Magic: The Gathering Formats - Wikipedia

The following is a non-exhaustive summary of some of the major tournament formats:

Constructed

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Constructed formats, as opposed to Limited formats, allow players to build decks from the entirety of the legal cards available in the specified format. The formats differ based on the card pool allowed, which affects each format's accessibility, power level, and complexity. In Constructed format tournaments, players build their deck in advance of the tournament.[1][11]

The following rules apply to most sanctioned Constructed formats:[12]

• Constructed decks must contain a minimum of 60 cards. There is no maximum deck size.
• Players may have a sideboard of up to a maximum of 15 cards, and exchanges of cards between games are not required to be on a one-for-one basis, so long as the player adheres to the 60 card minimum deck size.[13]
• With the exception of basic land cards and cards that specify otherwise, a player's combined deck and sideboard may not contain more than four of any individual card, unless stated otherwise, counted by its English card title equivalent. All cards named Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest, and Wastes are basic.
• A card may only be used in a particular format if the card is from a set that is legal in that format or has the same name as a card from a set that is legal in that format.
• Cards banned in a specific format may not be used in decks for that format. Cards restricted in a specific format may only have one copy in a deck, including sideboard.

Standard

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The Standard (originally called "Type 2") format was introduced in 1995 and became the flagship format in the constructed deck tournament scene.[11][14] It is also the format most commonly found at Friday Night Magic tournaments, played weekly at many hobby shops.[15] A variation of the format called Arena Standard is used for online play through Magic: The Gathering Arena.[11] This format generally consists of the most recent standard sets (expansion/core set) releases. Sets are included in the standard format for up to three years, with the four oldest sets being removed from the format in the fall "rotation"; thus the number of sets included in the standard format is at its lowest immediately after the rotation and increases as new sets are released until the oldest sets are rotated out again the following fall.[16] The previous rule was using three to four recent "Block" releases plus any core sets released between the older set of the block and the first set that would make oldest two blocks rotated out.

As of June 2025[update], the current Standard set includes: Dominaria United, The Brothers' War,[17] Phyrexia: All Will Be One,[18] March of the Machine, March of the Machine: the Aftermath, Wilds of Eldraine, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Murders at Karlov Manor, Outlaws of Thunder Junction,[19] Bloomburrow, Duskmourn: House of Horror, Foundations, Aetherdrift,Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and Final Fantasy.

Modern

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Modern is a constructed format created by Wizards of the Coast in the Spring of 2011 as a response to the increasing popularity of the Legacy format which, although popular, proved difficult to access due to the high price of staple cards, as well as dissatisfaction with the Extended format of the time.[20][21] Wizards of the Coast is unwilling to reprint some of these cards due to the Reserved List,[22] a list of cards Wizards promised never to reprint in order to protect card prices.[20] Therefore, Modern was designed as a new format that would exclude all cards on the Reserved List, allowing the format to be more accessible than Legacy.[citation needed]

Modern allows cards from all core sets beginning with the 8th Edition core set and all expansions printed afterwards.[23][11][24] The 8th Edition core set was when Magic cards began to be printed in modern card frames, and this is where the name for the format is derived.[25] Wizards believed this cutoff would have the advantage of giving a visual cue as to which cards are legal in the Modern format.[20] Additionally, Wizards has created “straight-to-Modern” sets which skip other formats (such as Standard) entirely but are legal in the Modern format.[11] The format maintains its own banned list.[23] Cards are banned on the basis of their power level, as in all constructed formats outside Vintage.[20] The first official tournament to be held using the format was Pro Tour Philadelphia in September 2011.[26] The first Grand Prix to use the format was Grand Prix Lincoln in February 2012.[27]

CBR highlighted that "the Modern format is more intense and competitive than Standard [...]. Only a tiny fraction of legal Modern cards end up in modern decks, thanks to the Modern format's high standards for playable cards. An entire 250-card set could only contribute four or five to the format, if not fewer. [...] A Standard or casual player getting into Modern will realize that they're on the verge of winning or losing even within the first four turns; in short, a game can go from 0 to 60 with astonishing speed. [...] Modern has one of the richest metas of all, boasting many decks of different color combinations and archetypes".[24]

Pioneer

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Pioneer was created in the autumn of 2019.[28] The rules for card legality are similar to Modern, consisting of cards that were released into the Standard format starting with a given expansion set. For Pioneer, the first legal expansion set is Return to Ravnica. The cutoff was made as Return to Ravnica was the first block released after Modern was made an official format.[28]

Like other constructed formats, Pioneer maintains its own banned list.

