Draw Step Drawing a card during your draw step used to be a triggered ability that went onto the stack at the beginning of your upkeep. It is now a turn-based action instead. You can no longer do anything during your draw step before you draw your card for the turn; if you wish to do something before you draw a card, you must do it during your upkeep.
Retaining Card Types Previously, there were some confusing interactions with effects that changed a card's card type, generally by turning it into a creature. These interactions have been simplified; anything that implies that the card retains at least one previous card type (such as land-animation spells that say "it's still a land" or spells that say an artifact "becomes an artifact creature") now retains all of its other former card types as well.
Land Types Land types now work the same way creature types do; a land has all the subtypes that are listed on its type line, and if it doesn't have any listed, it doesn't have any at all. (Previously, a nonbasic land's type was the same as its name.)
Supertypes This update introduced the concept of supertypes, additional types listed before a card's card type(s) that mark it as being subject to special rules. "Legendary", for example, is now a supertype, rather than simply a quality. The supertype "basic" was also introduced for use on basic lands.
"Characteristic-Setting Text" and "Spell Text" All text on a card that is not reminder text or flavor text is now an ability. Formerly, there were certain kinds of text that were not considered abilities--the instructions on an instant or sorcery spell or text that defined a characteristic of the permanent. This is no longer the case; the former are "Spell abilities" and the latter are "Characteristic-defining abilities".
Simultaneous Actions If two or more players have to perform actions simultaneously, first, the active player makes all decisions relevant to the action, then the next player in turn order, and so on, until all players have made their decision. (Players can't change their decisions based on what a player who decides later chooses.) Then the actions are performed simultaneously.
Declare Attackers Step During the declare attackers step in combat, if no creatures were declared as attackers, the game formerly skipped the rest of the declare attackers step along with all the other steps until the end of combat step. Now, the declare attackers step continues and finishes as normal, regardless of how many attacking creatures are declared. The game still skips over the declare blockers and combat damage steps if no attackers are declared, however.
Separate Zones Formerly, all zones except the stack and the battlefield were separate for each player; each player has his or her own exile zone, and so on. Now, only players' libraries, hands, and graveyards are separate. All other zones are shared by all players. (See the Magic 2010 entry for an explanation of the terms "battlefield" and "exile".)
Basic Land Type-changing - Reversal! Previously, changing a land to one of the basic land types changed its name and removed 'legendary status'. This is no longer the case; turning a land into a land of one of the basic land types won't change its name or supertypes, only its subtypes and abilities.
Enchanting a Player Auras ("Enchant {foo}" cards--see the Ninth Edition entry, under Enchant --> Auras) can now enchant players, if the card allows it.
Clarifications A number of small clarifications were made during this update; again, this section can be ignored if you weren't intimately familiar with the rules as they were before this update.
Many terms that were formerly only defined in the Glossary can now be found within the confines of the rules themselves.
The card types of a spell used to be referred to as 'spell types'. No longer. (Spell types are something else now; see the heading 'Subtypes' in the Champions entry.)
Formerly, if you activated an ability, it would put what was called a "pseudospell" on the stack. This rule has been eliminated; now abilities go on the stack themselves. Abilities are now also a characteristic in and of themselves, independent of rules text.
Subgames now have their own set of rules telling you how to run them. No functional changes were caused by this, but it's nice to have.
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
Equipment A brand-new kind of artifact, Equipment represent weapons, armor, and tools you can use give to your creature in order to enhance them in some fashion, much the same way positive Auras (see the Ninth Edition entry) do. When an Equipment spell resolves, it enters the battlefield (see the Magic 2010 entry) like a regular artifact. You can then use the artifact's Equip ability to attach it to a target creature you control any time you could cast a sorcery. (During your main phase, when the stack is empty.) And the best part is, if something happens to the creature, the Equipment just "falls off" and sticks around so you can use it again on another creature.
Equipment can't be attached to anything that isn't a creature or anything that has protection from it, and an Equipment that is also a creature can't be attached to anything at all. If that happens somehow, the Equipment falls off, but remains on the battlefield.
Artifact Lands Mirrodin also introduced a cycle of five Artifact Lands, which are exactly what they sound like: lands that are also artifacts. Artifact Lands are played just like regular lands (you can't cast them as a spell like you can regular artifacts) and count towards your one-land-per-turn limit. As they are artifacts, they'll power up your Broodstar s and other artifact-friendly cards, but the drawback is that they're vulnerable to your opponent's artifact-destruction spells .
