The purpose of this thread is to give players who left Magic some time in the past and are just getting back to the game a quick rundown of any rules changes that may have occurred since the last time they played. If you're a returning player and you want to make sure you know about any relevant rules changes since you last played, check here first.
If you find a rules error, a broken link, or a missing change in this primer, please PM me so that I can fix it. Be aware that I may not respond; if it's nitpicky, I might decide to leave it out in the interests of clarity. If you have some other comment, PM me if you think it is important. Note that this primer does not list changes that were made and then later reversed or altered. Everything recorded here is part of the current rules structure. This is not intended as a comprehensive historical reference work.
Remember that if you wish to learn more about the rules of Magic in general, the main Rules Q&A FAQ thread is an excellent starting point, and the Keyword FAQ should be able to answer most of your questions about any given keyword ability. If you have questions about how a specific card works, try checking the Specific Cards and Combos FAQ.
How to Use this Primer
This Primer is organized by date and set release, from oldest to newest. Each post is dedicated to a particular set and details any rules changes that were made at the time of that set's release or since the release of the previous set. To catch up, find the set you last remember playing with or the date you last remember playing (err on the early side if you aren't sure exactly when you left the game), and read on from there. By the time you reach the end of the primer, you'll be fully caught up with the changes to the rules made since you left.
You don't have to read the entire primer; if you're just interested in one particular area of the rules or with specific types of changes, you may want to skim through the thread and only read the changes that interest you. The list of changes is sorted and color-coded to help you determine what you need to read.
Red denotes the most important changes--major alterations in the rules structure, reversals of previous rules, or things that change the way the game is played. You should familiarize yourself with these changes, because they will probably come up at some point.
Orange is for changes that, while most players won't need to know them, might be relevant when playing in tournaments; this includes both nitpicky things that tournament players might expect to know that casual players might not, as well as things like mulligans and sideboarding that are much more relevant in tournament play than casual play.
Green is for additions and expansions to the rules, such as new keywords, card types, and things that weren't previously covered under the rules.
Blue is for changes that are purely cosmetic, simple changes of terminology that don't really have any effect on how the game is played, but that you should probably be aware of, as they often cause some confusion for returning players.
Purple denotes changes that are relevant only to special play formats and casual variants such as multiplayer or Vanguard. If you're not interested in playing alternative formats you can safely ignore these changes.
Black is for essentially everything else. They're changes that you probably won't need to know for the vast majority of your games.
Small font denotes changes that you will probably never need to know to rules that you probably never knew existed anyway; it's nitpicky stuff that will usually only be relevant in those obscure corner cases rules gurus construct to give each other headaches, or perhaps if you play around with stuff like Humility more than is healthy. If you really want to dive into Magic's inner workings, you may want to check these out, but most people can just ignore these changes
The kinds of non-minor changes that happened for each release are marked by the colored boxes after each set's name and month of release in the table of contents. (Minor, small-font changes will only be marked here if they are reversals of previous rulings.)
If for some reason there is no entry for a particular set, the link for that set will go to the first update following the release of that set.
Rules Q&A FAQ To the best of my knowledge, our FAQ on these forums is the most extensive and comprehensive Rules FAQ for Magic available today, and in my admittedly biased opinion, it's the best there is. With extensive coverage of a wide variety of commonly confusing topics, there's a very, very good chance that your questions are answered here. We wrote it for you. Read it.
Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules (TXT file; also available in DOC, RTF, and PDF formats.) The current edition of the comprehensive rules. If you want a complete detailing of the current rules structure, you can always find it here. Be warned: it may be confusing for those not familiar with it.
Oracle Card Reference (Integrated into Gatherer) The current official rules text for every playable card in existence. Note that this takes precedence over what is actually printed on the card.
Yawgatog's Magic Resource Page Yawgatog has been kind enough to provide a number of excellent resources for the average player on his website, including an indexed and hyperlinked version of the CompRules, downloadable Oracle text files, lists of the changes made with each new version of the CompRules and Oracle since Ninth Edition, and a full list of creatures whose creature types have been retroactively altered.
Banned and Restricted Cards The official listing of banned and restricted cards in every sanctioned tournament format. Also includes information on set legality and deck-construction for said formats.
