Commander League Rules

Points:
+2 Win: You get two points for winning your game. In the event of a tie, these points are not awarded.

+1 Player Removal: You earn a point for eliminating an opponent. This can only be earned once per game

+1 Participation: You earn one point for participating in the game. 

Violations:^[1]

Deal Breaker: If you break a deal made with another player, you lose the game instead. A “Deal” is a specific agreement made with another player. Inability to uphold an agreement does not result in a penalty (as an example, if you make a deal that you will wipe the board on your turn and you cast the board wipe at the agreed upon time, you will not be penalized if another player counters your spell).

Don't Go Infinite: In a given turn cycle, a player may only use an infinite loop a maximum of 6 times per turn cycle. If two loops share any actions they are considered the same loop. If a player uses a loop more than 6 times, they lose the game instead.

A loop is defined as a sequence of actions to be repeated and then performing a number of iterations of that sequence. The loop actions must be identical in each iteration and cannot include conditional actions (“If this, then that”.).

A loop is infinite if it can be done any number of times. A loop is still considered infinite even if limited by the number of cards in your library or graveyard.

Actions include, but are not limited to, casting or copying spells; activated, triggered or static abilities; special actions.

Example: Amy controls a Peregrine Drake and a Deadeye Navigator. She uses the activated ability on Deadeye Navigator to flicker Peregrine Drake, untapping five lands (including at least one land that makes blue mana). This represents a loop, and can only be done 6 times. If Amy also controls a Lilysplash Mentor, then flickering the Peregrine Drake with the Lilysplash Mentor would be considered the same loop, since the two loops share the triggered ability of Peregrine Drake.

If a loop cannot be shortcutted because it is non-deterministic (for example, Etali, Primal Conqueror and Displacer Kitten or The Gitrog Monster and dredging a Golgari Grave Troll with a discard outlet), then it is treated like an infinite combo if you are able to execute the combo 6 times.

Too Many Turns: If a player directly causes themselves to resolve more than one effect per turn cycle that results in either taking extra turns or controlling an opponent’s turn, that player loses the game instead as a replacement effect.

Six means Six: If a player would take an extra turn prior to the beginning of the sixth turn cycle, that player skips that extra turn instead.

No Time For Fun: If a player would eliminate one or more opponents from the game before the beginning of the 6th turn cycle, win the game due to an effect before the beginning of the 6th turn cycle, or create a game state prior to the 6th turn cycle that would result in a player losing the game during their next turn before that player takes any keyword actions prior to the combat step, that player loses the game instead as a replacement effect.

Mass Land Destruction: If a player puts one or more spells or abilities on the stack that would directly cause seven or more nontoken lands controlled by opponents to leave their control without replacement in one turn cycle, that player loses the game instead.

Examples of removing lands include but are not restricted to returning lands to hand, causing players to sacrifice lands, destroying, exiling, shuffling the lands back into the deck. Replacing the land includes tutoring lands to the battlefield (like Field of Ruin, or Boseiju, Who Endures) but does not include effects like Chaos Warp, Warp World, or The Great Aurora.

Hard Lock: If any player is prevented from taking any of the following four actions on a turn by cards in play, they cannot be prevented from taking those actions on their next turn. The player preventing these actions loses the game with the prohibited action on the stack. The actions are:

1. Drawing (or otherwise accessing via impulse draw or putting into their hand) at least one card on their turn.
2. Producing at least one mana from their preexisting sources (a player must be able to untap lands or other mana sources without them being tapped again by another player on their turn).
3. Keeping at least one card in their hand.
4. Resolving at least one spell.

If you restrict a player's mana to zero on a turn, you may not restrict their mana at all on the previous or following turns.

You may not play a hard lock before the start of the 6th turn cycle.

Additionally, you cannot take an extra turn if you are currently prohibiting players from taking these actions, and you cannot play cards that prohibit players from taking these actions on extra turns.

Take Backs: If you wish to take back an action (typically a misplay), so long as the game state has not changed since the action occurred, you may do so without penalty. If the game state has changed, you may only take back an action if the entire table agrees to allow the rewind.

At no point can a player cause another player to violate the rules for any reason. To lose points a player must be directly responsible for the cause of point loss. (For example: If a player casts Expropriate and each opponent votes to give that player an extra turn, the player does not suffer a game loss for extra turns.)

Yellow and Red Cards: The rules above are meant to try and enforce a specific type of deck building challenge and sportsmanlike environment. They are meant to promote a competitive environment that is not the CEDH meta. However, in order that the rules be readable and usable, we are not able to govern every single sportsmanship issue. Yellow and red cards serve as a warning system for decks and behavior that don't meet the standards of sportsmanship in the league. While the intention of the system is to allow yellow cards to warn players of unacceptable behavior, in situations where the club's membership contract is violated, the infraction may be immediately escalated to a red card at the discretion of club leadership.

One type of sportsmanship issue that could warrant a penalty is effectively winning before turn 6. Certainly, you are allowed to set up your board and resources to try and win on turn 6, but we have had past situations where a player was able to present a win before turn 6 but only chooses not to actually present the win due to league rules. This often manifests as a player setting up a position to win as soon as they're allowed to (i.e. setting up an Aetherflux Reservoir with 150+ life) or a player using the resources that they would have won the game with to instead guarantee that they will be still able to win on their turn (i.e. drawing into multiple counterspells to prevent board wipes or removal of important combo pieces, recurring silence effects on each player's upkeep, or other things that are very close to our hard lock definition).

We understand that sometimes your deck is much more explosively powerful than it usually is, that's part of the fun of singleton formats, and sometimes decks will have to pump the brakes to avoid accidentally eliminating a player before turn 6, but we don't intend for players to be actively circumventing the turn 6 rule.

Banned and Suspended Cards:

The league operates using the official commander banlist, which can be found on the Wizards of the Coast website.