Commander uses all the normal rules of the game, plus about a dozen additions. It is a fan created variant that the Comprehensive Rules describe in section 903, and rule 903.1 puts it plainly: the variant "uses all the normal rules for a Magic game, with the following additions". So if you can play a two player game, you can play Commander after reading one page, and this is that page. The format's own page is the Commander format page at Wizards of the Coast, and its rules are section 903 of the Comprehensive Rules.
The additions that change how a game feels are these four: your commander sits in the command zone and can be cast from there, you start at 40 life instead of 20, there are usually three opponents rather than one, and there is a second way to lose that has nothing to do with your life total.
The command zone is not new to Commander and not unique to it. It is one of the seven zones a game of Magic normally has, alongside your own library, hand and graveyard plus the shared battlefield, stack and exile (rule 400.1), and it is the area reserved for objects that have an overarching effect on the game yet are not permanents and cannot be destroyed (rule 408.1). What Commander adds is a reason for you to look at it every turn. If you want the idea of the format before its rules, what Commander is covers that; this page is the rules and the first game.
Commander rules at a glance
The whole format on one table. Each line is in section 903 of the Comprehensive Rules, except the last, which is policy kept outside them.
| Rule | What it says | Comprehensive Rules |
|---|---|---|
| Deck size | Exactly 100 cards, including your commander | 903.5a |
| One copy of each card | Every card other than a basic land must have a different English name | 903.5b |
| Colour identity | Every card must fit inside your commander's colour identity, which counts the mana symbols in its mana cost and its rules text, plus any colour indicator or colour-defining ability | 903.5c, 903.4 |
| The commander | A legendary creature card, a legendary Vehicle card or a legendary Spacecraft card with power and toughness boxes, or a card whose own text says it can be your commander | 903.3, 903.3a |
| The command zone | Your commander starts the game there, and you may cast it from there | 903.6, 903.8 |
| The commander tax | Each cast from the command zone costs {2} more for every earlier cast from there that game | 903.8 |
| Starting life | 40 | 903.7 |
| Commander damage | A player dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander loses the game | 903.10a |
| Banned cards | A policy list kept outside the rules: the Commander ban list | Not in the rules |
The rest of this page puts those lines in the order a game uses them.
What you need before you sit down
One deck of exactly 100 cards including your commander, three other players with the same, something to track four life totals, and a couple of hours. Dice or a notebook for life is enough.
If you do not have a deck yet, the build order is in how to build a Commander deck. If you want one drafted for you, Grover can write the whole 99 from a description, or you can copy any list from the public deck library and change it later.
Setting up: the command zone, 40 life, and a free mulligan
Four things happen before the first turn, in this order.
1. Work out who goes first. The players choose who takes the first turn by any mutually agreeable method, a die roll or a coin flip (rule 103.1). Turn order then goes clockwise from that player.
2. Put your commander in the command zone, face up. Each player puts their commander from their deck face up into the command zone, then shuffles the remaining cards into a library (rule 903.6). Everyone can see what everyone is building around from the start. That is a feature, not a leak: half of Commander is knowing what the table is threatening.
3. Set life to 40 and draw seven. Once the starting player is determined, each player sets their life total to 40 and draws seven cards (rule 903.7). Forty is also the number given in the general life total rule for Commander games (rule 103.4c).
4. Mulligan if you need to, and the first one is free. To take a mulligan you shuffle your hand back, draw a new seven, then put a number of cards equal to the number of mulligans you have taken on the bottom of your library (rule 103.5). In a multiplayer game the first mulligan does not count toward that number (rule 103.5c), so your first mulligan is a genuinely free fresh seven and only the second one costs you a card.
That free mulligan is the most under used rule in the format. A one land hand is an easy mulligan in Commander. Take it.