New Keywords Mirrodin introduced Magic players to four new keywords: Affinity, Entwine, Equip, and Imprint. For more information on any of these keywords, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Affinity makes your spells cheaper if you control cards of a certain type or subtype. The more of the appropriate permanents you control, the cheaper your spells are! Be aware, though, that Affinity can't reduce colored portions of a mana cost.
Ever been stuck with choosing just one effect of a modal spell when you really wanted both? Entwine solves that problem for you! When casting a modal spell with Entwine, you can pay a small additional cost and get both effects, rather than just one. Even better, many spells with entwine have modes that combine to give you an effect that neither half can do alone.
Equip abilities are found on Equipment (see above); they're what let you attach your Equipment to your creatures. Any time you could cast a sorcery (meaning during your main phase, when the stack is empty), you can pay the Equip cost of an artifact you control to attach that Equipment to a target creature you control. You can do this even if the Equipment is already attached to a different creature. You can't just pay the Equip ability in order to unattach it from a creature, though; you have to choose a new creature to attach it to.
Imprint is an ability word--imprint abilities allow you to customize your cards to do what you want. A card with an imprint ability will exile some other card, and then use some other ability does different things based on the properties of the card you exiled; it may protect you from cards with the same color as the imprinted card, for example, or simply allow you to create duplicates of the imprinted card at will. (See the Magic 2010 entry for an explanation of the term "exile".)
Controlling Players The card Mindslaver allows you to gain control of your opponent during his or her next turn. Controlling another player means that you can see all the cards they can see (their hand, their face-down cards, everything) and make all the game-related decisions that they would normally make--what to attack with, what spells and abilities to use and how you use them, everything. You can't cause them to do anything they wouldn't normally be able to choose to do themselves, but other than that, the only exception is that you can't force your opponent to concede, nor can you stop them from conceding.
Subtypes Artifacts can now have subtypes (called "artifact types"), just like lands have land types and creatures have creature types. For a full list of currently existing artifact types, see this post.
New State-Based Action A new state-based action has been created to go along with the addition of Equipment: if an Equipment is attached to an illegal or nonexistent permanent, it "falls off" of that permanent, but remains on the battlefield.
Layering System A slight change occured with this update in the layering system that deals with applying continuous effects; now, characteristic-defining abilities (that is, abilities that define the characteristic values for the card they're on) apply before any other abilities in each individual layer.
Casting During Resolution The rules have now been expanded to allow spells and abilities to give you the ability to cast/activate other spells and abilities during their resolution. The spell or ability is cast/activated during the resolution of the first spell or ability, before it leaves the stack. Normal timing restrictions do not apply, so any spell may be cast this way, though the spell/ability you're resolving may restrict what you can cast.
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
Indestructibility Darksteel introduced the concept of permanents that are indestructible; they simply can't be destroyed. Any effect that tries to "destroy" an indestructible permanent will fail to do so, and creatures that are indestructible can't be killed by lethal damage (because lethal damage tries to destroy the creature). Note, however, that there are a number of forms of removal that don't involve actually destroying the permanent, and all of those will still work. Only effects that try to destroy the permanent will be stopped.
New Keywords Darksteel introduced one new keyword: Modular. For more information on Modular or any other keyword, see the appropriate entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Modular allows the parts to be as strong as the whole. Artifact creatures with Modular enter the battlefield with a certain number of +1/+1 counters, and when they die, you may put all of their +1/+1 counters onto any other artifact creature you wish, even ones that the creature only received later. The more of your creatures your opponent kills, the stronger the rest of your creatures get! (See the Magic 2010 entry for an explanation of the term "battlefield".)
Creature Types This rules update introduced a list of all official creature types within the Comprehensive Rules Glossary. To see the full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
New State-Based Action Copies of cards in zones other than the battlefield or the stack now cease to exist as a state-based action. This rule was introduced to clear up a minor rules loophole accidentally introduced by the creation of some of the imprint cards.
Drawing from an Empty Library The state-based action that kills a player who has tried to draw cards from an empty library now only does so if the action was taken since the last time state-based actions were checked, rather than at any time previously. This change was made to correct an unintuitive interaction introduced by the creation of Platinum Angel .
