in play when attacking, tapping her will allow you one white mana for each time she is tapped that turn. This can be extremely powerful because it allows players to get multiple uses out of cards like Lightning Greaves (which gives +1/+1) or Sword of Feast and Famine (which gives +1/+4). Color identity is also important when playing lands from other colors because those lands might need colored mana from another source in order for them to produce colored mana themselves when played from hand.
That card stays in the command zone for the rest of the game and can be cast from there for its normal costs plus an additional .
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Cards with a commander tax are exiled. They do not go to the graveyard and cannot be returned to the deck through any means. These are the only cards that you can cast from exile for their normal costs plus an additional .
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If a player does not have enough cards in hand, he or she loses immediately. This includes having no cards in his or her library as well as having less than two cards. The game ends as soon as one player runs out of cards in his or her library; there is no chance for him or her to be able to draw another card before losing!
If a commander would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal it and put it back in the command zone instead.
If a commander would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal it and put it back in the command zone instead.
If a commander would be exiled from anywhere, reveal it and put it back in the command zone instead.
You have 100 cards, which can only contain colors in your commander's color identity and basic lands (Plains Islands Swamps Mountains Forests).
Your Commander deck is 100 cards, with no more than four of any one card. This includes your commander's color identity and basic lands (Plains Islands Swamps Mountains Forests). The color identity of a card is the colors that are in the mana cost or rules text of the card. Your Commander can be any Legendary creature, although there are some restrictions on which ones you can use depending on what format you're playing in.
Commander decks have a few unique features compared to other Magic decks:
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You have 100 cards instead of 60; this gives you plenty of room for higher-cost spells and creatures with more abilities or power/toughness.
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You can't play any cards that aren't legal for your Commander's color identity (for example, if I choose Silas Renn as my Commander then all my spells must be Red White Black or Blue).
You always have access to your commander because it starts each game in the command zone.
In Commander, you always have access to your commander because it starts each game in the command zone. This means that you can cast your commander from there at any time, even if you’re already casting spells on other turns.
To get it into the command zone:
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Tap a card in your hand that has been under your control since the beginning of this turn and hasn't yet been played (this is called “tapping”). You may tap as many cards as necessary to do this—the number doesn't matter as long as they were all tapped this way before anything else happened during this turn (like drawing cards or turning over creatures). This is called “activating” those cards.
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Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of one of those cards with no abilities (called an “exact copy token”), then move all these exact copies onto the battlefield under their owner's control at the same time. This is called creating them; moving them from somewhere else onto another place on top of each other isn't creating them again; it's just moving them again!
Commanders start with 40 life, instead of 20.
The most important thing to know about your Commander is the way you play it. Commanders in Magic are the highest-value cards in a deck and often represent a large percentage of your total power. Because of this, they can be very fragile and die quickly if left unchecked by your opponent. Unlike other cards in Magic (which typically have 20 life), a Commander starts with 40 life—a significant amount of time for you to win the game!
To illustrate how this works: suppose that you attack with an 8/8 creature on turn 5 (a big attack) but get surprised by an 8/8 creature from your opponent on turn 6. You're dead both times! In one case, however, it's because your opponent drew an overpowered card; in another case it's because he or she killed their own creature earlier than expected.*
Your commander can lead you to victory by dealing 21 damage to opposing players, but those 21 damage can be dealt to any number of players, as long as its all done by that one creature.
A commander's ability to deal 21 damage to any number of players can be a powerful force in the game. This means that a single creature can deal 21 damage to all players at once, or it can deal 21 damage to one player three different times while they're tapped out and unable to block. It's also the reason why cards like [Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite] are so important: they allow your commander to do this without being destroyed in the process.
There are many rules you should know before playing Magic in this format
Here are some of the most important rules:
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You can only have one Commander! This means that if you choose to play with a commander, then for the rest of the game, you must always have only one creature in your command zone. Other players may also have Commanders, but not in addition to yours.
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Your Commander must be legendary! What this means is that all Wizards' cards are Legendary cards. If you want to build a deck around one of them, they will be your Commander and therefore cannot leave the Command Zone (or "Command Zone"). You can still use lands and creatures like normal while they're in there though!
Conclusion
If you want to play Magic in a way that's more exciting and interesting than normal, then Commander is what you should be looking for. The format offers new challenges and ways of thinking about how to play the game while still keeping it entertaining. So if you're ready to take on some new challenges with your friends or just try something different, then I hope this article has helped you see why Commander might be right for you!