The five phases of a turn
Every turn has the same five phases, in the same order, whether anything happens in them or not (rule 500.1).
| Phase | What happens |
|---|---|
| Beginning | Three steps: untap, upkeep, draw (rule 501.1). Untap your permanents, resolve anything that triggers at the beginning of your upkeep, then draw a card (rule 504.1). |
| Precombat main | Play a land, cast creatures, artifacts, enchantments and sorceries. This and the postcombat main phase are the two main phases (rule 505.1). |
| Combat | Five steps: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, end of combat (rule 506.1). |
| Postcombat main | Everything you can do in a main phase, again, now that you know how combat went. |
| Ending | End step, then cleanup: discard down to your maximum hand size, normally seven (rule 514.1), and all damage on permanents is removed and "until end of turn" effects end (rule 514.2). |
One timing rule underpins all of it: you may cast an instant any time you have priority, but a noninstant spell only during your own main phase while the stack is empty (rule 117.1a). That is why Counterspell, {U}{U}, can be cast on somebody else's turn and a creature cannot.
One difference from a two player game that catches everybody. In a two player game the player who goes first skips their first draw step (rule 103.8a). In every other multiplayer game, nobody skips it (rule 103.8c). So in a four player Commander game the first player draws on turn one, same as everyone else.
Casting your commander, and the commander tax
Your commander starts in the command zone, and you may cast it from there (rule 903.8). It costs its normal mana cost the first time. After that, the same rule adds {2} for each previous time you have cast it from the command zone that game. The rules themselves call this "informally known as the commander tax".
So a four mana commander such as Krenko, Mob Boss, {2}{R}{R}, costs four the first time, six the second, eight the third. This is the main reason ramp matters so much in the format, and why a lot of decks run Sol Ring, {1}, and a land like Command Tower, which taps for any colour in your commander's colour identity.
The tax counts casts from the command zone only. If your commander ends up in your hand, casting it from your hand costs its printed cost, which is the whole point of Command Beacon: tap and sacrifice it to put your commander into your hand from the command zone.
When your commander dies
It does not have to stay dead, and you choose.
If your commander is in a graveyard or in exile and it got there since the last time state based actions were checked, its owner may put it into the command zone (rule 903.9a). If your commander would be put into your hand or library from anywhere, you may put it into the command zone instead (rule 903.9b).
Both are optional. Sometimes you want the commander in the graveyard, because your deck can bring it back for less than the next tax step. Most of the time you take the command zone and pay the {2}.
Attacking at a four player table
The default multiplayer setup for Commander is the Free for All variant, with the attack multiple players option and without the limited range of influence option (rule 903.2). Unpacked, that means three things:
- Everyone is playing for themselves. In a Free for All game, a group of players compete as individuals against each other (rule 806.1). There are no teams and no fixed alliances, only whatever the table agrees to in the moment.
- You can attack whoever you like, and you can split your attack. With the attack multiple players option, you may attack more than one opponent in the same combat, and you may also choose to attack only one player in a particular combat (rule 802.1).
- Nothing is out of range. Because the limited range of influence option is not used, your spells can affect any player and any permanent at the table.
The mechanics of a combat are the normal ones. You choose which of your untapped creatures attack, and each must either have haste or have been under your control continuously since the turn began (rule 508.1a), which is the summoning sickness rule in another form (rule 302.6). The defending player then chooses which of their untapped creatures block and what each blocks (rule 509.1a). An unblocked creature assigns its combat damage to the player it is attacking (rule 510.1b).
The strategic difference from a two player game is that attacking costs you something even when it works: the creature you tap to attack one opponent is not blocking the other two. This is why defensive enchantments such as Propaganda, {2}{U}, are so effective at a four player table. They do not have to stop an attack, only make somebody else the easier target.
The two ways the game ends for you
You lose a Commander game the normal ways, and one extra way.
The normal one: if your life total is 0 or less you lose the game the next time a player would receive priority (rule 104.3b). You also lose if you would draw from an empty library (rule 104.3c) or reach ten poison counters (rule 104.3d).
