The Ultimate Guide to Extended

Last updated on October 30, 2023

Stroke of Genius | Illustration by Rovina Cai

Magic didn’t spring into existence with the formats that exist today. Formats like Modern, Pioneer, and even Standard have been born out of the game’s need to evolve over time and create engaging competitive environments that keep us all interested in the game. One of the earlier formats to emerge was known as Extended.

Extended was meant to serve as a middle ground between Standard and what would become Legacy. Extended still used a rotation like Standard but, as its name suggests, it expanded the number of sets that were able to be used.

Extended was a pretty popular format for a while until it was effectively replaced by Modern. Let’s take a look at what Extended was and how you can still play it if you’re interested in trying out a new format!

What Was Extended?

Windfall | Illustration by Scott Murphy

Extended was a rotating format started in 1997 that was meant to give players a larger card pool than Standard’s quicker rotation. Extended originally allowed players to use cards from the most recent three years and any promotional cards that were never printed in a proper set. More sets would be added to the legal sets as they were released, and then some would rotate out every two to three years.

About 11 years after it was founded, in 2008, Extended was changed to include the last seven years of blocks and core sets, and would then rotate with each new release in the fall. Two years after that, the rotation would be changed again to only include the last four years of blocks, but sets would still rotate out each fall.

Who Was Extended For?

Mana Vault | Illustration by Christine Choi

Extended was best for players who had gotten into the game playing Standard but didn’t want to have to buy an entire new deck every time the one they liked rotated out. Extended would give players a lot more time to play with their Standard decks since rotation was extended.

As the format came into its own, a meta-game specifically for Extended began to emerge, as players began experimenting with the large card pool to make decks unique to the format. The format’s large number of legal sets meant that there were many different archetypes that could be competitive, giving the format more variety than Standard.

While Extended didn’t see as much play at the LGS level as Standard or Block, it was featured in Pro Tours and Grand Prixs starting at the 1997 Pro Tour in Chicago.

Extended-Legal Sets

Ponder | Illustration by Julie Dillon

Though Extended has since been retired, it’s possible to use its previous rotation format to determine what current sets would still be legal. Extended’s last set of rules before it was discontinued said that sets would be legal for four years, with sets rotating out each Fall.

Currently, all of the most recent Standard sets going back to Throne of Eldraine are legal in Extended. Throne of Eldraine, Theros Beyond Death, Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoths, and Core Set 2021 would rotate out in early Fall of 2023 if the format were still going.

Alternatively, if you wanted to play Extended with the last sets to have been legal in the format, you could use cards from the Zendikar block, Magic 2011, the Scars of Mirrodin block, Magic 2012,  the original Innistrad block, Magic 2013, the Return to Ravnica block, Magic 2014, and Theros.

Extended Rules

Mox Diamond | Illustration by Volkan Baga

There were no special rules for Extended that differed from Standard, besides which sets were legal to include in your deck. It also had a 60-card minimum deck size with no max size so long as you could shuffle your deck without assistance. Players were also allowed a 15-card sideboard.

Extended Banlist

Many cards were banned over the course of Extended’s existence, but when the format was retired there remained only two banned cards: Mental Misstep and Ponder.

Can You Still Play Extended?

Extended was retired as an official sanctioned format in 2013. While you can certainly play Extended in casual settings if you’d like to try out a unique rotating format, that’s pretty much your only option at this point.

Alternatives to Extended

Metamorphic Alteration | Illustration by Livia Prima

Premodern

Premodern is a fan-made format that allows players to use cards from between Fourth Edition and Scourge. The legal sets in this format do a good job reflecting what the early days of the Extended format would have looked like, as many early Extended decks would be legal in Premodern.

Middle School

Middle School format includes basically the same sets as Premodern with the added bonus of also allowing supplemental sets similar to how Extended used to allow players to use promotional cards that weren’t printed in official sets.

Extended Decks

Like any rotating format, popular decks came and went in Extended based on what was legal in the format at the time. Here’s a sampling of a couple decks that existed throughout the format’s history to give an idea of how this format supported a good range of different archetypes.

Academy Deck

Time Spiral | Illustration by Michael Sutfin

This deck was used by Tommi Hovi to win the 1998 Pro Tour for the Extended format. It’s a combo deck that utilizes Mind Over Matter to untap Tolarian Academy until you generate enough mana to take out your opponent by targeting them with a massive Stroke of Genius. The deck also makes use of mana producing artifacts like Mox Diamond to accelerate your mana production and card draw spells like Windfall to make sure you keep a full hand for discarding cards to Mind Over Matter. Windfall was also helpful because it would force your opponent to draw, reducing what was left in their deck and making it easier to take them out with Stroke of Genius.

This deck was massively influential in Extended, not only because it helped shape the meta in what was known as the Combo Winter of 1998-99, but also because it led to both Windfall and Mind Over Matter being banned.

Aggro-Loam

Life from the Loam | Illustration by Sung Choi

Aggro-Loam was a fun build that uses Life from the Loam in an interesting way to gain card advantage. You want to cast Devastating Dreams to wipe out your opponents’ creatures and mana base, then Life from the Loam or cards like Eternal Witness and Genesis to help you recover more quickly than your opponent. Creatures like Werebear, Terravore, and potentially Wild Mongrel can survive the damage done by Devastating Dreams, allowing you to maintain a board state. Werebear is especially helpful thanks to its mana ability, so you won’t fall behind too much when losing lands.

Angry Hermit

Cabal Therapy | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

The Angry Hermit deck relied on using Hermit Druid to dump your entire library into your graveyard. Then you would use a spell like Reanimate or Exhume to get your Sutured Ghoul onto the battlefield. Chances are, since there’s only one in the deck, that your Dragon Breath would be in your graveyard and be able to automatically attach to the Ghoul, giving it haste and allowing you to swing out for the win.

Corpse Dance is another good option for giving the Ghoul haste, but it might not work depending on the order of cards in your graveyard. You could get around this issue by using Krosan Reclamation to shuffle some creatures back into your library. This would give you not only a better chance of being able to Corpse Dance for Sutured Ghoul, but it would also buy you some extra turns to win just in case.

Extended Products

Although Extended was an officially sanctioned format and could be played on MTGO, there weren’t official products released just for the format. New Standard sets were essentially new releases for Extended as well, since they could be used in the format.

Extended Communities

With most of Extended’s players moving onto Modern, there doesn’t seem to be any active online communities for the format. While some discussion of the format pops up every now and then on the general Magic subreddit, it doesn’t have the same kind of support as other formats do.

Wrap Up

Buried Alive | Illustration by Greg Staples

It’s sad to see a format like Extended fall out of favor with players. While it makes sense that Modern would supplant it as the format where you can keep playing decks for longer (at least theoretically), it would be nice to have a middle ground where there’s some rotation every now and then to keep things fresh. Of course, it could be argued that Modern Horizons and similar sets have made Modern a rotating format, meaning Extended sort of lives on.

Would you like to see a form of Extended return? How many formats do you think Magic can feasibly support at one time? Let me know in the comments or on Draftsim’s Twitter.

Thank you for reading and I’ll see you next time!