Restarting the game

The card Karn Liberated (New Phyrexia) restarts the game. When the game is restarted, it immediately ends without a winner or loser, and all players still in the game when it ended start a new game. The new game is a normal game in every respect, except that the controller of the spell or ability that restarted the game plays first, and that spell or ability may have additional instructions to follow as the new game begins. All cards that were involved in the restarted game are involved in the new game, even if they didn't begin the restarted game in their owner's deck.

Rules for restarting the game were added to the Comprehensive Rules in the rules update associated with the release of New Phyrexia. As Aaron Forsythe explains, "Riffing off the world-creation and time-travel ideas, I put forth the phrase 'Restart the game,' and the team took it from there."

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Restart the Game

To immediately end the current game and restart it. See rule 104, “Ending the Game.”

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 724. Restarting the Game
  • 724.1. One card (Karn Liberated) restarts the game. A game that is restarted immediately ends. No players in that game win, lose, or draw that game. All players in that game when it ended then start a new game following the procedures set forth in rule 103, “Starting the Game,” with the following exception:
    • 724.1a The starting player in the new game is the player who controlled the spell or ability that restarted the game.
  • 724.2. All Magic cards involved in the game that was restarted when it ended, including phased-out permanents and nontraditional Magic cards, are involved in the new game, even if those cards were not originally involved in the restarted game. Ownership of cards in the new game doesn’t change, regardless of their location when the new game begins.

    Example: A player casts Living Wish, bringing a creature card into the game from outside the game. Then that game is restarted. The creature card will be part of that player’s library when the new game begins.

  • 724.3. Because each player draws seven cards when the new game begins, any player with fewer than seven cards in their library will lose the game when state-based actions are checked during the upkeep step of the first turn, regardless of any mulligans that player takes. (See rule 704, “State-Based Actions.”)
  • 724.4. The effect that restarts the game finishes resolving just before the first turn’s untap step. If the spell or ability that generated that effect has additional instructions, those instructions are followed at this time. No player has priority, and any triggered abilities that trigger as a result will go on the stack the next time a player receives priority, usually during the first turn’s upkeep step.
  • 724.5. Effects may exempt certain cards from the procedure that restarts the game. These cards are not in their owner’s deck as the new game begins.
    • 724.5a In a Commander game, a commander that has been exempted from the procedure that restarts the game won’t begin the new game in the command zone. However, it remains that deck’s commander for the new game. See rule 903, “Commander.”
  • 724.6. If a Magic subgame (see rule 724) is restarted, the main game is unaffected. Main-game effects that refer to the winner or loser of the subgame now refer to the winner or loser of the restarted subgame.
  • 724.7. If a multiplayer game using the limited range of influence option (see rule 801) is restarted, all players in the game are involved, regardless of the range of influence of the player who controls the ability that restarted the game.

External links

• New Phyrexia Frequently Asked Questions