MTG Formats Explained: Commander, Standard, Modern, Draft and More

Magic: The Gathering formats are rule sets that decide which cards you may use, how big your deck is and how many people play. Commander is the most popular, with 100-card multiplayer decks. Standard uses recent sets, Pioneer and Modern add older ones, and Booster Draft and Sealed Deck have you build a deck from packs opened on the spot.

Constructed and Limited formats

Magic formats fall into two families. In Constructed formats you build a deck ahead of time from cards you own; the Comprehensive Rules set a minimum of 60 cards and at most four copies of any card except basic lands. In Limited formats everyone gets the same unopened product, such as booster packs, and builds a deck of at least 40 cards from it.

Commander is a Constructed format with its own rules: exactly 100 cards and only one copy of each card. The full rules are in what a Commander deck is.

Every main Magic format compared

The main Magic formats side by side, from Wizards of the Coast’s format pages:

Wizards’ format pages list about 20 minutes for a two-player game, and about 20 minutes per player for Commander.

The Magic format guides on this site

Each popular Magic format has its own guide here, with the rules, the products that suit it and how to start:

Which Magic format to start with

The right first Magic format depends on who you play with:

• A group of friends at home: Commander. Wizards calls it “great to play with friends,” and each player can start from a ready-made precon.
• One friend, or a local store’s weekly events: Standard. The card pool is small and current, and Wizards’ 60-Card Theme Decks are built to be Standard legal.
• Anyone without a collection: Booster Draft or Sealed Deck, where everyone builds from fresh packs. A Prerelease is the friendliest way in.

Older formats such as Modern, Legacy and Vintage use larger card pools with more powerful cards, which makes them better as a second format than a first. Learn the rules in a format with a smaller card pool, then move on once you know which cards you enjoy.

Older non-rotating Magic formats

Legacy, Vintage and Pauper are the oldest-card formats on Wizards’ list. Legacy and Vintage allow cards from all sets, apart from a banned list. Vintage also has a restricted list: a restricted card may appear only once, in the deck or the sideboard. Pauper limits decks to cards that were printed at common rarity in a Magic set or product, which keeps the cards readily available.

These formats do not rotate, so a deck stays legal for years unless one of its cards is banned. Wizards keeps a separate banned list for each Constructed format on its Banned and Restricted page, and notes that a card banned in one format “may still be legal” in another. The lists do not apply to Limited formats such as drafts. Pioneer and Modern sit between Standard and these older formats; Modern vs Pioneer compares the two.

Theme Decks and beginner products

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Magic formats on MTG Arena

MTG Arena, Wizards’ free digital game, has its own set of formats alongside Standard and Pioneer. Wizards lists them on its Arena guide:

• Historic: a format “built to allow you to use cards that are no longer legal in Standard after rotation,” available only on Arena.
• Brawl: the format “most similar to Commander,” with a Commander-style deck around a legendary creature or planeswalker, played one-on-one on Arena.
• Timeless: Arena’s largest Constructed format, where every card on Arena is legal.

Arena also offers drafts of new sets. Because it follows the same rules as the card game, it is a cheap place to try a format before buying paper cards.

More multiplayer formats on Wizards’ list

Wizards’ full format list goes well beyond the main formats in the table. Besides Commander, it includes multiplayer formats such as Two-Headed Giant, Planechase, Archenemy, Oathbreaker and Commander 1v1, and team versions of Booster Draft and Sealed Deck. Each one has its own page on Wizards’ formats hub, with the deck size and player count.

How Magic formats affect what you buy

A Magic format decides what is worth buying. Commander players buy precons and singles for 100-card decks. Standard players need cards from recent sets, so Play Boosters from the newest sets matter most. Draft players buy packs to open on the spot. The products for each are compared in which Magic product to buy, and the first steps for a new player are in the best way to start Magic.