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Welcome to Riot!

Contents

  1. What is it
  2. What is legal in the format
  3. Ban and watchlist system
  4. Proxies and tournaments
  5. Allowed sets
  6. Banlist
  7. Watchlist
  8. Universes Beyond
  9. Older cards and introducing them to the format
  10. Where to play
What is it
Riot is a new format for playing Magic: the Gathering. Its idea is simple — it draws on the experiences and memories of people who enjoyed playing the Modern format before it went down the straight-into-modern path and, due to sets that were released with that intent, introduced what is effectively a hidden but heavily pushed format rotation. That is precisely what Modern explicitly declared it would never contain. Riot is a community-maintained format whose goal is not to maximize profit, but fun in playing.
What is legal in the format
Just like Modern, cards that have been printed since the Mirrodin set are legal, regardless of printing version. The format also has its own independent banlist — a list of cards that, even though they come from allowed sets, cannot be played in the format. Unlike Modern, Riot does not allow cards from sets that were printed directly for Modern, most notably the Modern Horizons sets and Tales from Middle-Earth. This is the main difference from the Modern format and a step we consider necessary, but one that Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro would deem impossible to implement.
Ban and watchlist system
We are aware of the recently fading controversy surrounding the events around Commander and its usurpation by WotC/Hasbro. We therefore believe that a robust and transparent approach to banning cards is an absolute necessity — one we want to use to avoid both threats against us and the bad feelings of players who buy expensive cards only to find them banned the very next day. In short: the format maintains, in addition to the banlist, a watchlist containing potentially dangerous cards that are at risk of being banned. Except for very unusual situations (such as the recent release of Nadu), it is not possible to ban a card that is not on the watchlist, and banning happens at fixed intervals, once every two months — always on January 1st, March 1st, etc. We would also like to introduce some player influence into this voting process, whether through a (more or less non-binding) poll on the website, or through discussions with tournament winners who are presumably at least somewhat familiar with the format. Direct community management of the ban/watch lists is not desirable, since it is impossible to guarantee on the internet that voting won't be broken by bots pushing through any change. In the future, there is also the possibility of a limited restricted list that would limit cards on it to a single copy across the deck and sideboard combined (the same as in Vintage).
Proxies and tournaments
We are aware that this is a new format and an experiment that may change dramatically. In such a state, investing thousands or tens of thousands in cards is obviously something we cannot ask of players, and therefore proxy cards are allowed at tournaments until further notice. There are several conditions for them.
  • The card must clearly indicate that it is a proxy — whether by the word "proxy" in the card's footer, a different card back, or otherwise. It is not allowed to use cards that attempt to pass as genuine, i.e. counterfeits.
  • The card must include the mana cost, name, types, text, and power/toughness/loyalty if the original has them. Everything must be legible, but abbreviations are allowed.
  • The card does not need to include artwork, or may include AI-generated artwork. If it includes the original artwork, it must include the artist's name.
  • When using proxy cards, sleeving is required in a way that eliminates differences between regular cards and proxies (e.g. with opaque-backed sleeves if the proxies have a different card back).
  • Inserting printed paper cards into other backing cards is allowed, provided the entire deck is constructed this way and it is not possible to see the inserted paper from the back.
  • The goal is to make the format accessible to more people, not to allow a clever crafter to identify their cards from the back as well. In such a case, the person's proxy card system will be disallowed.
List of allowed sets
The list of sets from which cards playable in the format originate. The printing version of the card you use does not matter.Sets that, unlike in Modern, are not playable. Remember that if a card was printed in another set that is legal in the format, the version from these sets is also playable.
Banlist
Below is the list of cards that cannot be played in the Riot format, even though they were printed in allowed sets. These are primarily cards that are too powerful or that inappropriately affect the course of a tournament.
Watchlist
This is the list of cards that are at risk of being banned in the next ban window. Except in very rare situations, it is not possible to ban a card not on this list.
Universes Beyond

Sets belonging to Universes Beyond are marked with an asterisk in the set list.

Although we strongly believe that one of the main wonderful things about MtG is the story and the characters created and brought to life within it, the numbers and surveys show that Universes Beyond is popular with many people, and it is not our goal to ban these sets outright. On the other hand, 100% of UB sets published so far that had direct access to Modern have irreversibly damaged it, or at least created an unhealthy situation where an entire set consists of penny cards, and the single brutal card from the set costs hundreds to thousands. And unfortunately, we have no insight into what Wizards of the Coast will release within new sets, so we are unable to react to sets with sufficient notice in advance. This leads to a compromise solution where sets are implicitly considered legal, but in the case of an overpowered set, broader banning or disallowing of the entire set may occur.

We realize that this uncertainty may negatively affect players who build and upgrade their decks in advance using cards that have leaked online in official or unofficial spoilers, but it is still more transparent to describe the situation than to suddenly ban dozens of cards or an entire set out of the blue. This rule will most likely settle on a more solid foundation once we see the first several UB sets and find out how serious Wizards of the Coast is about revitalizing and fixing Standard.

The current state is therefore that although cards from UB sets are legal, all newly released ones are implicitly on the watch list until we determine what power level we can expect from these cards.

Older cards and introducing them to the format
There are inquiries about whether and how to introduce into Riot cards from sets that do not belong to the format, for example specific cards from the Modern Horizons sets. We believe that the current card pool is sufficient and we would like to limit our supervision to bans, restrictions, and the occasional evaluation of new sets and we do not think that the format would benefit from pushing new cards into it in any way other than their natural flow through Standard. And although within Modern Horizons some existing cards introduced into Modern are an interesting idea, the concept of yet another list unnecessarily complicates the construction and does not bring sufficient positive value. Therefore, the universal answer to questions about whether this or that card will be added to the format is an unambiguous no.
Where to play
You can of course play anywhere. Regular organized play (meaning an effort to get enough people in one place at one time) will for now happen unofficially at Rishada (current schedule is Friday at 7pm). Come by.