Cumulative Upkeep Choices and Payments If there is a choice involved in paying a cumulative upkeep cost, all of the choices for the cost payment are made separately before the costs are actually paid. For example, if you control a Jotun Owl Keeper with one counter already on it, when the cumulative upkeep ability resolves, you will put an age counter on it; decide whether you wish to pay , , , or ; or sacrifice the permanent. Then all cost payments are made simultaneously.
Snow-Covered to Snow The supertype "snow-covered" has received a name-change. It is now simply "snow". This is just a change of terminology; no functional changes occured as a result of this change.
Snow Mana - A new mana symbol has been introduced: . This symbol is called a "snow mana symbol" and stands for one mana of any type that was produced by a permanent with the supertype "snow". This symbol appears only in costs; you cannot add to your mana pool, and is not a color of mana. It's simply used as a limitation on the mana that can be used to pay it.
For example, the in the cost of Rimefeather Owl 's activated ability can be paid with mana from a Snow-Covered Island , a Boreal Druid , or a Thermopod ; the color (or lack thereof) doesn't matter, only whether or not the thing that produced it was snow. (The part of the cost can still be paid with any sort of mana.)
New Keywords Coldsnap brought with it two new keywords: Recover and Ripple. For more information on either, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Recover is an ability of some cards that allows you to get them back from your graveyard when a creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield. But look out--if you can't pay the cost to return the card right when the creature is put into your graveyard, the card with Recover is exiled for good.
Ripple is an ability of some spells that can allow you to cast many copies of the same spell at once. When you cast a card with Ripple, you can reveal some cards from the top of your library and cast any of the revealed cards that have the same name as the spell you just cast--for free! And when you cast those spells, their Ripple abilities trigger, and you can reveal even more cards from your library to possibly ripple even more! With a bit of luck, you might just be able to cast all of your copies of the Ripple card for the price of one!
Coin Flipping Rules for flipping coins have been introduced with this update. These rules define under which circumstances flips are won or lost by particular players and when nobody wins or loses.
When flipping a coin for an effect that cares whether a player wins or loses the flip, the affected player flips the coin, and only that player wins or loses the flip; you do not win a flip if your opponent loses a flip, nor do you lose if your opponent wins. When flipping a coin for an effect that just cares about whether the coin comes up heads or tails, nobody wins or loses. If a coin is not available, any method of randomization can be used as long as it has two possible outcomes of equal likelihood and all players agree to the substitution.
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
How to cast spells without a mana cost Nonland cards that don't have a mana cost (such as Ancestral Vision ) cannot be cast in the normal way, because a nonexistent mana cost cannot be paid. (Note that a nonexistent cost is not the same thing as a cost of ; a nonexistent cost is denoted as {}, a cost of as {0}.)
To cast a spell with a nonexistent mana cost, you must find some way to circumvent the mana cost, eliminating the need to pay it, either by ignoring it entirely , or by paying some alternate cost instead of it. (The Time Spiral costless cards have a built-in way of doing this, by using Suspend.)
Echo has a cost The Echo cost of a card with Echo used to always be the same as the mana cost of the card itself. This is no longer the case. Now, a card's echo cost can be anything, and may be entirely different from the mana cost of the card with echo. All existing cards with Echo have been given appropriate errata; there have not been any functional changes, except to a few minor corner cases.
Threshold has been demoted Threshold used to be a keyword ability; it is no longer. It has been turned into an Ability Word, with no particular rules meaning; all of the rules text now appears on the cards themselves.
All cards with threshold have been given appropriate errata; there has been no functional change.
Madness has been simplified The Madness ability used to work by giving you a short window of time in which you could cast the card any time you could cast an instant; this implementation led to minor loopholes that most people were not aware of, one of which involved being able to play a land before casting the Madness spell. These loopholes have been eliminated.
Now, a card with Madness must be cast as the Madness triggered ability resolves, or not at all. There is no time between the resolution of the ability and the casting of the spell during which other actions have been taken; the casting happens as part of the ability resolving.
