Editing Commander (section)

==The Rules==
In a commander game, player take control of an army under the command of a legendary creature (or Two if you have partner commanders, but thats just stupid.) Any legendary creature can be named as a deck's Commander, and immediately gets its own special zone (the aptly named Command Zone), where it sits when out of play. With the release of Commander 2014, a specific set of Planeswalkers may now be taken as commanders, in place of a Legendary Creature. These Planeswalkers all clearly state this fact on the card, so don't try to be sneaky (yet another variant called Brawl allows Planeswalkers without the commander text).

===Color Identity===
The Commander restricts the color(s) playable in the deck to those of its color identity. Color identity is best described as ''any color who's mana symbol appears on the card in question'', and a commander's deck can only contain cards with the same color identity. <br>

For example: Rafiq of the Many is a legendary creature with White, Blue and Green mana symbols on the card. His color identity is, therefore, White Blue Green. A player may use any (unbanned) card in a Rafiq deck, so long as it is White, Blue, Green, or some combination of the three, or if it is colorless (artifacts, Eldrazi, etc). His deck may '''NOT''' contain any cards on which a Red or Black mana symbol appear. Despite the fact that cards with hybrid mana costs can be played using either of the mana symbols that are part of the hybrid symbols, they still count as both for the color identity and [[What|for the purposes of identity-related exclusion]]. So Rafiq's deck is allowed to use Snakeform or Selesnya Guildmage, because their hybrid mana costs include green and blue and green and white, respectively. It can't use Unmake or Double Cleave, even though their hybrid symbols include white, because they also include colors that Rafiq is not.

An equally confusing case occurs regarding lands. Non-basic lands may have a color identity. This means that an Overgrown Tomb has a color identity of Green Black, and so cannot be included in our Rafiq deck. Basic lands, however, do '''NOT''' have a color identity. That said, they may only produce colors of mana which are within your commander's color identity. Any other mana they would produce is colorless. Land names also do not contribute to color identity. A colorless artifact which says "search your library for a Swamp..." may be played in our Rafiq deck, despite the fact that a Swamp would only produce colorless mana! 

Confused yet? Don't worry, because here's the best bit! Color ''words'' do not give a card color identity. That is, if a card says "Red" or "Black", regardless of context, those words do not specify a color identity for the card. A card which says "Search your library for a Red creature..." can be played in Rafiq's deck despite the fact that the creature you are searching for may not!

===The Deck===
A Commander deck provides a slightly different set of construction rules to players, in addition to the color restrictions. <br>

