Welcome to Commander. Got questions? If you don't want to sift through the official rules document, you might find the answer here:


Your commander begins the game in the command zone, and you can cast that card as long as it's there. If your commander goes to the graveyard or is exiled, you may move it back to the command zone instead. You can cast it again, but it costs 2 more mana each time as an additional cost (this is known as the "commander tax").

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Your commander deck must contain exactly 100 cards including your commander, which must be a legendary creature. Except for basic land, you can only play one copy of each card, and you're only allowed to use cards in your commander's color identity.

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The same as most other Magic formats, except that each player begins with 40 life and you cannot produce mana with colors outside of your commander's color identity (you get colorless mana instead).

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The current ban list can be found on the official rules page, under the "deck construction" tab. If you'd like to know why a particular card is banned or unbanned, check this handy reference thread, where you can find links to discussions about just about any controversial card. If you don't see the card you've got on your mind there, feel free to ask about it in this one.

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If you've got a quick question that wasn't covered, but you don't want to make a whole thread to ask, post it here. To keep this thread as useful as possible for new members, I'll be culling posts every week or two to leave just the questions and most relevant answers, so don't be offended if your post disappears.

ttyl, bkm

In before the lock... the question I'd like to see answered is:



I'd just leave it at "that depends on your playgroup"

Nice FAQ, but perhaps it's easier if you show all the answers instead of using spoiler tags. Because, you know, ctrl+f.

the spirit if edh is in ur heart all along

Here is a question that I don't believe was covered. Given the incremental costing for your general if cast repeatedly, does this cost only take into account if its cast from your command zone only or from all zones such as your hand?

I believe the answer is only from the CMD-Z. but I could be wrong.

The incremental cost is only for when your general is only applicable from the General Zone.

With the upcoming release of Shadowborn Apostle, is it safe to assume that it (and any future cards with similar templating) will follow the Relentless Rats rule?

Yes.

I got some Strionic Resonator questions by PM, and I thought I'd post the answers here. He can't be the only one wondering:



Utvara Hellkite triggers whenever a dragon you control, meaning you'll get separate triggers for each one. Strionic Resonator still works, but you'll get just one extra 6/6.

Iona's ability isn't a triggered ability, and can't be copied. All triggered abilities begin with the word "when", "whenever" or "at". Abilities that start with "as" happen during that event and don't use the stack. Note the similar templating on Vesuvan Shapeshifter; if this were a triggered ability, it would enter the battlefield as a 0/0 and die while it was waiting for its trigger to resolve.

If, hypothetically, Iona did have a triggered ability, then yeah, you'd be able to name a second color. Here might be a good place for a tangent about imprint and similar abilities: A lot of triggered abilities attach info to a card (usually by exiling another one) that's used in a second, linked ability (examples: Duplicant, Oblivion Ring, Isochron Scepter, Elite Arcanist, Exclusion Ritual). When the linked ability refers to "the exiled card" it's referring to all the cards that its triggered ability exiled, including copies of that ability. So Exclusion Ritual would exclude two different spells, all the permanents exiled by Oblivion Ring would return to the battlefield when it goes away, and activating Isochron Scepter or Elite Arcanist once would let you cast a copy of each spell they're holding onto. If the card looks for a value, such as Duplicant or Elite Arcanist, it gets more than one answer and uses the sum. So Elite Arcanist would cost a bunch to activate, but Duplicant will be gigantic.

As you'd expect, Sylvan Primordial's triggered ability is one big chunk, it's not a separate ability for each opponent. Copying it will blow up another permanent for each opponent, not just one.

I assume you're saying "Duplicant will be gigantic" since he would seemingly use the total P/T of the 2 exiled creature cards. However, this doesn't and can't happen. A creature cannot have multiple sets powers and toughness at the same time. Per Matt Tabak's M14 Rules Update Bulletin:

"Duplicant (functional, sort of)

As you'll read in the Comprehensive Rules section (you will read that part too, right?), our favorite friend Strionic Resonator can do some wacky things with cards that have imprint abilities. Cards that were meant to only have one exiled card can now have two or more. In most cases, that's fine, a rules tweak lets those cards take advantage of that, but Duplicant is a bit different. It's the one card of the bunch that doesn't react well to exiling multiple creature cards. It simply can't have multiple powers and toughnesses. Back before linked abilities were codified, this was solved by having Duplicant get the power, toughness, and creature types of the last creature card it exiled. We're using that solution again, updated with modern terminology.

Old wording:
Imprint—When Duplicant enters the battlefield, you may exile target nontoken creature.
As long as the exiled card is a creature card, Duplicant has that card's power, toughness, and creature types. It's still a Shapeshifter.

New wording:
Imprint—When Duplicant enters the battlefield, you may exile target nontoken creature.
As long as a card exiled with Duplicant is a creature card, Duplicant has the power, toughness, and creature types of the last creature card exiled with Duplicant. It's still a Shapeshifter."

So the copying of Duplicant's trigger will simply change P/T & creature types from one set to another as the triggers resolve, but will still end up exiling two creatures in the process; which is still good enough for me to abuse with the Resonator.

Alright then, thanks for the correction! Phyrexian Ingester is still gigantic.

Yes, Phyexian Ingester's linked ability should work with Strionic Resonator as you want since his second ability modifies his P/T rather then sets his P/T like Duplicant.

Since we're on the topic of Duplicant/Phyrexian Ingester, this is a question that's come up a lot that I'd like definitively solved.

If you Duplicant/Ingestor a Commander, and the Commander goes to the Command Zone, does the applicable information still get imprinted on the card(s) or are they still a 2/4 slash 3/3 respectively?



Additionally, this always comes up in multiplayer and we always forget the correct answer because there is no good compendium for this simple FAQ. When Player 3 uses Bribery/Acquire on Player 2, and later Player 3 dies with Player 2's card still on the battlefield under his [Player 3's] control... what happens to Player 2's card? Does it get exiled, sacrificed, or returned until Player 2's control remaining on the battlefield? As a sidenote, we know that a card that's Gilded Drake'd is returned to its owner, but we're confused if it was not stolen from the battlefield originally.

I can answer this one


Duplicant ends up as a 2/4. Because it reads "As long as a card exiled with Duplicant is a creature card", since the card never goes to exile, Duplicant can't find the imprinted card's P/T values, so these never change.


Yeah, this rule is indeed pretty confusing. I use Karrthus as a Commander, so I had to look up the official ruling for control-changing effects, and it took me a lot of time to find the correct answer.

Basically, this is how it works. if you take control of a permanent from the battlefield permanently, when you lose the game, the control-changing effect that was giving you control of that permanent ends and the most recent control-changing effect after that takes place. Example: if player 1 is the owner of Squire, then player 2 casts Sower of Temptation on Squire, then you cast Blatant Thievery on Squire, when you lose the game, if player 2's Sower still hasn't left the battlefield, Squire doesn't return to it's owner; it returns to player 2.

However, if a player takes control of a permanent from anywhere other than the battlefield, when that player loses the game, the permanent is exiled.

So basically, if the stolen permanent entered the battlefield via theft, it gets exiled, and if it was stolen from the battlefield it returns to its previous owner?