Historic

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In 2019, a "MTG Arena-first format"[29] was officially announced.[30] The new Historic format was created as a way for players to use cards that are available on Arena, but are not currently legal in the Standard format due to rotation, ban, or other reasons.[11][31] The three ways that cards join the historic format are: appearing in a standard-legal set, appearing in supplemental sets released on Arena (such as the non-standard set Jumpstart ),[32] or added via 15-20 card sets called Historic Anthologies.[29][33] Like other constructed formats, Historic maintains its own banned list.

The Historic format was featured as the format of the Pro Tour event, The Mythic Invitational taking place September 10–13, 2020.[34]

Legacy

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Legacy allows cards from all sets (known as an "Eternal" format). It maintains a curated ban list based on power level reasons.[11] The format evolved from Type 1.5, which allowed cards from all sets and maintained a banned list corresponding to Vintage: all cards banned or restricted in the old Type 1 were banned in Type 1.5.[35] The modern Legacy format began in 2006, as the DCI separated Legacy's banned list from Vintage and banned many new cards to reduce the power level of the format.[35]

Wizards has supported the format with Grand Prix events[36] and the release of preconstructed Legacy decks on Magic Online in November 2010.[37] The first Legacy Grand Prix was Grand Prix Philadelphia in 2005.[38]

Legacy format allows various cards that other formats would ban quickly, with a relatively small ban list for all of the cards that would be usable in it.

Vintage

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The Vintage format (formerly known as Type 1) is another Eternal constructed format. Vintage maintains a small banned list and a larger restricted list. Unlike in the other formats, the WPN does not ban cards in Vintage for power level reasons. Cards banned in Vintage are those that either involve ante, manual dexterity (Falling Star, Chaos Orb), or could hinder event rundown (Shahrazad and Conspiracy cards). Cards that raise power level concerns are instead restricted to a maximum of one copy per deck.[39][non-primary source needed] The one exception to this was Lurrus of the Dream Den, which could be cast from outside the game and thus could not meaningfully be restricted; Lurrus was unbanned after a rule change in 2021.[40][non-primary source needed] Vintage is currently the only tabletop format in which cards are restricted.[citation needed]

Because of the expense in acquiring the old cards to play competitive Vintage, many Vintage tournaments are unsanctioned and permit players to use a certain number of proxy cards. These are treated as stand-ins of existing cards and are not normally permitted in tournaments sanctioned by the WPN.[39] Dot eSports highlighted that "Vintage is Legacy, except you can add one copy of cards on the 'restricted list' (the 50 or so most powerful cards in the game). These decks, quite simply, are the most powerful things in Magic and are insanely fast and lethal. They're also prohibitively expensive".[11]

Pauper

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Pauper is a Magic variant in which card legality is based on rarity.[41][10] Any cards that either have been printed as common in paper format or appeared as common in a Magic Online set at least once are legal.[42] A variant format is Pauper Standard which is Standard but only with common cards.[11] Destructoid commented that the Pauper format is being picked up by "many local gaming stores".[43]

The format was originally an official format exclusive for Magic Online on December 1, 2008,[44] using Magic Online's own rarity list for pre-7th Edition cards appearing in the Master's Edition series, though some paper Pauper events have been run on that list.[citation needed] After it became a sanctioned format in June 2019, all paper and digital sets were put into consideration instead.[42][45] In January 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced additional support for the format via the newly formed Pauper Format Panel;[46][47] the panel is led by Gavin Verhey, a senior designer at Wizards of the Coast, along with "six Magic players and personalities from the Pauper community".[48] This panel will provide play recommendations, such as removing or unbanning cards, and will focus on the "health of the format".[48]

