Magic: The Gathering Formats (Part 1)

Standard, Historic, Explorer, Pauper, Brawl – have you heard these different Magic: The Gathering format names and now your head is spinning? Don't worry, it's not as complicated as it might seem at first glance. There are many formats, but for starters, a simple rule will suffice: "Play the Magic you enjoy. You'll figure out the rest in time."

If you want to peek under the hood of these formats, we're here to help. Let's dive right in. Formats fall into two major categories:

Constructed vs. Limited

Constructed formats have one thing in common – you bring your own pre-built deck to play with. Your deck doesn't change during the game, though you can use a fifteen-card sideboard that you also built beforehand. Constructed formats include Standard, Modern, or Legacy.

In Limited formats, you don't know your deck in advance. You receive boosters or randomly mixed cards, from which you first build a deck and only then start playing. Limited formats include Draft, Sealed, and their variations.

In short, Constructed and Limited differ in many ways.

Constructed Formats

For Constructed tournaments, you show up with your own (or borrowed) sixty-card deck, supplemented by a fifteen-card sideboard. You know the cards in your deck beforehand and have a good idea of what they will do during the game.

You can use your sideboard to prepare for games against different opponents; it usually contains situational cards or defenses against specific threats.

This is what your laid-out constructed deck with a sideboard might look like on the table.

So why are there so many different constructed formats? What's the catch?

The difference lies in the cards you can put into your deck. Each format has specific rules and restrictions, but they all offer great fun.

Standard – Constructed Format

Standard is a format featuring cards from the newest sets currently on sale. You don't have to scour auction forums, search through your grandfather's collection, or take out a second mortgage to get the cards. This format allows the fewest cards, but you definitely won't be bored playing it. As new sets are released, new strategies emerge, and older sets gradually rotate out to keep Standard accessible to new players.

The advantage of the format is the availability of all cards and relatively low entry costs. The disadvantage is the rotation of legal cards – when a key part of your deck rotates out of Standard, you often have to build from scratch. Don't worry, though; old sets only disappear once a year, and a new deck brings plenty of new fun.

These are the current sets playable in Standard. Note that in September 2023, the four oldest will disappear. By then, however, 4 new sets will have been added to prepare us for the loss.

Pioneer – Constructed Format

Pioneer, like Standard, sticks to the basic rules of a constructed format. You build a sixty-card deck plus a fifteen-card sideboard. You can play up to four copies of any card, except for Basic Lands. That's it, you have a deck. What's the difference? In Pioneer, you can include much older cards.

Your deck can contain cards from the Return to Ravnica set and newer. While in Standard you play with cards at most two years old, Return to Ravnica was released in 2012. That gives you a nice pile of cards to choose from.

The advantage of Pioneer is that you have access to many more decks and strategies. Sets don't rotate out; only new ones are added, so the card pool constantly grows. The disadvantage is that you have to learn many more cards that your opponents might throw at you. Some older cards also come with a slightly higher price tag. But at least they won't rotate out!

This was the list of sets for Pioneer in October 2019, when the format was first introduced. Since then, 11 more sets have been added. The selection is truly vast.

Modern – Constructed Format

Did you like that Pioneer has more cards, a wider selection of strategies, and that cards don't rotate out? In that case, you'll love Modern, which does the same thing but on a larger scale. In Modern, you can play cards from the Eighth Edition set and newer. Does that set name mean nothing to you? No wonder, it was released a long time ago, in 2003.

The advantage of Modern is another huge pile of cards you can play with, try new strategies, and create even more decks. Just like in Pioneer, only the newest sets are added, and none rotate out. The disadvantages remain the same – you have to gain awareness of even more cards that your opponents will use against you. And some cards from 2003 are already quite expensive.

If you ever want to compare the number of sets in Pioneer and Modern, CardTrader created this cool infographic in 2019.

Legacy – Constructed Format

Don't like being told what to do? Refuse to be bound by conventions? Have plenty of money? Then Legacy is the ideal format for you. It allows you to play cards from all sets in Magic: The Gathering, including the mythical Alpha. And there are quite a few of them. Thanks to Legacy, you can return to the very beginning of Magic, to 1993.

Sounds tempting? Of course, because this format also offers plenty of new (or rather, old) cards that let you discover relics from Magic's history. For example, the popular Banding ability, which last appeared in the Weatherlight set in 1997.

Legacy is an extraordinary experience that isn't easy to afford, as cards from original MTG sets are very hard to find or come at a really high price. Your reward, however, will be a deck you'll likely be able to play forever, and its value will only grow over time. At least if you take good care of the cards. Double sleeving, sturdy deck boxes, and no drinks on the table during play are standard.

If you don't want to sell your car to buy a Legacy deck, you can always borrow one from helpful teammates to try it out. Another option is to have proxy cards made, which will give you the same gameplay experience. Just remember that you must agree with your opponent to play with proxies.

You won't play these beauties in Modern. But you can in Legacy.

Vintage – Constructed Format

Wondering where another format came from? How is that possible? We're already playing cards from all sets! The reason is the Banned list, which exists for every format in Magic. Sometimes a poorly tested or overly powerful card is released that causes the entire format to revolve around it. And decks that don't play it must include direct defenses against it.

