Alpha to Alliances Ante

From the Power Nine to Force of Will, Alpha to Alliances Ante opens up the early years of Magic — with an ante card on the line.

Build a deck of at least 60 cards, with no sideboard. This page follows the Dutch rules published by Raging Bull, based on Music City Old School’s Alpha to Alliances Ante format.

Games use mana burn and the London mulligan. Play best of one and roll again to decide who starts each new game.

The source rules are available at Raging Bull — Alpha to Alliances Ante Rules.

Reprints are permitted when they keep the same artwork and original frame. Later printings and non-English cards are allowed, provided they meet that policy.

Collector’s Edition and International Edition are allowed.Deckmasters (2001) and similar releases with a regular card back and no gold border are also permitted.

Not allowed: foils, World Championship Deck cards, Magic 30 cards (including retro-frame versions), Apocalypse painlands, or Chaos Confetti used as a Chaos Orb proxy.

Shuffle your deck, let your opponent cut, then ante. The winner takes the losing player’s ante. Under the Dutch rules, lost ante cards are signed or altered, unless the players agreed otherwise before the game.

Mana burn: when unspent mana empties from your mana pool, you lose one life for each mana lost this way.

London mulligan: draw seven cards each time you mulligan. When you keep your hand, put one card on the bottom of your library for each mulligan you took.

Each game is a new best-of-one match: roll again for the starting player. Agree on the rules before you shuffle up.