For more information on Madness, see its entry in the Keyword FAQ.
New State-Based Action - Reversal! A new state-based action has been introduced. It is as follows: If there are both +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters on a single permanent, they "cancel each other out", eliminating each other in pairs until only one kind remains.
This is a reversal of previous rules; previously, having both kinds of counter on a single permanent had no special effect and did not affect the counters. Note that this does not apply to any kinds of counters other than +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters; +2/+2 counters, +0/+1 counters, -1/+1 counters, and so forth are all unaffected.
New Keywords Time Spiral debuted the Flash, Split Second, and Suspend mechanics. For more information on each, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Flash is a new keyword for an old ability; you can cast a card with flash any time you can cast an instant. Old cards with this ability (as well as old cards that effectively granted it) have been given appropriate errata. There has been no significant functional change.
Split Second prevents players from casting spells or activating abilities that aren't mana abilities as long as the card with split second is on the stack. Remember, though, that once the card with split second resolves, players will once more be able to cast things. Also, split second does not stop players from activating mana abilities (activated abilities that produce mana) or from taking special actions (like turning a creature with Morph face-up).
Suspend effectively allows you to partially pay for your spells with time rather than with mana. You can pay the full cost to get the card now, or you can "suspend" the card and pay a different (usually drastically reduced) cost and get it for free some turns later. There are also spells you cannot cast normally that you must Suspend.
Mulligans in Two-Headed Giant The rules for taking mulligans in the Two-Headed Giant format have been altered. Because 2HG matches consist of only one game, each player can take one "free" mulligan, without reducing his or her hand size. After that, mulligans must follow the normal Paris Mulligan rules.
When taking mulligans, first the players on the team who will be going first decide whether or not they wish to mulligan. (Each player makes this decision individually; one player may decide to mulligan while their teammate might not. Players are allowed to consult one another before making mulliganing decisions.) Then the players on each other team in turn order do the same. Then whichever players decided to take mulligans take theirs simultaneously. This process repeats until no player wishes to take a mulligan. . A player may take a mulligan even after his or her teammate has decided to keep his or her opening hand. Note, however, that a player who has decided to keep their hand at any point cannot later decide to start taking mulligans again.
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Draw Rules The rules pertaining to drawing cards have been clarified and put into the rules themselves, instead of being defined in the Comprehensive Rules Glossary. This change was for clarification and confirmation only; it introduced no functional changes of any kind.
Minor Change to Morph and face-down cards Cards with Morph used to have a mana cost of when face-down. This is no longer the case. Now, all face-down cards have no mana cost. (Note that they still have a converted mana cost of 0.)
Face-down cards of any kind are now by default 2/2 colorless, nameless, creature-typeless creatures with no mana cost. (Though they can be other things, depending on what turned them face-down.) It used to be only permanents with Morph that were affected like this; now it applies to all permanents.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Tokens can't return to the battlefield Once a token has left the battlefield, it can never, ever return, no matter what. This rule was introduced to eliminate an unintended loophole that was created by Momentary Blink whereupon a token could be returned to the battlefield after being exiled.
New Keywords Planar Chaos debuted the Vanishing mechanic. For more information on it, see its entry in the Keyword FAQ.
Vanishing is a new keyword that works much like the old Fading mechanic. A permanent with Vanishing enters the battlefield with a certain number of time counters, and its controller removes one at the beginning of his or her upkeep. When the last counter is removed, the permanent must be sacrificed.
Note that Vanishing, while similar to Fading, is not the same. For an explanation of exactly how the two mechanics differ, as well as more information on Vanishing in general, see the Vanishing entry in the Keyword FAQ.
Dead players in multiplayer If a player leaves the game while he or she has priority, priority is passed to the next player in turn order. If a player leaves the game while it's his or her turn, the turn is finished without an active player, skipping over any times when the active player would receive priority. This rule was introduced to fix an oversight in the existing rules; no functional changes were introduced.
