Explaining All The Most Popular Formats in MTG Easily and Plainly

[@screechingtoad2683]

One format my college friends would do sometimes is two-headed giant. Basically, it's two players on a team against two players using 60 card decks

[@andidyouknow8208]

Me out here like no no no it’s kitchen table that’s the most expensive because it’s your rules.

[@guyinthecorner0]

@@andidyouknow8208 the fuck you taking about

[@andidyouknow8208]

@@guyinthecorner0 Because in kitchen table magic you can have 4 black lotuses in your deck. That’s what I mean.

[@guyinthecorner0]

@@andidyouknow8208 but the comment wasn't even about the strongest format. but you can have 60 lotuses in your deck in kitchen table, eho cares? wizards at one point in instruction pamphlets encouraged using basic lands as play test cards, or as we know em now, proxies

[@austinfreiburger9095]

I've played a few two-headed giant games; the first time I played it, my cousins and I were teaching someone to play. It was a great way for them to learn because I could explain what a card does without the opponent having to look at the card as well

[@LadyArtemis2012]

I remember the chaos of early magic days. One of my favorite memories is going so summer camp right when Prophecy was the newest set. We would sit on the floor of the multi-purpose room in a massive circle and play a single free-for-all game that anyone with a deck could join. Meaning we often had 20-30 people all playing a single game of magic. It was absolutely nuts and a terrible way to play the game. You would literally have to stand up and walk around the inside of the circle in order to see what cards the other kids had played. Combined with how many people were playing, that meant it might take fifteen minutes or more between each of your turns. Again, terrible way to play but I loved it and cherish those memories.

[@smileyj59]

This is amazing 😊

[@BusinessSkrub]

For anyone watching this for education on the formats post-May 2023, Standard's time frame has been increased from ~2 years to ~3 years. For posterity

[@juniperburton7693]

That's interesting

[@Zestypanda]

They need to increase it to 4 years.

[@kye4216]

@@Zestypandathey release so many sets now 4 years is just too long.

[@Dodgerific]

I hope you intend to come back to your comment once a year to update.

[@DelGray]

And now it's five years after Foundations 😊

[@Necroskull388]

One format I have a soft spot for that sadly doesn’t see much play: Oathbreaker. It’s like Commander, but you have to use a Planeswalker as your commander, and they also have a Signature Spell - an instant or sorcery in your oathbreaker’s color identity that also goes in the Command Zone, and can only be cast while your oathbreaker is on the field. You can do things like play a blue artifact-centric oathbreaker with Thoughtcast as the signature spell, so as long as you keep putting artifacts on the board, you can keep drawing cards for super cheap despite the theoretically rising commander tax on Thoughtcast. Most of which will be artifacts, that you can then put on the board. It also has a lower life total and deck size than Commander - 20 life and 60 cards - so that combined with the existence of the Signature Spell makes the games a lot faster and more explosive. Which makes it a better format than Commander for quick, casual multiplayer games, like when you’re at the game store a bit early waiting for the draft to fire and you wanna shuffle up with your buddies.

[@beechteeth]

I'd kill to play something like this

[@peaber69]

oathbreaker is a solved game... my playgroup tried it and we found so many broken and not fun things to do haha... and some decks pretty much cant loose

[@baconsir1159]

So I can have Ad Nauseam as my commander

[@TheKomodo__Gaming]

@@baconsir1159 As your "Commander/Oathbreaker"; no, it's Strictly LC's (Legendary Creature) & PW's (Planeswalker). But it can definitely be used as your signature spell as it's within the respective (color) oriented Instant or Sorcery Spell slot.

[@supercard9418]

Oathbreaker is so much better than EDH. The "Signature Spell" aspect makes it seem so much more personal than EDH. The 20 life total and 60 card deck size also makes it faster, more consistent, and more explosive---also cheaper and more practial to shuffle. IDK why people never picked it up.

[@antischtick3502]

A correction on Explorer: It's Arena's version of Pioneer and not Historic, and will be exactly Pioneer once all the cards legal in that format are on Arena.

[@Lcngopher]

Was also gonna say the same thing. Once all the cards in pioneer are put onto arena, they will remove explorer and make it pioneer

[@hououinkyouma616]

That’ll only happen once wizards buckled down and realizes the players don’t need more alchemy, frankly might never happen

[@ich3730]

why not just play modern? Never understood why people play weird formats ike explorer or pioneer.

[@Lcngopher]

@@ich3730 cause modern is too expensive for them to play, so they play those formats

[@xXSamir44Xx]

@@ich3730 Because pioneer is powerful, but not as powerful as modern. Same reason people choose to play modern instead of legacy.

[@anthonycannet1305]

