Tournament Legality
Asked by epicPlain 3 years ago
Returning to MTG I would like to play Grand Prix and different types of regional tournaments to eventually play in Pro Tour someday. Is there any restriction for certain type of cards that can be used? For instance, I have Underground Sea along with other lands that I used since the mid 90's but on Card Kingdom they write sometimes that a card is not tournament legal. Does anyone know how this is handled and is there eventually a resource on the internet to double check it before making an investment in specific cards?
The other consideration is which cards are banned in each format, which I touched on above. Each format has a lot of cards that were printed at the right time, but can't be used due to causing problems with the format.
April 3, 2021 2:17 p.m.
you can check the gatherer if you're not sure on a cards legality.
April 3, 2021 2:20 p.m.
It all depends on what format you're playing. The common tournament formats are Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage.
- Standard is a rotating format where only cards printed in the last two years of expansion sets are legal (in this case, Eldraine, Theros Beyond Death, Ikoria, M21, Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim, and soon Strixhaven).
- Pioneer is a nonrotating format that includes all sets from Return to Ravnica and newer (so starting around fall 2012).
- Modern includes cards printed since original Mirrodin.
- Legacy and Vintage include the whole of Magic's history; the difference is that cards are not banned in Vintage but instead they can be restricted (only 1 copy in your deck).
To be legal in a format, a card needs to have been printed in an expansion set since the beginning of that format (collectors editions, From the Vault, Commander releases, Masters sets, etc do not count except for Legacy and Vintage). Underground Sea had its last expansion printing in Masters Edition IV, so it's only legal in Legacy and Vintage.
If a card has been reprinted in a newer expansion, it becomes legal in the formats that expansion is legal in, and you can use any copy of it in that format. For example, Serra Angel is a card from Alpha, but it has been reprinted many times, most recently Dominaria. This makes it legal in Pioneer and Modern, and you can use any copy, even Alpha versions, in those formats.
To check legality (and for card searching in general) I highly suggest the website Scryfall. When you look at a card on Scryfall, it shows whether or not the card is legal in the most common formats. You can also see the current market price of different printings, and you can use the advanced search to look for cards matching certain criteria (including limiting your search to cards legal in a specific format).
legendofa says... Accepted answer #1
Major tournament formats are:
Standard - cards from the last two years (roughly)
Pioneer - cards since Return to Ravnica
Modern - cards since 8th edition
Legacy - cards since Alpha, some cards banned on power level
Vintage - cards since Alpha, no cards banned on power level
EDH - cards since Alpha, no more than 1 of each card in a 100 card deck
So your Underground Sea would be legal in the last three formats.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/rules-and-formats/formats
April 3, 2021 2:14 p.m.