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Exiling exiled cards If an exiled card is somehow exiled again, it's treated as a new object, just as if it had changed zones. (It doesn't actually change zones, though.) Effects and counters that relate to its previous existence won't affect it. (See the Magic 2010 entry for an explanation of the term "exile".)
Copying spells and changing targets Some spells, like Twincast , allow a player to copy a spell and choose new targets for the copy. The new target-choosing is done as part of the action of copying; the spells are put onto the stack with the modified targets; they are not put there and then have their targets changed. This was a minor addition to fix an ambiguity in the rules.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Blocking Restrictions and Requirements - Reversal! The rules regarding blocking restrictions and requirements have been changed. Previously, blocking requirements couldn't "team up" with blocking restrictions to force creatures that weren't under a direct requirement to block to do so. This is now no longer the case; if a creature is required to attack or block and you have to do something else in addition to make it possible for the creature to do so, you have to do so if you can.
An example of a situation affected by this change:
You control a Goblin War Drums and attack with a Goblin Grappler , provoking a creature the defending player controls. Under the old rules, your opponent didn't have to block the Grapper, because the requirement couldn't force his other creatures to block. He could block if he wanted to (and if he did so, one of the creatures that blocked had to be the provoked one), but he wasn't forced to.
Under the new rules, the defending player is forced to block with both the provoked creature and some other creature(s), because the provoked creature is required to block, but can't do so on its own. He can only refuse to block if it's impossible for him to block with some other creature in addition to the provoked one. (He has no other creatures, all his other creatures are tapped, his only other creature can't block , whatever.)
Note that while you are forced to meet the terms of the restriction if it is possible for you to do so, you are not required to take separate actions that would then make it possible for you to meet the restriction. Let's take a riff off of the example above to show what I mean:
Your opponent controls a Goblin War Drums and attacks you with a Goblin Grappler , provoking the only creature you control. You have only that one creature on the battlefield, but you do have a Sacred Mesa on the battlefield and enough available mana to use its ability.
Even though your existing creature is required to block and you would need another creature to block with in order to meet the restriction, you are not required to activate the Mesa's ability and make that second creature so you can then block with it.
Characteristic-defining abilities - Reversal! Characteristic-setting abilities are now known as characteristic-defining abilities, and apply in all zones regardless of what they do. (Formerly, only CSAs that set type or color applied in all zones.) There has also been a change to the layering rules (see The Layer System) that makes it impossible for effects from Characteristic-Defining Abilities to be dependent on other effects.
This changes a number of minor interactions, notably ones involving the power and toughness of creature cards in libraries that use CDAs to set their power and/or toughness and ones involving spells and abilities that remove abilities from objects. It shouldn't come up too often otherwise.
New Card Type - Tribals Future Sight introduced a new card type: Tribals. The Tribal card type never appears on its own; it always appears on a card that has some other, non-Tribal card type. The only real function of the Tribal card type is to allow noncreature cards to have creature types. For example, Bound in Silence is a Rebel, and so can be fetched onto the battlefield by cards like Amrou Scout , even though it isn't a creature.
Keyword Actions This rules update introduced the concept of keyword actions. Just as a keyworded ability is shorthand for a longer ability, a keyword action is a simple verb used as shorthand for a more complex action. Most of the keyword actions introduced here are words you should already be familiar with; this merely codifies and generalizes the role of a keyword action for later expansion.
As of Future Sight, the existing keyword actions are:
Attach To attach one object to another, move it from where it is onto that object. You should already be familiar with this process--it's what you do when you use Auras or Equipment.
Counter To counter a spell or ability is to cancel it and put it into its owner's graveyard. This should also be familiar.
Destroy Continuing with the familiar theme, to destroy a permanent is to move it from the battlefield to the graveyard.
Regenerate Regeneration saves a permanent from being destroyed; see the Regeneration entry in the Keyword FAQ for more information. Note that regeneration can't bring a dead permanent back to life and that it can only save a permanent from being destroyed; other forms of removal will still work as normal.