Some of the other formats that weren’t popular enough to get listed include: Planechase, a format where in addition to the usual deck each player brings a 10 card deck of special Plane cards, each representing the various locations in Magic’s multiverse setting. There is always 1 plane card in play, and players can spend their mana to roll a d6 in an attempt to either move to the next plane or trigger the secondary effect of the plane in play. Planes have 2 effects, the first is always active and the second is a triggered effect that happens when someone rolls the chaos symbol on the planar die (or a 1 on a d6). If a player rolls the planeswalker symbol instead (a 6 on a d6) the current plane is discarded and the player replaces it with the top card of their planechase deck. Planechase is generally treated as a mechanism added onto another format where instead of everyone having a personal planechase deck, all the planechase cards are shuffled into a single shared deck to draw planes from, so if you’re able to find a few people willing to play a multiplayer format like commander, there’s a decent chance they’d be willing to introduce planes to the game. Vanguard, similarly to commander, each player also brings a vanguard which represents a character in Magic’s story. The vanguard applies certain effects to the game such as altering your starting life total or maximum hand size as well as some other unique ability. Unfortunately this format was discontinued and you probably won’t find anyone willing to play. Two-headed giant, this is a 2v2 format where players are on teams against each other. Players share a life total (determined by 1.5x the starting life of a single player, so a 2v2 commander game would have starting life totals of 60), and can block for each other, however cards in hand and mana are not shared. Instead of each player taking their own turn, the team takes it’s turn together. Both players draw, play cards, attack, etc. at the same time. If one player loses, the team loses. Archenemy. This is a 4 player format where the game is set up in a 3v1 match. The 3 players are on a team but have their own life totals. As a team they take their turns at the same time, however if one team member dies, the other two are still alive. The single player or “archenemy” also has a special “scheme” deck, meant to balance the 3v1 teams. At the start of the archenemy’s turn, they reveal the top card of the scheme deck which can help the archenemy or hurt the team players. The archenemy also starts with twice the normal life total and only wins when all 3 other players are defeated. Oathbreaker. This fan-made format is similar to commander except you get a 58 card singleton deck with a planeswalker as your “oathbreaker” and an instant or sorcery as your “signature spell”. The signature spell can be played following the same rules as casting your commander with the added restriction that you must control your oathbreaker/commander in order to cast it. PiLander. This is a very small fan format which combines the set restrictions of pioneer with the gameplay format of commander (also known as Elder Dragon Highlander or EDH, which was the original name of the format before wizards officially adopted the format, changing it’s name and allowing legendary creatures in general to be the commander rather than exclusively Elder Dragons). This is a link to the discord server run by the format’s creators discord.gg/jeGN5ymP

[@benjaminmiller3523]

I love Archenemy. Very interesting format if it doesn't end up being too one sided in either direction. Also, with Planechase cards coming in March of the Machine, I wonder if it'll make something of a comeback.

[@gusty7153]

i see planechase as more of an addon for other formats than a format of its own

[@anthonycannet1305]

@@gusty7153 that’s definitely how people play it seeing as the rules regarding planechase have nothing to restrict what actual formats you can play, but it is itself a “format” partly because it adds deckbuilding requirements (the 10 card planar deck) and additional actions players can take on their turns, it was also originally sold through preconstructed 60 card decks accompanied by a relevant planar deck to the strategy of the deck.

[@gusty7153]

@@anthonycannet1305 cools

[@ungekb3499]

How come he not mention the Cube format. The perfect hybrid between draft and constructed kind of. Maybe because the different cubes acts like different formats on their own.

[@poiri]

Putting pauper above pioneer in powerlevel, as it should be

[@jefffrederick258]

Pauper is fun. Still prefer commander, personally.

[@benplocica3790]

Yessss

[@golem001px]

pioner is still the better format

[@zachhogan7865]

Pauper is so fun man

[@benplocica3790]

@@golem001px in what way?

[@fwg1994]

Two other formats I think are worth mentioning are Cube and Canadian Highlander. Cube is a limited format, but rather than opening packs, someone assembles their own pool of cards from which players can make their own "packs" to draft from. While there aren't any absolutes with how a cube is constructed, it's typically 360 or 540 cards (meaning an 8 player draft will use either 100% of the card pool or 2/3rds of it), will include no duplicate cards, and has a very high power level. The most well known cube is the Vintage Cube on MTGO, which boasts the power level of Vintage, but without the consistency of every deck being a finely tuned combo deck. With the baseline for just about every card being an extremely good card and often format warping back when it was first printed, as well as some extremely good mana fixing to reduce the cost of splashing, the draft portion ends up being a lot more synergy focused than traditional draft. The typical draft strategy of a 2 color good stuff deck is just going to fall flat before decks where every card is working in the same direction. Though on the other hand, everything is so good, you can usually just go with whatever seems like the most fun and still end up with a pretty good deck. Trying to physically build a cube can be pretty expensive, but it costs nothing to maintain once you do construct it. Even eternal formats have cards go in and out of the meta as well as bannings, which does mean there's some upkeep to stay in the format. Additionally, you can tailor the cube to fit your exact preferences. People have made cubes around a certain format, or tailored it around certain colors or themes, such as the Grixis cube (only blue, black and red cards) or the Artificer's Cube (all artifact focused synergies). As someone who really enjoys drafting, but also enjoys high power level, cube is pretty much the perfect marriage of those. Canadian Highlander is maybe the most popular unofficial format. While there are many Highlander formats operating on a similar ruleset, the Canadian one seems to be the best balanced of the bunch and sees the most play outside its area of origin. It often gets compared to Commander (originally called Elder Dragon Highlander) as it is also a 100 card singleton format with no sideboard. However, that's about where the similarities end. There's no commander and no color restrictions. The better comparison is Vintage, as they have the same banned list (cards that aren't legal in any format, like ante cards). However, the restricted system Vintage uses where you can only have 1 copy of extremely powerful cards doesn't work in a format where you're only allowed to have one copy anyways. Instead, CanLander introduces the points system. Extremely powerful cards are assigned a points value, with decks allowed to have 10 points worth of cards in them. This means that you can play any card you want, but you can't play all the best cards together in one deck. And this system has worked well enough that its lead to maybe the most diverse metagame of any format in MtG. Nearly every deck that has at one point dominated an eternal format has some sort of equivalent in CanLander that has seen competitive success, as well as a few decks that are unlike anything other formats have to offer. This makes it the ideal format for anyone who loves brewing their own decks, as well a great format for anyone nostalgic for some old deck they used to play. It can be a very expensive format to get into, given how some of the cards can be upwards of several thousand dollars, but in practice it actually isn't. The place it sees the most play is on MTGO, where prices are far cheaper. In addition, since it isn't an official format, proxies are often accepted where it does see paper play. Additionally, since the format is so different from other formats, a lot of the powerhouses of the format are cards that never found a home in other formats and aren't worth anything. There are competitive decks that don't rely on any of expensive reserved list cards, and can run you less than a modern deck to put together from scratch.