The extra one: a player who has been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the course of the game loses the game (rule 903.10a). It is combat damage only, it is per commander rather than per opponent, and it does not reset when that commander dies. At 40 life that second clock is usually the faster one, so it is worth tracking out loud. The full rule, the edge cases and how to stop it are in the Commander damage rule explained.
And the way the game ends for everyone: a player still in the game wins when all of their opponents have left it (rule 104.2a).
The things the rules do not cover
This is worth stating clearly, because two of the most discussed parts of Commander are not in the rules document at all.
- Which cards are banned is policy, not rules. The Comprehensive Rules contain no banned list. The word "banned" appears in them exactly once, in rule 113.6n, and only to say that an ability which modifies deck construction "can't affect the format legality of a card, including whether it's banned or restricted"; rule 100.6 hands the question to the tournament rules, which "may limit the use of some cards". The format's banned list is maintained and published separately by the panel that owns the format, and it changes when they announce a change. When you check a deck for legality, you are checking two different things: the construction rules in section 903, and a policy list that lives outside the rules.
- Brackets are policy too. The bracket system, which gives a table a shared vocabulary for how powerful a deck is, is a framework published alongside the format rather than part of the Comprehensive Rules. It is described in Commander brackets explained.
- The 75 percent rule is a community convention. It is not in the rules and never was. The idea, coined by Jason Alt in 2014, is to aim for a deck that would beat roughly three quarters of the decks it plays against.
- Table etiquette is just etiquette. How long a turn should take, whether you explain your combo before you do it, whether you take the free win in a casual game: none of that is written down anywhere. Ask the table before the first turn. A thirty second conversation about what kind of game everyone wants is worth more than any rules knowledge.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards are in a Commander deck?
Exactly 100, including your commander (rule 903.5a). The minimum and the maximum deck size are both 100, so a Commander deck is your commander plus 99 other cards (two commanders plus 98 with a partner pair, rule 702.124b), with one copy of each card other than basic lands (rule 903.5b).
What are the basic rules of Commander?
A 100-card deck including a legendary commander (rules 903.5a and 903.3), one copy of each card except basic lands (903.5b), and every card inside the commander's colour identity (903.5c). The commander starts in the command zone and can be cast from there, for {2} more each time after the first (903.6 and 903.8). Everyone starts at 40 life (903.7), and a player dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander loses (903.10a). Which cards are banned is a separate policy list, covered in the Commander ban list.
How many players do you need for Commander?
A Commander game may be a two player game or a multiplayer game (rule 903.2), so two is legal and four is the usual table. Four is the number the format is tuned for: 40 life and a 100 card singleton deck both assume a longer game than a duel gives you.
How does a two-player Commander game work?
With the same decks and the same Commander rules: a Commander game may be a two player game (rule 903.2), each player still starts at 40 life (rule 903.7), and 21 or more combat damage from the same commander still loses the game (rule 903.10a). Two general rules work differently at a table of two. The player who plays first skips the draw step of their first turn (rule 103.8a), and the first mulligan is not free, because rule 103.5c gives that free mulligan to multiplayer games and Brawl games only.
How much life do you start with in Commander?
You start with 40 life. Each player sets their life total to 40 once the starting player has been determined (rule 903.7), and rule 103.4c says the same. The one exception in section 903 is the Brawl option, which uses 25 life in a two player game and 30 in a multiplayer one (rule 903.12f).
Can you cast your commander from the command zone?
Yes, and that is the point of the zone. A player may cast a commander they own from the command zone (rule 903.8), at its normal cost the first time and {2} more for each previous cast from there that game.
Does the first player skip their draw in Commander?
Not at a multiplayer table. Only in a two player game does the player who plays first skip their first draw step (rule 103.8a); in all other multiplayer games no player skips it (rule 103.8c). A two player Commander game is a two player game, so there the first player does skip it.
Is the first mulligan free in Commander?
In a multiplayer game, yes. The first mulligan does not count toward the number of cards you put on the bottom of your library or the number of mulligans you may take (rule 103.5c). Subsequent mulligans count as normal.
