Comprehensive Rules

The Comprehensive Rules is designed to be the end-all, be-all documentation of Magic: The Gathering rules.

In the Comprehensive Rules, everything from banding to the layering of continuous effects are described and explained. As Wizards of the Coast warns, it is not for the faint of heart. While all the rules for Magic are in the Comprehensive Rules, it's not meant for everyday use; rather, it's reserved for specific cases during competitive games. In most ordinary situations, the basic rulebook is sufficient.

History
The Fourth Edition card set, released in mid-1995, marked the first attempt to formalize Magic rules into a coherent system. Major overhauls were executed for Fifth Edition, Classic Sixth Edition, and Magic 2010.

Referencing the rules
When making a reference to a specific rule, the clearest way to do it is as follows [CR ]. As an example, if someone explains mana abilities and ends their explanation with [CR 605.1], then they make a reference to rule 605.1 which states: undefined

The Comprehensive Rules are available from Wizards of the Coast in TXT, PDF, and DOCX formats, and are 238 pages long as of January 2020.

Rules are numbered, and many are divided into subrules. Subrules skip the lower-case letters "l" and "o", to avoid confusion with the numbers "1" and "0". So, for example, 704.5k is followed by 704.5m, then 704.5n, and 704.5p.

Current version
undefined

The Comprehensive Rules ends with a glossary of terms used in the document and on cards throughout the game.