Casual

Casual refers to playing Magic: The Gathering without an attempt being made to have tournament-worthy decks or be really competitive. Casual players, making up a significant majority of the customer base for the game, are generally more concerned about having fun than winning. Casual games are often played with theme decks that possess a unifying idea, image, or motif, repeated or developed throughout. Listed here are a number of casual formats that range from somewhat goofy to completely crazy. With a few exceptions, there are no "official rules" for these formats.

As with sanctioned formats, most casual variants can be categorised into Constructed, Limited and Multiplayer formats. Some formatis only appear in Magic Online.

List

Category	Name	Description
Multiplayer	3-Card Blind	Forum-based, played with decks of three cards.
Multiplayer	4-Card Blind	Forum-based, played with decks of four cards.
Multiplayer	Auction	Players bid with life points and hand size for preconstructed decks.
Limited	Duplicate Sealed	Each player receives the exact same card pool.
Constructed	Highlander	Only one copy of each card in the deck, with the exception of basic lands. A deck must contain at least 100 cards. No Sideboard.
Multiplayer	Horde Magic	All players working cooperatively to defeat an automated deck.
Limited	Mental Magic	A card can be played as any card in the game with the same exact mana cost.
Constructed	Pauper Magic	Only allows common cards.
Constructed	Peasant Magic	No rares are allowed.
Multiplayer	Planechase	Normal decks are augmented with oversized plane and phenomenon cards.
Constructed	Rainbow Stairwell	Each deck contains exactly 60 cards, six cards from each of the five colors as well as six artifacts or colorless cards.
Limited	Rotisserie Draft	Every card of a subset of cards is legal and every card only appears once.
Multiplayer	Two-Headed Giant	Two Teams of two players each all play together in a single game.
Multiplayer	Type 4	Each player has access to unlimited quantities of mana, but is restricted to casting only one spell on each turn.
Multiplayer	Free-for-All	A group of players compete as individuals against each other.
Multiplayer	Grand Melee	Ten or more players. Multiple players to take turns at the same time.
Multiplayer	Team vs. Team	Teams play against each other. Resources are not shared.
Multiplayer	Emperor	Teams of three players. Each team has one emperor, who is protected by the other players.
Multiplayer	Alternating Teams	Players are seated so that no one is next to a teammate and each team is equally spaced out.
Constructed	Ancient	Only allows cards from the original border sets (Alpha through Onslaught).
Constructed	Tribal Wars	Emphasizes creature combat and tribal themes.
Constructed	Star	Five players each represent one of the five colors of Magic.
Constructed	Singleton	Only one copy of each card in the deck, with the exception of basic lands.
Constructed	Prismatic	Each deck must contain at least 250 cards, including at least 20 cards of each color.
Constructed	Freeform	Magic Online only. All sets and cards are allowed. Regular deckbuilding rules are relaxed.
Constructed	Classic	Magic Online only. All sets and cards are allowed. Normal deckbuilding rules do apply.
Constructed	Momir Basic	Magic Online only. Based on the “Momir Vig” Vanguard avatar.
Constructed	Vanguard	Normal decks are augmented with oversized cards that modify the rules.
Multiplayer	Conspiracy	Focuses on the drafting process and politics.
Constructed	Build Your Own Standard	Each player chooses a core set and two blocks to create their own Standard world..
Constructed	Build Your Own Block	Each player selects the first set from any block, the second set from any block and the third set from any block.
Constructed	Block Party	Each player uses cards from his favorite block.
Constructed	QL Magic	Only allows cards from the original border sets (Alpha through Onslaught). Uses Sixth Edition rules.
Limited	Mini-Master	Each player starts with a single booster pack and fifteen basic lands.
Limited	Solomon Draft	Drafting for two people.
Multiplayer	Four-player Solomon Draft	Drafting for four people.
Limited	Pick-a-Pack	Drafting with booster packs from many sets.
Limited	Winston Draft	Drafting with variable stacks of cards.
Limited	Winchester Draft	Drafting with variable stacks of cards.
Limited	Back Draft	Reverse Booster Draft. Players build their opponent's card pool.
Limited	Reject Rare Draft	Each player donates 45 reject rares to play with.
Limited	Continuous Draft	Each player has a constantly changing card pool.
Limited	Cube Draft	Player create a "cube", a specifically selected set of at least 360 different cards.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is each a mode of play involving more than two players.

Free-for-All/Circle

In Free-for-All multiplayer games, a group of players compete as individuals against each other. Players are seated randomly in a circle, and turns progress one player at a time clockwise around the table.

Before the game starts, make sure that everyone agrees on how attacking is going to work. Players can "attack left," in which the only legal player to attack is the one sitting directly to that player's left, "attack right," or "attack multiple players." If the "attack multiple players" option is chosen, players may attack different players within the same attack. The same option applies to everyone in the game.