Set FAQs The official FAQs for each released set. Each FAQ contains informations on rules updates and additions made for that set. Note, however, that since these FAQs are not updated after their initial release, they may contain outdated information.
MTG-L mailing list archives A good place to get official answers for rules questions, or to search for previous answers.
Contributors:
Anyone who helped out in some small way with this primer (you know who you are). Lots of people who have suggested changes; I can't list you all.
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
This primer does not contain entries for rules changes prior to Sixth Edition, because frankly the world of Magic rules was a dark and scary place before Sixth Edition, scarcely recognizable from the one you know today. The Comprehensive Rules as they are today did not exist. Magic's rules were held together by tiny official rules booklets and an intricate, fragile, and sometimes unintuitive and self-contradictory web of judge rulings.
Sixth Edition brought order to chaos, light to darkness, and hope to the downtrodden. Its impact and importance to Magic as we know it today cannot be overstated. On the surface, it may seem like not a lot has changed, but that can be attributed to the sheer brilliance and awesome subtlety of the Sixth Edition rules changes.
Sections pertaining to changes prior to Sixth Edition may be completed some time in the future, but for now, and the forseeable future, that web of rulings remains too dangerous to my fragile sanity for me to attempt to cover it.
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
The Grand Unified Timing System (aka The Stack) The Sixth Edition rules overhaul brought with it the Stack. Right now, forget all the nitpicky details you ever learned about batches, series, dealing damage, and how triggered abilities work. Things have changed.
The Stack, to put it simply, is a new game zone--the place where spells and activated and triggered abilities (provided they're not mana abilities) go while waiting to resolve. When you cast a spell or activate an ability, or when a triggered ability triggers, it is placed upon the stack, where it then waits to give players a chance to respond to that spell or ability by casting/activating other spells and abilities. (For an explanation of "cast" and "activate", see the Magic 2010 entry.) If anyone does so, those responses are also put on the stack and players can respond to them, and so on and so forth until nobody wants to respond with anything. Once everyone's done responding, the top spell or ability on the stack resolves, then players have a chance to respond again. The whole process repeats over and over and over until the stack is empty. Then, if nobody wants to do anything and start the whole rigmarole over again, the game moves on to the next step or phase.
Objects on the stack resolve one at a time with chances to respond in between each resolution. So, for example, you could Twincast an opponent's spell, wait for the Twincast to resolve and create the copy, then Cancel the original spell. Or you could Mana Leak a spell, wait for that Mana Leak to resolve, then Mana Leak it again if they paid.
Changes to how spells and abilities that deal damage, prevent damage, and regenerate things work, as detailed below.
Interrupts/Mana Sources --> Instants The Interrupt and Mana Source card types have been completely eliminated. Everything that used to be an interrupt or a mana source has received errata to be an instant instead. Anything that affected/worked with interrupts or mana sources has received errata to affect/work with instants instead.
Damage Dealing, Damage Prevention, and Regeneration When a spell or ability says it deals damage, it means it. You don't wait before doing it, you just do it right when it tells you to. This means that spells and abilities that attempt to prevent damage or regenerate permanents have to resolve before whatever spell or ability will be dealing damage.
To use an example, under old rules, if an opponent used Lightning Bolt on your creature, you would wait until the Bolt resolved and the damage was "dealt" (which really meant "assigned"), and then cast your Healing Salve to prevent the damage during a special "damage prevention step". Under new rules, if an opponent uses a Lightning Bolt on your creature, you respond with Healing Salve . The Salve resolves first, setting up an effect that will prevent the next 3 damage to your creature, and then Lightning Bolt resolves; it attempts to do 3 damage, but the Salve's lingering effect prevents all of that damage.
Note that this means you can now cast/activate spells and abilities that prevent damage or regenerate permanents at any time, just like any other instant, even if there's nothing around that's trying to deal damage or destroy things. If you do, the effect will hang around for however long it specifies (usually until the end of the turn) looking for damage or destruction to prevent, and then will disappear.
Losing the Game and 0 Life If you have 0 life after any player casts/activates a spell or ability or after any spell or ability finishes resolving, you now lose the game immediately, before any player (including you) has a chance to do anything. No more waiting until the end of the current phase.
