The Agent now works in all fourteen formats

The Agent and the AI primer now work in all fourteen formats, from Standard to Canadian Highlander. What the server checks in each, what it still won’t do, and what stays Commander-only.

Manamancer

Oct 31, 2026

The Agent now works with decks in all fourteen formats Manamancer supports. The Agent tab and the AI primer serve Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, Alchemy, Historic, Timeless, Standard Brawl, Brawl, Pauper Commander and Canadian Highlander, as well as Commander.

On launch day, the first of the three gaps we listed was "the AI stops at Commander": a Modern or Pauper deck got the builder, the legality checks, the stats and the prices, and no assistant. This release closes most of that one: the Agent and the primer now work everywhere, and only the deck generator stays Commander-only. The other two gaps are still open.

Here is the honest headline: the interesting part is not that the Agent can now talk about Modern. Any chatbot will talk about Modern. It is that the server's checks on every card the Agent suggests now read the rules of your deck's format instead of Commander's. This piece covers what changes in the other thirteen formats, what the server checks in each one, what the Agent still does not do, and what stays exactly as it was.

What changes outside Commander

The Agent is the same assistant: it sees your whole list, reads the curve and role counts the stats panel shows you, searches our card index for candidates, and proposes adds, cuts and swaps. What changed is the deck it thinks it is looking at.

In the 60-card constructed formats it reasons about a 60-card mana base and four-copy consistency, and before a big build it asks how you play — kitchen table or competitive, best-of-one or best-of-three — because those want different main decks. It does not ask about Commander Brackets outside Commander. A suggestion can now carry a copy count, so applying an "add 3×" suggestion adds three copies.

The primer changes with it. For constructed and Canadian Highlander decks it adds sections on the deck's archetype, its matchups and its sideboarding. The formats with a command zone still want a commander picked before the primer is generated.

The checks, read from your format

The rule that made the Commander Agent worth explaining still holds: it is not allowed to invent a card. Before a suggested card reaches your screen, the server checks it again, and whatever fails is dropped before the chat renders it.

• It is real, and the Agent found it. The card must be in our local card index, and it must have come back from a search the Agent ran in that same request.
• It is legal in your deck's format. Modern legality for a Modern deck, Pauper legality for a Pauper deck — not Commander's.
• It fits the copy limit. One copy in the singleton formats and four in the others, counting the copies already in your main deck and sideboard. A restricted card in Vintage or Timeless stays at one. Basic lands, and cards whose own text allows any number of copies, are exempt. If the Agent proposes more copies than the deck has room for, the suggestion is trimmed to what is left; with nothing left, it is dropped.
• It is inside the commander's colour identity, in the four formats with a command zone: Commander, Brawl, Standard Brawl and Pauper Commander.
• It fits Canadian Highlander's 10-point budget. An add that would take the deck over is dropped, unless the cut paired with it frees enough points.

The validator is the second lock, not the only one. When the Agent searches for cards to add, the search is already filtered to cards legal in your deck's format, so most bad candidates never reach it in the first place. The check on the way out exists for the ones that do.

Read how the Agent checks a card — The full guide to the validated Agent, which now ends with a section on the other thirteen formats.

One card, fourteen answers

The easiest way to see the rules move is to hold one card still. Brainstorm is a one-mana blue instant with a different legal status in nearly every format we support. The table is what the checks above do with a suggested Brainstorm in a deck that holds none. It illustrates the rules; it is not a transcript of an Agent run. The middle column was read from our card index on October 29, 2026.

Two things fall out of that. First, the same card is a fine suggestion in one deck and an illegal one in the next, which is exactly why the checks cannot be Commander's checks with the name changed. Second, the copy limit counts the sideboard: a Legacy deck with three Brainstorms in the main deck and one in the sideboard has no room for another, and the server will not offer one.

Legality is only as current as the index, which is rebuilt from Scryfall's data every day. A ban announced this morning can take until the next rebuild to reach the checks.

What it still does not do

Four limits, because the guarantee is narrower than the headline.

First, the sideboard is read, not edited. The Agent sees your sideboard, counts it toward the copy limit and can talk through a sideboard plan, but every change it proposes is to the main deck.

Second, it has no tournament results or metagame data. What it knows about a format's top decks comes from its training, and it is told to label those claims as possibly out of date. Take it at its word: check a current source before you sleeve up for an event.

Third, it checks the cards it proposes, not your whole deck. A suggestion passing the checks does not mean the list around it is legal. The builder's legality view is the place to confirm a finished deck, and the format-legality guide explains what it checks.

Fourth, validation proves a card is real and legal, not right. A legal fourth copy can still be the wrong card for your deck. That is what the Dismiss chip is for.

What stays the same

Commander works exactly as before. The same prompts, the same searches, the same checks and the same messages when a card is dropped. Tests compare all of them against copies taken before the change, so a Commander deck gets the same Agent it had before.

Deck generation stays Commander-only, and so do the commander suggestions that come with it. Building a whole 60-card deck from a description is a different problem from reviewing one you already have, and it is not part of this release.

You still decide. Every suggestion arrives as Apply and Dismiss chips beside the reasoning, and nothing in your deck changes until you press one.

The AI is metered, not gated. It needs a signed-in account, and use comes out of monthly AI credits shared by the Agent, the primer and the other AI features: a few on Free, more on Pro and Max. What runs out is the budget, never the permission.

If you have a Modern, Pauper or Brawl deck sitting in the builder, open its Agent tab and ask what it would cut. If you would rather read the rules first, the guide to the validated Agent has the whole mechanism. And if you have not made an account yet, make one: the AI needs it, and the account is free.

May your opening seven always hold the fourth copy you needed, and may the Agent never offer you a fifth.