* A Commander deck ''must'' contain ''exactly'' 100 cards, including the Commander itself.
* A Commander deck may contain no more than one copy of any given card with the exception of basic lands (hence the Highlander aspect of the original name). You may have multiple versions of Ajani (say, Ajani, Caller of the Pride and Ajani Goldmane) but you can only have 1 Ajani Goldmane. There are currently six cards that can skirt around this restriction; Relentless Rats, Rat Colony, Persistent Petitioners, Seven Dwarves, Dragon's Approach, and Shadowborn Apostle.
* A deck may only contain cards which match all or some subset of the Commander's color identity. Cards outside of this color identity may not be played in the deck.
* The Commander format has its own specific ban list. though as it is a casual format and no one has any say over what you do at the kitchen table, you can make your own banlist. These cards are banned ''in addition to'' the standard list of globally banned cards (''Un-'' cards). Make sure you check this list before you play, especially if you're new to Commander. If you don't, you'll inevitably encounter [[That Guy|the fucktard who plays Biorhythm on turn three to kill everyone]], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJtKENfRdn8&t or someone decides to become the fun police in a format that was designed to be non competitive and fun.] At the present time, the following cards are banned from Commander (''We've also given you a reson why they're banned for context.)'':
*Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus, Mox Emerald, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire and Time Walk: '''Banned for being part of the [[Power Nine]].'''
*Balance: '''Banned for being anything but.'''
*Biorhythm: '''Banned because it can kill people on turn 3 with enough ramp.'''
*Braids, Cabal Minion: '''Banned for Being played on Turn 1-2 and locking the rest of the table out of the game.'''
*Channel: '''Banned for too much fast mana.'''
*Chaos Orb: '''Banned for overly compicated rules issues.'''
*Coalition Victory: '''Banned for being an auto include in all WUBRG decks.'''
*Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: '''Banned for being too good a creature to exist in a '''''Very Creature Centric''''' format where there are so many ways to ramp/[https://magiccards.info/query?q=Show+and+tell&v=card&s=cname cheat] in creatures.'''
*Erayo, Soratami Ascendant: '''Banned for being far too oppresive.'''
*Falling Star: '''See Chaos Orb.'''
*Fastbond: '''See Channel.'''
*Flash: '''Banned for allowing you to cheat out something huge asymmetrically, often ending the game. Also because of Protean Hulk.'''
*Gifts Ungiven: '''Banned for being such a powerful tutor.'''
*Golos, Tireless Pilgrim: '''Banned for having all the advantages of a five color commander (the ability to cast everything) with none of the disadvantages (needing one mana of each color to cast it), on top of being too good ramp.'''
*Griselbrand: '''See Emrakul, The Aeons torn, And because [https://magiccards.info/query?q=Kaalia+of+the+Vast&v=card&s=cname Kaalia of the Vast] was capable of running it at one time (unsuprisingly that was the time when that deck was at its most powerful in the format).'''
*Hullbreacher: '''Banned because it can be cast in response to a [https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1326 Wheel of Fortune] or similar card to get the caster a shitload of mana while emptying everyone else's hands in the process.'''
*Iona, Shield of Emeria: '''Banned for too easily shutting down monocolored decks and generally being a negative experience for everyone on the board.'''
*Karakas: '''Banned for bouncing Legendary creatures in a format built around legendary creatures.'''
*Leovold, Emmisary of Trest: '''Banned for being far too oppresive, easy to break and overall representing everything commander players do not like.'''
*Library of Alexandria: '''Banned for being a powerful draw engine of Vintage strength.'''
*Limited Resources: '''Banned for locking down the game oppresively.'''
*Lutri, the Spellchaser: '''Has the dubious honor of being banned before even appearing in a set properly because its Companion restriction was literally free in Commander.'''
*Paradox Engine: '''Banned for warping the game even without trying to build around it.'''
*Panoptic Mirror: '''Banned because of enabling infinite turns with any [https://magiccards.info/query?q=Time+stretch&v=card&s=cname extra] [https://magiccards.info/query?q=Time+warp&v=card&s=cname turn] spell.'''
*Primeval Titan: '''Banned because the ramp it offers is simply too good for Commander. See [https://magiccards.info/mbs/en/145.html Inkmoth Nexus] and [https://magiccards.info/v13/en/20.html Kessig Wolf Run.]'''
*Prophet of Kruphix: '''Banned for being run in every blue and green deck, enabling players to dump creatures on their opponents turns.'''
*Recurring Nightmare: '''Banned for comboing off with many cards like [https://magiccards.info/jr/en/41.html Survival of the Fittest.]'''
*Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary: '''Banned for making green decks too fast.'''
*Shaharazad: '''Banned for causing headaches and excessive anger.'''
*Sundering Titan: '''Banned for being capable of destroying all your opponents lands by blinking it a few times.'''
*Sway of the Stars: '''Banned for being a troll card.'''
*Sylvan Primordial: '''Banned for being a combination of Sundering Titan and Primeval Titan.'''
*Time Vault: '''Banned for enabling infinite turns.'''
*Tinker: '''Banned for being the strongest artifact tutor and being capable of cheating in [https://magiccards.info/mbs/en/99.html|giant] [https://magiccards.info/cfx/en/30.html artifact] [https://magiccards.info/som/en/223.html creatures].'''
*Tolarian Academy: '''Banned for enabling insane amounts of mana with cards like [https://magiccards.info/ex/en/40.html Mind over Matter] and [https://magiccards.info/ds/en/130.html Mycosynth Lattice.]'''
*Trade Secrets: '''Banned for letting players draw their entire decks.'''
*Upheaval: '''See Sway of the Stars.''' 
*Worldfire: '''<s>See Sway of the Stars.</s> LOL UNBANNED!'''
*Yawgmoth's Bargain: '''Banned for being a better version of [https://magiccards.info/ia/en/42.html Necropotence].'''

