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Battlefield - Much more of a good term when used in proper scenarios, as no longer In as was spoiled, but Onto the Battlefield. The term feels a lot less "Help me, I'm trapped IN a box" style.

Cast - Simpler term to understand, especially when you teach kids often enough how to play. I'm going to have to redu some teachings now to a few at our local card shop. Including Lifelink, all over again, to adults older than myself.

Exile - Cool to say and so much easier to understand than RFG expanded.

Beginning of the End, Step - This helps with so many misunderstands. I myself could not figure the different between how Kiki-Jiki can save his tokens for combat and abilities between two turns, but couldn't take control with split second more than the one.

Mana Be Gone - Well floating mana didn't make much sense in flavor, guess it makes sense to remove mana each step now, doesn't have to be explained now.

Burn Be Gone - This one seems bad to remove. Few cards become neutered, yes, but flavor-wise, a Mage with 30 mana currently charged up in his/her hands, you would think would combust the mage if not discharged into a spell or action. On a plus side, Myr Moonvessel can be used now in normal decks without the past easy drawback.

Tokens for Me - I can see how ownership can work in the Hunted cycle. Yours is Yours, Mine is Mine.

Combat off the Stack - I see very easily the situation to describe it best. "Is my head cut off yet, can I die now?" I also see the Attacker deciding order works, since the attacking creature would be the one to decide who he/she/it attacks first. Block with 1,000 squirrels, I don't think the squirrel in the far back really could block the attack first.

Deathtouch - Must simpler to understand the double death now. Adding combat rules also helps out the reason for the ability before this change. Acidic Slime is a very nice Creeping Mold in creature form.

Lifelink - Turning the ability into Death Grasp with X as the damage done, really does take out a step. Such as say an old combo that will come back, Crypt Rats with Vampiric Link , even at 1 life?

Imgaine my surprise to wake up to this this morning as it was linked by bubba from my latest podcast (first I heard about it).

My initial reaction was 'meh' as well to everything but the damage on the stack change. This is a big deal and my first thought was "I hate this change."

I continued to ponder it as I went through my moring routine and have since upgraded my reaction to "This change is bad for good players and good for bad players, that's why I don't like it.".

Essentially, they've removed one of the biggest gaps in player skill from the game. So much game tempo (in drafts and sealed anyway) is based on a turning point in a combat phase. Dumbing this down (which is what they're doing) reduces that gulf between player skill which reduces the edge that they once had. Sure, there are still some tricks that will be important, but all in all, the below average players just got a gift from WotC.

To that end, I expect that as time passes that these changes will be liked. Namely because the players who weren't good enough before suddenly become on par with the good players now. There are a lot more sub-par players than there are above par players, so as they start to win from these changes they'll begin to think that they were fantastic ideas. Meanwhile, the previously above par players will bemoan them, as they start losing to the previously weak players. Of course, this doesn't apply to the truly bad players. Good players will still be able to outplay them in other ways, but the amount of opportunities to outplay the sort of bad players certainly has shrunk.

And I'll say that I still don't like the change to combat. It seems that too much has changed for too little gain.