The boundaries between time and space are cracking. Planes and magical powers are leaking through the cracks, mixing up with each other and causing mayhem. In the middle of all this, two planeswalkers are feeding their magic from the different planes to bring creatures of all sorts to do their bidding as they aim to topple the other.
Battle Box is a fun casual, pick-and-play format for Magic the Gathering. Players share a library and a graveyard and start with 10 lands (1 of each basic + 5 dual tap lands) in their Command Zone from where they can play one a turn.
This combination of guaranteed mana curve and the unpredictability of what you draw lends well into a format that doesn’t easily grow old as every match is different. Eventually you will have more mana than cards so building a strong board position is important.
My list is Casual Battle Box by Don’t Sleep On This AWESOME Budget MTG Format - YouTube. It has relatively low cost spells with a lot of activated abilities and triggers.
Keyword reference guide
There are 41 different keywords printed on the cards in my Battle Box. Some are explained on the card but many are not. Especially for a casual format like this one that I often play with non-Magic players, it’s not great.
So I compiled a keyword reference guide (and made some parody logo/symbol stuff so I can share pictures of it online) where each keyword is explained in alphabetical order. On the back, there’s a handy guide for when you can do certain things: instant and sorcery speed and activating abilities and mana abilities.
Printed at a local print house on 115g silk paper (with 170g covers) and it’s a stunning piece.
Other resources
- A Guide to Battle Box — Lucky Paper
- Battlebox: No Setup, No Bad Mana, All Magic - YouTube - Lucky Paper
Changelog for my battle box
Original set: Casual Battle Box - List - Cube Cobra
2025-03-21: Added Mystic Reflection (Kaldheim), it looks like a fun card for a format like this: every time it’ll end up turning cards into something new.