Continuous Effects If a continuous effect with multiple different effects would be applied in more than one layer, the respective parts are applied in each layer separately, rather than all together in what may or may not be an appropriate layer.
Aura Creatures This rules update closed a minor corner-case loophole by specifying that an Aura (see the Ninth Edition entry) that's also a creature can't be attached to a permanent.
Undefined Mana If an ability would produce mana of an undefined type, it produces no mana instead.
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 Keywords Fifth Dawn introduced two new keywords: Scry and Sunburst. For more information on either of these keywords, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Scrying allows you to improve the quality of your draws and find you what you need. To scry, look at the top few cards of your library (the card will tell you exact number of cards to scry). You can put any number of those cards on the bottom of your library. Then, put the remaining cards back on top of your library in any order you wish.
Sunburst allows you to make your permanents more powerful by spending more colors of mana to cast them. When you cast a permanent spell with Sunburst, it enters the battlefield with a counter on it for each different color of mana you spent to cast it; creatures get +1/+1 counters, and noncreatures get charge counters. (The card will have an ability that makes use of the charge counters.) Remember, you can't decide to spend extra mana to cast a spell if the cost isn't high enough to let you, and you can only get a maximum of five counters, because only five different colors of mana exist.
Expansion of the Golden Rule Previously, the so-called 'Golden Rule' (if the rules and the cards are in direct conflict, the cards win) didn't apply to a number of rules that were concerned with deck construction and the process of starting the game. This has now changed; currently, the only rule that the cards can't override is that a player may always concede the game at any time, regardless of what the cards say.
Mana Abilities During Announcement Previously, you could activate mana abilities (see this post for an explanation of what mana abilities are) during the announcement of any spell or activated ability, even if that spell or ability didn't require a mana payment to cast/activate. This loophole has now been closed; you may now only activate mana abilities during announcement if a mana payment of some kind is required.
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Tokens, Lands, and Mana Costs Previously, tokens and lands couldn't have a mana cost. This has been changed; now, any token or land may have a mana cost if it is specified that they do.
"Type" of Mana This rules update clarified that the "type" of an amount of mana only refers to its color, or lack thereof; it doesn't include any restrictions or special properties that may be associated with the mana.
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
Changes For:Champions of Kamigawa Previous Set:Fifth Dawn
Legends are no more! - Major! The Legend creature type no longer exists; it has been replaced with the supertype "legendary". All creatures that used to be "Creature - [Whatever] Legend"s are now "Legendary Creature - [Whatever]"s. Check the card's Oracle Text (listed in Gatherer) to see its current creature types.
Change to the Legend Rule - Reversal! The Legend Rule has been changed. It used to be that if two or more legends or legendary permanents with the same name were on the battlefield (See the Magic 2010 entry), all except the one that had been on the battlefield the longest was put into their owner's graveyard. This is no longer the case. Now, if two or more legendary permanents with the same name are on the battlefield, all of them are put into their owner's graveyard. It no longer matters when any of them entered the battlefield; all of them die regardless. This happens before any player can take any action.
Walls The Wall creature type no longer has any inherent rules attached to it; being a Wall no longer affects whether or not a creature can attack. All existing Walls have received errata to have a new keyword ability called Defender instead, which means simply, "This creature can't attack." Changing a creature into a Wall no longer bars it from attacking, and changing a Wall with Defender into a non-Wall creature does not remove the Defender ability.
Targeting - Reversal! Previously, the same spell or ability could only target a given object or player once, no matter what. This rule has been changed. A spell or ability may now only target a given object/player once for each instance of the word "target" in its rules text. For example, the spell Early Frost has only one instance of the word "target"; thus, you cannot choose the same land to be all three potential targets. On the other hand, the spell Decimate uses the word "target" four times; if there is a permanent on the battlefield that is both an artifact and a creature, you may choose it as both the "target artifact" and "target creature" of the spell, since those are two different instances of the word "target".
Note that some spells deliberately stop you from choosing the same object for two different instances of the word "target" using the words "...another target [whatever]..."
This rule was made to allow cards with the Splice ability of Champions of Kamigawa work intuitively. It has since been used to clear up the wording of cards such as Bounty of the Hunt and to create cards such as Seeds of Strength .
