Magic: The Gathering Formats Explained

In Magic the Gathering, formats are the different ways players can choose to play the game. Different MTG formats can feel like entirely different games, and each have their own fans. One player may like the speedy intensity of Modern, while someone else may like the social aspect of Commander.

Formats often have their own deckbuilding rules (such as singleton, limited, or constructed), their own banned list to avoid you playing an overpowered banned card, and even different play philosophies (casual versus competitive). There are almost as many Magic The Gathering game formats as there are players, so here are the different types of MTG formats explained.

Magic the Gathering Arena is many players' first experience with Magic, and so they'll likely already be aware of the game's four main formats: Brawl, Alchemy, Historic, and Standard. Between these four formats, you have a good spread of the different formats MTG can support, such as the singleton Brawl, and constructed Standard, Modern, and Alchemy.

• Standard uses cards from the last two years of premiere Magic sets, with older sets rotating out once a year to refresh the format.
• Alchemy and Historic are digital-exclusive formats that uses cards exclusively made for MTG Arena and do things the paper game cannot.
• Brawl (and Historic Brawl) are Arena's closest thing to Commander, and follows most of the usual Commander rules. You create a 60- or 100-card (in Historic Brawl's case) deck that matches the colour identity of your Commander.

However, Magic The Gathering Arena does lack a lot of the game's most popular formats. If you want to play other formats like Commander, Pioneer, or Modern, you can check out Magic Online, MTG Arena's older sibling.

There are many different ways you can categorise MTG formats, such as how you build a deck for it. There are two main types: constructed formats and limited formats.

Constructed formats have you create your constructed deck and bring it to the game in advance, and this covers most MTG formats out there, like Standard, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, or Pioneer. Constructed formats tend to be higher-power than limited ones, as you're free to collect and bring the best cards in the format.

• Modern uses cards released since Eighth Edition.
• Vintage can use almost any card from Magic's history, and has one of the largest card pools in Magic.
• Legacy is like Vintage in that it uses almost any card, but has a more restrictive banlist than Vintage to scale it back slightly.
• Pioneer is something of an 'updated Modern', that only uses cards from Return to Ravnica onward.

Limited formats, on the other hand, make building your deck part of the challenge. These come in two main formats: sealed, where a player opens up a number of booster packs and make a 'sealed deck'. Booster draft (also known as draft), has you and up to seven other players share a pool of booster packs and pick a card from one before passing it to the next player.

Limited formats are among the most common played at set prerelease events at your local game store, as they're a great way to learn a new set and play with cards that might not be up to a constructed format's power level. These decks also tend to be smaller than constructed, decks, as you'll only be making around a 40-card deck.

Under normal Magic The Gathering rules, you're allowed up to four copies of any non-basic land card. In Singleton formats, on the other hand, you're only allowed one. The most famous singleton format is Commander, but there is a format actually called Singleton that is meant for two players and has a 60-card deck size minimum like other Constructed formats.

In Magic, there is a concept known as 'set rotation'. Every premiere set has approximately two years in the rotation, where it can be played in formats like Standard, Alchemy, and Brawl, before they are 'rotated out' and no longer become legal.

Any format that doesn't follow this, and allows cards to remain legal after they have rotated out, is known as an 'Eternal Format'. This includes Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, Commander, and others.

Casual Formats are formats whose primary goal is for everyone to have fun over winning, and are among the most popular formats. The most well-known Casual format is Commander, where four players all come together to try and have a good time with their decks, but there are other popular ones, like Pauper.

But easily the most widely-played casual format is known as 'kitchen-table Magic'. If you play at home with your pre-existing collection of cards and have no set deckbuilding restrictions in place, you're playing the casual Kitchen-table format.

• Commander is Magic's most popular 'official' format, where players make a 100-card deck using a Legendary Creature as their 'Commander'. This is usually played with four players rather than Magic's usual two.
• Pauper only uses Common-rarity cards, and is Magic's 'budget' format.

Competitive is the opposite of Casual, where players are focused on winning. This doesn't mean competitive Magic isn't fun, it just means players know their opponents will be going all-out to defeat them. While every format has a competitive community (even Commander), you're most likely to find competitive play in Standard, Modern, Legacy, Pauper, and Pioneer.

While Magic is always played with another person, 'multiplayer formats' are MTG formats that have more than two players at the table. Commander is the most popular multiplayer format, but there are others such as Archenemy and Two-Headed Giant.

• Archenemy has multiple players who work together against one 'boss' player, known as the Archenemy. The Archenemy's goal is to wipe out the opposing team.
• Two-Headed Giant is two-on-two Magic, where each team can confer on their turns and carry them out simultaneously.

While Wizards of the Coast does maintain a list of official formats, the beauty of Magic is that anyone can make any format they like at any time. Want to play only with cards released since Throne of Eldraine? That's fine. Want to only play cards by a specific artist? You can make a format for it.

There are lots of homebrew formats, far too many to list. Some have gained traction over the years and become successful, with the biggest one being Commander, which is still run and managed by a committee separate from Wizards of the Coast.

There is no one answer to what is the best MTG format, as it entirely depends on what you enjoy as a player. If you like social players where you can shoot the breeze, Commander is great. If you want powerful cards and competitive games, Modern or Legacy may be better.

That being said, some formats are more widely played than others. Commander, Standard, and Modern are the 'big three' at the moment, with Vintage, Legacy, and Historic not too far behind. Others are rapidly gaining traction, such as Pauper and Pioneer.

Because any player can make any format they like, it is impossible to list all of them. However, there are a few key Magic The Gathering formats that Wizards either officially sanctions and controls, or play a big part in the Magic community. Here are all MTG formats worth keeping up with:

• Standard
• Modern
• Vintage
• Legacy
• Pioneer
• Pauper
• Sealed
• Draft
• Two-Headed Giant
• Commander
• Brawl
• Alchemy
• Historic
• Commander
• Duel Commander
• Artisan Commander
• Oathbreaker