Substitute card



A substitute card is an optional substitute for a double-faced card or meld cards, providing the standard missing card back these cards are naturally lacking.

Description
When playing with double-faced cards, either the traditional transforming ones, meld cards or modal double-faced cards, it's important that your cards are indistinguishable from one another. To accomplish this, you can use either opaque sleeves, substitute cards, or both. To use a substitute card, you must have the actual double-faced card in your possession.

Substitute cards were introduced as checklist cards with Innistrad in 2011, the name change "substitute cards" in the rules happened in 2020 with Zendikar Rising.

Checklist cards had a list of all double-faced cards (common-uncommon/rare-mythic in Shadows over Innistrad) in the respective set on one side and the typical Magic card back on the other side. In Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan boosters, double-faced cards (almost) always appear with a checklist card.

Because the checklist cards were never super popular aesthetically, an improved substitute card - announced as a helper card - was introduced with Zendikar Rising. On the front side of a helper card you can write, the back side is a regular card back. The early checklist cards may be exchanged for a helper card when playing the older double faced cards. Write down the name of the card you're representing, along with any other information visible on the actual card. You can't use helper cards to jot down sideboarding notes, or anything not found on the card. During the game, if the card is in a public zone, swap in the real card. If it's in a hidden zone, use the helper card.

Card rulings

 * It's important that the cards in your deck be indistinguishable from one another. To accomplish this with double-faced cards, you can use either sleeves, or the substitute cards that are included in some booster packs of sets featured double-faced cards.
 * You must have an actual copy of a double-faced card that the substitute card is representing with you for each substitute card used. For example, if you use four substitute cards to represent Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, you must have four actual copies of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy too.
 * The double-faced card should be kept apart from the rest of your deck. In tournaments, the double-faced card should also be kept separate from your sideboard.
 * A substitute card can't be included in a deck except when it's being used to represent a double-faced card. If you opt to use a substitute card to represent a certain double-faced card, all copies of that double-faced card in the deck must use a substitute card instead of the actual copy too. (You may use substitute cards to represent a double-faced card, but not using them for another double-faced card that has a different name)
 * You must mark exactly one fill-in circle on the substitute card to indicate which double-faced card it represents.
 * You can still use card sleeves, even if you also choose to use substitute cards.
 * During the game, a substitute card is considered to be the double-faced card it represents. For example, say you have a substitute card in your hand representing Tormented Pariah and an opponent casts Despise. The substitute card is a creature card, so your opponent may choose the substitute card and you would discard it.
 * As soon as a substitute card enters a public zone (stack, battlefield, graveyard, or exile unless it's exiled face down/manifested), use the double-faced card and set the substitute card aside. If the double-faced card is put into a hidden zone (hand or library), use the substitute card again.
 * If a double-faced card is exiled face down or being manifested, keep its identity hidden by using the face-down substitute card.
 * Certain older sets include checklist cards to represent double-faced cards or meld cards from those sets. A Zendikar Rising helper card can be used to represent those double-faced cards. The same rules about what information may be written on helper cards apply.
 * You must write clearly on the helper card to show which double-faced card it represents. The name of at least one face must be written on the helper card, and any other information visible on either face of the card may also be written. Information that isn't available on the card may not be written on a helper card.