Planechase Rules

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More to add on to the previous Planechase post. Today, Wizards posted an article on the upcoming release on the new casual variant of Magic the Gathering - 'Planechase'.

Planechase gives you everything you need to play Planar Magic, a new casual variant that sends you and your friends on a tour through the Multiverse. Each plane you visit—represented by a plane card—changes the nature of the battlefield. You never know how long you'll stay or where you'll go next, and the result is an ever-shifting race to exploit the unique nature of the plane you're on ... or to planeswalk away from a plane that your enemies can take advantage of!


Unfortunately, at the time of posting, the Planechase game rules (pdf format) document appears to be totally borked - meaning the link (HERE) provided by Wizards simply downloads a corrupt document which will not open. To this end, we have here a brief summary of the rules - remember to check back at WoTC to review the reposted document (whenever that happens) before you head out to a Planechase release event which will be held September 4-6, 2009.

Brief Planechase Rules summary . . .

Needed:
* Two player or Multiplayer (up to 6 players)
* 60 card constructed deck
* 10-40 plane cards (No 2 cards can share the same name)
* 1 planar die

How to play:
* Normal win conditions
* First player flips a card from his planar deck face up


Plane cards:

* At any given time, exactly one plane card will be face up, in a new game zone called the command zone. As long as a plane card is face up in the command zone, its abilities affect the game.

* They're never put onto the battlefield, and they're not permanents, so nothing can destroy or otherwise affect them.

* A plane card's controller is the player whose turn it is. When a plane card's abilities talk about "you," they're always talking about the plane's current controller. If the plane's abilities have targets, its current controller chooses them. The rules below will occasionally make a distinction between a plane card's owner and its controller.


Rolling the die:

* During your main phases you may roll the planar dice

* Roll as many times as desired

* Pay 1 for each time you’ve rolled previously this turn

* Rolls happen immediately but triggers can be used & responded to

* If you roll a blank face, nothing happens.

* If you roll the chaos symbol, the face-up plane card's chaos ability triggers. Players may cast instants and activate abilities before it resolves.

* If you roll the planeswalker symbol, the face-up plane card's unwritten planeswalking ability triggers. Players may cast instants and activate abilities before it resolves. When the planeswalking ability resolves, the owner of the face-up plane card puts it on the bottom of his or her planar deck, then you turn the top card of your planar deck face up. Welcome to a new world!

Some plane cards have abilities that trigger when you planeswalk to them or planeswalk away from them. These abilities trigger when the game shifts from one face-up plane card to another (but they don't trigger when the first plane of the game is turned face up). This shift might occur because the planeswalker symbol was rolled or because the player who owned the previous face-up plane card left the game.

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Stay tuned latter on for an very kewl post about alternate (full art) Zendikar lands.