Planechase

It's been awhile since I looked at different Magic formats (I should call them variants) . . . up today is Planechase.

In Planechase, each player brings a 60-card deck following normal construction rules (4 copies max of any non-basic-land card). The card pool can be whatever the players agree- standard, modern, casual, etc. Starting life is the same, too. The only difference: each player also has a 10-card 'planar' deck. Each card in that must be unique. These oversized cards represent planes featured throughout the years in Magic, and have an ability that affects all players (basically an enchantment) as well as a benefit if you roll the chaos symbol on the die (more on that in a moment). Example planar cards:

To start the game, the first player takes their top card of their planar deck and places it in the command zone. It affects all players. On a player's turn, they can (as a sorcery) roll the planar die, paying one generic mana more each time if they choose to try more than once. The result dictates what happens:

- Four sides are blank; no effect.

- One side has a planeswalker symbol. Roll that and the current plane is replaced by the topmost plane on the active player's planar deck (the replaced card goes to the bottom of its owner's planar deck)

- One side has a chaos symbol. Roll that and the chaos effect, printed on each planar card, triggers.

the planeswalker and chaos symbols

Planechase planar cards were originally released (four decks built for the format came with 10 planar cards each) in 2009. A follow-up, with new decks and planar cards, was published in 2012, and releases concluded with Planechase Anthology in 2016, which also came with four decks, but now 86 planar cards (some of which were 'phenomenon'- same concept, just different name), and the die.

It has been years since I played this variant, but I really enjoyed it. The planar cards add some craziness to the game, and their universal effects can result in hilarious situations. I picked up the set of 86 cards + die back in 2017, I think- then, it was very cheap to get those and forego the decks they came with (I think I paid $20). Today, just the set of planar cards will set you back $150, and that number at least doubles if you want the accompanying decks. So find a friend who has this and try it out if you can. Or write to Wizards and ask them to release it again. It's a fun experience.