Magic: The Gathering officially recognizes fan-made format, Oathbreaker

The Gathering: Magic and the Gathering Wizards of the Coast published Oathbreaker as a fan-made format. This format is suitable for 3-5 people and was created by Weirdcards Charitable Club, a Minnesota-based gaming group. You can find additional information on the format at a new landing page.

You might be surprised to learn that there’s more than just one way to play MagicThe original collectible card game, launching in 1993. As of March 15 there are actually 23 in all, but most players are drawn to one of three different formats — Standard, Booster Draft, and Commander. Commander, the game’s premiere multiplayer format, has long been considered the most popular way to play Magic. Oathbreaker is therefore more appealing to casual crowds.

To create an Oathbreaker deck, players must assemble a 60-card deck and build it around their favorite planeswalker — powerful characters from the Magic universe. The following is the MagicWebsite, decks cannot contain duplicate cards. Additionally, players must select a so-called “signature spell,” which must match the color identity of their Oathbreaker planeswalker card. The signature spell and planeswalker start the game, with players fighting from the beginning to lower the opponents’ lives from the starting point of 20.

The official description is:

If your Oathbreaker is on the battlefield under your control, you can cast your Signature Spell for its normal costs, plus an additional two mana for each previous time you’ve cast your Signature Spell from the command zone this game. Once your Signature Spell has resolved, you must place it in the command zone and not your graveyard. Your Signature Spell must be placed in the command zones if you want it to go somewhere other than your command zone or stack.

Every player begins with 20 lives. Players should be seated in groups of three and put their Signature Spell and Oathbreaker face up in the command zone. Each player moves in clockwise order, moving around the table one at a.m.

A player can choose to target any player during gameplay regardless of where they are located on the table. They also have the option to choose to target multiple players at once in their attack phase. Permanents, spells, and abilities can also target any player around the table (as long as they don’t explicitly say they must be used on “you”). When all the other players have been eliminated, a player is declared winner.

No official products have been announced to support the Oathbreaker format, but that’s not at all uncommon. Most of the products are compatible with Oathbreaker format. Magic’s retail products — excluding pre-built Commander decks — are intended to support multiple formats of play. For more information on Oathbreaker, including video demos and additional commentary, check out the format’s official website maintained by Weirdcards.