Sacrifice Just like destruction, to sacrifice a permanent, move it from the battlefield to its owner's graveyard. You cannot sacrifice something that isn't a permanent or that you do not control.
Tap Last of the old guard keyword actions, to tap a permanent is to turn it sideways.
Scry Scry is a regular keyword from Fifth Dawn that was revamped as a keyword action for Future Sight. To Scry {N}, look at the top N cards of your library, put any number of them on the bottom in any order, then put the rest on top in any order. For more information on scrying, see its Keyword FAQ entry.
Fateseal New for Future Sight, Fateseal is a version of scry performed on your opponent's library instead of your own. To Fateseal {N}, look at the top N cards of an opponent's library, put any number of them on the bottom in any order, then put the rest on top in any order. If you have more than one opponent, you can do it to any of them. For more information on fatesealing, see its Keyword FAQ entry.
Fortifications Fortifications are a new artifact type similar to Equipment, only for your lands instead of your creatures. The rules for fortifications are exactly the same as the rules for Equipment, and they use the Fortify keyword (see the section on new keywords below) the same way artifacts use the Equip keyword.
New Keywords - Reversal! Future Sight debuted the a large number of new mechanics. For more information on any of them, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Lifelink, Reach, and Shroud are new keywords for familiar abilities; Whenever a creature with lifelink deals damage, its controller gains that much life; possession of reach (sometimes colloquially known as "web" or "the spider ability") allows a creature to block creatures with flying; and things with shroud can't be the target of spells or abilities.
Note that cards with the original version of Lifelink (a triggered ability reading "whenever {this} deals damage, you gain that much life") do not have the keyworded version of lifelink; they originally received errata to have it, but Wizards wanted to change the way they keyword functioned and reversed that errata so that they wouldn't have a ton of cards working quite differently from the way they said they worked. For a full explanation of how lifelink currently works, see its Keyword FAQ entry.
Note also that the introduction of reach reverses the rulings on a few blocking situations. Previously, creatures with this ability blocked "as though they had flying", which meant they could not block creatures such as Gnat Alley Creeper , but could block creatures like Treetop Scout . However, reach is incorporated into the rules for flying rather than making the creature block as though it had flying, so it reverses this situation. Creatures with reach can block Gnat Alley Creeper , and cannot block Treetop Scout .
Be aware of these changes.
Absorb is an ability that prevents damage. If something would deal damage to a creature with Absorb N, N of that damage is prevented. Note that multiple instances of Absorb on a single permanent are cumulative.
Aura Swap is an activated ability that allows you to exchange an Aura you control for an Aura in your hand. Note that the actions of putting the Aura with Aura Swap into your hand and putting the Aura from your hand onto the battlefield attached to whatever the original Aura was enchanting are simultaneous. The exchange is canceled if both parts of it can't be performed, for whatever reason, either because the Aura in your hand can't be attached to the permanent, or the Aura on the battlefield is no longer around or can't be returned to your hand.
Deathtouch is a modification of the class of abilities generally known collectively as "the basilisk ability". If something with deathtouch deals damage to a creature, that creature is destroyed as a state-based action. (Deathtouch originally was worded as a triggered ability, but was changed later on to function more intuitively.) Note that this exact ability wasn't errata'd onto any existing cards, as the exact variant it described hadn't appeared in this form before.
Delve is a cost-reduction ability that allows you to exile cards from your graveyard in order to reduce the cost of your spells. When casting a spell with Delve, each card in your graveyard that you exile reduces the colorless portion of your spell's cost by .
Fortify appears on Fortification cards, which function exactly the same way Equipment does, only for lands instead of creatures. Fortify is to a Fortification as the Equip ability is to an Equipment.
Frenzy is a creature combat ability; whenever a creature with frenzy N attacks and isn't blocked, it gets +N/+0 until end of turn.
Gravestorm is a spell-copying mechanic similar to Storm. When you cast a spell with gravestorm, you get a copy of it for each permanent that was put into a graveyard from the battlefield during the current turn. Note that gravestorm only counts permanents (ie, cards or tokens on the battlefield) that were put into graveyards. Cards being put into a graveyard from somewhere other than the battlefield will not provide you with additional gravestorm copies.
Poisonous is a triggered ability; whenever a creature with poisonous N deals combat damage to a player, that player gets N poison counters. (If a player has 10 or more poison counters, he or she loses the game, much as he or she would if he or she had 0 life.)
Transfigure is an activated ability similar to Transmute, only it is used while the card it is on is on the battlefield. To transfigure a permanent, pay the transfigure cost and sacrifice it, then search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as that permanent and put it onto the battlefield. You can only transfigure a permanent during a main phase of your turn, and only when the stack is empty.
Life Totals in Two-Headed Giant The official starting life total in Two-Headed Giant games is now 30 instead of 40, and the team who goes first now skips their entire draw step during their first turn.
Subtypes The list of legal creature and artifact types have been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature and artifact types, see this post. (See the entry for Fortifications above; as of now, no rules are attached to the Contraption type.)
Hidden Triggers As of this rules update, if an object has a triggered ability, that ability can't trigger unless that object is visible to all players at the time it would do so.
Players with abilities Players can now have abilities the same as cards; so far, players have been given protection and shroud.
Landcycling The landcycling ability has been expanded into typecycling, letting you cycle not only for cards with land types, but for cards with any kind of subtype. If you can find a card that does it, of course.
Mana Abilities The definition of a mana ability has changed; now, abilities that target cannot be mana abilities. See the FAQ entry on Targets and Targeting for a definition of what does and does not target.
Playing Lands You can now never play a land during some other player's turn, even if something would seem to allow you to do so.
New Sections There are now sections of the rules specifically dealing with life and with costs. The section on numbers has also been clarified. These new rules don't introduce any functional changes. The other new section, Keyword Actions, was covered above.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Multiplayer Mulligans All multiplayer formats now incorporate a "free" mulligan. The first time a player mulligans, he or she draws seven cards rather than six. After that initial mulligan, things return to normal, with each subsequent mulligan consisting of one fewer card than the one prior to it.
Spell Copies The rules now specify that the owner of a copy of a spell is the player under whose control it was put on the stack.
Subgames The rules for subgames have been altered as of Tenth Edition as part of a general cleanup effort to clarify some odd interactions. The most important changes are that all cards in the subgame, in any zone, are shuffled into their respective owner's library when the subgame ends and the main game resumes.
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Abilities Previously, the rules didn't specify exactly what happened to abilities after they finished resolving. Now they do. This causes no functional changes.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Planeswalkers - New Card Type! Planeswalkers are a completely new card type. You may cast a planeswalker the same way you cast any other noninstant spell--during your main phase when the stack is empty and you have priority. When a planeswalker spell resolves, the planeswalker enters the battlefield the same way any other permanent spell would, with a number of loyalty counters on it equal to its loyalty number (found in the bottom right-hand corner of the card). If at any time a planeswalker has 0 loyalty counters on it, it's put into its owner's graveyard as a state-based action. If there are ever two or more planeswalkers on the battlefield with the same planeswalker type (listed after the dash on the type line), all of them are put into their owner's graveyard as a state-based action.
A planeswalker's activated abilities have a cost relating to loyalty counters. A positive cost (+1, +2, etc.) means "put [that many] loyalty counters on this permanent." A negative cost (-2, -10, -X, etc.) means "remove [that many] loyalty counters from this permanent." You may only activate these 'loyalty abilities' any time you could cast a sorcery (during your main phase when the stack is empty and you have priority), and you may only activate one loyalty ability of any given permanent each turn.
Planeswalkers cannot attack or block like creatures, but they can be attacked the same way that players can be. An attacking player chooses whether each of his attacking creatures attack either the defending player or any planeswalker(s) that player controls. (He can have some of his creatures attack the planeswalker(s) while others attack the player, if he likes.) A defending player may block creatures that are attacking a planeswalker he or she controls as normal. Creatures that are attacking a planeswalker will deal damage to the planeswalker the same way they would to a player--just like a player, the planeswalker won't deal any damage to those creatures in return. A planeswalker who is dealt damage has that many loyalty counters removed from him or her, the same way that a player who is dealt damage loses life.
While they are similar, planeswalkers are not players, and cannot be targeted by things which target players. However, if a spell or ability an opponent controls would deal damage to a you, that spell or ability's controller may have that source deal (all of) that damage to any planeswalker you control instead. Again, a planeswalker who is dealt damage has that many loyalty counters removed from him or her. (Only opponents can do this; you can't redirect damage from your own things this way.)
Keyword Abilities and Actions Lorwyn introduced a number of new keywords; for more information on any of them, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Clash is a keyword action; to clash is to reveal the top card of your library. You may then put that card on the top or the bottom of your library. To clash with another player, each of you clash. A player wins a clash if he or she revealed a card with a higher converted mana cost than any other card revealed during that clash. (If there's a tie, no player wins.)
Champion is a keyword ability. When a permanent with "champion a {something}" enters the battlefield, you must sacrifice it unless you exile a {something} you control. When the permanent with champion leaves the battlefield, you return the championed permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control.
Changeling is a keyworded characteristic-defining ability. A creature with changeling is all creature types, no matter what zone it's in.
Evoke is a keyword that allows you to cast a permanent spell for a significantly reduced cost. If you choose to do so, you must sacrifice the permanent when it enters the battlefield. (All cards with evoke have abilities that trigger on either entering or leaving the battlefield, which means you'll often want to use evoke to get the ability right away, even though it means you won't keep the creature.)
Hideaway is a keyword that allows you to "hide away" a card for later use. A permanent with hideaway enters the battlefield tapped; when it does so, you look at the top four cards of your library, exile one of them face down, and put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. As long as that card remains exiled, it can be looked at by any player who has controlled the permanent with hideaway that exiled it. (Other abilities of the hideaway permanent will allow you to play it at a later time.)
Planeswalker Types Planeswalkers also have a set of subtypes, called planeswalker types. For a full list of currently existing planeswalker types, see this post.
Winning in Multiplayer In a multiplayer game using the Limited Range of Influence option, an effect that would cause you to win the game instead causes all of your opponents within your Range of Influence to lose the game.
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Control The rules now explicitly state that the controller of a delayed triggered ability is the player who controlled the effect that created it.
Mana Symbols {Y} and {Z} are no longer supported mana symbols.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Enters the Battlefield - Reversal! There's been a change to the specifics of the rules regarding the specifics of how to determine which replacement effects will apply to an object as it enters the battlefield. (For things that affect how something enters the battlefield, such as Loxodon Gatekeeper , Karstoderm , Bramblewood Paragon , and so on.)
To determine how an object enters the battlefield, apply any effects from the permanent's own abilities that apply solely to itself (as opposed to a general set of things that could include itself) and any one-shot effects from things like Magical Hack or Moonlace that altered it when it was a spell, then apply the applicable replacement effects one by one in the normal way.
Keyword Abilities Morningtide introduced two new keywords; for more information on either of them, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Prowl is an ability that lets you pay a special cost to cast your spells if a creature you control of a certain type has dealt combat damage to one of your opponents this turn. Some prowl costs just let you cast your spells cheaper than normal; some may be more expensive, but allow your spell to have awesome additional effects it wouldn't have if you cast it for the normal cost.
Reinforce is an activated ability that allows you to discard a card in your hand to put some number of +1/+1 counters on a creature on the battlefield. Extra cards in your hand you can't use? Use them to make your creatures stronger!
