Rally is a new format for Magic: The Gathering designed around affordability and adaptability. The format uses two central cubes to create decks with a twist to make deck construction and gameplay happen simultaneously. Players familiar with other deckbuilding games like Dominion will see parallels with MTG Rally.

Game setup

• Each player begins the game at 20 life.
• Each player starts with a deck of two of each basic land and an emblem that reads “[1]: add one mana of any color. Usable only on your turn and only once each turn”
• Two shared decks are placed between all players: the “low cube” consists of cards with mana value 0–3, and the “high cube” consists of cards with mana value 4+.
• An array of five cards from each of the shared cubes is laid out between the players for a total of ten face up cards.
• The starting player draws 4 cards, all other players draw 5 cards.

Gameplay

• Skip your draw step.
• At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice all lands you control, discard your hand, and draw five cards.
• If you would draw a card and your library is empty, first shuffle your graveyard and it becomes your new library.
• You may play any number of lands each turn.
• On your turn, any time you could cast a sorcery, you may draft cards in the central array by paying the mana costs, if you do, place those cards into your graveyard and replenish the array from the appropriate cube.
  • Note: cost reduction abilities like delve or affinity do not affect drafting cost.
• You may cast spells from your hand without paying their mana costs (you will still need to pay for any additional costs).
• You may cast spells you own from exile (you will need to pay the full cost of the spell because you are casting the spell from somewhere other than your hand).

Strategy

• Nonland permanents that produce mana provide long term scaling as they provide permanent mana.
• Your first two turns will be the highest amount of mana available to you for a few turns as you are guaranteed to have five lands.
• Creatures that die will eventually be reshuffled into your library, so creatures with effects as they enter the battlefield are strong. Similarly, instants and sorceries are particularly powerful as they can be reused time and time again.
• Cards with activation costs or additional costs can be very versatile.
• Watch what cards your opponents are drafting to determine what cards you can draft to counter their strategy. The format requires a lot of adapting.
• The trigger to sacrifice, discard, and draw does go on the stack and can be ordered by the active player to enable synergies like targeting a land with Glimmerpoint Stag’s slow flicker ability to “save” it for next turn.

Changelog