Oathbreaker Becomes An Official ‘Magic The Gathering’ Format

Wizards of the Coast has officially announced Oathbreaker, a multi-player format, to their stable of supported formats.

Oathbreaker takes the original Commander/EDH format and scales it back a bit. Instead of 100-card decks, Oathbreaker decks are built in a 60-card Singleton format. Players pick their commanding Oathbreaker from the vast pool of Magic the Gathering’s Planewalkers (which determines the deck’s Color Identity) and a Signature spell in the form of an Instant or Sorcery. Both the Planeswalker and Instant/Sorcery are placed in the Command Zone, able to be cast like normal, including the +2 Commander Tax for each time the two spells are cast. Oathbreaker is suggested for 3-5 players with a starting Life total of 20 as opposed to 40.

Along with the various changes between Oathbreaker and Commander, the format has its own Rules Committee and Ban List.

This is an overall absolute win for Magic the Gathering players out there looking for a proper casual format. What remains to be seen is the effect this will have on Oathbreaker-specific products now that Wizards of the Coast is officially supporting the format. If history is any indication, we’re just a short time away from official Oathbreaker precons and a price increase on the best of the best Planeswalkers.