MTG Formats
The Oathbreaker Format, Explained
A planeswalker in the command zone, and one instant or sorcery bound to it that you can cast again and again. Sixty cards, twenty life, and a multiplayer game that finishes inside an hour.
What Oathbreaker is
Oathbreaker is a singleton multiplayer format built around two cards in the command zone: a planeswalker, and one instant or sorcery tied to it. Decks are exactly 60 cards including both, players start at 20 life, and there is no commander damage.
It was created by the community rather than by Wizards of the Coast, and it keeps its own rules committee and banned list. The design goal was straightforward: give planeswalkers the treatment Commander gives legendary creatures, and make the resulting game short enough to play three of on a weeknight.
Commander asks which legend you want to build a hundred cards around. Oathbreaker asks which spell you want to cast every single game, and which planeswalker deserves to make it repeatable.
what the format is really about
The signature spell
This is the mechanic the format exists for, and the one rule worth reading twice.
Your signature spell is one instant or sorcery, chosen at deckbuilding, and it must sit inside your oathbreaker's colour identity.
You may only cast it from the command zone while your oathbreaker is on the battlefield under your control.
It costs its normal cost, plus two generic mana for each previous time you have cast it from the command zone this game.
On resolution it returns to the command zone instead of the graveyard, so you can cast it again.
If it would go anywhere other than the command zone or the stack, it goes to the command zone instead. Countering it does not take it away from you.
Casting the same spell three times in one game
Turn three, you cast your oathbreaker. It resolves and sits on the battlefield.
Turn four, you cast your signature spell from the command zone for its printed cost. It resolves, then goes back to the command zone rather than the graveyard.
Turn six, you cast it again. This time it costs two more, because you have cast it once already.
Turn eight, a third cast costs four more than printed. That escalation is the format's brake: the spell is always available, and it gets progressively less efficient.
Your opponent kills your oathbreaker in between. The signature spell is now uncastable until you redeploy the planeswalker, which itself costs two more each time it returns.
The pairing is the deckbuilding decision. An oathbreaker that makes a spell cheaper, copies it, or untaps you turns a fair signature spell into an engine, which is why the good pairs read as combos rather than as two good cards.
Narset, Parter of Veils ↗
A three-mana planeswalker that digs for noncreature cards and stops each opponent drawing more than one card per turn.
Windfall ↗
Each player discards their hand and draws that many cards. With Narset out, the opponents discard and draw one.
A well-known Oathbreaker pairing, and a clean illustration of why the format's pairs matter more than its individual cards: the planeswalker turns a symmetrical spell into a one-sided one, and the command zone means you get to cast it every game.
The rest of the rules
Deck construction. Exactly 60 cards including your oathbreaker and signature spell, so 58 in the deck proper. Singleton, basics excepted. Everything must be inside the oathbreaker's colour identity: a oathbreaker means no white, black or green mana symbols anywhere, including in rules text.
Life and damage. Twenty life, and no commander damage rule. Planeswalkers in the command zone follow the usual commander pattern otherwise: cast from the command zone, return there when they die or are exiled, and cost two more for each previous cast.
The table. Usually four players, and it works fine at two or three. Politics matter less than in Commander because games are shorter and 20 life does not give you long to negotiate.
Oathbreaker vs. Commander
The two formats reward different instincts. Commander's 40 life and 100 cards make it a format about inevitability, where a slow engine has time to matter. Oathbreaker's 20 life and 60 cards make it a format about tempo, where the game is usually decided by whose planeswalker stuck. If your group finds Commander games run long, this is the closest thing to a fix that is still recognisably the same game. Our guide to how long a Commander game lasts covers the other levers.
Building an Oathbreaker deck
Pick the spell first. Backwards from Commander, and correct here. Decide what you want to cast every game, then find the planeswalker that makes casting it better than fair.
Protect the planeswalker, or accept it will die. Your signature spell is unavailable without it, so a deck with no way to defend a planeswalker will spend most games with half its command zone switched off. Cheap creatures that block, and removal for whatever is attacking, do more here than another five-mana spell.
Around 22 to 24 lands, 6 to 8 ramp, 8 to 10 interaction. The rest is your plan. With no Sol Ring and no fast mana, ramp is the two and three-mana kind, and it is what gets your oathbreaker down a turn before everyone expects it.
Twenty life comes off fast. Play more interaction than the deck feels like it wants. Three opponents at 20 life means somebody's aggressive start is lethal by turn five if nobody has an answer.
Bans
Oathbreaker maintains its own banned list through its rules committee, and it is not Commander's list with a few edits: it is tighter in the places where a smaller deck at lower life makes a card decisive. Sol Ring, Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus are all banned, which surprises Commander players more than anything else about the format.
Because it is a community format, the list lives on the format's own site rather than with Wizards of the Coast's announcements. Check there before an event, and read our explanation of how Commander's list works if you want the contrast: two committees, two philosophies, two very different answers on fast mana.
Frequently asked questions
What is Oathbreaker in MTG?
A multiplayer singleton format where your command zone holds two cards: a planeswalker, called your oathbreaker, and one instant or sorcery, called your signature spell. Decks are exactly 60 cards including both, everyone starts at 20 life, and the whole deck must sit inside the oathbreaker's colour identity. It is run by an independent rules committee rather than by Wizards of the Coast.
How does the signature spell work?
You may cast it from the command zone only while your oathbreaker is on the battlefield under your control. It costs its normal mana cost plus two generic for each previous time you have cast it from the command zone this game. When it resolves, it returns to the command zone instead of going to the graveyard, and it goes back there from anywhere else it would end up too.
How many cards is an Oathbreaker deck?
Exactly 60, counting the oathbreaker and the signature spell, so the main deck is 58 cards. Singleton applies as it does in Commander: one copy of anything that is not a basic land.
Is Sol Ring banned in Oathbreaker?
Yes. The Oathbreaker banned list is tighter than Commander's on fast mana specifically, and Sol Ring, Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus are all on it. In a 60-card format at 20 life, a turn-one accelerant is far more decisive than it is across a 100-card deck at 40, so the format removed them rather than living with them.
How long does an Oathbreaker game take?
Usually 30 to 60 minutes for four players, roughly half a Commander game. Twenty life and 60-card decks are both doing that work: there is less life to chew through and fewer cards between you and your best ones. It is the main reason groups pick it up for weeknights.
Shorter games, same records worth keeping.
TurnZero HQ tracks life totals, turn order and results for any pod size, from two players to six.
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