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| Pursuit of Knowledge card art |
Foundations
Foundations was Magic's first core set in several years, and will be Standard-legal for five years, living up to its name. Wizards viewed this set as a milestone release, and used the opportunity to make some tweaks. From its release notes:
In the grand tradition of releases like Sixth Edition and Magic 2010, we're touching up the rules in order to make Magic easier to approach without compromising its strategic depth. With the release of Magic: The Gathering Foundations, we're removing combat damage assignment order from the game. Some of you remember the introduction of combat damage assignment order with the release of Magic 2010, which happened in conjunction with combat damage no longer using the stack (If you don't know what that means, don't worry; you won't have to learn about it!).
As the quote concludes, I won't explain what this is for the unfamiliar. But I will say that tweaks like this are meant to make the game more intuitive, and are often successful in so doing (the only people I've seen rant against these are those who exploit and unintuitive rule nuance).
Two other things to note about Foundations:
While the cards in Magic: The Gathering Foundations are intended to be played and drafted by players of all experience levels, we've taken some measures to help clarify existing keyword mechanics for new and returning players. Specifically, we've added reminder text to even Magic's most common mechanics in order to ensure a fun and understandable play experience.
This is nice. Seasoned players have evergreen keywords down pat, but for newbies, having an ability described on the card is a help.
With the release of Magic: The Gathering Foundations, we're making a few non-functional changes to card templating in order to improve clarity. Most are minor, but one is prolific and thus worth mentioning here: we're reducing the usage of card names in rules text. This will make it clearer that abilities that referred to the object they're on by the card's name apply only to that object and not other objects that have the same name. Instead of the card's name, you'll often see phrases like "this creature," "this spell," "this card," or "this Aura," depending on the card's type or subtype, the nature of the ability, and the zone or zones where the ability applies. Some exceptions exist, the most notable being legendary permanents, which will continue to use their names (or shortened forms of their names) in rules text.
This is minor but important. Magic cards used to have the card name written out in the ability text where necessary. Llanowar Visionary is an example.
Aetherdrift
No new rules or wording changes; new mechanics and keywords for Aetherdrift (Speed, Start Your Engines!, and Max Speed) are covered in its release notes.
Tarkir: Dragonstorm
No new rules or wording changes; new mechanics, keyword abilities, keyword actions, and ability words for Dragonstorm (Omen cards, Harmonize, Mobilize, Behold, Endure, Renew, Flurry) are covered in its release notes.
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy introduced a new land type (Town), but as with Gates, it has no inherent meaning unless referred to by another card.
This set also introduced Saga creatures, which are enchantment creatures. This can attack like normal creatures, but also have chapter-specific abilities that resolve as stated on the card. When the final lore counter is put on the sage, the ability resolves and the creature is sacrificed. But note the rules:
Speaking of Sagas, we’re making a small but impactful rules update with this release. With the advent of Saga creatures, it’s much easier to get into a situation where a Saga on the battlefield loses all of its abilities but is still a Saga enchantment. The result of this interaction was previously unintuitive to many players: since that Saga had no chapter abilities, the game defined the “greatest number among its chapter abilities” as zero, and no matter how many lore counters that Saga had on it, it would be sacrificed as a state-based action once it wasn’t the source of a chapter ability on the stack (usually right away).
Starting with the release of Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY, we’re updating the rules: If a Saga has no chapter abilities, it won’t be subject to the state-based action that would cause it to be sacrificed due to how many lore counters it has. Similarly, it won’t be subject to the turn-based action that adds a lore counter to each Saga you control at the beginning of your first main phase each turn. For example, if your Summon: Bahamut with one lore counter on it loses all abilities because someone attaches Observed Stasis to it, it’ll won’t gain lore counters via the turn-based action until it has chapter abilities again (probably because you removed the Observed Stasis somehow.)
No other new rules or wording changes; new mechanics and keyword abilities for Final Fantasy (Saga Creatures, Job Select, Tiers) are covered in its release notes.
Edge of Eternities
Edge of Eternities introduced no new rules but a few new card types (Spacecraft artifacts and Planet lands). New mechanics and keyword abilities (Station, Warp, Void) are covered in its release notes.
Marvel's Spider-man
No new rules or wording changes; new keyword abilities for Spider-man (Web-slinging, Mayhem, ∞) are covered in its release notes.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
No new rules or wording changes; new keyword abilities and keyword actions for Avatar (Firebending, Earthbend, Waterbend, Airbend) are covered in its release notes.
Lorwyn Eclipsed
No new rules or wording changes; new keyword actions and ability words for Eclipsed (Blight, Vivid) are covered in its release notes.