New Keywords Champions of Kamigawa introduced no less than five keywords, though two of them are simply new keywords for old abilities: Bushido, Defender, Splice, Soulshift, and Vigilance. For more information on any of these keywords, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Bushido is an ability that makes your creatures stronger when they're fighting other creatures. When your Bushido X creature blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the Bushido number. Note that your creature only gets the bonus once, no matter how many creatures it's blocking or are blocking it.
Defender simply means "This creature can't attack." With the elimination of the rules baggage that used to be attached to the Wall creature type (see above), something was needed to replace it, so Defender was created and errata'd onto all the cards that were printed as Walls. Note that changing something into a Wall won't give it defender, and changing a Wall with defender into something else won't remove defender.
Splice is an ability that you can use to combine a whole bunch of small spells into a few much bigger, more powerful ones. As you're casting an Arcane spell, you may reveal any number of cards with "Splice onto Arcane" from your hand, and pay their splice costs in addition to the mana cost of the original spell. If you do, you add on all of those spliced spells' effects onto the spell you were casting. And the best part is you keep all those splice cards in your hand to do it again with the next spell!
Soulshift is an ability that allows you to return your dead Spirits from your graveyard to your hand. When a creature with Soulshift X is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, you may return a target Spirit creature card with converted mana cost equal to X or less from your graveyard to your hand. If you build your deck right, you can make daisy-chains of Spirits. Each new Spirit represents not just one threat, but all of the others your opponents thought they had already gotten rid of, too!
Vigilance is a new keyword for the old ability "Attacking doesn't cause this creature to tap." It still works exactly the same, but now it's a keyword instead.
Flip Cards Champions of Kamigawa introduced "flip cards ", cards that are one thing, and then "flip" to become something entirely different when some condition is met. When unflipped and in all places other than the battlefield (See the Magic 2010 entry), a card only has its "unflipped" characteristics. It is only when a permanent is on the battlefield and has been flipped that it gains its flip characteristics. These characteristics override the "normal" characteristics of the card; the normal characteristics don't exist as long as the permanent is flipped.
Ending the Turn The card Time Stop introduces the concept of ending the turn. To do so, exile all spells and abilities that are currently on the stack (See the Magic 2010 entry), and the game skips directly to the Cleanup step, skipping everything else. The active player discards down to his or her maximum hand size and all "until end of turn" and "this turn" effects end. "At the beginning of the end step" effects do not trigger (because the game skips over the end step).
Subtypes Instants, Sorceries, and Enchantments may now have subtypes in the same way that creatures, lands, and artifacts do. Enchantment types are unique to enchantments. Instants and sorceries may share subtypes; such shared subtypes are called "spell types". Champions of Kamigawa introduced the first spell type (Arcane) and the first enchantment type (Shrine). See this post for a full listing of currently existing subtypes.
Supertypes Two new supertypes have been created, to consolidate similar ideas that previously used different implementations: "Snow-covered" (Now just "Snow"; see the Coldsnap entry) and "World".
"Snow" is a marker supertype with no inherent rules baggage.
"World" means that a permanent is subject to the "world rule": If two or more world permanents are on the battlefield, all except the one that has been on the battlefield the shortest period of time is put into its owner's graveyard. (Note that while similar, this is not the same as the legend rule.) The only existing world permanents are the old "Enchant World" cards from the early years of Magic.
Creature Types Legend is no longer a creature type; all creatures that used to possess it have received errata to be Legendary instead. (See above.) The list of legal creature types has also been changed in other ways. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Auras and leaving the battlefield Auras (see the Ninth Edition entry) that trigger on their enchanted permanents leaving the battlefield could always track and locate those cards in the graveyard. Now, they can do the same with themselves; if an Aura triggers on its enchanted permanent leaving the battlefield, the Aura can track itself to the graveyard and do things with itself there. This rule was introduced as clarification only to fix an oversight in the rules; no functional changes were introduced.
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
Changes For:Betrayers of Kamigawa Previous Set:Champions of Kamigawa
Drawing while Casting - Reversal! Some effects can potentially cause you to draw cards while someone is in the process of casting a spell or activating an ability. If this happens, the drawn card(s) are kept face-down until the spell or ability has finished being cast/activated. This is to prevent you from potentially gaining additional information during the process of casting/activating spells or abilities that may influence your will to continue doing so.
