Preface

Brothers and sisters and enby siblings of all shapes and sizes – I come to you today to spread the good word of Break the Rules Month… TWO!  Electric Boogaloo.

BUT FIRST: we should talk about Break The Rules Month One.

Context

We on the Rules Committee (RC) get a lot of questions about whether or not certain cool things are technically legal in the format, like: can you play a land from the command zone?  Can you use the attractions from Unfinity?  Should the initiative send players into the Tomb of Annihilation instead of the Undercity?  All five of us are fairly unified in our response to these questions: that stuff is technically not legal but you should ask your playgroup about doing it anyway ‘cause it sounds dope and we all want to see it happen.

To encourage folks to do exactly that, we created Break-The-Rules-Month as a month-long event where we made uncommon Planeswalkers legal commanders exclusively for January 2025.  A huge part of that event was an experiment: would folks like it?  Should we do it again?  If so, what should change?

The community came through for us in a huge way (thank you, community!  You’re the best!) and we got a ton of excellent feedback.  We heard from you that:

  • We should have promoted the event louder and earlier.  Some folks heard about it in mid-January from other players, and didn’t have enough time to participate.
  • We should have made it more clear more often that this is just for fun, and that we are NOT considering a permanent rules change.
  • The time-frame was just about right.  Some folks wanted more, some folks wanted less, many were pleased with the single-month.
  • Games with Planeswalkers in the CZ were generally fun, interactive, and not a significant change in power level from rules-as-written (RAW) PDH decks.  They played well with others and should be strongly encouraged in the future as possible Rule-Zero commanders in casual games.
  • It was mildly confusing for new players who joined the format in January to see temporary rules in action.

And, most importantly:

  • We should do it again!

So we are.

The tl;dr:

  • Uncommon Vehicles will temporarily be legal PDH commanders, exclusively July, 2025.
  • In August they’ll go back to being illegal, but we strongly encourage you to still experiment with them in rule-zero games with your group and in online communities.
  • We want you to play around with this and see how it goes, and let us know how it goes.  How well do vehicle commanders play with normal Rules-As-Written (RAW) commanders?  Share your experiences!
  • No one on the RC is considering a permanent Rules Change.  
  • No one on the RC is considering a permanent Rules Change.  We’re just trying to have fun, and to compile information on common rule-breaks for our FAQs while we’re at it.
  • Tournament Organizers set their own rules for their own events.  They can choose to allow Vehicles in the CZ this July, or they can choose not to.  Check with them before you sign up for an event.
    • IN FACT: Chris at OneMoreGameMTG wants you to bring them to his Common Cause Tournament in August 2025, where they will still be legal as a capstone to our little experiment.
  • This is only for Multiplayer.

The Long Version

We’re back baby, and better than ever.  Tarkir: Dragonstorm is fun and all but we need to talk about Aetherdrift, a goofy set about strapping yourself into a rocket-boosted jalopy (or maybe a rocket-boosted pirate ship? unclear) for a good old fashioned death-race.  Aetherdrift gave us a bunch of cool new PDH commanders, like Gastal Thrillseeker and Slick Imitator.  But it also gave us a bunch of extremely cool almost-commanders, like Guidelight Pathmaker and Apocalypse Runner.  These cards are uncommon and they’re often creatures, so why aren’t they legal commanders?  PSYCH!  THEY ARE LEGAL.  Well… not yet.  In July.  It’s about to be VEHICLE TIME.

Exclusively for the month of July 2025, uncommon vehicles will be legal PDH commanders.  Aetherdrift has been out long enough for us to appreciate the variety of vehicles it’s given us, and we’ve also got a handful from older sets like Kaladesh and Neon Dynasty.  At the time of writing, there are 52 uncommon vehicles available for experimentation and brewing.  More than half of them have a non-colorless Color Identity, so there are lots of options to brew around if you want a vehicle commander and also colors.

As always, this temporary change of rules comes with some important caveats: first and most importantly, no one on the rules committee is considering a permanent rules change.  We think the rules are perfect just how they are, and regardless of how this experiment goes, we have no intention of making vehicles permanently legal as commanders.  We’re just doing this to have fun, to get people to experiment with rule-zero modifications within their playgroup, and to see how well certain rule-zero commanders play with rules-as-written commanders.  If you, my friend, the person reading this article right now, find yourself talking to someone else about Break The Rules Month, please let them know: this is only temporary.  It’s not an experiment to determine whether there should be a permanent rule change.

Nevertheless, it is an experiment.  Just like in January, we need feedback from you, and your playgroups, and your friends.  I opened this article by mentioning that we (the RC) get a lot of questions about things that aren’t quite legal, and we often encourage folks to do the illegal thing anyway as a rule-zero deck.  What would really help us out is reliable, empirical data about how this particular rule-break interacts with rules-as-written (RAW) decks, so that we can point question-askers towards that data as we encourage folks to do the illegal thing.  Or maybe we’ll discourage folks, if the illegal thing in question is broken or un-fun or unpleasant.  But we won’t know which to do until you tell us about it.

So: Go forth!  In the name of science, data collection, exploration, and having a good time, put some uncommon vehicles into your command zones.  Play some games with vehicles.  Play some games against vehicles.  Let us know how it all goes.

As always: we (the RC) are not tournament organizers, and we do not dictate rules for tournaments.  Tournament organizers are free to adopt or change our standard rule set as they see fit, to suit their needs and communities.  If they say vehicle-commanders are not welcome in their July tournaments, don’t grief them about it.  If they say vehicle commanders are legal in their July event, don’t grief them about it.  If they say vehicle commanders are legal even in their August tournament that takes place after Break-The-Rules-Month has ended, then

  1. they’re probably Chris at OneMoreGameMTG (you’ll be able to tell for sure by how awesome they are as a human being), and also
  2. you should bring a vehicle commander to their Common Cause event in early August, as a capstone send off to our little vehicle experiment, and most importantly
  3. don’t grief them about it.

That’s all for this little update.  We’re excited to be doing this again!  Help us out by not only participating in breaking our rules, but by spreading the word about it!  Be noisy about the rule-break decks you’re building and about how those games go, both to your community and to us!

Thanks for reading!

Love,

-dave

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