In one of my previous blogs I touched upon Emperor Magic, a casual Magic the Gathering multiplayer variant from the mid-90s. Well, guess what? We’re about to dive headfirst into the chaos and camaraderie that makes Emperor such a blast to play. It’s like adding an extra layer of spice to your favorite dish! So, grab your decks and let’s unravel the rules of this exciting variant together.

Mastering Multiplayer Magic

Emperor Magic is not DCI sanctioned but Wizards of the Coast does mention it briefly in the the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules under section 809. So instead of trying to lock down “official” rules, I’ll stick to the version we played. So, let’s take a trip down memory lane to 1995, when the internet was still finding its feet. Sure, there were websites, but they were clunky, with those word document-looking pages and painfully slow loading times. Finding “official” rules was like searching for a needle in a haystack. so we pretty much just winged it as we went along. We did however had some basic notion of the concept, based on an article our friend read in The Duelist called “Mastering Multiplayer Magic”. There was a small paragraph within that article that basically told us that Emperor involves two teams of three players each. Each team sits together on one side of the table, with team members deciding the order in which they’re seated. Each team has one “Emperor,” which is the player seated in the middle of the team. The remaining players on the team are “Generals” whose job is to protect their Emperor while attempting to take down the opposing Emperor.
A team loses if its Emperor is eliminated. Spells and attack have a range of plus one but unlimited range for untargeted effects and creatures could be moved to the flanks.

“Have you met my mother? We play by her rules!”

These are the basic rules of the Emperor variant that we played back in 1995:

• Teams of three players, seated together on one side of the table against the other team. 
• Each player plays as an individual. Players can collaborate by looking at each other’s hands and discussing strategy, but each player keeps a separate life total, hand, library, battlefield, and so on.
• The player seated in the middle of each team is that team’s “Emperor.”, The Emperor starts the game with 30 life points.
• The allied players seated to the left or right of the Emperor are the teams’ “Generals”. Generals start the game with 20 life points.
• A team only loses the game when it’s Emperor loses the game. 
• The Emperor can’t be targeted by spells or abilities (altough his spells can be targeted) as long as both Generals are still alive. So a General can Mana Drain an Emperor’s spell or Terror its creature. But you can’t throw a Fireball to the face when both Generals are still alive.
• The Emperor can’t be attacked by creatures as long as both Generals are still alive. A General may only attack the Emperor if it’s opposing General has been defeated. The General’s creatures have to be moved to the Emperor’s battlefield.
• Players can tap their own creatures to send them to help a teammate’s position after the attack fase. Keep in mind that when a player is eliminated from the game, all cards he or she owns are removed from the game.
• All targeted spells and abilities have a “range of plus one”, meaning their spells and abilities impact the players sitting directly adjacent to them and both Emperor’s.

• By that logic the Emperor’s targeted spells can impact both opposing Generals and Emperor.

• Spells that don’t target have unlimited range. So a Wrath of God destroys all creatures on the board and a Wheel of Fortune also effects all players.

It sounds a lot more complicated that it is, you will find that the game has a natural flow to it and is super fun and exciting. And that’s what Magic is all about.

Though it’s been ages since I last played a game of Emperor, the format holds a special place in my heart as it marked my entry into the world of multiplayer Magic. I have many fond memories of the countless Emperor matches we played as a group, they still rank among the highlights of my Magic journey! There’s an undeniable thrill in teaming up with friends, pooling your skills and take on opponents together. Those were the days!

The Edge-Man 2026 Championship: Battleworld! will have an Emperor-variant side-event. Your team can only play cards from the color identity of a predetermined “domain”. As a special twist, Fallen Empires and Homelands (!) are added to the cardpool. More information on Battleworld can be found here!