Regardless of which attack rule is chosen, any player may target any player, permanent, spell, or anything else in the game.

A player wins a Free-for-All game when all of his or opponents have lost, or when a spell or ability specifically says that player wins the game.

Chaos

Chaos Magic is a variant of Free-for-All that adds something called a "Chaos Deck" to the game to create new and exciting challenges for players. The Chaos deck consists of 20–30 cards selected by some of the players involved. The player who goes first is designated the Chaos player; before that player untaps at the beginning of his or her turn, that player flips a card from the Chaos Deck face up on the table. That card is considered "in effect" until the Chaos player flips a different card after a full series of turns. The active Chaos card isn't in play and can't be affected by spells or abilities. Any player may use any abilities granted by the card, or, if it has a specific effect, each player immediately resolves the effect.

If the Chaos player is eliminated from the game, the next time that player's turn would have started, the mantle of Chaos player is passed to the first player to the left that's still in the game.

Examples of cards that could be used for a Chaos decks include Armageddon (which destroys all lands when it's flipped over), Kumano, Master Yamabushi (which allows each player to repeatedly spend 1 ManaRed Mana to deal 1 damage to a creature or player), and Howling Mine (which has each player to draw an additional card during his or her draw step). What cards will be in your Chaos Deck? That's up to you!

Grand Melee

Ever wondered whether you could play a game of Magic with ten or more players at the same time? Grand Melee is a variant of Free-for-All that lets you do exactly that! The Grand Melee format is normally used only in games begun with ten or more players. It has a slightly more complex set of rules than a normal Free-for-All game.

Players sit around the table exactly as they would for a Free-for-All game, choosing their seats randomly. Unlike that variant, however, each player has a "range of influence" of 1. This means their spells and abilities can affect only themselves and players within one seat of their own: the player directly to the left and the player directly to the right. For the most part, everyone else in the game is treated as though they didn't exist. For example, if you play Wrath of God, it'll destroy only the creatures controlled by you and your two neighbors, and if you play Coalition Victory, it'll cause only your two neighbors to lose the game. Furthermore, players are allowed to attack only the player immediately to their left.

The most innovative twist in Grand Melee is that the variant allows multiple players to take turns at the same time! Rotating "turn markers" keep track of which players are currently taking turns. Each turn marker, which can be represented by a button or coin or anything else you have handy, represents an active player's turn. There is one turn marker for each full four players in the game, meaning a Grand Melee game with 16 players has four turn markers, while a game with 15 players has three turn markers.

The player who starts the game gets the first turn marker. The player four seats to that player's left (the fifth player) takes the second turn marker, and so on until all the turn markers have been handed out. Each turn marker is assigned a number in this way. Then all players with turn markers start their turns at the same time. When a player ends his or her turn, that player passes the turn marker to the player on his or her left. A player can't receive a turn marker if the player the three seats to his or her left already has one. If this is the case, the turn marker waits until the player four seats to his or her left takes the other turn marker. If an effect gives a player an extra turn and that player currently has a turn marker, he or she holds on to the marker and takes that turn. If it's not that player's turn, however, that player instead takes the extra turn immediately before his or her next turn.

If a player leaves the game and that player's leaving would reduce the number of turn markers in the game, a turn marker is removed. This doesn't happen immediately; turn markers are removed only between turns. The turn marker that's removed is the one closest to the departed player's right. If more than one player has left the game and there are multiple turn markers that could be removed, remove the marker with the lower number.

The last player to survive wins!

While all of this might seem confusing, it's much more important to shuffle up and play than it is to understand all the tricky nuances. If you're looking for a fantastic way to spend a weekend afternoon, you can't go wrong with a raucous game of Grand Melee with your friends!

Two-Headed Giant

Two-Headed Giant (also known as 2HG) is a DCI-sanctioned format in which 2 Teams of 2 players each all play together in a single game. Each team sits together on one side of the table. Each team decides the order in which its players sit. The player seated on the right within each team is the primary player, and the player seated on the left is the secondary player. Each team has a shared life total, which starts at 40 life. 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. Teammates may review each other's hands and discuss strategies at any time. Each team takes turns rather than each player. Both the players on a team take their team turn at the exact same time.

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.

Assassin

In the Assassin format, players are randomly assigned "targets" to defeat. Players are free to attack whomever they want. However, victory is not determined solely by who the last player is, but also by who manages to take out the most marks over the course of the game. Players score points for delivering the finishing blow to their assigned target as well as being the last survivor. Defeating another player grants you their mark, and thus a new target to attack.

Emperor

The Emperor variant involves two teams of three players each. Each team sits together on one side of the table, with team members deciding the order in which they're seated. Each team has one "emperor," which is the player seated in the middle of the team. The remaining players on the team are "generals" whose job is to protect their emperor while attempting to take down the opposing emperor. Players randomly determine which emperor will go first, generally using the high roll on dice, and turn order then progresses to the left.

