M14 FAQ

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

This is our second post for the day.  If you missed our first post about the Magic 2014 PreRelease, click on over here.

In this post, we wanted to let Magic: the Gathering players including those heading off to the PreRelease event this weekend to pop on over to the Mothersite and get in a quick review of the Magic 2014 FAQ document. 

Here's a quick 'n' dirty summary without getting into the card specific notes -
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Magic 2014 Frequently Asked Questions
Wizards of the Coast, Tuesday, July 09, 2013

GENERAL NOTES

Release Information
The Magic 2014 core set contains 249 cards (101 common, 60 uncommon, 53 rare, 15 mythic rare, and 20 basic land).

Prerelease events: July 13–14, 2013
Launch Weekend: July 19–21, 2013
Game Day: August 10–11, 2013

The Magic 2014 core set becomes legal for sanctioned Constructed play on its official release date: Friday, July 19, 2013. At that time, the following card sets will be permitted in the Standard format: Innistrad, Dark Ascension, Avacyn Restored, Magic 2013, Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Dragon's Maze, and Magic 2014.

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Returning Theme: Slivers
Magic 2014 features the return of creatures with the creature type Sliver. These popular creatures share abilities or power and toughness bonuses with other Slivers you control.

Cycle: Magus Staffs
This set also includes a cycle of artifacts, each aligned to a color, that allow you to gain life for casting spells of that color or having basic lands of the type associated with that color enter the battlefield.

Returning Card Type: Planeswalkers
A planeswalker is a powerful ally who fights by your side. With the exception of the "planeswalker uniqueness rule" (see the separate section below), the rules for planeswalkers have not changed with this release.

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Rule Change: The "Planeswalker Uniqueness Rule"
Previously, if there were two or more planeswalkers that share a subtype (such as "Jace") on the battlefield, they would all be put into their owners' graveyards as a state-based action. This rule is changing. The new rule is as follows:

704.5j If a player controls two or more planeswalkers that share a planeswalker type, that player chooses one of them and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards. This is called the "planeswalker uniqueness rule."

Rule Change: The "Legend Rule"
Although there are no legendary permanents in the Magic 2014 Core Set , the "legend rule" is changing along with this set. Under the previous rule, whenever two or more legendary permanents with the same name were on the battlefield, they were all put into their owners' graveyards as a state-based action. This rule is changing to the following:

704.5k If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards. This is called the "legend rule."

New Keyword: Indestructible
Indestructible is a new keyword for an existing ability.

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CARD-SPECIFIC NOTES
Just over 90 card specific notes from Academy Raider . . . Young Pyromancer.

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Dragons Maze FAQ

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

A happy Monday indeed as Magic: the Gathering players now have the entire list of the latest card set, Dragon's Maze.  Today on the mothersite, the remaning cards were loaded up on the Dragon's Maze Visual Spoiler page.  All 156 Dragon's Maze cards have now also been posted on MTG Mint Card as well which means we can finalise our pre-orders.  We've already got our name on a list for the prerelease at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario and we suggest you talk to your local games store for arrangements.  For today's post, we want to provide a summary of the Dragon's Maze (FAQ) Frequently Asked Questions document.  Drop by the mothersite for the full document.

Release Information
The Dragon's Maze set contains 156 cards (70 common, 40 uncommon, 35 rare, and 11 mythic rare). In lieu of a basic land card, each Dragon's Maze booster pack has a nonbasic land card, which can be one of the ten Dragon's Maze Guildgates, one of the ten Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash dual lands with basic land types, or the mythic rare Dragon's Maze card Maze's End.

Prerelease events: April 27–28, 2013
Launch Weekend: May 3–5, 2013
Game Day: May 25–26, 2013 

Reprinted cards - Guildgates, Feral Animist, Putrefy, Wind Drake.

Shocklands - All ten 'shocklands' from Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash are included within Dragon's Maze but are printed with thier original set symbol and are not considered reprints.

New Mechanic: Split Cards with Fuse
Split cards, featured prominently in the original Ravnica block, are back with a new twist: the fuse ability.  All split cards have two card faces on a single card. You can choose which half of the card you want to cast, pay that half's mana cost, and only that half will go on the stack. The characteristics of the half of the card you didn't cast are ignored while the spell is on the stack.  Fuse introduces a third option if you're casting a Dragon's Maze split card from your hand: cast the entire card as a single spell by paying both of its mana costs.

Returning Mechanics: Guild Keywords, Keyword Actions, and Ability Words
Return to Ravnica: detain (Azorius), overload (Izzet), unleash (Rakdos), scavenge (Golgari), and populate (Selesnya)
Gatecrash: extort (Orzhov), cipher (Dimir), bloodrush (Gruul), battalion (Boros), and evolve (Simic)

Cycle: Guildgates
The Dragon's Maze set includes a cycle of nonbasic lands with the subtype Gate. Each guild has a Gate card with Guildgate in its name that taps for mana of either of that guild's colors. These cards were previously printed in the Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash sets; they appear here with new art. 

Cycle: Gatekeepers
The Dragon's Maze set includes a cycle of Gatekeepers with enters-the-battlefield abilities that give you a bonus for controlling two or more Gates.

Cycle: Cluestones
There are one of these common artifacts for each Guild with a casting cost of 3.  They tap for either of that guild's mana or pay one of each guild mana and sacrifice to draw a card.

