Team events

Team events are events in which players compete as three-player teams, but playing individual matches. Teams are paired against other teams similar to how players face other players in individual tournaments, and in most cases, each teammate faces a corresponding player on the other team in a best-of-three-games match, with the first team to earn two match wins taking the round. There are many forms of team events, and these have been a part of sanctioned Magic since the mid-90s.

Variations

Team Limited

There are two forms of Team Limited: Team Sealed and Team Draft.

In Team Sealed, teams typically receive 12 booster packs with which to collectively build three decks. The cards from the packs may be freely distributed between the decks, but once the decks (and sideboards) have been submitted, cards cannot be transferred from one pool to another. Thanks to the extra booster packs opened, Team Sealed decks tend to be more powerful and bomb-heavy than regular Sealed decks.

Team Draft involves two teams drafting against each other and then playing. For the draft portion, members of each team are seated alternately around the table, and no communication between players is allowed. Once the draft is done, players build 40-card decks using the cards they've drafted and any number of basic lands as with normal Booster drafts. Team members are allowed to assist each other during this process; however, unlike with Team Sealed, pools are not shared, meaning that players can only use cards they drafted themselves. Classic Team Draft plays out for 9 rounds, with each player playing each potential opponent; for larger events such as Grand Prix Top 4s, only one round is played as the whole round could take more than two hours.

Team Draft decks tend to be less powerful than regular draft decks due to a smaller card pool (18 total booster packs rather than 24) as well as the added incentive of hatedrafting cards so that the opposing team doesn't get them.

Team Limited events were a part of the professional scene since the 1999–00 season. Pro Tours featuring the format were held every year from 1999 to 2005, and in Grand Prix from 2000 to 2005, and then from 2012 to 2019. There was also a Team Draft Super League in 2017 that only ran one season due to low viewership; ChannelFireball also runs one once a set since 2021.

Team Unified Constructed

Team Unified Constructed (commonly Standard or Modern) is largely the same as regular Constructed, except that, other than basic lands, no card may appear in more than one of the three decks. For example, in Team Unified Modern, only one player may play Scalding Tarn in their deck. Previously, the rule was that with the exception of basic lands and card that ignores 4-card restriction rule (e.g. Relentless Rats), a team could only play a total of 4 of any given card, but this was changed prior to the 2016 World Magic Cup. The format had been featured first at Grand Prix Madison 2006, and shortly later, as a Pro Tour format in Pro Tour Charleston 2006. It was not used in Premier events until 2013 World Magic Cup, and in the 2016–17 season, it returned as a format in Grand Prix.

Team Trios Constructed

In a Team Trios Constructed event, players play decks from three different formats, and face players from other teams playing the same format. In present-day tournaments, the most common format combination is Standard, Modern, and Legacy. This was first featured at the 2011 World Championships, and the concept was picked up by Star City Games, who introduced Team Trios Constructed open events in 2017. In 2018, Team Trios Constructed Grand Prix events started, and PT 25th Anniversary in August 2018 was the first Pro Tour main event to feature the format. The introduction of Pioneer replaced the Legacy seat for Star City Games Trios, for the short period before the events of 2020 were cancelled.