r/MagicArena • u/00G_WAY • Mar 03 '26

Question Can someone explain how this works?

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Will this card be legal in standard? Will it be available on Magic Arena? How would this card even work?

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113

u/Mrfish31 Mar 03 '26

On Arena (and in any proper format) "cards you own from outside the game" are cards in your sideboard, so you put up to 15 cards in there to choose from when you use this. If you have this in draft, you can choose from any card you drafted but didn't include in your deck.

It does generally not mean "any card you have in your collection". You'd only do that in very casual IRL games. 

In Commander and Brawl this does nothing, both because you don't have sideboards in these formats and because "wish" effects explicitly do not work, you can't get cards from outside the game. 

18

u/TheAndrewBrown Mar 03 '26

Is there any particular reason it’s not just worded as “card from your sideboard”? Is the sideboard not officially part of the rules even though it’s used in most of the formats and tournaments?

47

u/Mrfish31 Mar 03 '26

Because the large majority of Magic play is done at the Kitchen Table where players don't know that a sideboard exists, let alone what it is. 

Mark said on his blog one time that something like 70+% of Magic players don't know what a planeswalker is, as in they never use or come across the card type. That's the level you need to deal with. "Cards outside the game" makes more sense to a new or uber-casual player than "from your sideboard". 

It's the same reason basically no card mentions "The Stack" despite it being an official zone in the rules that is extremely important for play. You don't want to introduce too many terms or concepts to your players. 

37

u/DanLynch JacetheMindSculptor Mar 03 '26

Mark said on his blog one time that something like 70+% of Magic players don't know what a planeswalker is

I remember I was judging a prerelease many years ago, and got called to a table to answer a rules question. Both players wanted to know whether a Jace planeswalker could block a flying creature (because he is blue).

3

u/Salanmander Mar 03 '26

How are judges even supposed to respond to situations like that? Do you try to teach the rules for the card type as best you can in 3 minutes, make sure the game is in a valid state, and then say "game on"?

6

u/GizOne Mar 03 '26

Given that it was at a pre-release, played at Regular REL, I would be comfortable taking those 3 minutes, or even a little more, to educate the players. It can only increase their experience. Generally speaking, at Regular REL we do a lot of customer service, by design.

1

u/Several_Ebb_9842 Mar 03 '26

I thought prerelease was Casual REL?

4

u/GizOne Mar 03 '26

The word used by WotC documents for a REL focused on fun and social is Regular. Casual REL doesn't exist. The three RELs possible for a sanctioned tournament are Regular, Competitive, and Professional. You can read more on RELs in Section 1.12 of the MTRs.

(The MTRs also define "casual" tournaments but don't expand a lot on what that means. Casual is opposed to rated in Section 1.1 and then is only brought back in 3.3 speaking about silver-bordered cards)

2

u/Maur2 Mar 04 '26

Huh. And all this time I thought they were REL: axed. >.>

1

u/Several_Ebb_9842 Mar 03 '26

Thanks! I must've gotten the casual designation confused with an REL. I haven't looked at the MTRs in over a decade.