Wayfarer Starting Guide and Basic Rules
Wayfarer Starting Guide & Basic Rules
General
Wayfarer starts with a Journey, a set of Episodes that are gone through sequentially. You start on Episode 1 of whatever Journey you embark on.
Games are played with one scrivener player and from one to three wayfarer players. The scrivener guides the wayfarers on their journey with their scene decks, which provides changing goals and challenges as the wayfarers continue on the journey. The wayfarers themselves will meet these challenges starting with a preconstructed Commander deck as well as a special spark emblem, both of which will evolve as they progress through the episodes.
Scrivener
Starting the Game
To start a Wayfarer game as the scrivener, you need a number of scene decks, each with a scene card. Remember to randomize the decks, although keep the scene card on top. You also need a spoils deck to give as loot to the wayfarers when the situation calls for it.
At the beginning of the game, take the Scene 1 deck and put its scene card into the command zone. The scene deck is now your library, so draw your opening hand up to your “base hand size”. The base hand size depends on how many wayfarers you’re playing with. If you’re playing with one wayfarer, the base hand size is 2. If you’re playing with two, it’s 3, if you’re playing with three, it’s 5, and so on. Your starting life total is the “Starting” number on the scene card. The wayfarers get to go first, so after you’re done, wait your turn.
Turn by Turn Play
The scrivener’s turn starts with untapping as normal. At the beginning of your upkeep, however, you get an Essence land. It can be tapped for one mana of any color. The other uses for the land are in its own section.
You do not draw during your draw step. Your draws happen later. Instead, when your first main phase starts, you can start casting cards from your hand for free. You can only cast a number of spells this way equal to the number of wayfarers, so choose carefully. All of the spells are cast at once and go onto the stack at the same time, you choose the order.
Until the end step, the rest of the turn happens as normal. In your end step though, you draw cards back to your base hand size. No discarding at the cleanup step since, as a scrivener, you don’t have a maximum hand size.
Essence and Infusion
You can use Essence lands to infuse spells or permanents. You can tap three Essence lands to infuse a spell as you’re casting it or to infuse a permanent as a sorcery. Infused permanent spells enter the battlefield infused and trigger “Whenever this becomes infused” triggers when they do so. When you tap Essence lands this way, they don’t untap during your next untap step.
Many cards have additional or stronger effects when infused. Additionally, infused spells can’t be countered and infused creatures have haste. Infused permanents only stay infused until your next turn, so make use of the extra power when you can.
Readying a Next Scene
If you were to lose, the wayfarers would win (through a way outside of the effect of a scene card), or when an effect just tells you to, you ready the next scene. When you ready the next scene, you can’t cast spells, attack, or activate non-mana abilities for the rest of the turn. At the beginning of the next end step, you close the current scene by putting the current scene card away and shuffling your hand back into your library. Then, the next scene deck becomes your new library. Draw to your base hand size from it. The next scene opens with the start of your next turn. If it happens to be your turn when all of this happens, you get another turn after this one.
As the beginning of your next turn would start, put the scene card from the next scene into the command zone in order to open it. That scene’s deck is now your library. If you have zero or less life, reset your life to the “Revived” value on the scene card, otherwise add the “Survived” value to your life.
If it was the last scene, you don’t ready the next scene, the wayfarers simply win.
Wayfarers
Starting a Game
Each wayfarer starts with a preconstructed Commander deck and a spark emblem. When starting an Episode, put the spark emblem and the deck’s commander into the command zone, then shuffle the deck into a library. Draw opening hands and mulligan as normal. Your starting life is 30 in a Tier 1 game, and goes up by 5 each tier. When all players are ready, you can start.
Turn by Turn Play
Aside from starting the game with a spark emblem, there’s a few other important differences between Wayfarer and a normal game of Magic or Commander. First is that you and the other wayfarers (if any) form a team and share your turns. That means you untap together, draw together, attack together and defend together. You can show the other wayfarers the cards in your hand and strategize together before making any plays.
The other major difference is the opponent, the scrivener. The scrivener will be drawing and casting cards from their deck and has scene cards that determine the flow of play. Your objective is to proceed through the scenes and get to the end. Winning through normal means will get you through the current scene, but there will also usually be another way through. Read the scene cards carefully.
Looting the Spoils
Every now and then, you may get to loot the spoils. When you do this, you play the top card of the spoils deck. Usually, you’ll get an item out of this. Items are powerful cards, but you can only have one among all of the wayfarers. If there would be more than one, it’s like the legend rule. Choose one to keep, and shuffle the rest into the spoils deck. If an item would leave the battlefield, it gets shuffled into the spoils deck instead.
Downed and Revival
If you were to lose, you are downed instead. Shuffle everything you own into your library, including cards in your graveyard or in exile, but excluding your commander and spark emblem. Your commander goes back to the command zone. You and everything you own basically doesn’t exist to the other players until your return. At the beginning of each of the wayfarers’ upkeep, you can search your library for a basic land and put it onto the battlefield. Once you have three or the next act starts, you return. Shuffle, draw seven cards and mulligan, and you can start playing again.
emblem. When starting an Episode, put the spark emblem and the deck’s commander into the command zone, then shuffle the deck into a library. Draw opening hands and mulligan as normal. Your starting life is 30 in a Tier 1 game, and goes up by 5 each tier. When all players are ready, you can start.