[@camyron]

Because you've already mentioned Cube and the MTGO Vintage Cube, I feel like it's worth repeating a common description of Canadian Highlander: it's what can happen when you take your favourite deck from the Vintage Cube and add 60 more cards that are trying to do the same thing.

[@kuznecoffjames]

While your description of cubes is mostly correct, there is some nuance. Cubes generally have greater power than retail limited, but can be designed to operate at any power level. For instance, the Pauper Cube (maintained by a committee) is around the same power level of a masters set despite containing only cards that have been printed at common at sometime over Magic's history (no planeswalkers), and costs only ~$80 USD to assemble. Since the format is also casual and can be changed at the discretion of the curator to target a certain gameplay experience, "rules" like singleton can be broken and cards/drafting can even be changed (e.g. original companion text, draft Golos and get a free copy of Field of the Dead). Overall, I enjoy the format a lot more than retail draft since it feels more equitable. A lot of times retail sets are filled with bad cards and chase rares/mythics that don't improve the quality of gameplay in the draft (e.g. Imperial Seal in 2X2). When drafting a balanced cube that has strong archetype support, I find the experience a lot more enjoyable than retail limited where it feels like you lost because the other player got lucky and drafted more bombs than you.

[@fwg1994]

@@kuznecoffjames Nice job on finding a card that's both a bad card and a chase mythic in one with Imperial Seal for the two in one example there. But yeah, there are no hard rules with building a cube, just guidelines. When a cube is well built, its absolutely some of the most fun you can have playing MtG, regardless of what kind of cube it is. I think the only unenjoyable cube I've seen is the Strictly Worse cube, which was specifically designed to be at the absolute lowest power level. Turns out MtG just isn't really fun when you strip out any instant speed interaction, only have vanilla creatures, and slow the game way down by only including very inefficient cards.

[@brettvandermeer5297]

As a Canadian, I absolutely hate CanHighlander and it's stupid name.

[@karfsma778]

Then there's Gladiator. AKA Gladiator Arena SIngleton, or "GAS". It's more or less canlander but for Arena

[@GhostandHorseAnimation]

The best format is Cards I Own

[@jaydenlavaman]

Let’s gooo

[@eliabonfardeci2604]

This comment should have billion likes, apparently magic players don't have sense of humor 😢

[@matthewprice2118]

I know that as table top or kitchen table, an its all I played back in the day. 60 cards do your best to win in your own style.

[@zackmorris4977]

Yes, cube.

[@n__neen]

vintage does technically have a ban list: Shahrazad, ante cards, and dexterity cards like Chaos Orb. If ante were allowed, Contract From Below would probably be the most powerful card in the game.

[@katerice9844]

and all the original moxen as well as black lotus, time walk and a few others

[@n__neen]

@@katerice9844 those are only restricted, meaning one per deck maximum

[@OwOMoment]

and cards that were racist/socially unacceptable in modern time such as cleanse

[@frogmcribbit8778]

And for a while, Lurrus was so powerful and broken that it was BANNED (not restricted) in Vintage, which is quite a feat.

[@noamemerson-fleming285]

@@OwOMoment the the magic the gathering card "jihad" 😂

[@ctsamurai]

the best part of playing pauper is that you can probably afford to build multiple decks, and the mechanics of each deck tend to be fairly straightforward. So make 2 or more, its a great alternative to casual sessions where some folks might be waiting for the next Commander game.

[@xzysyndrome]

Pauper is boring. I tried it....and it just feels like all the other kids are riding their BMX's....and I am busy playing with a stick and a hole in the ground. Celebrants of Pauper really are lifting up a format that no one who can afford to compete in the other formats care about.

[@coolman1601]

@@xzysyndrome this comment is unhinged xD

[@TrickyJinjo]

As a pretty big Magic newbie who's only been playing for a few years this is the video I've been waiting for

[@RizzNoJutsu]

As a kid with my friends, we would just play with the cards we have. Anyone else? Seems like the most fun, no need for all the rules and restrictions

[@christiandean1099]

Kitchen magic. It's a great way to learn the basics and test your decks. The purpose behind the different formats is so old cards don't become unplayable in competitive settings, and having a rotating standard keeps the competitive scene fresh.

[@christophermccutcheon2143]

You could easily play any card game any way you want to really by just creating a set of house rules. That's literally why Commander exists, and probably every other format that isn't Standard, Modern or Horizon. People just aren't creative or free-minded enough to try to do something else with the cards other than their original ruleset. On that note, I've wanted to make like a D&D-style campaign in which MTG cards are spells found for loot, or the campaign requires players to start with a basic deck they can build as they find more cards from playing. Then also enemy encounters don't just follow typical Magic rules and basically play like Arch Enemy, but the plot is just unique to the scenario and made by the DM rather than being assigned randomly from a plot deck. The DM could also choose to change the plot under certain conditions. You can even pre-write unique spell interactions just to give the whole thing more intrigue and life

[@nielsmarckmann3897]

Explorer doesn't have *all* cards on Arena that aren't digital only, it only has the cards from formerly or currently standard-legal sets, where Historic also has the Historic Anthologies, Jumpstart, the Strixhaven Mystical Archive cards, and some Modern Horizons cards from Jumpstart: Historic Horizons. Explorer will one day have all cards legal in Pioneer.

[@Folfire]

This is true, but I think his explanations (likely targeting new players) were already getting complex so putting them in a 2x2 table gives a broad view of what to expect. What you say its true though.

[@KyussTheWalkingWorm]

@@Folfire He could have just said that Explorer was all the cards legal in Pioneer that are currently available in Arena, until Arena catches up. Because his actual explanation in the video really doesn't explain the metagame difference between Explorer and Historic in practice.

