Arch Ally

## Summary

Arch Ally is a new subformat introduced with the Allied Decks product, released alongside 4X4. It is designed to be a modification to Commander gameplay, but can also be applied to draft or any other multiplayer format. While technically possible, it is not balanced to be played in any 1v1 format.

The idea of the format is that at the beginning of each players turn, before their untap step, the player who goes immediately before that player in the turn order draws a Boon card from a shared Boon deck. They then get to choose one of three "Boons" to apply to the active player for their turn. All Boons are powerful positive effects for that player, but weakened by the fact that the Boon Giver is the one choosing what benefit is applied to them.

In a unique rule, if the Boon Giver for the active player has lost the game already, the drawing of Boons is skipped instead of defaulting to the player now before them in the turn order. This adds a unique political element to the game, where you're incentivized to keep the player before you alive, to keep your boons. Similarly, the Boon Giver has to decide how much they want to help that player, knowing that their resources will potentially save them later on, and consistently giving useless Boons might decrease their willingness to do so.

## Boons

Boons are not permanents, have no color, and cannot be targeted, effectively holding the same role as planeswalker Emblems. Their abilities cannot be targeted, copied, prevented or countered.

There were 15 boons originally released with Allied Decks. While Boons have no color, they were loosely based off the five colors and ten two-color combinations. The list of those boons can be found here.

## Meta/Strategy

For obvious reasons, Kingbreaker decks were some of the most popular decks in this format, wanting to keep your Boon Giver alive, and hopefully force them into a 1v1 where they're forced to help you.

More general Group Hug strategies were also very popular, using helpful effects to trade and bargain with Boon Givers around the board, for better or for worse.

Pramikon, Sky Rampart would be a very popular commander for the increased control it gives in these games, and the guarantee that players will or won't attack their own Boon Givers.

## Banlist

Being a subformat, Arch Ally does follow the rules and banlist of the Commander format.

Lighthouse Chronologist, Aeon Engine and Timesifter were all decided to be against the spirit of the format, not to mention confusing to play around, and were also banned specifically in Arch Ally.

## Critical Reception

Much like its name counterpart, Archenemy, this format lives and dies on Rule 0. Games between strangers and at FNM rarely turned out as intended, but ultimately, the format was designed for ultra casual chaos play, and it absolutely delivered. Those willing to take it in spirit, as they would Planechase or Archenemy, loved the format, and creating custom boons to play with within kitchen table pods became very popular.

The original version from the Allied Decks product was also criticized for containing only 15 unique Boons, which often caused repetition throughout long games and repeat games, though this was arguably a point for the format's success, that 45 options would become overplayed.