Substitute card

Magic Origins Checklist card

Substitute cards (formerly known as checklist cards) are used by double-faced cards and meld cards to provide the standard missing card back these cards are naturally lacking. Checklist cards were introduced with Innistrad in 2011, the name change "substitute cards" happened in 2020 with Zendikar Rising.

Description

Substitute cards have a list of all double-faced cards (common-uncommon/rare-mythic in Shadows over Innistrad) in the respective set on one side and the typical Magic card back on the other side.

In Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan boosters, double-faced cards (almost) always appear with a checklist card.

A substitute card may be be substituted for a helper card, which were released from Zendikar Rising onwards.

Card rulings

• It's important that the cards in your deck be indistinguishable from one another. To accomplish this with double-faced cards, you can use either sleeves, or the substitute cards that are included in some booster packs of sets featured double-faced cards.
• You must have an actual copy of a double-faced card that the substitute card is representing with you for each substitute card used. For example, if you use four substitute cards to represent Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, you must have four actual copies of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy too.
• The double-faced card should be kept apart from the rest of your deck. In tournaments, the double-faced card should also be kept separate from your sideboard.
• A substitute card can't be included in a deck except when it's being used to represent a double-faced card. If you opt to use a substitute card to represent a certain double-faced card, all copies of that double-faced card in the deck must use a substitute card instead of the actual copy too. (You may use substitute cards to represent a double-faced card, but not using them for another double-faced card that has a different name)
• You must mark exactly one fill-in circle on the substitute card to indicate which double-faced card it represents.
• You can still use card sleeves, even if you also choose to use substitute cards.
• During the game, a substitute card is considered to be the double-faced card it represents. For example, say you have a substitute card in your hand representing Tormented Pariah and an opponent casts Despise. The substitute card is a creature card, so your opponent may choose the substitute card and you would discard it.
• As soon as a substitute card enters a public zone (stack, battlefield, graveyard, or exile unless it's exiled face down/manifested), use the double-faced card and set the substitute card aside. If the double-faced card is put into a hidden zone (hand or library), use the substitute card again.
• If a double-faced card is exiled face down or being manifested, keep its identity hidden by using the face-down substitute card.

See also

• Helper card

Gallery

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  Innistrad

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  Dark Ascension

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  Shadows over Innistrad (uncommons and commons)

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  Shadows over Innistrad (mythics and rares)

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  Eldritch Moon

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  Ixalan

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  Rivals of Ixalan

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  Core Set 2019