Furthermore, the following cards from the Un-sets are banned in Commander as well:

*Ashnod's Coupon: '''Dubious legality of action on card.'''
*Double Cross, Double Deal, Double Dip, Double Play, Double Take and Time Machine: '''Messes with other games.'''
*Enter the Dungeon: '''Shaharazad 2.0'''
*Magical Hacker: '''Too much utility.'''
*Mox Lotus: '''Grants you infinite mana.'''
*Once More With Feeling: '''The original Sway of the Stars.'''
*R&D's Secret Lair: '''Breaks all cards with erratas.'''
*Richard Garfield, Ph.D.: '''Way too much utility.'''
*Staying Power: '''Breaks every card that uses turns to determine their effects.'''

The following cards have been banned in all formats, to the point of removing them from the Gatherer, because Wizards of the Coast wanted to look like it was doing something to fight racism. Yes, the reason is ''that'' stupid.

*Invoke Prejudice: '''Actually has guys dressed up like the KKK in the art so some people might get legit butthurt about that.'''
*Pradesh Gypsies: '''"Gypsie" probably isn't something meant as a slur in most cases, but the Romani people aren't thrilled about it nowadays, so whatever. People don't wanna be antiziganist these days so let it be.'''
*Cleanse: '''Because bathing is racist or patriarchy or something'''
*Stone-Throwing Devils: '''Because only blacks throw stones at things I guess'''
*Crusade: '''There are 21 cards with "Crusade" somewhere in the name (Angelfire Crusader, Aysen Crusader, Cathar's Crusade, Dralnu's Crusade...). This was the only one that got banned.'''
*Jihad: '''But the card "Army of Allah" is fine because fuck logic'''
*Imprison: '''There are 12 MtG cards with "prison" in the name (Amber Prison, Icy Prison, Prison Term, etc.). This was the only one that got banned.'''

===The Game===
*Players start with 40 life.
*Damage dealt to a player by a Commander counts as Commander Damage (formerly known as General Damage). If any one commander ever deals 21 damage to a single player, that player immediately loses regardless of their life total. It is important to note that each commander tracks damage to each player separately. This means that if two players deal 15 and 6 Commander damage to a third player separately, the third player does not lose, even if both of the first two players control the same commander or one player clones his commander.

===The Command Zone===
*Each commander has his own special Command Zone. This is in essence the same as the Removed From The Game zone, or the Really Fucking Removed From The Game Forever zone. Creatures other than a commander cannot be sent to the Command Zone, and only the commander who started in a specific command zone may be sent to that Command Zone.
*A commander starts in his Command Zone at the beginning of a game. It can be cast from this zone as if it were in its owner's hand, but may not be targeted by other players while it is in the Command Zone.
*If a commander would leave the battlefield by any means (be it bounce, exile, destroy, sac, death, or even tucking), it can be put into the Command Zone instead of being placed into wherever it would have gone. When this happens, the commander gets a "flag", an imaginary marker that denotes the number of times the commander has been sent to the command zone as an alternative to death or removal. A commander can be recast from the Command Zone, but the owner must pay 2 additional colorless mana for each flag on the commander. A commander does ''NOT'' gain a flag if its owner chooses to place it in the graveyard as any other creature would be.

===The Bad Rules===
Due to the nature of Commander, the games tend to be slower and more heavily based around pulling hilarious bullshit rather than formulaically winning every game on turn 3 or 4 with the same combo. Unfortunately, because Wizards in their infinite wisdom decided to only carry over ''some'' rules from the homebrew, you can still pull complete bullshit and induce tons of rage. Examples include:

*[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45395 Thieves' Auction] is still legal. 
*The fact that players die on 10 poison counters, despite having double life.
*Felidar Sovereign's life total win condition is unchanged, despite having double life.
*Serra Ascendant starts out at full power because players have double life.

Noticing a pattern yet? Things like this lead players rapidly to create their own...