After the Inaugural League, the rules for online ante and what to do when you run out of sideboard cards because you lost them all to ante are updated as below. The old rule is strikethrough and the new rule is in bold

Ok so here’s another “new” format for online and hopefully in person play.

This format utilizes Ante because its cool.

A41.5 uses the Pacific Old School Type 1.5 Banned List  and the Emerald City Trolls fake ante rules for online play (thanks guys for doing all the hard work) with the following exceptions:

Deck Construction

Minimum 40 Card Decks with optional mandatory 10 Card sideboard

Players may not include more than four of copies of a card (other than basic land) in their combined deck and sideboard except that players may include more than four copies of a card if all copies beyond the fourth were won via ante.

If a player runs out of sideboard cards and falls below the minimum 40 card deck, that player may take any card from their collection that would be legal in the format and add it to their deck to reach the 40 card minimum.

For example: if a player has 39 cards after a match, that player can add a basic land or a 1.5 legal card such as Feldon’s Cane to their deck. They may not add both cards because that would take them over 40 and they may not add a card that is not legal in 1.5 such as Force of Will.

The following cards are restricted:

• Amulet of Quoz 
• Bronze Tablet 
• Contract from Below 
• Darkpact 
• Demonic Attorney 
• Jeweled Bird 
• Rebirth 
• Tempest Efreet 
• Timmerian Fiends 

The following cards are banned:

 Pacific Old School Type 1.5 Banned List

Expect the banned and restricted list to be updated as leagues are played and feedback is received. The banned list will follow the Type 1.5 Ban List. The restricted list will be updated as needed.

Online Ante

Online Ante will be the same as in person ante, cards lost in ante will be mailed to your opponent.

All online games are played with “Fake Ante.” Fake Ante is intended to simulate the effects of ante during a tournament, but not result in the exchange of ownership of any cards.

Fake Ante follows these rules:

1. Both players ante one card at the start of every game by revealing the top card of their deck after shuffling, prior to drawing their hand. The anted card is placed in the Ante Zone. If a player chooses to mulligan, they leave the anted card in the Ante Zone.
2. If a player loses a game, the cards they anted are removed from their deck. Those cards may not be used again for the rest of the event.
3. Immediately following a game, players may add any cards acquired by ante in that game to their deck or sideboard. If a player chooses not to swap a card acquired by ante into their deck it is added to their sideboard. Cards acquired through ante do not count against the 10 card optional sideboard slots.
4. Players must present a deck of at least 40 cards every game, despite previous losses to ante. After each game, if a player has lost cards due to ante, they must replace that same number of cards with other cards from their sideboard OR from cards they have previously won from opponents through ante. If a player loses sideboard cards to ante, they must replace them similarly.
5. Once a card is placed into a player’s deck or sideboard as a result of the previous two rules, it may not be removed for the rest of the tournament, except by swapping it for a newly acquired ante card per rule 4 or losing it to ante per rule 5. In other words, fake ante rules do not give you “free sideboard slots” in your main deck. As an example if you win a forest on ante and add it to your main deck, it is now part of your main deck for the rest of the tournament unless you lose it in ante. Similarly if you win a swamp through ante and add it to your sideboard it is now a sideboard card for the rest of the tournament unless you lose it in ante.
6. Some cards may cause a player to place additional cards into the ante zone, or other interact with cards in the ante zone during the course of the game. These cards function normally, as they would in real ante games.
7. Last and most importantly, players are expected to record modifications made to their deck as a result of ante EVERY GAME. This is to prevent unintentional errors with ante cards being added to the main deck and sideboard.

In Person Ante

Both players ante one card at the start of every game by revealing the top card of their deck after shuffling, prior to drawing their hand. The anted card is placed in the Ante Zone. If a player chooses to mulligan, they leave the anted card in the Ante Zone.

A few cards have the text “Remove [this card] from your deck before playing if you’re not playing for ante.” These are the only cards that can add or remove cards from the ante zone or change a card’s owner.

To ante an object is to put that object into the ante zone from whichever zone it’s currently in. The owner of an object is the only person who can ante that object.

The person who loses the game may illustrate upon the card before relinquishing the card to the winner.

If by chance a player loses a card they also previously won as ante, they may illustrate it an additional time and give it to their opponent.