[@JaimeAGB-pt4xl]

This video was made very comprehensive and its a great intro for those curious about MTG.... because of that, it should've been put in your Other channels as to promote this channel and MTG as a whole

[@EdBurke37]

It's really cool to see you getting into Magic after watching your streams trying to understand it from a Yugi-Oh players perspective.

[@batosai3317]

I remember playing sealed at a new shop that decided sideboards didn't exist. I had played sealed release events for a couple years at that point and always ended up making two decks and playing what I assumed was the weaker one until it lost. With the cards being random, I could always make a slightly weaker deck with the colors I didn't use, and I love deck building with limitations. Basically, I got to play my favorite part twice for one cost of entry. Anyway, I'm at a new place for some reason and do my usual thing. First round, I lose so I swapped to my real deck and win. My opponent says "you can't do that" and calls the kid that is running the shop (who has a kid running the shop on a MTG sealed night btw?) over to make a ruling. He goes "yea, sure". I tell him that this has never been an issue at the other shop I usually went to, and they had a sanctioned MTG judge that went there for release night events. He calls the shop owner, who says that I can't use a sideboard. I play the rest of the event with my main deck and do fine, but that was the first and last time I went to that place.

[@flameofmage1099]

This whole situation is just a bruh moment

[@DefiantYeast0426]

Who tf doesn’t allow a sideboard? Fuck all that.

[@dagonhydra]

This is a fantastic, straight-forward guide! I’ll be pointing people here whenever they ask about the different formats. I’ll be honest, I was a bit worried you might not mention MTGO, so I was happy to see it in the “where to play” sections!

[@xolotltolox7626]

Speaking of MTGO, where can I actually get the game? I always just get thrown back to Arena

[@deltazulu2848]

My favorite is kitchen table format. The only rule is no companion cards (just a commander) and no crying and if your turn is taking too long the table can declare your turn over. It’s contextual. Are you busy with procs and counters? Do your thing. Are you just wonderingg what you should do. AUTOMATIC END STEP.

[@christiandean1099]

That's a bit of a weird thing to do. If you're experienced players, you should be playing at a good pace. If you're playing with newbies, help them learn good habits.

[@bojcio]

I imagine a group of rich friends who get together in their villas and only play vintage with black lotuses and stuff.

[@joshsmith1018]

Hey dude, thanks for making his channel! Love the yu gi oh and wow channels. Made this discovery today and, as a mtg player, have been binge watching all these vids today lol

[@NinjablazerZero1]

Just an addendum to the Planeswakers in Commander, you can use a Planeswalker in Commander, they just have to specifically say they are allowed to be used as a Commander. They aren't totally disallowed as Commanders. And if you have group of friend you play with, because of the casual nature of the format, house rules can and often do form, which can be another Pro to the format, and so you can get away with using certain specific planeswalkers as a Commander if your pod allows.

[@golem001px]

house rules can be a pro but also can be a HUGE con because they discourage people from playing outside of his own group because they're deck doesn't follow the actual rules of the format

[@Hazaak.]

@@golem001px true but sometimes it feels so much better to stick with a group. 95% of my games are played with a group of friends now and its so much better because there's a lot less Salt and its just more fun generally.

[@golem001px]

@@Hazaak. as someone that enjoyed knowing people while playing random casual duels on my lgs it hurts me to read people actually proud of saying things like "just stick to a group pal"

[@Hazaak.]

@@golem001px im not saying just stick to a group, im saying I like sticking to my group better. I completely understand that people do really enjoy the random casual duels and they are fun, but I've just come to prefer a group playing at home. dont worry there's still a Massive audience that will always just go to LGS and play and if they prefer it, i aint gonna tell them my way is better.

[@baconsir1159]

Also Grist

[@WIBYTIEDH]

Another con, if it's seen that way, of Brawl is there's no Commander damage. So lifegain decks can sometimes get an edge over other decks if you don't already have a win con prepared

[@chriszablocki2460]

I have a standard deck from years ago that I'd like to play against other standard decks from various blocks. Basically nobody'd be able to prepare for the meta. But it'd also be challenging to account for the legality of the deck for its specific block. Maybe just an interesting type of casual play.

[@randommaster06]

MtG trivia: The first sanctioned sealed-deck event was a Pro Tour. In addition to that, the tournament also functioned as the Mirage pre-release. Additionally additionally, the event started with a players' meeting to discuss how the event should be run. (i.e. how many packs each player got, deck size, deck construction time, etc.)

[@dakotapeterson9777]

you do a great job explaining the rules of each and i love it. make it very digestible so keep up the great work

[@alpha34098]

There are some thing that you'll need to consider: In Arena there's 2 versions of Standard: There is Standard which is a Bo1. And what is known as Traditional which is technically the Standard format from Paper and Online. This is a Bo3 format as well as the format most Tournaments are based of Also there's a version of Commander that is DCI Sanctioned (thus is Official Competitive Format) that exists exclusively for Online called 1v1 Commander There's also another DCI Sanctioned Format for Online and Arena for called Brawl which is another version of Commander but you can only use Standard-legal Cards There's also a Multiplayer Format that is DCI Sanctioned for Paper called Two-Headed Giant in which two teams of 2 Players take turns together rather than each individual Player taking turns

[@SinisterSama]

Considering that you're a bit new to Magic, this is pretty accurate all points considering. I will say that Vintage and legacy, well, most newer players won't delve even near the formats without being completely loaded. But, you did good. Good work.

[@cax1175]

That's because of the asinine reserved list

[@thek838]

The script is wrote by a long time MTG player that's why.

[@SinisterSama]

@@thek838 That would make sense considering the situation.

[@plastictrumpet6862]

@@SinisterSama Yeah basically all his TCG channels are scripted by long time players but he gives the narration himself. I think the only exception being the Yugioh channel for which he also does the scripting because he himself is the long time player.

