In Planechase you play Magic just like normal (well, normal using the multiplayer rules.) Twenty life, seven cards, every player draws to start the game, etc. The catch is that the battle moves between different planes of Magic. From Tolaria to Llanowar to more obscure locations like Turri Island. Each of these places has an effect on the game.

To those who know Vanguard, you'll see hints of it in Planechase. Vanguard was a much earlier variant of Magic that Wizards produced and was short lived though it lives on really through Magic Online.

I played with an excellent variety of players. Our host, the Wizards employee who walked us through it was named Reid and he works in their Organized play department. And two other people who's names escaped my game play notes. One was a store owner and long time player. The other was a gamer who had stopped playing Magic before sixth edition. And then of course there was me. So we had a good breadth of experience to see what effect that had on the enjoyment level of the game.

Here are some rules notes as explained to us before playing:

• There can only be one Plane card in play at a time, under any player's control.
• The plane exists in a new zone called the 'Command Zone'
• The zone is controlled by the active player.
• Each plane has a static ability and a triggered ability.
• You use a special six sided dice (more on that later)
• Changing planes uses the stack as normal, so it may be responded to as with any other game effect.

Each player brings their own Plane cards to the game, in the packs you can buy there will be 10 planes. Though it was not said explicitly I think it is obviously expected that each plane in a player's stack be unique. Otherwise it would be sort of boring.

The game starts with the first player flipping a plane from his stack (all planes are shuffled and placed face down in a stack next to the deck.) So the first plane is random from the first player.

Now the game begins like normal, but during each player's main phase they now have the ability to roll that dice I mentioned earlier. It is a custom die with four blank sides, then one side which has the Planeswalk symbol (like a five pronged fork) and their 'Chaos' symbol. You roll at sorcery speed and during either main phase of your turn.

The Planeswalk symbol, when rolled, causes the active plane to be put on the bottom of its owner's stack, and then the active player reveals their top Plane and puts it into play. All planes are written in the second person, and so when it is your turn you become the controller of the plane (in terms of the game rules) so when the plane says "You" it refers to the active player.

The Chaos symbol, when rolled, causes the current plane to do it's triggered ability. It might be useless, such as when a Plane causes the active player to set their life back to 20 (when they're already at 20.) Or it can be something as crazy as "You take another turn after this one."

Each dice roll has a cost associated with it. The first one has a cost of zero, and then each successive role costs 1 colorless mana more than the previous roll. So the second roll costs 1, then the third costs 2, etc. If you have the mana to support it, you can keep on rolling as much as you please.

I think that covers the rules for Planechase, now to my experience.

Of the four decks distributed with the Planechase packs I decided to play the Elemental deck. The other options being Zombies, Soldiers or Artifacts (think Myr from Mirrodin.) This game is definitely geared towards the tribal theme of decks but none of the abilities I saw were tied to these specific tribes. So if you decide to build a Faeries deck, Vampires or (my favorite) Elves - then you won't be at any disadvantage.

The decks all had some awesomeness within them. The Elementals deck ramps mana extremely fast compared to the others, though the Myr deck did nearly as well in that area. The Zombie deck obviously focused on the graveyard and making use of it. The Soldiers deck unfortunately was hampered in my game due to mana issues but it seemed to feature it's share of removal.

I was, until the very end, in a dominant position and would have done better were it not for some play mistakes on my part.

My biggest concern going into this was that the randomness would end up dominating the game, and in some ways it did have a definite impact on the game, but it was by no means a shackle for my game. So that concern was disproved and indeed it was a major source of joy for us throughout our game. We were literally cheering and yelling in joy as our planes changed and we got to see where we ended up next.

So, in our game I saw some places which were too obscure for me, and some which were well known locations that I enjoyed figuring out the ties between their location and their ability.

As we were in the midst of the game I looked up to see Kenneth Nagle (a designer of Planechase) come in and start watching to see how the games were going, and then later Mark Gottlieb (a developer of Planechase) also came in to observe. It's quite interesting to watch them and try to imagine what designers of the game are thinking and how they react to observing the laughter and joy that they had had a hand in creating.

Anyways, rolling the dice really becomes a strategic point throughout the game, but I also never saw a player shy away from rolling the die even if there was an opportunity of something negative happening. There was one Plane which, if you rolled the Chaos symbol, caused you to discard your hand. However, if you end the turn with an empty hand you would end up drawing 7 cards. I did not see a plane that was negative all around, as obviously players would choose not to play with it.

I think though that my only real suggestion after playing the game was that there be some brute force way to force a planeswalk. Maybe pay six or eight mana to force a planeswalk. Make it prohibitive enough that it isn't something you want to do, but if you just HAVE to get off the plane, let you force your way off it. When I discussed this idea with Mark Purvis, a contributing developer for Planechase, he said it was never something that they had considered as far as he knew. They had wanted the effect to be purely random from the start. Fair enough.

As I'll be playing this casually, I may institute a house rule for it. Ha! Take that Wizards!

I'm not sure how to truly convey just how much excitement and joy this new layer of randomness created for us who played it. As a Spike/Timmy I truly enjoyed this and can't wait to pick up my copy so I can begin playing it at home or at the store. I do worry that once players know the Planes, and the sense of discovery wears off, how much fun the game will be then.

After the game ended I asked Mark a few more questions about Planechase, trying to see where it was heading. It is most definitely a casual format as it creates crazy and wacky events that are just ridiculous and make you shake your head in amusement. I got taken out by complete surprise by a girl gamer who joined our table late and was being coached by the entire Wizards staff present. I think Wizards may have it out for me... (Actually they were all awesome and if I had to go out, I loved doing it in a big way.)

I also learned that they will be releasing more Planes. First with the Zendikar pre-release. Every player will be receiving their standard Pre-release Foil, as well as a Zendikar Plane card. This card will not be available in the Planechase sets, or in any other packet (though I think it would be an ideal item for them to include in future fat packs.)

Though the format is casual, Wizards is working on ways to encourage stores to support it with in store play. One way is that they will be providing stores that want to organize in store Planechase nights with special planes to pass out to participants.

So we can continue to expect them to roll out more Planes as time goes on, and if this is a success I would expect a follow up set to allow even more game play.

Now, to wrap this up, let's go back to the Leviathan I mentioned earlier.

Segovia. Yeah, I've never heard of it either. But Wizards is aware of it, and it has apparently become a joke around the Wizards' office. A Leviathan is, by definition, something that is huge. Other Leviathans in Magic are 7/11, 5/5 and 10/10.

Why then is the Segovian Leviathan only a 3/3? And why is a 3/3 so massive compared to a blue whale? As pictured in the card's art.

As it turns out, Segovia is a land of miniaturization! Think 'Gulliver's Travels.' The people would all be small. As would their whales. So a Segovian Leviathan is like our Orca or something.

So how is this a joke tied to the Hippodrome? Well the Hippodrome Plane art is perhaps the most impressive of the ones I looked at. Steve Argyle (Mayaela's Aria, Naya Battlemage) painted this race track with audience and racers in the tilt-shift style you see in photos. To be able to control your painting such that you put a certain section in focus is simply amazing to me. Using the tilt-shift focus on a photo of regular people causes them to look like miniatures, it's a fun trick to use. And so, through the art, it easily conveys the sense of how small they are.

Overall I think most players will enjoy Planechase and that it will be extremely popular, especially among the casual Magic player. Definitely worth the $20 price tag to get started.