Commander Damage is an alternate win condition in Magic: The Gathering that was created specifically for the format. The rules of Commander Damage in MTG are simple: If you take more than 20 Combat Damage from a specific Commander, then you lose the game.

Commander Damage is cumulative, irreversible, separate from your actual Life Total, and must be dealt as Combat Damage. Let's break down exactly how this damage type works.

Commander Damage Must Be Greater Than 20

To kill someone with Commander Damage in MTG, your Commander must deal more than 20 Combat Damage over the course of the game to a single player. Once this damage threshold has been surpassed, that player immediately loses the game.

This number can only go up: Life Gain and other effects that altar Life Totals do not lower the amount of Commander Damage a player has taken over the course of a game.

Commander Damage Tracks the Physical Card

Commander Damage is connected to the physical card representing a player's Commander.

This means that

• A copy of a Commander does not add to your Commander Damage total. This is any kind of copy, such as one generated from Clone, Myriad, or Copy effects. The only one that counts is the original physical Commander.
• If a Commander is being passed around the table (for example: Karona, False God, a { } 5/5 Legend who untaps and moves under the control of the player whose turn it is) and a single player takes multiple hits from multiple players, each hit adds to their Commander Damage total for that Commander.
• If your own Commander gets stolen and attacks you, you must track the damage. If it reaches 21 or more damage, then you lose the game.
• You must track Commander Damage from each Commander separately. If player A hits you with their Commander for six, Player B for two, and Player C for 19 (ouch!), you have taken six Commander Damage from Player A's Commander, two from Player B's, and 19 from Player C's.

Commander Damage & Life Totals Are Separate

Your Life Total and Commander Damage are often adjusted at the same time (Combat Damage often causes life loss), but they are two separate things and are tracked differently. Most of the time, if you hit a player in combat, they will lose life equal to the amount of damage you did.

If you hit them with your Commander, they will also take Commander Damage from your card equal to the amount of damage that you did.

Life Gain Does Not Alter Commander Damage

Only damage received from a Commander will change your Commander Damage total. There is no way to alter this total after the Commander Damage has already been taken.

Gaining life will not change the amount of Commander Damage that you have taken in a game.

Commander Damage Must Be Combat Damage

You must specifically deal Combat Damage to deal Commander Damage. Alternate effects like Extort, Fling, or other abilities that deal damage do not alter one's Commander Damage total.

However, Commanders with Double Strike will deal Combat Damage twice and both times will count toward your total. If a Commander with Power 5 and Double Strike hits you, you will take a total of 10 Commander Damage: five from the Double Strike's first hit along with five from the second.

Edge Cases

In addition to Double Strike, there are a few other unique interactions that can come up in a game of Commander:

Damage-Added Replacement Effects

Cards like Torbran, Thane of Red Fell are replacement effects. Torbran says, "if a Red source you control would deal damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, it deals that much damage plus 2 instead." For us, instead is key.

That means, in this case, if your Red 4/4 Commander deals Combat Damage and you control Torbran, you will hit for six Commander Damage in total. Cards that double damage like Furnace of Rath also double Commander Damage.

Preventing Damage

A card like Fog prevents all Combat Damage. Any effect which prevents Combat Damage will also prevent Commander Damage.

Commander Damage tracks the damage done from a specific Commander card during combat. If that damage is prevented, then no damage is counted.

Infect

Commander Damage is still counted when the Commander has Infect. Infect means the life lost by Combat Damage is replaced with Poison Counters, but it doesn't prevent the damage from occurring.

Commander Damage cares about Combat Damage being dealt, so Poison Counters are still counted. This is true if a Commander is given Infect mid-combat, as well.

Can't Lose the Game

A card like Platinum Angel says, "you can't lose the game." In that case, no amount of Commander Damage will cause you to lose.

However, if you have 21 or more Commander Damage from a single Commander and you lose control of Platinum Angel at any time, via Death, Bouncing, Flickering, Phasing, Exiling, or anything else, you will immediately die due to a State-Based Action.

This is also true for similar effects and abilities, such as:

• Herald of Eternal Dawn;
• The Enlightened Counter from The Book of Exalted Deeds;
• You have an Emblem and control a Gideon Planeswalker from Gideon of the Trials, or;
• You control a Cloudsteel Kirin and it's Reconfigured on another Creature

Angel's Grace and Courageous Resolve while you have Fateful Hour is a similar situation but it's not exactly the same.

Both are Instants, and when all conditions are met, they say "you can't lose the game this turn." If you can kill all other players before the end of the turn, you win. However, you will immediately die when the turn ends, if you have taken 21 or more damage from a Commander.

Angel's Grace also says,"until end of turn, damage that would reduce your Life Total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead." That means you still take all Commander Damage. Here's an example:

You control a Commander with a Power of 21. You attack an opponent with 15 life and get a clean hit. They respond with Angel's Grace.

• The Combat Damage will be applied, but your opponent's Life Total will stop decreasing at one.
• Commander Damage will be applied and tracked. Your opponent will die as soon as you end your turn.

Worship is a Enchantment which states "if you control a Creature, damage that would reduce your Life Total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead." It suffers the same fate as Angel's Grace.

It will prevent Combat Damage from reducing your Life Total below zero, but Commander Damage continues to accumulate and, upon receiving 21 or more, you will die.

Life Total Can't Change

There are several cards that prevent your Life Total from changing, but Commander Damage still happens even when your Life Total can't change.

However, some of these cards prevent Commander Damage by providing Protection from everything.

For example, Platinum Emperion, an 8/8 Artifact Creature, says "your Life Total can't change."

Flare of Fortitude is a Instant stating "You may sacrifice a nontoken White Creature rather than pay this spell's mana cost. Until end of turn, your Life Total can't change and permanents you control gain Hexproof and Indestructible."

In both cases, Combat Damage will not change Life Totals, but Commander Damage is still applied because the damage wasn't prevented.

Perch Protection, a Instant creates four 2/2 Birds with Flying. If you give the Gift of an extra turn, though, all your Permanents Phase out, your Life Total can't change, and you get Protection from everything.

Teferi's Protection is a Instant which does the same, except you don't make any Tokens and you don't have to Gift an extra turn.

In these cases, the effects will reduce Commander Damage to zero because the casting player has Protection from everything. Protection means all damage dealt by any source, including a Commander, is reduced to zero.

Redirection Effects

Captain's Maneuver is an Instant that reads "the next X damage that would be dealt to target Creature, Planeswalker, or player this turn is dealt to another target Creature, Planeswalker, or player instead.

If you attack Player A with your 5/5 Commander, and they cast Captain's Maneuver paying for the X cost and redirect the damage back to you, you will take five Commander Damage from yourself.

Harm's Way is a Instant that works like Captain's Maneuver except it only redirects two damage.

Deflecting Palm is a Instant that says "the next time a source of your choice would deal damage to you this turn, prevent that damage. If damage is prevented this way, Deflecting Palm deals that much damage to that source's controller."

In the previous example for Captain's Maneuver, by replacing the Maneuver with Deflecting Palm, your five damage would be prevented. Then Deflecting Palm would deal five damage directly to you.

Your Life Total will decrease by five, but any Commander Damage dealt this way is prevented.

Final Answer

Commander Damage is an alternate win condition in the Commander format in Magic: The Gathering. It occurs when a single player does 21 or more Combat Damage by a single Commander card over the course of the game.

Each Commander receives its own tally and must be tracked independently of Life Total. It must be Combat Damage, the damage dealt is cumulative, and the damage dealt cannot be reversed with Life Gain or removed another way.