WIP - All decks undergoing maintenance and modification. Champion format has been hereby DISCONTINUED!
Champion! It's the format that's sweeping absolutely no one aside from me by storm!
Champion is a self made format designed to fuse elements of EDH with 60-card play. Like EDH, each deck starts with a Commander (or Champion) whose Color Identity dictates the colors that may be included in the rest of the deck, but with a few modifications.
First, unlike EDH, which restricts your Commander to a Legendary Creature or one of the 5 Planeswalkers from Commander '14 that explicitly state that they can be used as your Commander, Champion allows you to take any Legendary Creature or any Planeswalker as your Champion. It is also worth noting that the Partner Legendary Creatures introduced in Commander '16 may be paired as stated in their rules (the Color Identity of such decks would be the Color Identity of one of the Partners AND the Color Identity of the other Partner).
Second, again deviating from EDH, your Champion is a mandatory extra card not included in the card count for the rest of your deck (so a minimum deck would be 60 cards and 1 Champion).
In another divergence from EDH, Champion has different levels of legality. If a Champion deck contains all cards (including the Champion) that are legal in Standard, it is a Standard Champion deck. If it contains all cards that are legal in Modern, it is a Modern Champion deck. And if it contains all cards that are legal in Legacy, it is a Legacy Champion deck. NOTE: There are two cards traditionally banned in Legacy that are neither banned nor restricted in Legacy Champion decks: Mystical Tutor and Sol Ring. However, decks incorporating these cards should be noted, as they may prove to be unbalanced against Legacy Champion decks that do not.
And now to the more significant differences between EDH and Champion. A Champion deck is comprised of only 60 cards (not including the Champion, as previously stated) instead of 99, although the included cards must still match the Champion's Color Identity. Furthermore, with the exception of Legendary cards (of any type) and Planeswalkers of the same name, which remain Singleton (limit of 1 copy per deck), a Champion deck may include up to 4 copies of any non-basic card, counted by its English equivalent (and of course, a deck may not include an additional copy of its Champion(s)).
Aside from the changes explained above, virtually everything else about Champion follows the rules for EDH. The Champion is kept in its own zone, from which it may be played at any time it could normally be played provided its owner is able to pay its casting cost plus 2 for each time it has previously been played from the Command Zone. Any cards referencing your Commander (i.e. Bastion Protector or any of the cards from Commander '14 with the Lieutenant ability) refer instead to your Champion. 21 damage (combat or otherwise) dealt to a single player by any one Champion (Creature or Planeswalker (including damage dealt by a Planeswalker's emblems, like with Chandra, Roaring Flame)) over the course of a game is considered lethal damage (regardless of the player's life total). And rather than starting life totals being set to 40, like EDH, or 20, like 60-card, they are instead set to the middle ground of 30.
Oh yes, one MORE thing! Have a Champion deck legal for a format that your opponent has a non-Champion deck for? Just shuffle in your Champion and BOOM! You've got yourself a 61 card deck legal to play in that format! MARVELOUS!
Did I leave anything out, or do you have any questions? Let me know in the comments, or via direct message!
Like the idea of Champion? Feel free to use it for yourself! Just give credit where credit is due, please. You heard about it here first!