Emperors have a "range of influence" of 2, which means that their spells and abilities affect only themselves and players within two seats of their own. In other words, at the start of the game, they can affect everyone except the opposing emperor. Generals have a range of influence of 1. At the start of the game, they can't affect the opposing emperor either. The only way to get an opposing emperor within your range of influence is to defeat an opposing general!

Players may attack only opponents seated immediately next to them. This means that at the beginning of the game, emperors can't attack anyone because no opponent is sitting next to them.

Each player plays as an individual. Players can collaborate by looking at each other's hands and discussing strategy, but each player keeps a separate life total (starting at 20), hand, library, battlefield, and so on. The one difference is the "deploy creatures" option. Each of the emperor's creature has the ability "{T}: Target teammate gains control of this creature. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery." Keep in mind that when a player is eliminated from the game, all cards he or she owns (including creatures controlled by other players) are removed from the game. If that player controlled permanents that are owned by other players, they'll stay in the game and go back to whichever player should be controlling them now.

Winning and losing an Emperor game works differently than normal. A team wins the game when the opposing emperor has been eliminated. It doesn't matter whether the losing team has any generals remaining or not. This also means that a general that's been eliminated from the game can still win if his or her team eliminates the opposing emperor later on!

The Emperor format can be played with more than two teams; in that case, the appropriate Free-for-All rules are applied. The format can also be played with more than three members on each team, as long as each team has the same number. Each extra player on a team is an additional general. That means that some generals won't be sitting next to an opponent (they'll be between two teammates), so they can't attack anyone at the beginning of the game. Be sure to increase the range of influences accordingly.

Commander

Commander, sometimes called "Elder Dragon Highlander," starts with the rules for multiplayer Free-for-All games, in which any number of players compete against each other as individuals. It's played with the Singleton format (in other words, except for basic lands, each card in your deck must have a different name), and each player starts with a life total of 40 rather than the usual 20. Most importantly, the centerpiece of each deck is a legendary creature that serves as that deck's commander.

To build a deck, you first choose a legendary creature, called a "commander" or "general," then construct a Singleton deck around it containing exactly 99 other cards. Only cards of the commander's color(s) and colorless cards may be included in the deck. (Note that split cards and hybrid cards count as all of their colors.) In fact, if a card contains a mana symbol anywhere on it that's not one of your commander's colors, you can't include it in that deck! Within the game, if you would add mana to your mana pool that's a color not shared by your commander, you get colorless mana instead.

Appropriately enough for a format named after the legendary creature that's leading your team, your commander works differently from other cards in the game. Before the game begins, each player removes his or her commander from the game. You may play your commander from the command zone for its normal costs plus an additional {2} for each previous time it has been played this way. If your commander would go to the graveyard from anywhere, you may remove it from the game instead. In addition to the normal Magic loss conditions, if a player is dealt 21 points of combat damage from a single commander over the course of the game, that player loses the game!

It somehow makes sense that such a larger-than-life format was invented up in the wilds of Alaska. Its originators used commanders only from the Legends set, including (and especially!) the Elder Dragons such as Chromium and Nicol Bolas. Over time, the format spread. It became popular among judges, who would play it into the wee hours of the night following a hard day's officiating at a Pro Tour or Grand Prix event. (You can read more about their rules here.) It soon reached the mainstream and has become a favorite format in casual playgroups everywhere, from the kitchen table down the street to Magic Online to the Wizards of the Coast headquarters!

Archenemy

Archenemy is a one player versus many opponents format. The lone player, called the Archenemy, plays against a team of opponents with the use of a second deck consisting of over-sized cards of the card type scheme. The schemes basically represent a free spell per turn and help to balance out the odds for the Archenemy. The Archenemy's opponents work cooperatively against the lone player and, much like partners in Two-headed Giant, take their turn simultaneously. The Archenemy begins the game with 40 life, while each other player begins the game with only 20. The Archenemy wins if all of his or her opponents are eliminated from the game. All of the opposing players win if the Archenemy is eliminated.

Horde Magic

Horde Magic is a cooperative multiplayer variant in which the players all work together against a Horde Deck which pilots itself based on special rules and a simple turn structure. The first Horde Deck simulated surviving a zombie apocalypse. The players, called The Survivors, each contribute 20 life to the team life total and take their turn simultaneously. If the Horde Deck would lose life, that many cards are taken from the top of its library and placed in the graveyard instead. The Survivors win if the Horde Deck has no cards in its library, no cards in hand, and no creatures on the battlefield. The Horde wins if group life total for The Survivors is reduced to zero.