New Keywords Introduced in Betrayers of Kamigawa were the Ninjutsu and Offering abilities. For more information on these keywords, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Ninjutsu is a tricky ability that you can use to exchange unblocked attacking creatures on the battlefield for a surprise creature from your hand. To use a Ninjutsu ability, you must return an unblocked attacking creature you control to its owner's hand and pay the Ninjutsu cost. You then put the Ninjutsu creature onto the battlefield from your hand, already tapped, attacking, and best of all, unblocked, ready to strike your opponent upside the head and do all sorts of nasty things to him. Note that attacking creatures are only considered "unblocked" once the defending player has decided how to block, so no Ninjutsuing out creatures before your opponent can block.
Offering is an ability that lets you cast big, expensive creatures much cheaper by sacrificing other ones with particular creature types. You can cast a creature with "[Random Creature Type] offering" any time you could cast an instant if you sacrifice a creature of [Random Creature Type] as part of the cost to do so, and best of all, the cost you need to pay is reduced by the mana cost of the creature you sacrificed! Remember, though, you can only sacrifice one creature to cast an Offering creature.
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Sunburst - Reversal! The rules for Sunburst have been altered slightly. Sunburst now determines what kind of counter (+1/+1 or charge) the permanent will receive as it enters the battlefield using the characteristics of the card as it exists as it enters the battlefield, rather than as it existed on the stack. This ensures that copy cards such as Sculpting Steel that copy cards with Sunburst will get the appropriate kind of counter.
Note that this does not take into consideration abilities that may apply to the card once it actually does enter the battlefield.
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
Changes For:Saviors of Kamigawa / Ninth Edition Previous Set:Betrayers of Kamigawa
MultiplayerRules - Major! This rules update brought along with it a set of official rules for multiplayer games, and the alteration of the appropriate existing rules to accomodate such games. While there's too much information to go into detail here, the topics covered include general multiplayer issues as well as the major, officially-supported variants (Free-for-All, Two-Headed Giant, Emperor, Grand Melee, and Teams) and several sets of optional play rules (Limited Range of Influence, Attack Multiple Players, Deploy Creatures, and Attack Left/Right). Be aware that as these rules are still relatively new, there may be accidental oversights and omissions within them. If you have a question about the multiplayer rules, don't be afraid to ask in Rules Q&A.
The various supported options are:
Limited Range of Influence Basically, players can't affect anyone outside of their "range of influence", nor can they affect things controlled by players outside their range of influence. A player's range of influence is a number defining how many players on either side his or her range of influence includes.
Attack Multiple Players In normal multiplayer, a player can only choose one player at a time to attack. This variant allows exactly what it sounds like it does; this constraint no longer applies, and players can attack multiple opponents at once with different sets of creatures.
Deploy Creatures Creatures each player controls have ": Target teammate gains control of this creature."
Attack Left/Right Creatures can only attack the players sitting directly on the left and/or right of their controller.
The supported variants are:
Free-for-All This is what many consider to be "traditional" multiplayer. It's pretty much exactly the same as a normal game of Magic, only there's more than two players. The last player standing wins.
Two-Headed Giant Players are divided into two teams of two, each team with a shared life total of 30. Instead of individual players having turns, the players on each team take their turns as one. Creatures attack the team, not the players, and creatures controlled by either of the players on the defending team may block. If an attacking creature would deal combat damage to the defending team, that creature's controller decides which player the damage is to be dealt to at the time the damage is assigned. Damage from a single such creature cannot be "split" between the two players on a team; it must be dealt to one or the other. Players do not share anything except their life total, and are considered separate players for things that refer to things such as "each player", "all players", or "you". When one player on a team loses or wins the game, the entire team loses or wins. There is a short list of cards banned in sanctioned Two-Headed Giant play.
Emperor Players are divided into two teams of three. One player on each team is designated the emperor, and the others sit on each side of him or her and are designated generals. The two teams sit opposite. Players can only attack the players directly to the left and right of him or her. When an Emperor loses or wins, his or her entire team does so as well. When a General loses, he or she leaves the game. Emperor is usually played with the Deploy Creatures and Limited Range of Influence options, generals having a range of influence of 1 and emperors having a range of influence of 2.