[@1norwood1]

The reserved list is a real pity. Legacy is my favourite format I've played the same deck, Goblins, for 20 years or something now (since Onslaught). They reprinted some of the more expensive cards (Wasteland, Rishadan Port) but dual lands etc are kind of crazy.

[@michaelturner2806]

And just as you've put all this work into a very nice polished video, Arena introduces the Gladiator format, 100 card singleton with a small banlist and a few other details.

[@vivecanada1]

I legitimately laughed at the no ban list claim for alchemy as they recently banned grinning ignus from the format.

[@Y0G0FU]

Haha well the scripts are written and recorded well in advance most of the time so things like that might happen hehe.

[@radphoenix5872]

Fun fact: I got beat beat by a Grinning Ignus combo the day before it was banned. I forget the name of the card (someone might chime in) that gave Ignus a perpetual etb create a treasure token effect while having witty roastmaster on the field. after 3 or 4 loops of saccing and resummoning I did the only reasonable thing and closed the game to rethink my life choices. I no longer play alchemy and have switched to brawl.

[@eavyeavy2864]

Cant they nerf it? Isnt that the point of alchemy?

[@vivecanada1]

@@eavyeavy2864 They could have maybe, but they didn't.

[@pavelkiselev_youtube]

Thank you, man. That is what I was looking for!

[@TheTundraTerror]

One big benefit to Pauper is that many cards that wouldn't normally see play are suddenly a lot more useful.

[@xzysyndrome]

Somewhere in India...a kid was digging in a trash pile and said "Useful!" Pauper is...Trash Digging. I can't stand it...I have tried...and I honestly can't get into it. Far be it from me to say the Trash Digging format is bad. Enjoy...get your kicks...lift my trash up so that I can finally sell it.

[@DefiantYeast0426]

@@xzysyndromeman you must be fun at parties.

[@zephyrkhambatta]

Thanks for sharing that, it explained a lot. Man... what a whirlwind of formats. Makes coming back to it 20 years later really hard. I miss the school days of just making decks and playing, regardless of format. This was 2001/2002. At this rate with a family and kids, I doubt I can be a player. Perhaps just a collector for now.

[@teaganpatel3790]

My brother and I play a version of Brawl where you have 30 life and since it’s only him and I, it’s very casual. There is no Commander Damage either, and no cards are banned, since it is just us.

[@freezingfire127]

13:05 correction a planeswalker can be your commander, if it says on the card such as Estrid the Masked from the 2018 precons, or from commander legends 2, but then otherwise no, a planeswalker can't

[@go1988]

I was confused by that as well, as in my playgroup there are quite a few planeswalker commanders

[@BSG_BeerMoney]

Technically we can go even further and says that any card that states so can be your commander as card text>rules. And on top of that they still added this precision in the rulings with the rule 903.3a which states : "Some cards have an ability that states the card can be your commander. This ability modifies the rules for deck construction, and it functions before the game begins." That's just nitpicking but i guess this was made to avoid someone trying to abuse of some wording and/or ruling holes. He was just missing the 903.3a part which is an exception to the main rule (903.3), but basically he's right.

[@Merlewhitefire]

"Commanders have to be legendary creatures, not planeswalkers" is the format rule. "This card can be your commander" is a specific card ability. There are also cards that make you skip your draw phase, that doesn't mean you don't get one according to the rules.

[@Sup-northio]

One of the most popular format in Europe is Duel Commander. A commander format made for 1v1. Love your work ;)

[@jaynyc154]

This is the best video i have seen on explaining MTG formats

[@ryanblake7114]

commander does have some planeswalkers you can run as commanders, and there absolutely is a competitive side of commander called Cedh as well as the speed of commander rising

[@dontbleedthadalo]

12:44 A con that can be added is that Modern has very nearly become an unspoken-rotating format, since stronger cards get printed in every standard and MH set, making those stronger cards virtually mandatory to play if you want to compete. Modern has gotten stronger every two years, and decks that once use to be great in the format are now basically unplayed.

[@Jamal.5.56]

The guys Iv been playing with have shown us some cool little things to do that have been awesome for the nights we are bored of standard commander. The three notable ones we have done are 2 headed giant with any number of even players on each side. We did a king type game where we each got special cards that dictated our role and we won based off the role not by player. There was king.. knight.. assassin etc… the last game mode we explored was really cool but requires 6 players. It’s like 2 headed gaint but there’s two kings in the middle and two nights on the side. Each side fights it out while the kings build and the last king standing wins. That was super fun!

[@zanzaklaus2496]

I will be the one to shill for Penny Dreadful like always XD It's an MTGO exclusive format which rotates every standard set release and includes all cards under a certain price threshold (usually 1 cent, though sometimes the price of Magic cards overall goes up like when a new official format is announced). This makes it a sort of "self-correcting" format where powerful cards naturally pull themselves out of legality and allow for new strategies to be found from what's left. There are also frequently incredibly powerful cards that enter the format due to being banned everywhere else where it would be game-warping, like Gitaxian Probe or Sylvan Library.

[@Necroskull388]

I’ve always wanted to try that format but I’ve never installed MTGO. Might actually end up giving it a try.

[@pr0fess0rbadass]

The virgin Pauper vs the chad Penny Dreadful

[@GreatgoatonFire]

Historic Brawl sure is fun, as long as you get to face different Commanders.

[@ajh22895]

Oathbreaker was one that popped up in 2019. It was 60 card Commander, but you had to run a planeswalker and a signature spell which you could only cast if you controlled that walker. I ran a few decks including Angrath/Widespead Brutality.

[@WanderingRustus]

I still have myself Liliana Vess/Beseech the Queen Oathbreaker deck somewhere. Sounds silly but it's Dark Depths combo deck in a Zombie shell lol

[@xzevier9336]

Talking about pauper piqued my curiosity about the best common cards in mtg...any chance for a top 10 for it?