Challenge Decks

Like Horde Magic, Challenge decks are a cooperative multiplayer variant in which the players work together against a preconstructed Challenge Deck which pilots itself based on special rules and a simple turn structure. The players each have 20 life and take their turn simultaneously. Players may begin the game with up to two Hero cards in their Command zone to assist in defeating the Challenge Deck. The players win when they meet the Challenge Deck's win condition. The Challenge Deck is victorious if all of the players have been eliminated from the game.

Alternative

Fat Stack

If you're looking for a format you can play with friends who don't have Magic cards of their own, Fat Stack is ideal. To prepare, create two stacks of cards that are used as communal libraries. The first stack features cards that can't produce mana, and the second stack features only lands and other cards that can produce mana (such as Dark Ritual, Birds of Paradise, or Fellwar Stone).

Whenever each player draws a card, he or she may do so from either stack. (All players know which stack is which.) This includes the seven cards in each player's opening hand. Choosing which stack of cards you'll draw from each turn is a fascinating challenge: Do you want to draw ways to produce mana that will help you play the cards in your hand, or do you want to draw cards that allow you to use the mana you can already produce? Players share both stacks of cards as a library and also use a communal graveyard. You can play Fat Stack as a two-player game, or as a multiplayer Free-for-All.

Many players enjoy Fat Stack because the game setup is very quick once someone has put together the stacks of cards to be used in a game, and it allows players to participate despite not having a large collection of Magic cards.

Mental Magic

Sitting around waiting for the next round of your Magic tournament to start? A game of Mental Magic is just what you need to get you through the time. All you need is an opponent and a stack of nonland cards to form both of your decks. Players start with seven-card hands, just like in a regular game of Magic, but all players draw from the same library of cards.

Cards may be played in one of two ways:

1. Any card may be played face down as a basic land that's capable of producing any color of mana. Although these lands are basic, they have no subtypes (they're not Swamps, for example). Note that players may still play only one land on each of their turns.

2. A card may be played as any card in Magic with the same mana cost as that card—except for the card it actually is! For example, Fugitive Wizard (which has a mana cost of ) could be played as Cursecatcher, Unsummon, or Ancestral Recall, but couldn't be played as Fugitive Wizard. In order to "mentally" play a card, a player must be able to accurately describe its card text with no outside help.

Once a card has been named, that card can't be named again for the rest of the game. In fact, if a card is returned to your hand and you want to play it again, you can't name the card you named before. You have to choose a different card with that mana cost.

There are some additional Mental Magic rules that you can play with or not as your group sees fit. Cards in your hand, graveyard, or anywhere else other than in play have no names—but they do have types and subtypes. If you play Raise Dead or Duress, for example, read what's actually printed on the card. Also, library-searching effects don't work. If you play a spell or ability that tells you to search your library, that part of the effect doesn't do anything. For a more in-depth discussion, see Mike Flores's Mental Magic feature article.

Mental Magic challenges players' knowledge of Magic and allows for a quick, fun way to pass the time between matches. It also challenges players to figure out whether the card in their hand is better played as Ray of Command, Phantasmal Forces, or simply as a rainbow land!

Reverse Mental Magic

The rules in Reverse Mental Magic are the same as Mental Magic with a single twist: your opponent gets to name the card you're playing! Players still draw from the same communal deck of nonland cards, they can still play cards in their hand face down as lands that produce any color of mana, and cards still can't be played as themselves.

The difference is that you don't know what spell you're playing when you play it. For example, if you've got a card in your hand, you'll tap three lands, show the card to your opponent, and then your opponent tries to think of the least scary card with that mana cost and name it. Players can't help but enjoy themselves as they watch their opponents struggle to name weak cards, only to eventually run out of options and provide their enemy with something to do them in. Reverse Mental Magic is a great alternative for those players already well versed in regular Mental Magic play.

DC10/Type 4

DC10, sometimes referred to as Type 4, is a Magic: The Gathering multiplayer variant that leads to some wild situations. To play, shuffle up a stack of cards and place it in the center of the table. Any number of players each draw a hand of seven cards, then roll dice to determine who will play first. Play then moves clockwise around the table from the first player. That may seem like a pretty typical game of Magic, but things from there get a bit crazy.

First, there are no lands in DC10. Instead, all players have access to an unlimited amount of mana in any color or combination of colors they choose. But that doesn't mean everyone can simply play each card in their hand—the game restricts players to playing only one spell per turn. DC10 games are defined by big plays being trumped by even bigger plays, generally around a table of Magic enthusiasts loudly cajoling one another and enjoying a format that can truly be described as whimsical.

For additional variations to the game, some players choose to pre-design the stack of cards they'll play with (similar to building a cube for Cube Draft) or restrict participants to being able to perform actions only a certain number of times each turn (meaning a player casting the card Fireball might be able to spend only 10 mana, or a player activating a Masticore's ability could do so only 10 times).