Tapped Artifacts Tapped artifacts no longer "turn off". This rule was eliminated because it made a lot of cards very confusing. Now, tapping an artifact doesn't have any effect on how it works.
Note that Howling Mine and Static Orb were given errata so as to maintain their functionality under the old rule--these cards still "turn off" if you tap them, but now they do it because they say they do, not because the rules say it.
Phase Abilities Phase abilities have been completely eliminated. All abilities that used to say "During [phase]", "At the start of [phase]", or "At the end of [phase]" are now triggered abilities that trigger at the beginning of the appropriate step or phase--they say "At the beginning of {step or phase}, {do something}." (Note that "At the end of combat" really means "At the beginning of the end of combat step"; cards that say "at end of turn" have since been reworded to say "At the beginning of the end step", which doesn't change how they work—see the Magic 2010 entry.)
This also eliminates some of the rules that were relevant to phase abilities. Prior to this rules update, you had to deal with "beginning of" phase abilities before "during" phase abilities, which had to be dealt with before you could deal with "end of" phase abilities. This is no longer the case; since all of these abilities trigger simultaneously, if you control all of them you can put them onto the stack in any order you choose, and therefore have them resolve in any order you wish.
In addition, the rule about not being able to activate abilities of a permanent before dealing with any "phase costs" (phase abilities that involved paying some sort of cost) has been eliminated.
Tapped Blockers Tapped blockers now deal combat damage just like untapped blockers do; you can no longer tap a blocking creature to prevent its combat damage.
Combat Damage Combat Damage is assigned and dealt at the beginning of the Combat Damage step of the combat phase (yes, combat is now a phase proper). Note that there are some restrictions about how damage can be assigned--see the Magic 2010 entry for more information on that. (This is an area that has changed somewhat over time.)
Triggered Abilities Triggered abilities that aren't mana abilities go onto the stack and can be responded to just like spells. You choose targets and modes for them as they are put onto the stack, and all other decisions they call for are made when the ability resolves.
(Before this rules change, triggered abilities could never be responded to and resolved first-in, first out. This is no longer the case.)
Ending the Turn The first step of the Ending phase is called the End Step. At the beginning of the End Step, any triggers that do their thing "at the beginning of the end step" trigger and are put onto the stack, and players can respond as normal. (Note that until Magic 2010, these kinds of triggers were worded "at end of turn", which was more confusing than they liked, so they changed the wording to the current "at the beginning of the [next] end step". It doesn't change how they work, just how it looks.)
Remember, the end step only begins once per turn. So anything that is created at this time that wants to do something "at the beginning of the end step" is going to wait until the beginning of the next turn's end step to do its thing.
Once all of those triggers have been dealt with and nobody wishes to do anything else, the game moves on to the Cleanup Step, which is where damage is removed from creatures, anything that lasts "until end of turn" stops working, and the player whose turn it is discards down to his or her maximum hand size. If something triggers because of this or something happens because of this, players will have a chance to cast spells and activate abilities and then there's another Cleanup step after this one, and this will continue until finally there's a cleanup step where nothing happens and nobody can do anything. Then the turn ends.
Trample The rules for the trample ability have been changed. Prior to this change, a player could deal a trample creature's damage however he wished among blocking creatures, and any "excess" damage dealt to any given creature carried over to the defending player--this meant that if a 5/5 trampler was blocked by 4 1/1 creatures, the attacking player could have all of the damage "dealt" to a single 1/1 and have 4 of it carry over to the defending player. (Trample automatically took effect when the damage was dealt.)
This is no longer the case. Under current rules, trample affects only the way damage can be assigned. The attacking player assigns damage among all blockers as normal; if (and only if) lethal damage has been assigned to all blockers, then any excess can be assigned to the defending player. So now if a 5/5 trampler is blocked by four 1/1 creatures, the attacking player must assign at least 1 damage to each of the 1/1 creatures before any can be assigned to the defending player; the defending player in this case can be dealt a maximum of 1 damage. See the Trample entry in the Keyword FAQ for more information on how Trample currently works. (This change was actually made slightly prior to the Sixth Edition rules change, but we're including it here for the moment because we don't have a proper entry for it yet.)
Summon --> Creature - Major! The wording used on creature cards has been changed. Instead of being described as "Summon [whatever]"s on their type line, creature cards are now described as "Creature - [whatever]"s. This wording was changed because prior to this change, nowhere was there ever anything on a (nonartifact) creature card saying that it was a creature card, and this was causing considerable confusion in some quarters.
Note that this change has no effect whatsoever on the functionality of the cards it occurred on. Cards that referred to creature cards or spells by some other name under old rules have received appropriate errata; something that affected a "summon spell" now affects a "creature spell", and so on. This created a few minor changes in functionality for things like Remove Soul , which can now counter artifact creature spells, but nothing egregious.
Paying for Spells and Abilities Prior to Sixth Edition rules update, you had to have enough mana to cast/activate a spell or ability before you actually started to do so--once you started, you weren't allowed to use mana abilities to produce additional mana. Under the Sixth Edition rules, however, this is not the case; if the game asks a player to make a mana payment (of any amount) at any time, even during the casting/activation or resolution of a spell or ability, that player is given the opportunity to activate mana abilities right then and there. (Unless that mana ability specifically says otherwise .)
For information on exactly what does and does not constitute a mana ability, see the Abilities section of the Main Rules FAQ.
Turn Structure The turn now consists of five phases: Beginning, Main, Combat, Main, and Ending. The Beginning phase has three steps: Untap, Upkeep, and Draw. The Combat phase has five (or six) steps: Beginning of Combat, Declare Attackers, Declare Blockers, First Strike Combat damage (which doesn't happen if no creatures would assign damage during it), regular Combat damage, and End of Combat. The End phase has two steps: End and Cleanup. For more information on the turn structure, check out the Turn Structure FAQ entry.
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
Can't vs. Can If something tells you something can happen, and some card's effect says it can't, the can't effect will always win.
Simultaneous Zone-changes If two or more cards would go to a library or graveyard at the same time, their owner decides the order they'll be in when they get there. (Note that this doesn't mean they go there at different times; they still go there at the exact same time. It's just that they're put in the order their owner chooses.)
Division of Effects If something tells you to divide or distribute something as you choose among some set of targets, you can't choose to give 0 to something just so it's in the set. (In other words, if you control Horobi, Death's Wail , you can't use a Rolling Thunder for 0 as a one-sided Wrath of God , because in order to target something, you'd have to distribute damage to it, and there's no damage to be distributed.)
Mana Abilities Triggered abilities that don't trigger off of mana abilities aren't mana abilities, even if they can produce 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
"May" - Reversal! If some ability says you "may" perform some action, you don't decide whether or not you actually want to do so (or pay any costs involved in doing so) until the ability is actually resolving. And if an ability says that more than one player "may" do something, the ability doesn't split up into one ability for each player like it used to--it remains one ability, and players decide whether or not to do whatever it is in turn order as that ability resolves.
Shuffling/Cutting When a player presents his or her deck to his or her opponent for shuffling at the start of the game, the opposing player is permitted to shuffle the deck any way he or she likes, rather than being limited to a single cut.
Redirection If damage would be redirected to a creature or player that's no longer there to be dealt damage, the redirection doesn't do anything and the damage is dealt to who/whatever it would have been dealt to initially.
Casting Spells You must decide whether or not to pay any additional or alternate costs before you choose the targets for that spell or ability (previously, it was the other way around). As a result of this, if a spell or ability would target something only if some additional or alternate cost is paid, and you decide not to pay the cost, that target isn't chosen at all; it effectively doesn't exist.
Self-Replacement If two or more effects are trying to replace a single event, and one of them is from the thing that's generating the event, (ie, something is trying to replace part of its own effect), the self-replacement effect is applied first. (In cases where none of the relevant effects are self-replacements, they're still applied in whatever order the affected player chooses.)
"Delayed Abilities" So-called "Delayed Abilities" (such as found on Lost in Thought or Channel ) are no longer activated abilities; they're simply special actions.
Clarifications A few minor clarifications and ruling codifications were made to the existing rules with this update; you probably won't need to read anything in here unless you were intimately familiar with the intricacies of the rules prior to this point.