Grand Melee Grand Melee is a variant of free-for-all generally used when there are too many players, making playing true free-for-all games tediously time-consuming and complicated. The Limited Range of Influence and Attack Right/Left options are used in this variant to allow more than one player to take turns at a time, each player taking a turn safely three seats away from any other turn-taking player, such that players cannot be within the range of two turn-taking players at once, nor can two players within the range of such players influence each other. This is accomplished using turn markers that pass between players.
Teams As with free-for-all, only with teams instead of individual players. Resources are not shared among teammates.
The number of players in games of each variant can vary and may spawn hybrid formats, such as Three-Headed Giant, Emperor Teams, and so forth. Feel free to mix and match formats as needed.
Enchant --> Aura - Major! The wording of local enchantments (Enchant [whatever]s) has been changed. All cards that used to be "Enchant [something]"s are now "Enchantment - Aura"s with the keyword ability "Enchant [something]". This change was made to standardize the card types and ensure that all card types that a card has actually appeared on the card.
Auras and "local enchantments" are the exact same thing. There has been no significant change in functionality for these cards, though some cards that referred to them (such as Nomad Mythmaker and Tallowisp ) have slightly altered functionality. There's also been a slight terminology change in things that move Auras between permanents that accompanies this change, but that functionality hasn't changed either.
Mana-cost-less Cards This update introduced rules for cards other than lands that don't have mana costs. Originally, the rule was that a card without a mana cost couldn't be played as a spell, no matter what. This rule was later reversed to allow the printing of the suspend-only cards of Time Spiral . The current rule is that a nonexistent mana cost cannot be paid. Thus, you cannot cast spells without mana costs normally, as that would require paying their mana cost, which doesn't exist. You can only cast them by methods which circumvent the need to pay the mana cost, either by ignoring it entirely or by paying some other cost instead. Note that a nonexistent mana cost (also written as {}) is not the same thing as a cost of (written {0}). The converted mana cost of a card with a nonexistent mana cost is 0.
Ability Words This update introduced the idea of ability words. Ability words are italicized words written before some other ability. Ability words have no game function except to emphasize to players that certain sets of similar abilities function essentially the same way. Note that ability words, like all other text that has no game function, are alwaysitalicized. Any text that is not italicized is not an ability word, even if it appears in a similar place. (Though Threshold and Imprint used to be keywords, they are now ability words instead.)
Forecast is not an ability word, but a keyword. For example of ability words, see Channel and Radiance .
New Keywords This update introduced the Epic and Enchant keywords. For more information on these keywords, see their entries in the Keyword FAQ.
Epic is an ability of some sorcery cards that are so great, so powerful, so...epic, they're all you'll ever need to cast. Once an Epic spell you control resolves, you can't cast any other spells for the rest of the game, but you get a brand new copy of the Epic card at the beginning of every one of your upkeeps for the rest of the game, too. Epic spells are designed to give you the ability to win using their effects alone, with proper foresight and planning. Note that Epic spells don't stop you from activating abilities or taking other actions that are not casting spells.
Enchant is a new keyword for an old concept. With the change of "Enchant [whatever]" cards to Auras (see above), the restrictions on what a particular Aura can be attached to have been moved to the text box in the form of the Enchant ability. For more information on the enchant ability and Auras in general, see the entry on Enchant in the Keyword FAQ and the entry for Auras in the Main FAQ.
Revealing as a Cost If a card is revealed as a cost to cast a spell or activate an ability, that card remains revealed until the spell or ability it was revealed to cast/activate leaves the stack.
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Tokens, Lands, and Mana Costs With this update, lands and tokens were changed to have a nonexistent mana cost by default, rather than their former mana cost of . They still have a converted mana cost of 0.
Spell Copies Copies of spells are controlled by the player who put them on the stack. This addition to the rules was made for clarification only.
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
Changes For:Ravnica: City of Guilds Previous Set:Ninth Edition
Phasing and Leaves-the-Battlefield Triggers - Reversal! Permanents that phase out no longer trigger abilities that look for permanents leaving the battlefield. Previously, phasing worked slightly differently, by moving the card to a different zone but having the game ignore any abilities that triggered on it entering the battlefield. (But not leaving the battlefield, for some reason.) Phasing works differently now; the card never leaves the battlefield at all--the game just pretends it doesn't exist. As such, it no longer triggers any abilities that look for it moving into or out of the battlefield. This change changed phasing's interaction with a large number of permanents with leaves-the-battlefield abilities, notably Wormfang Manta .
