In preparation for the Swiss Magic Masters, we got a couple of questions about the specifics of the Tiny Leaders Brass variant. This page collects answers to those questions. Please write to info@aarebogemagic.ch if you have any questions not covered by this FAQ.
Planeswalker Commander
In Brass Tiny Leaders, you may play any (non-banned) Planeswalker as your commander. Not only Aminatou, the Fateshifter
but any Planeswalker.
To balance the power level, the commander tax to cast a Planeswalker commander is {3} mana instead of just {2}.
Grist, the Hunger Tide
is still a Planeswalker in your command zone (in addition to being a creature), therefore the tax is {3} mana, even though it is also a creature.
Partner Commanders
Like in regular commander, in Tiny Leaders you may have Commanders with the partner ability.
To balance the power level of having partner Commanders, the commander tax to cast each individual partner again is {3} mana.
If one of your partner commanders is a Planeswalker like Jeska, Thrice Reborn
, the tax for Jeska is still {3}, Partner and Planeswalker tax are not cumulative.
Note: Some Tiny Leaders variants reduced your starting hand size when playing with partner commanders. The brass variant does not do that. You still get to have a normal starting hand even when you have partner commanders.
Legality of modular double faced cards (flip cards)
Kaldheim brought a bunch of flip cards with spells on the front and backside, e.g. Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor, Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty
, Jorn, God of Winter // Kaldring, the Rimestaff
and Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge
.
While a double-faced card is outside the game, in a zone other than the battlefield, or on the battlefield with its front face up, it has only the characteristics of its front face.
Comprehensive Rules, 711.4a
This means that cards that have a mana value of 3 or less on their front side are legal in Tiny Leaders, even if the backside has a mana value of more than 3.
The back face of a double-faced card (see rule 711) is included when determining a card’s color identity. This is an exception to rule 711.4a.
Comprehensive Rules, 903.4c
So you have to respect color identity with MDFC cards.
Modular double faced cards as Commander
With the same logic of 711.4a, you can use a creature as your commander even if it has another type on the back side.
You can cast either the front or the back side when casting from the command zone. The tax only looks at the front side though, so if your commander is e.g. Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor or Mila, Crafty Companion // Lukka, Wayward Bonder
and you cast Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor resp Lukka, Wayward Bonder, the tax is still only {2}. (Note that if more powerful such creatures are printed in the future, we might need to address this in the Tiny Leaders rules)
Remember that the tax is tracked for the card as a whole, regardless of which side you are casting.
Decks with more than 3 colours
Different Tiny Leaders variants had different takes on decks with more than 3 colours. The Brass ruleset does not restrict colors, so you are allowed to do 4 colour decks with partner commanders that each provide 2 different colours, and 5 colour decks with a commander that has all 5 colours in its color identity (e.g. Codie, Vociferous Codex
, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom
, Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge)