Rush Hour rules

• Mulligan as normal. Once you've kept your opening hand, press Ready.
• You can take your Ready back until the last player readies up.
• When everyone still in is ready, a 5s countdown plays for the whole table and the first turn's clock starts on GO. A disconnected player doesn't hold up the start.

Each turn starts with a base amount of time, set by the table round the turn starts in. A round is one full pass around the table.

Every card you put onto the battlefield during your turn adds time to your clock, in order: +20s, +15s, +10s, +5s, +1s each after. The count resets every turn.

If your life is above 40 when a clock starts, its base time is cut. See life tiers.

When your clock runs out you are in overtime, and you start losing life to the clock (time decay) until you pass the turn.

• At 40 life or less, you lose 1 life the moment overtime starts, then again at 10s, 18s, 23s, 26s into overtime, and then every 2s after that. With more life it ramps faster: see life tiers.
• Decay builds up as pending life loss and comes off your life total when you pass. Your total lost to the clock all game shows as an hourglass in the commander damage window.
• If pending decay would take you to 0 or less, it comes off at once and you are eliminated automatically (a Meltdown concede). Life you lose any other way never auto-concedes you.
• Time decay is life loss, not damage. Damage prevention and replacement (Worship, for example) doesn't stop it.
• Time decay happens outside the game for triggers: it doesn't trigger "whenever you lose life" or "whenever an opponent loses life" abilities (Exquisite Blood, so no Sanguine Bond loop), and it doesn't count as life lost this turn (Bloodthirst, Spectacle, and similar).
• Effects that stop your life total from changing still stop it. See life locks and card legality.

A big life total doesn't let you ignore the clock. Your life puts each of your clocks on a tier (shown on the clock as T1 to T5), and higher tiers get less base time and a faster overtime ramp. The top tiers also take more than 1 life per tick, and tier 5 is the maximum.

• Base time uses your life when the clock starts: your turn, a block clock (including the restart when you press Declare blockers), or a response clock. Play bonuses are never cut.
• The decay ramp uses your life the moment that clock goes into overtime. Gaining or losing life during overtime doesn't change the ramp already running.
• The first point of decay still comes off the instant overtime starts, on every tier.

• Press Respond when you have a response. Playing a card onto the battlefield or the stack on someone else's turn presses it for you.
• Responding hands you the clock: the active player's clock stops and you get a response clock of 15s for the turn's first response from anyone, and 10s for each one after.
• Overtime on a response clock costs you life on the same schedule as a turn, and can eliminate you.
• Other players can respond on top, each on their own clock. Press Pass back when you're done; once nobody holds a response clock, the active player's clock picks up where it stopped.
• The active player can take the clock back any time with Back to me, and playing a card onto the battlefield or the stack does that for them. Declaring attackers, changing phase, or passing also closes every response.
• Each player must wait 3s between their own responses, and you can't respond while you already hold a response clock.

• Once your attackers are set, press Attackers declared. Your clock stops for the rest of the block step.
• Every opponent still in gets a block clock with the same base time a turn of their own would get this round. Cards they put onto the battlefield earn play bonuses on it, and overtime decays the same way.
• Each defender answers No blocks, or Declare blockers. Declare blockers settles any decay so far and restarts their block clock at the round's base time; they then press Done declaring blockers. Either final answer stops their clock and lands any decay on their life at once.
• When every defender has answered, or you press Blocks are in to close the step for everyone still deciding, the clock pauses for combat math. It's a table pause: when damage is done, vote to resume as normal, and your clock picks up where it stopped.
• Changing phase or passing also ends the block step, without the combat math pause.
• Respond is off during the block step: cards a defender plays then are part of their blocks.

• Every player gets 3 timeouts of 60s each per game, usable any time. A timeout stops the clock for everyone.
• Any player can call a vote to pause the clock for a rules discussion or a break. It needs one other player to vote yes within 20s. Resuming takes the same kind of vote. The clock keeps running while a vote is open.
• The clock also pauses by itself for combat math once blocks are in (see combat). That pause replaces a timeout still running, and resumes with the same vote.
• If the active player disconnects, the clock pauses for them, up to 2 minutes per player per game. After that it runs while they're gone. An opponent dropping doesn't pause anything.

• For a card that stops your life total from changing for a single turn (Angel's Grace, Teferi's Protection, and similar), the active player presses Lock life. Time decay is off for the rest of that turn, including anything already pending. The clock still counts.
• Each player gets 2 life locks per game. They clear when you pass.
• Recognised cards press Lock life for you when you cast or play them on your own turn (the full list is below). If you have none left, the table is told. Undoing the move doesn't give the lock back.

On top of the Commander ban list, a card is not legal in Rush Hour if it stops a player from losing the game, or freezes a life total, for longer than a single turn. "This turn" and "until your next turn" both count as a single turn, since time decay only happens on your own turn. Damage replacement effects are fine, because time decay is life loss, not damage.

Decks are never blocked. The lobby and the start of the game list any of these cards in anyone's deck, so the table can decide what to do. The list comes from reading every card's rules text, so it picks up new sets automatically, and SlingLab reviews it by hand.

Not legal (16)

• Abyssal PersecutorCan't lose the gameCreature — Demon
• Cloudsteel KirinCan't lose the gameArtifact Creature — Equipment Kirin
• Darksteel AngelCan't lose the gameArtifact Creature — Angel
• Gideon of the TrialsCan't lose the gameLegendary Planeswalker — Gideon
• Herald of Eternal DawnCan't lose the gameCreature — Angel
• LichDoesn't lose at 0 lifeEnchantment
• Lich's MasteryCan't lose the gameLegendary Enchantment
• Lich's TombDoesn't lose at 0 lifeArtifact
• Marina Vendrell's GrimoireDoesn't lose at 0 lifeLegendary Artifact — Book
• Pact WeaponDoesn't lose at 0 lifeArtifact — Equipment
• Phyrexian UnlifeDoesn't lose at 0 lifeEnchantment
• Platinum AngelCan't lose the gameArtifact Creature — Angel
• Platinum EmperionLife total can't changeArtifact Creature — Golem
• Soul EchoDoesn't lose at 0 lifeEnchantment
• The Book of Exalted DeedsCan't lose the gameLegendary Artifact — Book
• TranscendenceDoesn't lose at 0 lifeEnchantment

Legal, and press Lock life for you (6)

One-turn protection: playing one of these on your own turn uses one of your life locks.

• Angel's GraceInstant
• Courageous ResolveInstant
• Everybody Lives!Instant
• Flare of FortitudeInstant
• Perch ProtectionInstant
• Teferi's ProtectionInstant