Auras Entering the Battlefield - Reversal! Previously, if an Aura was entering the battlefield directly through some method other than being cast normally, the person putting it onto the battlefield decided what it should enchant as it enters the battlefield. This led to strange situations where some person other than the Aura's controller was putting the Aura onto the battlefield, so they got to decide what the Aura would enchant even though someone else was the controller. This has been reversed. Now, if an Aura is entering the battlefield directly, it's the to-be controller of the Aura that decides what it will be enchanting.
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Clarifications A number of minor clarifications to the rules have been introduced with this update; these changes cause no functional differences, simply codifying existing rulings into the rules, but you may wish to be aware of them.
If two players are to perform an action simultaneously, they make any choices relevant to the action in APNAP order first (meaning the later players know the choices of the earlier players), then the actions are performed simultaneously. For example, if Innocent Blood resolves, first the active player decides which creature to sacrifice, then each other player does in turn order, and then the creatures are sacrificed simultaneously. This caused a bit of confusion with things like Stronghold Rats that asked for choices to be made from hidden zones. This update clarifies that while the opponent may know that "that card" ("the one three from the right", "the one I am holding in my other hand") is going to be the one that will be discarded, the actual identity (the name, card type, etc.) of "that card" is hidden information, so the player won't know that when making his choice. (Unless he has a Telepathy on the battlefield...)
The rules state that effects that edited the characteristics of a spell continue to apply to the permanent the spell creates--this was never meant to include effects from static abilities, so that has been clarified.
An ambiguity in the previous wording of one of the rules, when taken literally, implied that the game would never proceed beyond the untap step of the first turn. This has been corrected.
The procedure of how one declares attackers and blockers has been clarified in order to make the intended interactions with Master Warcraft clearer.
The phrase "its characteristics" has been removed from rules regarding last known information, in order to remove the implication that characteristics were the only things covered by last known information.
The definition of costs has been expanded to include costs paid in order to prevent something from happening.
The rules for choosing card names have been clarified with respect to split and flip cards. If a player wishes to name a split card, both halves of the card must be named, and a card is considered to have the same name if it has the name of either half. If a player wishes to name the flipped half of a flip card, he or she may do so.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Monocolor Hybrids Shadowmoor introduced a series of new mana symbols, known as the monocolor hybrid symbols. These symbols are , , , , and . These symbols appear only in costs and denote a cost that can be paid with either two mana of any color or colorless mana, or with one mana of the appropriate color. For example, Beseech the Queen , with a cost of , can be cast for , , , or .
If something would reduce a cost or add mana to your mana pool in an amount designated by a hybrid mana symbol, you pick one of the two halves for it to work based on.
For the purposes of converted mana cost, a monocolor hybrid symbol always counts as being the largest amount it can be paid for. So the converted mana cost of a card that costs would be 2.
The Untap Symbol Also introduced in Shadowmoor was the untap symbol, . This symbol works exactly like the tap symbol you already know and love (), only it means you untap things instead of tapping them. An ability with in its costs is affected by Summoning Sickness the same way that one with in its costs is, and a creature that's already untapped can't use a ability, because it's already untapped and thus can't be untapped to pay the cost.
Keyword Abilities Shadowmoor introduced three new keywords; for more information on any of them, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Conspire is a mechanic that allows you to tap your creatures to create an additional copy of your spells. When casting a spell with conspire, you may tap two creatures that share a color with that spell. If you do, you get an extra copy of that spell to do with as you please. You can't do this more than once per conspire ability, though.
Persist is an ability that allows creatures to survive being killed off...once. If a creature with persist is put into a graveyard from the battlefield and it doesn't have any -1/-1 counters on it, it's returned to the battlefieldfield with a -1/-1 counter on it. (If it dies again, it won't come back because it had a -1/-1 counter on it...unless, of course, you found a way to remove the counter...)
Wither is an ability that changes what damage does to creatures. If a source that has wither deals damage to a creature, that damage is dealt in the form of -1/-1 counters. That means, among other things, that it won't be removed like regular damage at end of turn, turning combat into a war of attrition.
