Planechase looks intimidating the first time you see the oversized cards and unfamiliar die, but the actual rules add only a small layer on top of a normal game of Magic.
Everything you already know about casting spells, attacking, and blocking stays exactly the same. Planechase just adds a shared, constantly shifting environment on top of it.
Because Planechase Anthology ships with everything needed to play, from the die to fully built planar decks, the rules themselves are really the only thing standing between opening the box and playing your first game.
This guide walks through planar deck construction, the die, and phenomenon cards, in the order you will actually need them at the table.
Each player needs their own planar deck of at least ten cards, built from Plane and Phenomenon cards, in addition to their normal 60-card deck.
No two Plane or Phenomenon cards in a single planar deck can share a name, and a planar deck can include at most two different Phenomenon cards total.
After mulligans are taken but before turns begin, the starting player reveals the top card of their planar deck face up. Its effects take hold immediately and apply to every player at the table.
Whoever's plane is currently active is called the planar controller, a role that passes to whichever player currently controls that face-up plane.
During their main phase, the active player may roll the planar die, a six-sided die with four blank faces, one planeswalk symbol, and one chaos symbol.
The first roll of the turn is free. Every additional roll that same turn costs progressively more generic mana, one more than the previous roll, which keeps players from spamming rolls without cost.
Rolling the planeswalk symbol moves the group away from the current plane: it goes to the bottom of the planar deck, and the next card is revealed and takes over immediately.
Rolling the chaos symbol triggers the current plane's specific chaos ability instead, which can be anything from a one-time effect to an ongoing rules change, entirely dependent on which plane is active.
Unlike a Plane card, a Phenomenon card does not stay active. When a player planeswalks into one, its one-time effect resolves immediately, and the group then automatically planeswalks away from it right after.
This makes phenomena a genuine wildcard: they hit the table once, deliver a single disruptive effect, and are gone before anyone can plan around them for more than a moment.
Planechase is most commonly played as a free-for-all multiplayer format, since the shared, constantly-changing plane affects everyone at the table simultaneously and rewards larger groups.
It works in two-player games as well, though the chaotic, rule-bending nature of the variant is generally considered to shine brightest with three or four players actively navigating the same shifting environment. Sleeve the 60-card decks in matte card sleeves before they see regular table time.
A plane's passive effect applies to every player equally, not just whoever is the current planar controller, which trips up new groups expecting the effect to only benefit one side of the table.
Combat, casting spells, and every other normal Magic rule continues exactly as usual underneath whatever the active plane changes, so Planechase never actually replaces the game's core rules, only adds to them.
One rule that surprises new groups: a Phenomenon card is never the starting reveal of a game. If the very first flip would be a Phenomenon, it is set aside and the next card is revealed instead, since a game has to start on an actual plane. Keep that in mind when shuffling your planar deck for the first time.
At least ten different Plane or Phenomenon cards.
Up to two, and they cannot share a name.
No, the first roll each turn is free; each additional roll costs progressively more.
Its one-time effect resolves, then the group automatically planeswalks away from it.
Once the planar deck and die rules click, Planechase turns almost any casual playgroup into a four-player free-for-all in minutes. Keep the oversized cards and tokens organized in a deck box so setup stays fast every time.
Play a few games with the included planar decks before customizing anything; the base rules make more sense once you have actually seen a plane and a phenomenon flip in real games.
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