Commanders

Commanders are the basis of most commander decks and also one of the most unique parts of the format. Each player must choose a commander for their deck, and can only have cards of its color identity in the deck. A Commander can only be played at sorcery speed unless it has flash or another card allows you to play it at instant speed. A commander is not counted as being in your hand, and is affected by cards such as Drannith Magistrate (Figure A). Commanders are affected by a rule called Commander damage, which makes it so if a player is dealt 21 or more damage by a single commander, they lose the game. A commander can be played as many times as you would like, and you may put it into the command zone when it is killed or exiled, but it still triggers death effects like Grim Haruspex (Figure B). Each time you play your commander from the command zone, it costs two generic mana more to cast next time you cast it from the command zone.