Limited

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Limited formats are so-called because they require players to build their decks from a more limited pool of cards than Constructed formats. Limited formats require players to open a specified number of Magic products, they then must work exclusively with the cards that came from that product. Due to the nature of Limited formats, players cannot build their decks in advance of the tournament and must build their deck within the tournament itself.[1][49]

The three sanctioned Limited formats are:

• Sealed Deck: in Sealed Deck tournaments, each player receives six booster packs to build[12] "the best 40-card deck they can".[11] Depending on which sets are to be used in a sealed deck event, the distribution of packs can vary greatly. For example, a Magic 2010 sealed deck event consists of six Magic 2010 boosters, but a sanctioned Shards of Alara block sealed deck event consists of two Shards of Alara, two Conflux, and two Alara Reborn booster packs.[citation needed]
• Booster Draft: in a booster draft, several players (usually eight) are seated around a table and each player is given three booster packs. Each player opens a pack, selects a card from it and passes the remaining cards to their left. Each player then selects one of the remaining cards from the pack that was just passed to them, and passes the remaining cards to the left again. This continues until all of the cards are depleted. The process is repeated with the second and third packs, except that the cards are passed to the right in the second pack. Players then build decks out of any cards that they selected during the drafting and add as many basic lands as they choose. Each deck built this way must have a minimum of 40 cards, including basic lands.[1][11]
• Rochester Draft: a booster draft variant that was commonly used as a format in Pro Tour and Grand Prix. Although it is still a sanctioned format, the format "at a competitive level is remarkably rare".[11] In 2018, Wizards of the Coast ran the Silver Showcase which was an invite-only Rochester Draft held before the 25th Anniversary Pro Tour.[50] The format differs from traditional booster draft in that packs are opened one at a time and are laid out for each player to see. Players openly pick one card from the pack in turn. Once each player has picked a card from the booster pack, the draft order reverses so that the last player to draft a card from the pack takes the next draft pick and then passes the pack back the way it came. Once each player has opened a booster and followed this process, the final player to open a booster opens their next booster and the draft pick order is reversed. The process is repeated until each player has opened three booster packs each and all the cards in those packs have been drafted.[51][52][11]

The following rules apply to all current sanctioned Limited formats:[12]

• Limited decks must contain a minimum of 40 cards. There is no maximum deck size.
• Players are not restricted to four of any one card in Limited tournament play, unless a card states otherwise.
• Any drafted or opened cards not used in a player's Limited deck function as their sideboard. Players may request additional basic land cards (not including Snow-covered lands and Wastes, which only appear in specific sets) for their sideboard. There are no restrictions on the number of cards a player may exchange this way as long as the main deck contains at least forty cards. Cards do not need to be exchanged on a one-for-one basis.

Sanctioned Multiplayer

edit "Two-Headed Giant" redirects here. For other uses, see Two-headed giant.

Traditionally, Magic is a game that is played between two players, however, it is also possible to play with multiple players. Despite the existence of numerous multiplayer formats, Two-Headed Giant is currently the only multiplayer format that has been officially sanctioned by the WPN.[citation needed]

• Two-Headed Giant (2HG): a team game where pairs of players share turns and life totals. Each player has their own separate deck and plays independently of their teammate, however, teammates share the goal of defeating the opposing team.[1][53] The 2HG format can be used to play Constructed or Limited games.[1] In Constructed 2HG, no cards can be used by both members of the team, except basic land cards.[54] In June 2005, rules for handling multiplayer games were added to the official rulebook, and 2HG team play became the first multiplayer format to be sanctioned by the DCI.[55] The first Two-Headed Giant Grand Prix was Grand Prix Amsterdam in 2007.[56] The first Pro Tour to be held under the Two-Headed Giant format was Pro Tour San Diego in 2007.[57] On June 8, 2018, Battlebond was released as the first Two-Headed Giant-focused booster set.[53] In June 2025, for play at WPN stores, Wizards of the Coast launched a Commander variant of Two-Headed Giant – "players pair up in teams of two, share life totals, spells, and strategy in an effort to defeat the other team".[58]