Rules for Team Commander Games:

Rules Lawyer – Art by Sean Murray

1.) Deck Building

The Deck building rules follow the official Commander Deck Building rules (rule 903.5), except that only cards may be used which are not listed on the Team Commander Banned List. If the Banned List states that a certain card may not be used as a Commander, it may be used as a regular card in the deck, though. There is no sideboard allowed. If a card refers to cards outside the game (example Burning Wish), this part of the card won’t work in Team Commander.

2.) Determining Teams

2.1 Before the teams are assigned each player secretly chooses his or her deck.

2.2 Teams will then be created randomly. Therefore each player rolls a die (D20 preferred). In a four player game the players with the two highest numbers will build a team and the other two players with the two lowest numbers will form the second, opposing team. In a six player game, the players with the three highest numbers will build a team and the other three players with the three lowest numbers will form the second, opposing team. When there is a draw, meaning several players have rolled the same number and teams can’t be distinctively be formed, the affected players will reroll dice until teams can be build.

2.3 (Optionally) When a team plays 3 games in a row in the same teammember constellation, reroll the dice for building teams until a new constellation has been met.

2.4 (Optionally) When using these rules for competitive or tournament play, players can build fixed teams without random assignment and choose Decks before taking the mulligan, ignoring rules 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3.

3.) Starting the Game

3.1 Players start the game normally according to the official rules, they put the commander card(s) aside face-down in the Command Zone and shuffle their decks properly. If an opponent insists, he may reshuffle and/or cut the opponent’s deck.

3.2 The Team with the highest rolled numbers for building teams begins. If teams were agreed to be assigned beforehand (2.4), randomly determine now which team goes first. Each Team plays their turn structure at the same time (shared Team turn), following the 2HG/3HG rules. The team who goes first skips their draw step (rules 800.6, 103.7)
 

3.3 In a Team Commander game, each team has a Starting Life total of 40 points when playing with 2-person-teams (2HG) and a Starting Life total of 50 points when playing with 3-person-teams (3HG).  Each player has a starting handsize of seven cards and draws seven cards. We point out that we just priorized the Commander rules with 40 starting life above the Highlander rules with 30 life.

3.4 Mulligan. As Team Commander is a Multiplayer game, it follows the rules for Multiplayer Mulligans, which grants every player the first Mulligan per game to be free, meaning that no penalty is charged (official rule 800.5) (Every Player may shuffle their hand into their library and draw a new hand with 7 cards.). If the player likes to take additional mulligans, he may declare this and do so, but gets a penalty: the player shuffles the cards in their hand back into their library, draws a new hand of cards equal to their starting hand size, then puts a number of those cards equal to the number of times that player has taken an additional mulligan beyond the first one on the bottom of their library („London mulligan„).

There is no scry 1 included to these rules, and we point out that the cards are shuffled into the library right BEFORE drawing a new hand – so there is the possibility that you may redraw a card which was in your drawing hande before taking a mulligan. We encourage players to play a sufficient amount of lands, which may be higher than you were used to before this change of our Mulligan rules. We do think it is a good choice to have the same official mulligan and have as few as possible changes to the original rules as possible.

3.5 Commander cards and Compagnion cards are revealed AFTER the mulligan.

 

4.) Ending the Game

4.1 Players play as teams. If a single player of a team would win the game, the team wins the game. If a single player of a team would lose the game, the whole team loses the game (see 810.8). (Example given there is no waiting time, if one player goes out of cards for example, and he loses the game, his partner may not play on alone against the opposing team.) This is also no rule change, but we like to point out this detail.

4.2 A Team loses the game, if it has 15 or more poison counters in a 2HG game or 20 or more poison counters in a 3HG game. The team loses the game the next time a player would receive priority. Poison counters are shared according to rules 701.26c, 704.5u and 810.5. This is also no rule change, but we like to point out this detail.

4.3 In a Team Commander game, a team that’s been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the course of the game loses the game. (Yes, it’s Team Commander, so the Commander rules apply!)

5.) Shared Team Turns and Combat

5.1 Team Commander follows the rules for shared team turns (rule 805). This also applies for rule 805.8, if a player takes an additional turn, the whole team is granted an additional turn.

This rule turned out to be devestating strong regarding efficiency and mana cost, or ending up the game suddenly, leaving also frustrated players wating forever to take their turn. As a direct implication we therefore banned all such cards granting extra turns or taking over the whole opponent’s teams turns. But it’s an official rule, that the whole team is affected by taking extra turns/taking over a turn.

5.2 Attackers and Blockers are announced as a team. (rule 805.10). While it is possible to attack specific players or planeswalkers (and this totally makes sense for landwalking abilities or triggered abilities like the discard effect of a Hypnotic Specter), only effects that affect the attacked player apply.

    • Attackers are declared as a team and are attacking a specific player or planeswalker. If a player does not specify who a creature is attacking, the default is that their creatures are attacking the opponent directly in front of them.
    • If an effect prevents a creature from attacking a player, it does not prevent creatures from attacking their teammate. (Example: cards like Teferi’s Moat on green wouldn’t prevent the Tarmogoyf attacking your teammate.)
    • If an effect (such as the Hypnotic Specter ) asks for “the defending player” it refers to the player that creature is attacking.
    • Blockers are declared as a team, creatures either defending player controls can block any attacker.
    • Combat damage is dealt to the player that creature is attacking. If an effect prevents combat damage dealt to a player, it does not prevent damage being dealt to their teammate. (Example: cards like Circle of Protection: Red wouldn’t prevent the damage an Earth Elemental causes by attacking your teammate.)

Many cards may seem unreasonably weak / not playworthy considering these rules. While we are aware that some cards may not hit the table again under these circumstances, we do follow the official rules here, too.


All the rules stated above have in mind the underlying philosophy: epic fun games. It is a narrow thin red line, allowing players some freedom for mulligan in order to avoid mana-screwed games (which are neither fun nor desirable) and not letting them exploit these freedoms by changing their deck building too much by lowering the land count. There might also be discussions, why we inaugurate the rules the way we did. While never all players will agree to certain decisions, we are sure to have found a good way to hold up the Spirit and Philosophy of the original EDH.