A few weeks ago we talked about Pentagram Magic. Pentagram is a great format for 5 players, but what to do if you have 6? Emperor is great fun for 6 players. You can use any decks you all agree on, and is especially fun with 6 EDH decks!

You need exactly 6 players for Emperor. You split up into teams of three, with one member of the team being the Emperor, and the other two members become generals. The Emperor sits in the middle with a general on each of his/her sides. Each player takes an individual turn, not like two headed giant where teams take turns simultaneously. Each player, not team, begins with 20 life, and the object of the game is to cause the opposing emperor to lose. Eliminating an opposing general only makes it possible to target and attack the opposing emperor.

The team who goes first starts with the Emperor for the team taking his/her turn, then turns pass to the left, which means the team who goes first only gets two turns, where the team who goes second gets all three. It's usually best to go second in emperor!

Teams do not share life totals, mana, cards, or anything for that matter. You're free to look at one another player's hand and discuss strategy, but your turn is your turn. Should one of the generals be eliminated, any change of control effects like Control Magic end and control is passed back to the previous controller, then all of the eliminated players cards and spells are exiled. Anything the general controlled but did not own is exiled as well, such as a Bribery type effect.

The general's job is to protect the emperor, and to eliminate the opposing general making it possible to eliminate the opposing emperor. Generals may only attack or target a player sitting immediately next to him/her, in other words generals have a limited range of influence 1. As a general you need to get rid of one of the opposing teams generals before you can attack or target the emperor, and you can only attack and target the general sitting next to you, so you can't really help your teammate take out the general next to him/her.

The emperor's job is to lend support to his/her generals by casting supportive spells and sending creatures to assist his/her generals. Emperors also may only attack the player sitting immediately next to him/her, so when the game starts, the emperors can't attack anyone! An emperor, however, a can target not only the player next to the emperor and also the player next to him/her, i.e. limited range of influence 2 for you rules types out there.

Any player may help out a teammate by sending him/her a creature. This is called the deploy creatures option which says all creatures have "{T}: Target teammate gains control of this creature. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery." That just means that any creature able to tap can be sent to any of your teammates any time you could cast a sorcery. The emperor will most likely be doing this a lot, since as long as he/she has both generals he/she can't attack anyone anyway!

With limited range of influence many of your spells won't behave the way you might think. Wrath of God from a general will destroy all the creatures of both players to his/her left and right, along with his/her own. Wrath of God from an emperor will destroy the creatures of both his/her generals, and the players sitting next to those generals as well. If you have a effect that gives your creatures +1/+1 for all other creatures, that effect will only count the creatures in your range of influence, and not of those outside your range. Some cards may ask you to target an opponent; this can be any player on the opposing team that is within your range of influence.

Emperor, like EDH, now has a full set of rules in the Magic Comprehensive Rules; they're in Section 807 if you feel like giving them a look see. The rules I've listed are, of course, only the default, and you're free to add or change any of them your play group doesn't like.

So the next time you have 6 players why not try out Emperor. Bonus points for playing Emperor EDH! Have you played Emperor lately? I would love to hear about it! Leave me a comment in the fields below so I can hear about your great time playing Emperor.

Next week I have a very special column coming your way. There has been a lot of talk lately about Magic cards that have had their art altered by aspiring artists, and their legality. I'm not going to go into the various legalities, but I am going to show you how you can become one of those aspiring artists and alter cards yourself. Until then this is Dale Lovelace telling you there is more than one way to play!