 |
| Catalog card art |
Commander is perhaps the most popular format in Magic. Key to building a deck for this format is the concept of color identity.
From the comprehensive rules,
- 903.1. In the Commander variant, each deck is led by a legendary creature designated as that deck’s commander. The Commander variant was created and popularized by fans; an independent rules committee maintains additional resources at MTGCommander.net.
- 903.4. The Commander variant uses color identity to determine what cards can be in a deck with a certain commander. The color identity of a card is the color or colors of any mana symbols in that card’s mana cost or rules text, plus any colors defined by its characteristic-defining abilities (see rule 604.3) or color indicator (see rule 204).
- 903.4d The back face of a double-faced card (see rule 712) is included when determining a card’s color identity. This is an exception to rule 712.4a.
Deck Construction Rules
Her casting cost includes only the white mana symbol, but her rules text includes green mana, so her color identity is white/green.
If you cast Jorn as a creature, he is green. If you cast the other side (Kaldring, the Rimestaff), it is blue/black. The card cannot flip back and forth once on the battlefield. However, based on the rules, this card's color identity is blue/black/green, so it can be included in a Commander deck only if the Commander's color identity matches or exceeds those colors.
His casting cost is generic (colorless for our purposes), but his rules text include a red mana symbol, so his color identity is red.
- Players choose a legendary creature as the commander for their deck.
- A card’s color identity is its color plus the color of any mana symbols in the card’s rules text. A card’s color identity is established before the game begins, and cannot be changed by game effects. The cards in a deck may not have any colors in their color identity which are not in the color identity of the deck’s commander.
- A Commander deck must contain exactly 100 cards, including the commander. If you’re playing a companion, it must adhere to color identity and singleton rules. While it is not part of the deck, it is effectively a 101st card.
- With the exception of basic lands, no two cards in the deck may have the same English name. Some cards (e.g. Relentless Rats) may have rules text that overrides this restriction.
I prefer the latter's wording on color identity. "A card’s color identity is its color plus the color of any mana symbols in the card’s rules text." Your Commander deck can include only cards that map to your Commander's colors. So if your Commander's color identity is white, you may include only cards that are white in your deck. If you Commander's color identity is blue and black, you may include cards that are blue, black, or blue/black in your deck. And so on.
Most of the time, a card's color identity is immediately evident by its casting cost. But per the above definition, you must also look at the mana symbols in the card's rules text. Consider Shalai, Voice of Plenty:
- If she is your Commander, you could include white, green, white/green, or colorless cards in your Commander deck.
- If she is not your Commander but you want to include her in your deck, you must ensure the Commander you choose includes (at minimum) white and green in its color identity for Shalai to be eligible for inclusion (so I cannot use her in my mono-white angel Commander deck).
Rule 903.4d above mentions double-faced cards, which can be confusing.
- 712.1. A double-faced card has a Magic card face on each side rather than a Magic card face on one side and a Magic card back on the other. There are two kinds of double-faced cards. Transforming double-faced cards include abilities on one or both of their faces that allow the card to either “transform” or “convert” (turn over to its other face) and/or allow the card to be cast or enter the battlefield “transformed” or “converted” (with its back face up). Modal double-faced cards have two faces that are independent from one another, and they can’t transform or convert.
Consider Brutal Cathar, a transforming double-faced card:
Brutal Cathar's color identity is white/red. Its front face is white, but when it transforms, its back face is red.
The modal double-faced cards are the most confusing. The same rules apply (the color identity is both sides combined) but are (to me) less intuitive, as these are effectively two Magic cards, and you choose which one you will use upon casting it. It cannot change or transform to the other side once on the battlefield. Consider Jorn, God of Winter:
Finally, any Commander deck may include colorless cards—generally (but not exclusively) artifacts.
- 105.1. There are five colors in the Magic game: white, blue, black, red, and green.
- 105.2. An object can be one or more of the five colors, or it can be no color at all. An object is the color or colors of the mana symbols in its mana cost, regardless of the color of its frame. An object’s color or colors may also be defined by a color indicator or a characteristic-defining ability. See rule 202.2.
- 105.2c A colorless object has no color.
The key here is Rule 105.2c. Since colorless objects have no colors, they may be included in any Commander decks. But again, they must be truly colorless, so check the rules text, too. Consider Bosh, Iron Golem:
To date, there are over 1600 legendary creatures from which to choose your Commander. Choose wisely, and consider color identity when so doing. When building commander decks, you can use the 'commander' command in Scryfall to help identify cards eligible for inclusion. For example,
Returns cards whose color identity <=green/red. This returns green, red, green/red, and colorless cards. If you want to focus only on green/red, use:
And if you want to find a red/green commander, add
From this, we see that there are currently 65 legendary creatures whose color identity is red/green. These are your pool of commanders if you want to build a Commander deck in exactly those colors.
No comments:
Post a Comment