Ages past in Magic history, there was Vanguard. Vanguard was a Magic: the Gathering supplement that put the players into the shoes of one of the characters in the game’s sweeping storyline. Introduced in 1999, there were ultimately 32 of the oversized cards released through magazines and other promotions. However, the format never quite took off, due in large part to the inaccessibility of the cards themselves. In 2005, Magic Online adopted Vanguard, renaming it Avatar.
Avatar Magic is all fun and good, but Magic Online is hardly a casual game. Until recently, this aspect f Magic: the Gathering, imagining yourself as an all-powerful Planeswalker, a sort of demi-god, was lost to those who didn’t play online or had collections stretching back a decade. Fortunately for us, Wizards of the Coast has released Planechase.
A New Way to Play Multiplayer
The first thing you're going to need before playing a Planechase game is a standard deck of Magic: the Gathering cards. Any deck will do. Next you'll need ten unique Planar cards and a Planar dice. Fortunately, each Planechase deck comes with exactly ten unique planar cards and a Planar dice.
Once you have those two decks, you'll have to familiarize yourself with the rules that Planar cards follow. Chiefly, the Command Zone.
The Command Zone
Planechase introduces a new zone to Magic: the Command Zone. Here's the quick rundown of how it works:
- As long as there is a Plane card in the Command Zone, that card affects the game.
- Once each turn, a player may roll the Planar die. If the Planeswalker Symbol (a hand) is rolled, the current Plane is put under its owner's deck, and the roller puts the top card of their planar deck into the Command Zone.
- Conversely, there is the Chaos side of the die, which will trigger the Plane's second ability, on the bottom of the card.
- For each time after the first roll, the controller of the Plane may pay one mana to roll the dice again. This cost increases by one for each roll after the first.
- The player who's turn it is controls the card in the Command Zone.
- Cards in the Command Zone aren't in play, so they can't be targetted.
- In a multiplayer game, if the controller of the current Plane leaves the game, all of his cards and abilities go with him. However, his or her Plane stays long enough to trigger and Planeswalking abilities. Then, the current player flips over their next Plane.
Choosing a Planechase Deck
There are four Planechase decks:
Strike Force – A speedy red and white deck that throws threat after threat at your opponents.
Zombie Empire – A black deck that quickly builds an army of undead to overwhelm your opponents.
Metallic Dreams – An artifact heavy five-color deck that uses various tricks to stall opponents while setting up nasty combos, like Door to Nothingness, a card that can cause a player to instantly lose the game.
Elemental Thunder – A Green and Red Elemental tribal deck, focusing on playing lots of land in order to play gigantic creatures like Verdant Force and Ivy Elemental.
There are several things to consider when choosing a deck, personal preference being important. Metallic Dreams is the hardest deck to play for newer and experienced players alike.
Choosing your Planes
Magic: the Gathering is a collectible card game. So naturally there will be many players who will want to combine the planar cards from other decks together to work with their personal decks. Fortunately, the planar cards can be complimentary to almost any deck.
The planes fall into two categories: those that speed up the game, and those that slow down the game. Planes like Bant and Krosa boost creature power, Naar Isle deals increasing damage each turn, and Llanowar increases your mana production.
On the other side, we have the planes that slow the game down. These make up less than a quarter of the planar cards, and understandably so; slowing down a six-man game with The Eon Fogs or Skybreen is a surefire way to drive away your friends from game that is as social as it is fun.
No matter what Planar cards you choose for your deck, they will most likely compliment and deck; even those that you built years ago! The decks themselves aren't bad either. A newer player will not be disappointed in the power level of the decks, and the cards within the decks.
The Future of Planchase
But Planechase doesn't end with the four decks. Wizards of the Coast will also be releasing promotional Planar cards at events such as Prerelease and Release parties, and there is always the possibility of my Planar decks in the future.
Wizards of the Coast, Official site for Magic: the Gathering
An Intro to Elder Dragon Highlander, another popular Magic variant.
Otaria, a Planar CArd
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Planar Dice, Planeswalk (top), and Chaos (bottom)
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The four Planechase decks
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