[@Necroskull388]

There would need to be a major caveat - are we talking best cards in Pauper, or best cards in their standard formats that were at common during rotation? Or something else? I second the idea, I’m just curious exactly what question the list would be answering.

[@xzevier9336]

@@Necroskull388 Taking the second last video he made about modal spells, some of them were good in certain formats and others just in general, that would be up to him if only comparing them only with 1 format (like papeur) or just in general without any specific (like he did with the modal spells top 10) ,although the last one would require a "lot more effort" to make the list.

[@josephcourtright8071]

I don't know about all time. But the best common in standard right now is Deadly Dispute.

[@ich3730]

@@josephcourtright8071 Nah. Its the basic island, as it is in every format :P

[@peaber69]

my top ten: 1.Storm crow 2. Storm crow 3 Red elemental blast (to deal with storm crow) 4.Storm crow 5.Storm crow 6.firey cannonade (deals with pesky storm crow players) 7.Storm crow 8.Storm crow 9.Storm crow 10.Baki’s Curse (nerfs Aura based storm crow decks)

[@mageius]

Most people when wanting to play Vintage in paper with play with proxies of the most expensive cards. Look except for official Wizards of the cost events a lot of places will usually go with allowing them. It's actually a really fun format to play when you don't have to worry about the price as much.

[@KyussTheWalkingWorm]

Even if you own the cards it's not practical to play paper Vintage. Theft is already a bad enough problem with less expensive decks, bringing a powered Vintage deck is just asking for drama and heartbreak.

[@werbearjack]

Great video, a lot of information I was hoping to see.

[@gpgp9198]

Cube and Premodern: two great ways to enjoy MTG too!

[@4137Swords]

I play Magic with my friends casually about every 2-3 weeks, and we really enjoy buying new packs, building decks out of them or improving our existing decks with them, so Modern works best for us. Standard rotates out a little too quickly for our taste, and we also still like to use our decks that we've been gradually building up over the years

[@bobseven310]

Vintage for life. Maybe because at this point, all of my cards are considered Legacy... at the very least.

[@yummines]

I would say one thing you should mention about Pioneer vs Modern is that for Pioneer they specifically banned Fetch Lands. Those lands in particular are all relatively pricey (getting playset of 1 of them usually runs you 80 usd at least) but are basically mandatory to have a decent modern deck. It's to the point that WotC made a special limited edition product known as Secret Lairs, and one of their releases was just fetch lands. While a lot of older cards can be expensive, to play Modern you pretty much have to get over the fetch land hurdle first.

[@josephwodarczyk977]

That's fair, but explaining fetchlands to someone who doesn't play is difficult, especially with how not all of them are bannd. And he didn't go over sol ring and command tower either.I can totally see being a video discussion on their own.

[@Maximus2761]

So a correction is that there is a competitive version of commander called cedh (competitive elder dragon highlander the name of commander from before it was adapted by wotc)

[@KayosWONER]

I had no idea you had a MTG channel, I was so pleasantly surprised to hear your voice

[@RealZenno]

11:13 - 11:45 During the pros and cons of pauper the text on screen actually said "Pros and Cons of PIONEER". It was fixed at 11:47 when talking about where it can be played so it's probably just something missed in editing but figured I'd let you know.

[@theguyfromacrosstheb]

Seeing you make videos on Yugioh and then Dungeons and Dragons and NOW MAGIC!? Super awesome!

[@spegynmerbles3993]

My favorite is standard brawl. It’s a singleton format that has the same card pool as standard with a commander and 60 card deck limit. It has the fresh rotating decks like standard with the more casual feel of historic brawl with a tighter focus and shorter games with a 25 life total

[@ajh22895]

With sealed, it is possible to make 3 decks and play all 3 during the event. You get 6 packs, which yields 84 nonland cards. Because you generally build decks out of 23-25 nonland cards, you can build 3 decks. This obviously is varied by how many 2-3 colour cards you get.

[@ich3730]

erm, no xD Sure you can build 3 decks, 2 of them are gonna be stillbirths tho that dont do anything.

[@PhyrexianFleshgorger]

Thank God. My 5th favorite Vtuber explains MTG formats to me. At least the difference for a yugioh fan especially. God knows we don't read!

[@josephwodarczyk977]

Not even God has the time to read yugioh cards.

[@PhyrexianFleshgorger]

@@josephwodarczyk977 you made me laugh. Be my friend haha

[@geoshark12]

13:08 there are planes walkers that can be used as commanders

[@kirian83]

Perfectly explained!

[@mistvillage171]

With the exception of when i go to in store events, the only formats we do are commander and “standard” standard just meaning 60 card decks and 15 card sideboard, we have our own banlist and stuff. Just makes things easier and more fun to us

[@Shoyro]

To clarify something regarding Commander for newer players. There ARE planeswalkers and a Vehicle that have an ability on the card to let them be allowed to be the Commander. Just ask any longtime player of Commander to talk about the Windchase Planeswalker card. You'll likely see them grimace as a result.

[@ich3730]

You certainly mean "Lord Windgrace"? Why would people grimace at that, hes just a worse version of the gitrog monster?

[@TheJustinist]

@@ich3730 Because until gitrog was printed, Windgrace was THE lands matter commander and saw a ton of play.

[@LutherGary17]

I miss the days of building a 60 card deck and playing other people. Without the need for lists, restrictions and other unnecessary complications. 60 cards, 4 of a kind max, if mtg printed it, it's legal for play. The most fun I have ever had was playing this way. Commander is where I put all my dollars and time these days.

[@TheNickW]

That's the only way I play, Commander is slow, boring and just not fun. Kitchen table Magic for life.

[@GabrielLopez-zr7gz]

Only thing I disagree with is the competitive tournament thing for commander. Admittedly, they're nowhere near as common as for other formats, but there's an entire sub-format called cEDH, or competitive commander, that's played in certain tournaments. Not saying you were wrong, just a slight bit off target. Aside from that though incredible video!