Continuous effects (things that have an effect that last for some length of time rather than being one-shot actions) that were created by spells or activated or triggered abilities that don't change control of anything and don't modify anything's characteristics are actually directly modifying the rules of the game, so they can affect things that might not have been on the battlefield when the effect was created.
For contrast, such effects that do modify something's characteristics don't start affecting things that weren't there to be affected when the effect was created. (If I castInfest , then cast a creature, my new creature doesn't get -2/-2 because it wasn't there when Infest's effect was created.)
Under Sixth Edition rules, when using a spell or ability, if you realize midway through the process of doing so that you're not actually permitted to cast the spell the way you're trying to (like trying to use Terror on an artifact creature), you reverse the process and undo any payments you have made, as well as mana abilities used to produce mana that was spent. But this update made clear that you can't undo mana abilities that moved cards to or from a hidden zone (such as Millikin 's ability); you also can't reverse any mana ability that's output was used to pay for mana abilities that weren't reversed. Mana abilities that weren't used during the actual process of casting the spell also can't be reversed.
In previous editions of the rules, creatures with trample ignored creatures that "didn't receive combat damage" for the purposes of deciding how much damage could be dealt to the defending player. Due to errata, such creatures no longer exist, so this rule was removed.
Previously, tapping a creature when declaring it as an attacker was a cost. This is no longer the case; attacking simply causes the creature to become tapped.
Players don't actually get priority until state-based actions are finished resolving.
Magic Isn't Simple The timing system for when players are allowed to cast/activate spells and abilities is no longer described as "simple". Take this as you wish.
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
Taking Extra Turns - Reversal! Previously, if multiple effects allowed a player to take aditional turns, those turns were taken in the order they were created; this is no longer the case. Now, extra turns are taken in the reverse order; the most recently created additional turn is taken first.
Colorless Mana Symbols Colorless mana symbols were previously only used to denote generic mana costs. Now they can be used in a card's text to denote an amount of colorless 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
Face-Down Spells and Permanents The rules for face-down spells and permanents have received a serious overhaul thanks to the introduction of the Morph ability.
If a spell or permanent is face-down, it has only the characteristics defined by the effect that allows it to be face-down, and no others. A player who controls a face-down spell or permanent may look at it at any time, but can only turn it face-up as allowed by its morph ability or the ability that is allowing it to be face-down. Players must make it clear at all times which face-down permanent is which; they cannot be shuffled or rearranged so as to confuse one's opponent as to which is which. If a face-down spell or permanent would leave the battlefield or go to any zone other than the battlefield from the stack, it is revealed at that time. Face-down spells and permanents are also revealed at the time the game ends. (See the Magic 2010 entry for an explanation of the term "battlefield".)
Spell Copies The rules have been altered to be able to properly handle copies of spells. A copy of a spell is a spell even though it has no card associated with it, and is controlled by the player who created it. A copy of a spell in a zone other than the stack ceases to exist as a state-based action.
Static Abilities Outside of the Battlefield The rules have been altered to accomodate cards that have static abilities that apply when the card they're on is not on the battlefield. (See the Magic 2010 entry for an explanation of the term "battlefield".)
Choosing Creature Types - Reversal! Previously, if an effect asked you to choose a creature type, you could choose any single noun. This is no longer the case; if you are asked to choose a creature type, you must choose a type that currently exists in Magic. For a full list of currently existing creature types, see this post.
Playing with library revealed If an effect tells you to play with the top card of your library revealed, and that card changes during the announcement of a spell or ability, the new card is not revealed until the completion of the announcement of that spell or ability.
Putting Instants and Sorceries onto the Battlefield - Reversal! If something tries to put an instant or sorcery onto the battlefield, it used to exile it instead. Now, the instant or sorcery simply remains where it was instead. (See the Magic 2010 entry for an explanation of the terms "battlefield" and "exile".)
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
Creature Type - Plurality and Gender Previously, the rulebook simply stated to ignore plurality and gender of creature types; this is no longer the case. Instead, it points you to the Oracle Card Reference to determine a creature's proper type; creatures who had genderized or pluralized creature types have received errata to de-plural/genderize them.
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 Scourge introduced two new keywords, or rather one new keyword and a new variant on an old one: Storm and Landcycling, respectively. Those were the only changes of note in this update.
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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