Fast, cheap, and creative. Rebels was designed to let almost any card be the centerpiece of a deck, while keeping decks balanced and gameplay variable.
Rebels keeps the core of Commander’s expressive decks and multiplayer politics while tightening the experience, and it opens deck archetypes along new dimensions.
These rules are sufficient to build and play most Rebels decks.
They are a mostly complete but simplified summary of the format’s core.
The
Full Rules
is the central resource for examples and detailed explanations.
Rebels is a Commander-derived format that follows all official Commander/EDH rules with specific changes to create a unique experience.
Cards banned in Commander/EDH, cards designated as Game Changers, and Sol Ring are banned in Rebels.
Your deck must contain at least 60 cards. This total includes your library and your Command Zone Cards, so most libraries begin at 58 cards when using two Command Zone Cards.
You begin with 25 life. The Commander Damage threshold remains 21.
Libraries may only contain commons, uncommons, and basic lands. Cards with multiple rarity printings are considered to be their lowest printed rarity.
You have two Command Zone slots: one rare slot and one nonrare slot. Both must be filled.
One of your Command Zone Cards must be a card affected by combat, such as a creature, vehicle, spacecraft, or planeswalker. This card may be in either slot.
Command Zone Cards may be cast or played from the command zone by paying commander tax, and may return to the command zone following normal Commander rules.
Only one of your Command Zone Cards is your Commander. It is the only card that can deal Commander Damage and the only card affected by effects that reference “your commander.”
Your Commander’s color identity is the combined color identities of both Command Zone Cards.
You may use a sideboard of up to 10 commons, uncommons, or basic lands. Commanders are revealed before sideboarding.
During sideboarding, up to five cards may leave your library and up to five may enter it. Swaps do not need to be one-for-one, and your library may change size as long as it is legal when the game begins.
Command Zone Cards cannot be sideboarded out. But, casual groups may allow swapping them under Rule-0.
Rebels includes additional Special Actions, taken at sorcery speed:
Only the owner of a card may take these actions. Controlling another player’s turn does not allow you to make them take a Special Action.
Any Special Action that requires paying commander tax increases that card’s future commander tax by 2.
You are ready to begin playing Rebels.
The easiest way to build a deck is to choose a card you enjoy and pair it with a card that supports it, then build around the themes and mechanics of that pairing.
The Full Rebels Rules also covers:
Each deck below is defined by its two Command Zone Cards.
They illustrate how different pairings can pull a 58-card library in
unique directions.
A defensive shell that transforms into a sudden board wipe and threat.
Aggressive humans and non-humans flood the board and trigger Winota.
Equipment-focused value and combat tricks centered on a powerful artifact.
Token production and tap-down control, turning resources into tempo.
A relentless army of skeletons and tokens that scale with death.
A payoff spell and summoner pairing that rewards clever deckbuilding.
Soldier swarming backed by anthem effects and layered protection.
Ramp and a powerful engine that scales into late-game value.
A high-cost creature paired with a mana rock to accelerate it out.
A utility land and a creature combo that feeds off sacrifice and card draw.
A gameplan built around card advantage and graveyard recursion.
A five-color build centered on board presence and cast triggers.
The following rules are not are required to play.
They are intended for casual play, and they enable additional strategies and designs. These rules are designed so that you may use them without needing the other players to study these rules as well.
The
Full Rules
contain the complete details.
A command zone slot may be occupied by a pair of Partner cards. If two cards can
be partnered in normal EDH, they may occupy a single slot in Rebels as long as
both obey the slot’s rarity rules.
Only one of these cards will be your Commander.
Outlanders allow additional rare cards if they are linked to a card in your command
zone by one of the card's rules text. This enables meld cards such as
Brisela, Voice of Nightmares,
where Bruna, the Fading Light
in your command zone is referenced by
Gisela, the Broken Blade
in your library.
Like an alternative form of Command Zone Card, Outlanders can be your Commander. Additionally, Outlander Cards contribute to your Commander's color identity and they can use the Record a Commander action.
Outlanders start in your library and cannot be in your opening hand. Revealed your Outlanders during Reveal Commanders and shuffle them into your library after drawing your opening hand.
If your deck and sideboard does not have another rare or mythic rare Command Zone Card or Outlander Card, then you may choose to have a rare or mythic rare card in your library to be an Outlander Card.
This card cannot extend the color identity of your other Command Zone Cards and Outlander Cards.
A legendary token named in the rules text of and produced by one of your Command Zone Cards can
also be an Outlander, such as the
Mechtitan token created by
Mechtitan Core.
A legendary token can only be chosen as an Outlander Token if it is also chosen as your Commander, in which case you will not have a Commander Card.
A player loses the game if they take 21 or more damage in total from Outlander Tokens which are your Commander.
Signature Cards allow certain cards designed to be played at four copies to break
Commander’s singleton rule. To qualify, the card must be on the allowed list found in the
Full Rules
and either a copy of the card must appear in your command zone or the cards must be linked to one of your Command Zone Cards
in a manner similar to Outlanders. Examples include
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade,
Food Fight,
Gigantiform, and
Powerstone Shard.
Reveal your Signature Cards during Reveal Commanders. They and cannot start in your opening hand.
This web page is a summary of the rules.
The following documents are the primary references, and they are intended to be the most current revisions of the rules.