Player Decks

## Overview

Raids is an eternal casual constructed multiplayer format for Magic: The Gathering which requires a full constructed deck ready to go before the game starts. Raids requires a deck to have a commander and restricts cards based on color identity like the Commander format and further restricts cards based on card rarity like the Pauper format. The rules below detail the restrictions on how many cards are required to make a deck and how many copies of each card a player may have in that deck.

## Rules

##### Deck

* A player may use a legal Commander deck instead of following any other deckbuilding rules for the Raids format.
* Each deck must include one or more *auxiliary cards* and a library.

##### Auxiliary cards

* Auxiliary cards are part of a deck.
* Auxiliary cards include a commander and optionally a partner or background, and/or a companion.
* Auxiliary cards are NOT considered when calculating card copy limits based on library size.
	+ ***Example:** If a player chooses to have a 49 card library, their deck will consist of 50 cards after including their commander. If they add a background and companion to their deck, it will consist of 52 cards total. Although the deck has 52 cards, because the library has 49 cards they must follow the card copy limits for libraries with 40 to 49 cards.*
* Auxiliary cards are NOT considered when calculating card count limits based on rarity.
	+ ***Example:** If a player chooses to have a 40 card library and a commander where the only published rarity is mythic, they can still have a card whose only published rarity is mythic in their library.*
* Like the Commander format, auxiliary cards may or may not influence the commander's color identity.
* A commander can be any legendary creature, or planeswalker.
	+ An ability explicitly allowing them to be a commander is not required.
		- ***Example:** Chandra Ablaze could be a commander even though it doesn't have an ability explicitly stating so like Elminster.*

##### Library

* A library is part of a deck.
* The minimum library size is 40 and the maximum is 69
* Like the Commander format, the cards a player may include in their library are influenced by the commander's color identity.
* In addition to the commander's color identity, cards in a player's library must also meet certain number and rarity restrictions dependent on how many cards there are in their library.
	+ For determining the rarity of a card, reference the lowest published rarity including both paper and virtual publications.
		- ***Example:** Prized Unicorn has been published with both a common and uncommon rarity and is considered common overall as a result.*
		- Publications of cards with the special rarity may be equivalent to common or more rare than mythic depending on the publication.
		- Cards of the Land type are considered one rarity lower than their lowest published rarity with common being the minimum.
			* ***Example:** Ancient Tomb has been published with multiple rarities with the lowest being uncommon and is considered as common overall as a result.*
	+ The following card count limits are described by the first table below:
		- Card count limits govern how many cards of a particular rarity can be in a library.
		- For a 40 to 49 card library, a player may have up to 1 mythic or higher rarity card, up to 4 rare cards, up to 8 uncommon cards, and any number of common cards.
		- For a 50 to 59 card library, a player may have up to 2 mythic or higher rarity cards, up to 5 rare cards, up to 10 uncommon cards, and any number of common cards.
		- For a 60 to 69 card library, a player may have up to 3 mythic or higher rarity cards, up to 6 rare cards, up to 12 uncommon cards, and any number of common cards.
	+ The following card copy limits are described by the second table below:
		- Card copy limits govern how many copies of a card of a particular rarity can be in a library.
		- For all library sizes, a player may only have 1 copy of a rare or higher rarity card, 2 copies of an uncommon card, 4 copies of a common card, and any number of copies of basic land cards.
			* ***Example:** Because Prized Unicorn was published with a common rarity, a player may have four copies of it in their library.*
		- Different published versions of a card are considered to be the same card.
	+ If a player is not using the maximum number of cards for a given rarity, they may *trade down* and add additional cards of a lower rarity.
		- Trading down from a rare or higher rarity to uncommon, increases the total allowed uncommon cards by 2 for each trade down instead of just 1 as normal.
		- ***Example:** If a player doesn't intend to have a mythic card in their 40 card library, they can add an additional rare card for a total of 5 rare cards or 2 additional uncommon cards for a total of 10 uncommon cards.*

The following table describes the card count limit by card rarity:
 50 to 59
 60 to 69

The following table describes the card copy limit by card rarity:
 50 to 59
 60 to 69