902.1.
In the Vanguard variant, a vanguard card allows each player to play the role of a famous
character. Each player will have one face-up vanguard card whose abilities and other characteristics
affect the game. The Vanguard variant uses all the normal rules for a Magic game, with the
following additions.
902.2.
A Vanguard game may be a two-player game or a multiplayer game.
902.3.
In addition to the normal game materials, each player needs a vanguard card. Each vanguard
card is placed face up next to its owner‘s library before the game begins. All vanguard cards remain
in the command zone throughout the game.
902.4.
Each player‘s starting life total is 20, as modified by the life modifier of his or her vanguard
card.
Example: The life modifier of a player?s vanguard card is -3. That player starts the game
with 17 life.
902.5.
Each player draws a hand of seven cards, as modified by the hand modifier of his or her
vanguard card.
902.5a
If a player takes a mulligan in a Vanguard game, just like in a normal game, that player
shuffles his or her hand back into his or her library, then draws a new hand of one fewer cards
than he or she had before. (In a multiplayer game, a player‘s first mulligan is for the same
number of cards as he or she had before.)
Example: The hand modifier of a player?s vanguard card is +2. That player starts the
game with a hand of 9 cards. If the player takes a mulligan, he or she draws a new hand
of 8 cards. The next mulligan is for 7 cards, and so on.
902.5b
A player‘s maximum hand size is seven, as modified by the hand modifier of his or her
vanguard card.
Example: The hand modifier of a player?s vanguard card is -1. That player?s maximum
hand size is six. If that player has more than six cards in his or her hand as the cleanup
step begins, he or she will discard all but six of them.
902.6.
The owner of a vanguard card is the player who started the game with it in the command zone.
The controller of a face-up vanguard card is its owner.
902.7.
Any abilities of a face-up vanguard card in the command zone function from that zone. The
card‘s static abilities affect the game, its triggered abilities may trigger, and its activated abilities
may be activated.