Can you attack more than one player in the same turn?
Yes. The default Commander setup uses the attack multiple players option (rule 903.2), which lets you attack more than one opponent in a combat, and also lets you choose to attack only one (rule 802.1).
What happens if two players control the same legendary creature?
Nothing, as long as they are different players. The legend rule applies only within one player's permanents: if the same player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, they choose one and the rest go to their owners' graveyards (rule 704.5j).
Can I play Commander with a 60 card deck?
Not as Commander. A Commander deck must contain exactly 100 cards including its commander (rule 903.5a). The 60 card version of the idea is the Brawl option in the same section, which uses exactly 60 cards including the commander (rule 903.12d) and does not use the commander damage rule at all (rule 903.12h).
Can you play two copies of a card in Commander?
No, except basic lands: rule 903.5b requires every card other than a basic land to have a different English name. The only other exceptions are printed on the cards themselves. A card whose text says a deck can have any number of cards with its name changes the deck construction rules before the game begins (rule 113.6n), so that card can appear more than once.
Can your commander be exiled?
Yes, but its owner may then move it to the command zone: a commander put into exile or a graveyard since the last state-based action check can go there (903.9a). From the command zone it can be cast again, with the commander tax (903.8).
What happens if your commander would be shuffled into your library?
Its owner may put it into the command zone instead, because a commander that would go to its owner's hand or library from anywhere can be sent there (903.9b). The choice is optional, so you can let it go into the library if your deck wants that.
How many planeswalkers can you have in a Commander deck?
As many as you like: planeswalkers follow the same deck rules as every other card, one copy of each card other than basic lands (903.5b), inside your commander's colour identity (903.5c). A planeswalker can lead the deck only if its own text says it can be your commander (903.3, 903.3a).
Play a game, then build a better deck
Read the setup section once, keep the phase table next to you for the first game, and track commander damage out loud. After that the rules stop being the hard part and deck building starts. The deck builder checks the deck size, the one-copy rule and colour identity as you add cards, no account needed.
Create a free Mana Grove account to build with the full deck builder, legality checks and deck statistics on every plan, and see plans and pricing when you want more time with Grover, Scry and Tutor. Start at the Commander hub to pick a commander, search every card by what it does, or browse every article.
Sources
- Comprehensive Rules, effective August 7, 2026, rules 100.6, 103.1, 103.4c, 103.5, 103.5c, 103.8a, 103.8c, 104.2a, 104.3b, 104.3c, 104.3d, 113.6n, 117.1a, 302.6, 400.1, 408.1, 500.1, 501.1, 504.1, 505.1, 506.1, 508.1a, 509.1a, 510.1b, 514.1, 514.2, 704.5j, 802.1, 806.1, 903.1, 903.2, 903.5a, 903.6, 903.7, 903.8, 903.9a, 903.9b, 903.10a, 903.12d, 903.12f and 903.12h: https://magic.wizards.com/en/rules. Read on September 16, 2026, from the snapshot our rules engine keeps. The quoted phrases in the opening paragraph and in the commander tax section are rules 903.1 and 903.8 verbatim. The rules table and the FAQ also cite rules 702.124b, 903.3, 903.3a, 903.4, 903.5b and 903.5c, read on October 25, 2026 in the edition effective September 25, 2026. The FAQ entry on two-player games cites rules 103.5c, 103.8a, 903.2, 903.7 and 903.10a, read on October 31, 2026 in the same edition.
- Jason Alt, "Building a 75% Commander Deck", February 13, 2014. Read on September 16, 2026. The origin of the 75 percent convention; it is published on a card retailer's site, which we do not link.
- Mana Grove card database, MTGJSON build 5.3.0+20260914 of September 14, 2026: the mana costs, card types, power, toughness, rules text and Commander legality of every card named above.
This article is updated when the Comprehensive Rules change something it states. The date at the top is the last revision.
