Magic: The Gathering officially acknowledges the fan-made format, Oathbreaker

The Commander-neighborhood multiplayer format uses walking planes instead of mythical creatures

• by
  
  Charlie Hall
  

• on March 16, 2023, at 3:59 p.m

Magic: The Gathering Wizards of the Coast publisher has officially recognized a new fan-made format called Oathbreaker. The format holds 3-5 players, and was invented by a Minnesota-based gaming group called Eccentric Charity Club. A new landing page is now live, providing additional details on the format.

You might be surprised to learn that there is more than one way to play Charm, the classic collectible card game launched in 1993. As of March 15, there are 23 in fact, but most players gravitate to one of three different formats – Standard, Booster Draft, and Commander. Commander, the first form of multiplayer, has long been considered the most popular way to play Charm. As such, Oathbreaker could greatly expand its appeal to casual groups.

To create an Oathbreaker Deck, players must collect a deck of 60 cards and build it around their favorite Planewalker – powerful characters from Charm being. According to the Charm website, decks must not contain duplicate cards. In addition, players must select a so-called “signature spell”, which must match the color identity of their Oathbreaker planeswalker card. The planeswalker and signature spell both start the game during play, and players then fight from there to reduce the other opponents on the table from a starting value of 20 lives.

From the official description:

If your Oathbreaker is on the battlefield under your control, you can cast your signature spell for its normal costs, plus 2 extra mana for each time you cast your signature spell from the command area in this game. When your signature spell is resolved, place it in the command area instead of your graveyard. If your signature enchantment is going to go anywhere besides the command area or stack, you should place it in the command area instead.

Each player starts with 20 lives. Before the game begins, players must randomly sit in a circle and place their Oathbreaker and Signature Spell on their command area. Runs one player’s progress at a time in clockwise order around the table.

During gameplay, a player may choose to attack any other player, regardless of their position on the table, and may also choose to attack multiple different players during their attack phase. Permanents, spells, and abilities can also target any player around the table (as long as they don’t explicitly say they should be used on “you”). The player wins when all other players are eliminated from the game.

No official products have been announced to support the Oathbreaker format, but this is by no means uncommon. the majority CharmRetail products, with the exception of pre-built Commander skins, are intended to support multiple play formats. For more information about Oathbreaker, including video demos and additional comments, check out the format Official Website Maintained by Weirdcards.

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