[@golem001px]

commander casual would never let that kind of information be public, they hate the competitive escene and would do whatever they can to discourage people from playing cedh

[@Hazaak.]

@@golem001px bro for real, and from delving into CEDH a little bit their community is so much nicer xd. They dont give a shit what you bring nor do they care about even if you have the real card or not, while in casual its NO PROXIES and "If you touch my shit, i'll hard focus you"

[@ThatWanderingDude]

Cedh is really fun, I think it gets a bad rap because people perceive it as elitist and unfun when it's the opposite, blazing fast games and friendly people, 90% of cedh players are cool with proxies too (because let's be honest who wants to drop 500$ on a mox diamond to test a deck out)unless you're in an actual tournament, Definitely something to try before you knock. I think the people who trash on cedh are the same people who put things like mana crypt in their "casual" deck.

[@colinmallery50]

You forgot to mention one of the big cons of commander is just how long the games go on for. For a casual player who mostly just plays to see his friends, it’s exhausting.

[@TK_GX]

good video. Ive never played MTG and know nothing about it. All I know is my local store (very small in small town in Australia) mainly does Draft and Commander it seems. I should try a Draft sometime!

[@Diogo._.Eusebio]

Forgot to mention cube in the limited section if not even make a new category for it. It removes the con that you have to constantly buy more packs, but it can get repetitive (if you have a small pool and don't update it that often or change cube) and it's hard to make and maintain and store/transport it. Nonetheless its my favorite format. :)

[@JO11190]

Yeah a good cube is really nice

[@Fausto_4841]

i like that you show one of the few banned cards as an example of a commander.

[@The1AndOnlyGoldenboy]

Other fun and popular(ish?) formats not listed include: *Two-Headed Giant/Team v. Team *Tribal Wars (MTGO format requiring 1/3 or more of your deck to have a specific creature type) *Archenemy (1 v Team) *Oathbreaker (like Commander, but the "commander" must be a Planeswalker with a selected instant or sorcery as a signature spell) *Planechase (casual format with augmented rules using a Planar Deck) *Tiny Leaders (Commander variant where only cards with mana cost 3 or less can be used) One con I'm kinda sad you didn't mention with any Eternal format... how often the metagame becomes stagnant. You mentioned decks rotating out in Standard, and how they didn't in other formats, but failed to mention that when a deck dominates... it can stay on top for YEARS. MUD/Stax in Vintage is a great example, where it's been one of the preeminent meta decks in the format for well over a decade. Plenty of times you'll end up playing against the same 5-6 strategies over and over, and boy does that get boring.

[@ich3730]

having 5-6 relevant meta decks is really good bro.

[@The1AndOnlyGoldenboy]

Not when they're the same decks that persist for YEARS. If you're talking about Standard, sure, 5-6 top decks is more than fine. Hell, that would be an exceptionally healthy meta... for Standard. When you're talking about these Eternal formats though, where Modern has a card pool filled with almost 2 decades of releases, or formats like Legacy and Vintage which have over 90% of all cards ever printed in MTG's 3 decade history... it's kinda dumb, especially when the strategies haven't changed in years. You can go back and look over reports, and you'll see Vintage has had a handful of decks that have stuck around for over a decade. Hell, the difference from a Stax deck in 2012 and one in 2022 is maybe a dozen cards when literally tens of thousands of new cards had been printed in that time. Legacy isn't much different, while the strategies employed are, the stagnation of top decks still happens there. It's just a different flavor. Modern is a little better, sure, but you can still find RDW, Affinity, Urzatron, UW Control, and Toolbox decks running around even after a decade. Again, this is when any given year sees around 1500-2500 new cards get released. Yeah, shit gets stale as fuck at some points.

[@minecraftfanaaron]

3:25 for anyone considering limited, I think cubes should be mentioned. You dont actually, in fact have to buy new cards every time. If you are willing to make a bigger one time investment, you can buy 500 ish cards to simulate a draft format, or to even create your own draft format. There is a whole community around how to build cubes, and if you like a particular set of magic cards, building a so called „set-cube“ can be a fantastic way to replay that format again and again, whenever you want, with friends. I recommend looking up the professors tutorial on how to make a set cube, or his cube tutorials in general. Also, i think it should be mentioned that there are ways to draft with less than 6 people. 2 player draft formats like winston draft, solomon draft or Rochester draft are fun ways to draft a cube with 2 people for example, without needing 5 other friends :)

[@NeufAtora]

Star magic is a pretty rare format, but it's a ton of fun. The official rules are that you have 5 people, each playing a mono deck, and the people to your left and right are your allies until there's 3 left, which turns into a free for all. I prefer playing whatever deck you want.

[@houdini8894]

Your Videos are certainly for newer players, but I watch them anyways because Of nostalgic reasons. I remember watching your ygo content when you only did Ygopro Replays years ago. Good old times. And your background music was lit. 🔥 Do you play Mtg now or did it just peak your interest because you like Cardgames in general?

[@jordanhansen5934]

In commander you also have to worry about commander damage. Basically, if your commander deals 21 or more damage to someone then they automatically lose the game regardless of how much you life they have left

[@anonamos225]

This one was very helpful

[@WanderingRustus]

There are two other multi-player focused formats not mentioned in this video: Archenemy and Planechase. Archenemy is usually played 3 vs 1, in which the solo player (the Archenemy) tries to take out the team of 3. The Archenemy starts with more life and has the assistance of a Scheme deck, an oversize deck of cards made specifically for the format that has its top card revealed at the start of the Archenemy's Main Phase 1, and its effect happens then. Planechase also uses an oversized deck of Plane and Phenomenon cards, as well as a "planar die". At the start of the game, the top card is revealed, and its effects are applied. During your Main Phase, you can roll the Planar die. The first roll is free, but each one after costs 1 generic mana per previous roll that turn. If the roll comes up with the Chaos symbol, an effect (stated on the Plane card) is applied. On the "Planeswalker" symbol, the current plane card is put on the bottom and the next plane is revealed, going into effect immediately. Some groups prefer one large planar deck, others prefer each player to have their own.