Characteristic-Defining Abilities Previously, abilities that inherently defined one of an object's characteristics, such as Ancestral Vision 's color-defining ability or Maro 's P/T-defining ability, functioned "in all zones". This wording had some unintended loopholes, so it has been expanded so that such abilities function everywhere, even outside the game. So now you can finally Glittering Wish for Transguild Courier .
"Can't Gain Life" If something says a player can't gain life, they can't pay costs that require them to gain life, and can't exchange life totals with a player that has a higher life total than they do--if such an exchange tries to occur, it will do nothing. (Note that saying a player can't gain life isn't the same as saying "If they would gain life, they gain no life instead.")
Life Payment in Two-Headed Giant Life payment in the two-headed giant format was a bit ambigious, so the matter has been clarified; if you are asked to pay life in two-headed giant, you may pay any amount up to and including the life total you share with your teammate.
Prevent + Replace If an effect wants to prevent damage and then do something based on that, the prevention happens first, and then whatever else the effect is trying to do.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
New Keyword Eventide introduced the new keyword Retrace; for more information it, see its entry in the Keyword FAQ.
Retrace is a keyword ability that allows you to cast spells from your graveyard. You can cast any card with retrace directly from your graveyard the same way you could if it was in your hand, as long as you discard a land card from your hand in addition to paying the card's normal mana cost. Retrace is similar to Flashback, except that unlike Flashback, it doesn't exile the card afterwards--a spell you retrace goes right back to your graveyard once it's done resolving, ready to be retraced again and again and again.
Linked Abilities This rules update expanded the role of so-called "linked abilities" in the rules. While this does introduce certain functional changes, they're all extremely minor, involving the kind of farfetched scenarios that normal players never encounter but rules gurus love to debate about.
The different kinds of linked abilities are as follows:
An activated or triggered ability that exiles some number of cards, and another ability that refers to "the exiled cards" or to cards "exiled with [this]" (eg. Synod Sanctum , Bottled Cloister )
An ability that creates a replacement effect that causes some number of cards to be exiled, and as above, another ability that refers to " the exiled cards" or to cards "exiled with [this]" (eg. Uba Mask , Shared Fate )
An ability that puts one or more objects onto the battlefield, and another ability that refers to objects "put onto the battlefield with [this]". (eg. Saproling Burst , Dual Nature )
An ability that causes a player to "choose a [value] or "name a card" and another ability that refers to "the chosen [value]," "the last chosen [value]," or "the named card". (eg. Meddling Mage , Ashling's Prerogative )
"Linked" abilities, as their name implies, are intristically linked; the things referred to in the second ability can only refer to the things brought about by the first half of the ability. If something manages to gain a pair of linked abilities at the same time, then that pair will be linked to each other as well; they can't be linked to any other ability. (So to give an example, if you exile some cards with Arc-Slogger , then somehow give it the abilities from a Synod Sanctum , you can't use the ability from the Sanctum to return the cards you exiled with the Slogger ability, because it's not linked to the Sanctum ability that returns the cards.)
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Resolving A minor change was made to the rules with this update to cover a weird corner case involving Worms of the Earth , Clone , and Dryad Arbor --if a permanent spell is resolving, but for some reason the permanent cannot actually enter the battlefield, it is put into its owner's graveyard.
Clarifications A few small clarifications were made to the rules with this update; these changes cause no functional changes, simply codifying existing rulings into the rules, but you may wish to be aware of them.
The rules now explicitly define what it means to 'place' a counter on something. Putting a counter on a permanent already on the battlefield counts as 'placing' a counter on that permanent, but a permanent that enters the battlefield with counters also counts as having those counters 'placed' on it.
Previously there was a small miswording in one rule that implied that you could not pay 0 life if your life total was negative; this has been corrected. It's always possible for a player to pay 0 life.
An oversight with the rules for timestamps has been corrected; the rules previously handled how to order timestamps for multiple permanents entering the battlefield at once, but overlooked other possible ways for two effects to have the same timestamp. This has been corrected; now, if two effects would have the same timestamp, the active player chooses their timestamp order.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
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