The Layer Rules A number of changes were made to the layering rules that lay out how to determine the characteristics of permanents on the battlefield when two or more effects are vying to change them. Some special exemptions were eliminated, and the rules were made clearer. Now, all effects that want to apply in more than one layer do so, and once an effect has begun to be applied, it continues to be applied even if the ability that created it is removed as part of the layering process. In addition, power- and toughness-switching effects such as Strange Inversion were made to apply after all other effects did, so that if your creature's power and toughness is switched, you take the (otherwise) final value of its power and apply it to its toughness instead, and vice versa. This eliminated a lot of the weird tricks that could be done with such effects. Most of the other changes that were made to the system won't affect you unless you play with Humility way more than is healthy.
For a rundown of the current layering rules, you can check out the Layer System entry in the main Rules Q&A FAQ.
Hybrid Mana - Ravnica introduced the concept of mana costs that can be paid with either of two colors of mana, creating an entirely new type of multicolored card that doesn't need to be played in a deck that uses both of its constituent colors. A hybrid mana cost can be paid with mana of either of its two colors, but not colorless or other-colored mana. Cards with hybrid mana symbols in their mana cost are always all of the colors in the cost, no matter what colors were actually used to cast them. Hybrid mana appears only in mana costs; there is no such thing as mana that is two colors at once. If an effect would add some amount of hybrid mana to your mana pool, you choose one of the colors of each hybrid mana symbol to add to your pool instead.
New Keywords Ravnica introduced the Convoke, Dredge, and Transmute keywords, as well as the Radiance ability word. To learn more about any of the keywords and about ability words in general, see the Keyword FAQ.
Convoke is an ability that lets you use your creatures to cast your spells. When you cast a card with Convoke, you can tap any number of untapped creatures you control. Each creature you tap this way reduces the cost of your spell by one mana of any of its colors or by one colorless mana. If you have enough creatures on the battlefield, you can cast your spells without ever needing mana!
Dredge allows you to reuse the cards in your graveyard over and over and over and over...well, you get the idea. If a card with Dredge is in your graveyard and you would draw a card, you can choose to instead put some cards from the top of your library into your graveyard and put the Dredge card back into your hand! You'll never need to worry about running out of useful spells again. Remember, though, you can only dredge a card back if you have enough cards in your library to do so, and you can only dredge back one card for each one card you would draw.
Transmute lets you turn dross into gold, turning spells you don't want into the spells you do! If you have a card with Transmute in your hand, you can pay a small cost and discard it any time you could cast a sorcery to search through your library with any card that has the same converted mana cost as the card you discarded and put it into your hand. If you build your deck right, you'll never need to worry about whether you're going to draw that crucial spell or not--just transmute for it! Remember, you can get any card with the same converted mana cost; it doesn't have to have the exact same mana cost, or even be the same color!
Radiance is an ability word that is used on cards that affect not just one creature or permanent, but every other creature or permanent that shares a color with that one, too! Radiance cards allow you to affect many different creatures using just a single spell. Use it to devastate your opponent's army, or to strengthen your own!
New State-Based Action A new state-based action has been introduced: a permanent that's not an Aura or Equipment (or Fortification ) but that's attached to some other permanent becomes unattached from that permanent, but remains on the battlefield. This rule was made to eliminate a tricky loophole involving a number of older cards that could allow this kind of thing to happen. You probably will never come across a situation in which this effect will apply, but if by chance you do, you now know how to handle it.
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Zones as Targets Game zones (such as your hand, library, graveyard, or the battlefield) can now be targeted by spells or abilities if the spell or ability specifically says that it does so. Don't expect to see this new capability being used too much, though; it's only used on one card , because they couldn't make the text fit any other way.
