Changelog
Version 2026.07.24 replaces version 2025.09.29 and takes effect on July 24, 2026. This section lists every substantive change, grouped by the rules it affects.
A note on numbering. Numbers in this document are derived from the order of its rules, so removing a rule closes the gap and shifts everything after it. Three things move published numbers in this version. Rule 406.3 is gone, and that number no longer resolves. The old rule 407.2 is gone, so every rule after it in article 407 moved up one: what was 407.3 is now 407.2, what was 407.4 is now 407.3, and so on to the end of the article. And examples no longer carry a number of their own, so the numbers they used to occupy no longer resolve either, 404.5 among them. Everywhere else the additions below were made as lettered sub-rules or appended at the end of an article, so those numbers still point at the same text.
Examples are no longer numbered. An example used to take the next number in its article, as though it were a rule: in version 2025.09.29 the Command Beacon illustration was published as rule 404.5. An example now carries the number of the rule it illustrates, sits indented under it, and is labelled as an example, so inserting or removing one can never shift a rule again. Examples that had been appended at the end of their article were moved under the rule they actually illustrate. The document is also indented by level throughout: a rule sits one step in from its article, a lettered sub-rule one step further, and an example one step further than the rule it belongs to.
Address of the Banned and Restricted list (102.2, 304.1). Both rules pointed at duelcommander.com. They now point at duelcommander.org/banlist.
The companion on a decklist (206.1). The rule said a decklist shows 99 cards plus 1 commander, or as modified by partner mechanics, which left out the companion. Rule 206.3 already allows a 101st card for it, so the two rules disagreed about how many lines a legal decklist can have. Rule 206.1 now states that a decklist shows 99 cards plus 1 commander, or as modified by the partner mechanics (see rule 301.1), and may also list a companion, which is separate from the deck (see rules 206.3 and 302.3). The companion is stated separately from partner because it works differently: partner changes the composition of the 100 cards, while a companion sits outside the deck and is listed in addition to it.
Restriction categories (304.2, new 304.2a to 304.2c). Rule 304.2 no longer packs the three categories into one sentence: each is now its own rule. The second category also changed meaning. What was "banned in deck only", a category that contained no cards, is now "banned as companion only". The categories are banned as commander only (304.2a), banned as companion only (304.2b), and banned in Duel Commander (304.2c).
Abilities that modify deck construction, new 301.4 to 301.4c. Cards have started to carry abilities that change how a deck may be built, under the Rulebreaker ability word. Article 301 said a deck must conform to the commander's color identity and left no room for a card to say otherwise, so a judge reading only the rules would have had to call such a deck illegal. A new rule 301.4 states that such an ability applies while a player builds their deck and that a deck satisfying the modified rules is legal. Its sub-rules bound it: the ability applies only if the card is used the way it requires (301.4a), it modifies only what it states and every other deck construction rule still applies (301.4b), and it never makes a banned card legal (301.4c).
References to those categories (206.4, 302.2, 303.2). Rule 206.4 now states that a card banned as companion only can't be listed as a companion. Rule 302.2 conditions the use of a companion on that card being banned neither as companion only nor in Duel Commander. Rule 303.2 cites the categories by number instead of describing them.
Magic: The Gathering Online, new 105.2 to 105.4. Article 105 held one rule, that software-managed rules take precedence on the platform, and left two things a player could misread: whether the software's card pool or its rules enforcement change the format itself. They do not. New rule 105.2 states that the Banned and Restricted list determines card legality (see rule 304.1) whether or not a card is available on the software, and 105.2a states that the software may be unable to offer every legal card without changing any card's legality. New rule 105.3 states that the rules in this document apply to every game whether or not the software enforces them, and 105.3a that the software may implement them incompletely or differently without changing their existence or the need to apply them. New rule 105.4 states that a player who plays there accepts the software is a simulation that may not fully reflect how the Committee maintains the format (see rule 102.1). Each of the two limitations carries an example. Rule 105.1 is unchanged.
Wording brought into line with the Comprehensive Rules (302.2, articles 305 and 306, 401.1). Several rules were written as notes rather than as rules: "Companion ability is valid", "Dungeons are accepted", "Ante cards are excluded", "Stickers are not accepted". The Comprehensive Rules never call a thing valid, accepted or excluded; they state what is true and what a player may or may not do, and a rule phrased as a verdict leaves the mechanics unsaid. Rule 302.2 now states that the companion ability functions and under what conditions a player may list a companion. Rules 305.1 to 305.4 and 306.1 to 306.4 now state what may and may not be used, each pointing at the rule that carries the detail rather than restating it. Rule 401.1 no longer says that effects modifying starting life totals "are valid". The meaning is unchanged throughout, with one exception: rule 305.4 said Shahrazad was excluded "for structural reasons", which named no reason, and now states the reason, that resolving it starts a subgame. Article 306 was retitled "Nontraditional Magic Cards", since a dungeon card and an Attraction card are both cards, and the document now spells "nontraditional" the way MTG Comprehensive Rules 108.2a does.