Cycle: Guild Champions
There are ten of these rare legendary creatures, one for each Guild.  They are Emmara Tandris (Selesnya), Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch (Rakdos), Lavinia of the Tenth (Azorious), Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker (Dimir), Melek, Izzet Paragon (Izzet), Ruric-Thar, The Unbowed (Gruul), Tajic, Blade of the Legion(Boros), Teysa, Envy of Ghosts (Orzhov), Varolz, the Scar-Striped (Golgari), and Vorel of the Hull Clade (Simic).

Cycle: Uncommon Fuse Spells
There are ten of these split cards featuring the new fuse mechanic which feature a different monocolour spell on each side. These are Protect/Serve (Azorius), Far/Away (Dimir), Toil/Trouble (Rakdos), Armed/Dangerous (Gruul), Alive/Well (Selesnya), Profit/Loss (Orzhov), Down/Dirty (Golgari), Give/Take (Simic), Turn/Burn (Izzet) and Wear/Tear (Boros).

Cycle: Rare Fuse Spells
There are five of these split cards featuring the new fuse mechanic which feature a different multi-colour spell on each side.  These are  Beck/Call (Simic/Azorius), Breaking/Entering (Dimir/Rakdos), Flesh/Blood (Golgari/Gruul), Catch/Release (Izzet/Boros), and Ready/Willing (Selesnya/Orzhov).
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RTR FAQ

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

The newest Magic the Gathering set, Return to Ravnica will be hitting game tables around the world shortly after midnight this Friday 28th September and officially launched the next weekend (5th October, 2012).  With the new set, there are always questions to be had.  To this end, we here at MTG Realm want to bring to your attention, the Return to Ravnica Frequently Asked Questions (linky here) documents which, if reviewed, should make your PreRelease play more effecient and more enjoyable.  Speaking of the PreRelease, if you do not know where you can go to game, click on over to locator.wizards.com to find a store near you.  Also make sure to peruse the selection of Return to Ravnica english / chinese singles, foils and sets at MTG Mint Card.

Anywhoos - onto the FAQs . . .

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Cycle: Guildgates
The Return to Ravnica set introduces a new land subtype: Gate. Each guild has a Gate card with Guildgate in its name that taps for mana of either of that guild’s colors.  Gate is not a basic land type.

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Cycle: Keyrunes
Each guild has a Keyrune, an artifact that taps for mana of either of that guild’s colors and can become a creature.  Until the ability that turns the Keyrune into a creature resolves, the Keyrune is colorless.

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Cycle: Cards that “Can’t Be Countered”
The Return to Ravnica set includes a cycle of cards that can’t be countered.  Each of these rare multicolored spells with the ability to not be (conventionally) countered. A spell that can’t be countered by spells or abilities can be targeted by spells and abilities that try to counter it.

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Returning Themes: Guilds and Guildmarks
If a card in the Return to Ravnica set is associated with a guild, it features the appropriate guildmark in the background of its text box. These guildmarks have no effect on game play.

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Returning Mechanic: Hybrid Cards
These are cards with Hybrid mana costs.  Each hybrid mana symbol represents a cost which can be paid with one of two colors. The hybrid mana symbol can be of any combination of two colors, or any color of mana and two generic mana.

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Returning Cycle: Ravnica “Dual Lands”
There are five nonbasic lands in the Return to Ravnica set that each have two basic land types - Blood Crypt (b/r), Hallowed Fountain (w/), Overgrown Tomb (b/g), Steam Vents (u/r), and Temple Garden (g/w).

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Azorius Keyword Action: Detain
Reminder text on these cards are 'Until your next turn, that creature can’t attack or block and its activated abilities can’t be activated.'  Activated abilities include a colon and are written in the form “[cost]: [effect].  If a creature is already attacking or blocking when it’s detained, it won’t be removed from combat.  If a noncreature permanent is detained and later turns into a creature, it won’t be able to attack or block.

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Izzet Keyword: Overload
Reminder text here is 'You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of “target” with “each.”.  If you don’t pay the overload cost of a spell, that spell will have a single target. If you do pay the overload cost, the spell won’t be 'targetting' meaning it can get around 'hexproof' critters (can't be the target of spells and abilities).

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Rakdos Keyword: Unleash
These cards will have the text 'You may have this creature enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. It can’t block as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.'  You make the choice to have the creature with unleash enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter or not as it’s entering the battlefield. At that point, it’s too late for a player to respond to the creature spell by trying to counter it, for example.  Putting a +1/+1 counter on a creature with unleash that’s already blocking won’t remove it from combat. It will continue to block.

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Golgari Keyword: Scavenge
These will have text with 'Scavenge (Cost ?) - (Cost ?, Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to this card’s power on target creature. Scavenge only as a sorcery.)'.  Somewhat similar to the flashback mechanic.

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Selesnya Keyword Action: Populate
The reminder text will be 'Put a token onto the battlefield that’s a copy of a creature token you control.'.  You can choose any creature token you control. If a spell or ability puts a token onto the battlefield under your control and then instructs you to populate (as Coursers’ Accord does), you may choose to copy the token you just created, or you may choose to copy another creature token you control.  If you control no creature tokens when instructed to populate, you won’t put a token onto the battlefield.
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Also - there is a large section with card specific rules / notes / explanations within the document, look here to find a card which you may have questions about.

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