In such cases, the card ends up on the banned list, which differs for each format. Standard, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage all have one. In Vintage, however, the banned list is much shorter. You can play even the most powerful cards from the history of Magic: The Gathering – like Moxen or the legendary Black Lotus. To prevent the game in Vintage from getting completely out of hand, these cards are restricted to just one copy per deck instead of four.

If you ever try playing Vintage, you'll find it's very different from Legacy. Cards appear on the table that you won't see anywhere else, and explosive gameplay with a win on the second turn is not an exception. These cards can simply give your deck a serious boost. Legendary cards, however, come with a legendary price, and if you want to include a Black Lotus in your deck, you should have some serious savings.

The Power Nine – nine extremely powerful cards from the early days of MTG. And yes, you can play every one of them in Vintage. If you can afford it, that is.

Limited Formats

It is typical for Limited play that you don't know what you'll be playing in advance. At the start, you get boosters, which you open and use to build the best possible deck, which must contain at least forty cards. Only while building it do you find out what awaits you during the tournament.

During Limited tournaments, all the cards you opened but aren't currently using in your deck become your sideboard. It can happen that between rounds, your deck completely changes colors or strategy. Sounds interesting? It certainly is – Limited formats offer plenty of fun but are more demanding on quick decision-making and improvisation.

For Limited formats, only Draft boosters are used. Set boosters and Collector boosters are intended mainly for collectors. And Jumpstart is a separate format that we will focus on next time.

Sealed Deck – Limited Format

Sealed Deck (or just Sealed) is a format where you receive six sealed boosters from which you must build your deck. It must have at least forty cards, and you can add any number of Basic Lands. This is true even if they weren't in the boosters you used to build the deck.

All cards you don't use in the deck itself become your sideboard, which you can use throughout the tournament. If you find that something isn't working or you misread a card, you can easily swap it out before the next game.

Sealed is a fun format where you have to build a deck from what luck has dealt you and then just play it as best as you can. Within the tournament, you'll play enough games to really enjoy it, but it won't get boring. The disadvantage of the format is that you might run into someone who just had a luckier hand. Sealed Deck tournaments are also a bit more expensive, but you get to take home plenty of new cards.

Prerelease is a special Sealed tournament held to celebrate the release of a new Magic: The Gathering set. It's the first opportunity to get your hands on cards from a new set and get to know them in a fun way. Each participant receives a Prerelease pack, where they find their six boosters, and it also includes bonuses – traditionally a promo card that you can include in your deck and a color-coded life counter in the form of a D20 die.

This is what the sealed Prerelease pack looks like, which players received at the sealed tournament for the release of The Brothers’ War set.

Booster Draft – Limited Format

Did Sealed catch your interest, but you'd like to have a bit more influence over what you play? How about trying a Booster Draft? In this fun format, you open a total of just three boosters. But you'll open them one by one and pick cards one at a time.

How does it work? First, you sit down at a table with other players. You start by opening your first booster, picking one card from it, and passing the remaining fourteen to the player on your left. The player on your right passes their booster with fourteen cards to you. Again, you pick one, pass thirteen to the left, and thirteen cards also arrive from the right. You continue until the cards in the booster run out. Then you open the second booster and proceed the same way, but this time you pass cards to the right, and they come from the left. For the third booster, the passing direction reverses again.

Diagram of passing cards around the table in a draft.

Once you finish passing and picking cards, you build a deck from your selection. Compared to Sealed Deck, you have only half the amount of cards. However, it's not a random selection, but cards that will work and cooperate together. At least if you picked correctly.

If a pack was opened that contained extremely powerful cards, they were distributed among multiple players. Likewise, players shared packs with weaker cards. Again, you build a forty-card deck, and the rest of your cards remain as a sideboard.

Draft is usually a bit cheaper, less dependent on luck, but much more demanding on quick decision-making, improvisation, and knowledge of the cards in the game. The better idea you have of what you can build and how it will work, the better you will be at picking from the individual packs.

Even though most drafts use boosters from only one set, it still means you can get your hands on, for example, any of the 250 different cards released in the set. If you don't let it discourage you and dive into Drafts, you'll find it's one of the most fun formats ever. It won't get old and will slowly but surely fill your card collection.

Cube Draft is a special variant of Draft where, instead of boosters, a pre-prepared pool of cards is used, from which fifteen-card boosters are created just before the game. After the draft ends, all cards are returned to the Cube – the pool.

The advantage of such a draft is that you can create a pool with various cards that have interesting interactions and offer more gameplay strategies. Moreover, you can use the pool again and again; just mix new boosters each time, and your game will look different every time. A typical feature of Cube Draft is that each card is present in only one copy, and you won't use the entire pool for the tournament. Some cards might not even appear on the table during the game.

This is what happens when you want to create a truly thematic case for a vampire-themed Cube Draft.

Is that all? Is something missing from the list?

Good observation – this time, Commander, formats for Magic: The Gathering Arena, and special formats for Magic connoisseurs didn't make it into our list. You can look forward to those next time. And if you've read this far, turn off your computer, grab your deck, and go play a game of MTG. Playing is much more fun than just reading about it.

author Michal Dlouhý