Casting commanders, scoped to each player (404.1 to 404.4). These rules read as though the restriction on casting a commander from the command zone applied to the table rather than to each player. They now say it plainly: the limit is per player, and one player casting a commander never prevents their opponent from casting theirs. Rule 404.2 states this directly, and a new example sits under it. The existing Command Beacon example was rescoped to a player's own commanders and moved under 404.1, the rule it illustrates.
Starting a game (401.1, 401.2, new 401.2a, new 401.3 to 401.6, 402.3). Rule 401.1 now states that the 20 life total is an exception to MTG Comprehensive Rules 103.4c. Rule 401.2 named the London Mulligan; it now cites the mulligan procedure of MTG Comprehensive Rules 103.5, and a new rule 401.2a states that no mulligan is free, since the provision granting a free first mulligan applies only to multiplayer and Brawl games. A new rule 401.3, with steps 401.3a to 401.3g, sets out the order in which a game begins. New rules 401.4 to 401.6 cover the determination of the starting player, the skipped draw step on the first turn, and the MTG Comprehensive Rules provisions that don't apply in Duel Commander. Rule 402.3 now points at this sequence rather than at MTG Comprehensive Rules 103.2.
Dungeon cards, new 306.2a and 306.2b. The document allowed dungeon cards without ever saying how one reaches the game, and that silence collided with article 406. A dungeon card begins outside the game, and rule 406.1 says that parts of abilities bringing cards from outside the game do not function, so the two rules together said a player may use dungeon cards but can never bring one in. Rule 406.2 made it worse by asserting that the companion ability was the sole ability that brings a card from outside the game, which the venture into the dungeon keyword action contradicts. Rule 306.2a now states that venture into the dungeon brings the card in and puts it into the command zone, as an explicit exception to 406.1, with an example. Rule 306.2b states that nothing else brings a dungeon card into the game. Rule 406.2 no longer claims companion is the only such ability and points at 306.2a.
Cards from outside the game (406.1, 406.2, removal of 406.3). Rule 406.1 said that effects bringing cards from outside the game do not function. The rule now reaches any ability that has a component going outside the game, and only that component fails: the spell or ability itself still resolves normally. A new example works through Turtles Forever. Rule 406.2 adds that the companion ability is the sole ability that brings a card from outside the game into the game. Rule 406.3, which stated that only commander swapping was allowed between rounds, was removed as incorrect: it conflicted with rule 407.1, which allows swapping after each game of the same round. The new example was placed under 406.1 rather than appended, so that no unrelated rule inherits the retired number 406.3.
Commander swapping, part one: the removal (old 407.2). The old rule 407.2 required players to put their commanders face up into the command zone before shuffling, for the first game of each round. The new rule 401.3c states that same duty for every game of a match and defers to article 407 for which commanders are used after game one, so 407.2 had become a narrower restatement of a rule that already covered it. It was removed, and every rule after it in the article moved up one number.
Commander swapping, part two: the revelation (407.2, new 407.2a to 407.2f). Rule 407.2, previously numbered 407.3, now states that the revelation happens once the starting player has been determined, and that commanders go into the command zone before shuffling. New rules 407.2a to 407.2c make the choice hidden information: each player decides privately, a decision can't be based on the opponent's, and it is final once revealed. New rules 407.2d to 407.2f follow a judge ruling: concealment covers how many commander cards a player chose and not only which ones, so placing cards face down isn't sufficient when the number of cards is itself visible; no player may be required to reveal first, and turn order grants no priority; players who can't agree on a procedure that keeps the revelation simultaneous should call a judge. Three examples illustrate these rules.
Commander swapping, part three: color identity (407.3, new 407.3a and 407.3b). Rule 407.3, previously numbered 407.4, carried a factual error: it stated that color identity could not change between games. It can. What must hold is that every card in a player's deck conforms to the color identity of the commanders they choose. The rule now states that constraint, and new rules 407.3a and 407.3b confirm that both the color identity and the number of commanders may change from one game to the next. An example illustrates the color identity change.
Restarted games (407.5). The rule covered "restarted games and subgames" and pointed them at "the main game". Subgames no longer have anything to govern: the only card that starts one in tournament play is Shahrazad, and rule 305.4 now states plainly that it may not be used. A rule that covers nothing invites a judge to wonder what it is for. "The main game" was also the wrong reference point, since a restart has no main game beside it, only the game it replaces. The rule now covers restarted games and points at the previous game, scoped to the player like the rest of the article.
Commander in hidden zones (new article 408). A new article covers a commander in a hidden zone or exiled face down. It defines when a face-down exiled card is identified to a player (408.3), limits the state-based action of MTG Comprehensive Rules 903.9a to cards that are identified (408.2), states that no player is required to reveal, confirm or deny that a face-down exiled card is a commander (408.4), and confirms that a face-down commander on the battlefield stays identifiable to everyone (408.5). Rule 408.6 collects eight examples, built on Siphon Insight, Memory Lapse, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Courser of Kruphix and Gonti, Lord of Luxury.