"Linked" Abilities Some cards have an inherent ability that can exile cards , and another ability that refers to cards "exiled with {this}". (See the Magic 2010 entry for an explanation of the term "exile".) These sets of abilities are intristically "linked"; the latter ability applies only to cards exiled using the former ability. Even if the card gains some other ability that also exiles cards, or that also refers to cards "exiled with {this}", the linked pairs of abilities still only refer to each other. This addition to the rules was a codification of existing rulings, and introduced 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
Changes For:Guildpact Previous Set:Ravnica: City of Guilds
Division of effects If a player is to divide or distribute some effect, such as damage or counters, amongst more than one recipient as a result of a spell or ability, the appropriate division is decided upon when the spell or ability is played, not when it resolves. If the division is automatic, without player input, the distribution is decided upon resolution.
New Keywords Guildpact introduced three new keywords: Bloodthirst, Haunt, and Replicate. For more information on all of these keywords, see the Keyword FAQ
Bloodthirst is an ability that makes the creatures you cast stronger if your opponent has been dealt damage. If any of your opponents has been dealt any damage at all any time during the current turn, any creature with Bloodthirst you cast will enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters on it.
Haunt is an ability that lets your creatures and spells come back from the grave to "haunt" living creatures. When your card with Haunt is put into your graveyard after doing its thing, you exile it haunting a creature on the battlefield, and when that creature dies, you get nifty extra effects at no extra cost.
Replicate is an ability that lets you make a whole bunch of copies of your spells when you cast them. When you cast a spell with Replicate, you can pay the additional Replicate cost as many times as you like; then you get that many extra copies of your spell! Can't decide whether to kill that creature or burn your opponent? Do them both!
Creature Types The list of legal creature types has been changed. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Range of Influence and Damage Prevention If a damage-prevention effect prevents damage from an unspecified source to an unspecified recipient, that damage is only prevented if both source and recipient are within your range of influence. Note that this change only affects multiplayer games that use the Limited Range of Influence option.
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
Abilities from Hidden Zones When you activate an ability of a card that's in a hidden zone, such as your hand, you must reveal the card whose ability you are using in order to activate the ability. This is not technically a cost; it just happens as part of the action of activating the ability.
New Keywords Dissension introduced two new keywords, Forecast and Graft, as well as one new ability word, Hellbent. For more information on Forecast, Graft, and ability words, see the Keyword FAQ.
Forecast abilities are special activated abilities that you can activate from your hand during your upkeep. To activate a Forecast ability, you reveal the card from your hand and pay the required cost. The Forecast card remains revealed until the end of your upkeep, and you can't activate the same card's Forecast ability twice in one upkeep, though if you have more than one of the same card with Forecast, you can activate all of their Forecast abilities during the same upkeep. Remember, Forecast abilities are activated abilities, not spells.
Graft is an ability that allows you to move +1/+1 counters around to customize your army. Creatures with Graft enter the battlefield with a certain number of +1/+1 counters on them, and whenever another creature enters the battlefield (even under your opponent's control), you can choose to move a +1/+1 counter from your Graft creature onto the new creature. Many Graft creatures have abilities that work with creatures with +1/+1 counters on them.
Hellbent is an ability word that is used on cards that have some additional effect as long as you have no cards in your hand. Hellbent cards reward you for going all-out and holding nothing back, with additional abilities, stronger creatures, and lots of other special bonuses.
Status The rules for cards being tapped or untapped, flipped or unflipped, and face up or face down have been cleaned up and consolidated under the heading of "status", along with the rules for phasing. A permanent's status is its physical state. There are four status 'categories', and each has two possible values: tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped, face up/face down, or phased in/phased out. Status is not a characteristic in and of itself, though it may affect characteristics.
Cards not on the battlefield don't have status, though they may be face down. Permanents enter the battlefield untapped, unflipped, face up, and phased in by default. A card's status remains unchanged until some spell, ability, or game rule changes it, even if that status isn't relevant any more.
This change was mostly done to clean up the rules by consolidating several different related ideas; no major functional changes were made.
Adding Hybrid mana to your mana pool. If an effect would somehow attempt to add some amount of hybrid mana to your mana pool, you must instead choose one of that symbol's colors, and the effect adds mana of the chosen color instead. This choice is made individually for each one hybrid mana that would be added to your pool.
Power and Toughness of Noncreatures To put it simply, they don't have any. Cards that aren't creatures never, ever have power or toughness, even if they used to be creatures. This rule was introduced to fix a few weird corner cases that most players will never encounter, so you don't need to worry about it too much.
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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