[@brianmcguinness8645]

I feel like you should do another video on the less common but still fun formats. Such as, Archenemy, Plansechase and Two-Headed giant, because while they are not as common, and some require extra cards, I think they can make for some of the most unquie and fun play.

[@zivush3d]

when i go to the local game store and told them i only play vintage they look at me like i'm a weirdo. Never had a commander deck because i only palyed with my friends and we only have vintage deck (some are modern base with a bit of extra to even the odds). oh and we banned tinker from our games- just because it way to powerfull. good video sir.

[@bikechannel4931]

Cube didn't even get a mention.

[@richardsedlak8985]

What cards can you use in commander? Ithink that wasnt mentioned or I am just stupid

[@Grimlock1979]

Many years ago, I played a game in Emperor format. You have 2 teams of 3 players. The player in the middle of each team is the emperor. You can only attack the opponent adjacent to you (so the emperor cannot attack at first). The goal is to eliminate the emperor of the opposing team, so you first have to eliminate one of the players at their side. There's also 2-headed giant, another multiplayer format.

[@SoulsGamerHD]

Finally a comment mentioning the Emperor format. Also played it years ago and couldnt remember the name.

[@JustinRuta]

Very informative

[@TheMyopie]

Very helpful.

[@Weeb-vj3xp]

I want to start and never played before besides a little on arena what format is best for beginners And what should I buy to start out

[@DarkZeroUnit]

nice and unexpected seeing hirumaredx do i magic the gathering vid

[@BlackKaiserDrake]

Something about Commander, you CAN use certain Planeswalkers like Daretti because it specifies on the card it can be used as a Commander.

[@krvys7226]

Generally, you can't unless a card says you can. (As there is also one legendary vehicle that can be a commander, as of this comment)

[@BlackKaiserDrake]

@@krvys7226 That's why I specified Daretti because Daretti says you can use it as a cmdr.

[@krvys7226]

@@BlackKaiserDrake I think your missing my point. Exceptions to the rules stated on the card do not alter the general rule. The card creates the exception. It's similer to how relentless rats overrules the 4 copies in normal deckbuilding rule. The card carves out an exception to the rule, but it doesn't change the rule as written. As well, I think he specified not planeswalker (other than exceptions that state it) specifically because he mentioned brawl earlier in the video. A format that does allow any planeswalker as commander. And since both use the terminology of "using a commander", it's worth bringing up the differences of what is allowed to be said commander for each one.

[@Lightmagician60]

4:27 "usually" more balanced... depends who you ask i guess

[@HazhMcMoor]

Damn that Goblin Charbelcher is DOROOOO! MONSTAA KAADO!

[@gianglai7346]

There is an editing error at pauper, it says pioneer

[@FrozenLavaDragonProd]

Explorer is not actually Historic without the digital cards, since Historic has a lot of Modern and Legacy legal cards that are not legal in Explorer/Pioneer. Like DRC or Faithless looting.

[@RickKoeppen]

Is EDH still a thing? That's the format that i was moat curious about, i heard about it all the time on the YT series Card Shop Life, but that was like 7-10 years ago so maybe it doesnt exist anymore.

[@CardCommander]

Bro I find more of your channels all the time by accident

[@ICEDNOTBLENDED]

Just going to point out that you could technically play explorer in paper, though it could be hard to find someone else that wants to play explorer. You could be sure your decklist is free of pioneer bans and play with someone playing pioneer, though.

[@thegodofz8230]

Few house rules I use when people call them on turn 0. Also house rules do NOT exist within the meta, and as such are not enhanced, diminished, or otherwise effected in game spells, abilities, emblems, etc. Bedlam- allows 3rd party blocking 4th Myth- If a creature is to be killed by combat damage from another, the player at advantage may untap and remove their creature from combat and flip a coin. If that player wins the flip, they take control of the disadvantaged creature. Activate only once per combat, and cancel all damages from the encounter. There are others, but this is longer already than I wanted.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

My heart will eternally belong to Vintage. Well, EDH, but also VIntage. I am in a polygamous relationship with MTG formats.

[@satansamael666]

I play primarily vintage because I’ve come to realize that it’s the most competitive format incidentally ever because the lack of bans makes the competitive selection way more selective.

[@ich3730]

@@satansamael666 Why not play modern or legacy and sell the lotus and moxen for a new car?

[@satansamael666]

@@ich3730 proxy play/ modo exists?

[@mosselliadelt]

Commander does have competitive tournaments, quite a few actually. Its considered tedh or tournament elder dragon highlander, a subset of competitive elder dragon highlander.

[@butter0989]

With the way my family just casually makes Magic decks on occasion, we're pretty much playing with Modern format

[@DrethPlusPlus]

For anyone interested, here’s some more (obscure, and understandably not included) formats: Tiny Leaders Cube Penny Dreadful Two headed giant Pentagram Planechase Wayfarer Oathbreaker Archenemy Dandan Type 4 Rainbow Stairwell Many versions of highlander (German, Canadian, Australian, French, Russian Duel, Swedish Gold)

[@giova8593]

Total newbie here, so in a standard format can you play streets of new capenna against dominaría united or it has to be the same?

[@markenriquez625]

you can use a playset in limited formats, if you draft and pick 5 of the same card and want to play all 5, you can.

[@somedude5353]

Standard - you need a new deck every 2 years. lol, try every month. Con’s for Historic and Explorer - unable to feasibly acquire cards required in the format