Commander / EDH
Commander , Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) & Singleton are game formats for Magic the Gathering.
We at Xtreme Games support & encourage our customers & friends to build decks for free play in our store.
Here is how in a nut shell
The Deck must be exactly 100 cards.
Besides basic land, you may have no more than one of any card in your deck.
A good average land count for most decks is between 35 – 45.
For EDH one of your 100 cards must be a legendary creature and you can only play cards that match the mana symbols of your Generals colors.
See below for the official rules.
Deck Construction Rules
1. Players must choose a legendary creature as the "General" for their deck, in advance, and check with the coordinator of the whichever group they will be playing with. No two players may have the same general in the same game, and no player may have anyone else's general in their deck. Allocation of generals is first come, first serve. Within a given group, generals are preserved between meetings/games so that one's deck can remain consistant.
The following cards may not be used as a General:
-
Braids, Cabal Minion (Effective 2009-06-20)
2. T he general's mana cost dictates what mana symbols may appear on cards in the deck. A deck may not generate mana outside it's colors; anything which would generate mana of an illegal color generates colorless mana instead.
Example: If you were play Phelddagrif (Casting cost 1UWG) as your General, your deck may not contain any red or black cards; no card in such a deck may contain red or black mana symbols or hybrid mana symbols ( Talisman of Dominance, Life//Death and Boros Guildmage are not allowed. Degavolver is doubly bad).
3. An EDH deck must contain exactly 100 cards, including the general.
- Coloured mana symbols which may appear in an EDH deck are restricted to the colours appearing in the General's mana cost.
- 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, they may not appear in a deck unless the General is of the corresponding colour(s).
- While Hybrid mana symbols may be played with either colour mana, they count as both colours. As such, they may only be played with a general which is ALL of the hybrid mana symbols' colours.
- Basic land words (swamp, forest, etc) in the text box of a card do NOT represent a coloured mana symbol. They are not restricted to generals of the same colour.
4. With the exception of basic lands, no two cards in the deck may have the same English name.
5. EDH is played with vintage legal cards, with the exception that cards are legal as of their set's prerelease
See below for Two Headed Giant Rules.
Play rules
6. 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.
7. All generals are removed from the game before shuffling at the start of the game.
8.
-
While a General is in the command zone, it may be cast. As an additional cost to cast a General from the command zone, its owner must pay {2} for each time it was previously cast from the command zone. (ie: it costs 6WW to cast for the third time.) General is still subject to the normal timing restrictions for casting creatures (unless it has Flash or some other affect allows it to be played at another time, such as Vedalken Orrery)
9. 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) Generals will move to the library or hand as normal; only transitions to Exile or the Graveyard may be replaced.
10. Players begin the game with 40 life.
11. Generals are subject to the Legend rule; they will be put into the graveyard or command zone at the same time as any other Legendary creatures with the same name.
Card specific rules
12. Abilities which refer to other cards owned outside the game (Wishes, Spawnsire, Research, Ring of Ma'ruf) do not function in EDH unless the optional sideboard rule is in use. If sideboards are used, wishes and similar cards may retrieve sideboard card
13. Karakas's ability does not return a General to its owner's hand.
14. Rune Tail, Kitsune attendant flips when his controller's life total is 60 or higher.
Optional rules for EDH
-
EDH Sideboards
Rather than filling every deck with banal responses, it is preferable to allow some flexibility in the composition of a deck.
- Players may bring a 10 card sideboard in addition to their 99 cards and 1 General.
- After generals are announced, players have 3 minutes to make 1-for-1 substitutions to their deck.
- Any cards not played as part of the deck may be retrieved by "wishes".
Reasoning:
Highly tuned threats piloted by skilled opponents mandate efficient answers. The minimum number of response cards required to ensure they are available in the early turns can easily overwhelm the majority of an EDH deck's building space.
Sideboards allow players to respond to the "best" strategies in a timely fashion . They should be strongly considered as a necessary defense against brokenness and degeneracy in an EDH environment where no gentlemans agreement on style of play exists.
- League Play - League Play EDH rules are used for organised EDH tournaments. Each player picks a General for the duration of the league. Generals are picked on a first-come, first-served basis and no two players may pick the same general. In addition, a player may not use the General of another player in his or her deck. If a deck contains the General of another player, it should be swapped out before the game.
- Open Play - Open Play EDH rules are used for games between opponents who do not routinely play together. Under Open Play rules, Generals are not subject to the "legend rule". If a General and a non-General creature with the same name are in play, only the non-General is put into the graveyard by state-based effects. If two or more players have the same General and both creatures are in play, neither creature is put into the graveyard.
The following is a list of cards which, in addition to the regular Vintage banned list, are banned in EDH.
The following cards are banned in Vintage tournaments:
Additionally the following legends should not be used as a General:
BANNED Cards List
This is the Standard Banned list for Most EDH Players
PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS SUPPOSE TO BE A FUN FORMAT
Two-Headed Giant Constructed Format Deck Construction
Updated June 1, 2007
Two-Headed Giant Constructed decks must contain a minimum of sixty cards. There is no maximum deck size; however, you must be able to shuffle your deck with no assistance.
Two-Headed Giant uses the Unified Deck Construction rules. With the exception of basic land cards, a team's combined decks may not contain more than four of any individual card, counted by its English card title. (For example, if one player is using four Naturalizes in a Multiplayer Constructed event, no other player on that team may have a Naturalize in his or her deck.) Sideboards are not allowed in Constructed Multiplayer tournaments.
If a card is restricted in a particular format, no more than one of that card may be used by the team. No players may use cards that are banned in a particular format.
In addition to the above rules, the following card is banned in Constructed Two-Headed Giant tournaments:
