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Mechanics: Escape, devotion, constellation, saga
Next set: Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
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After a trip to the Arthurian and fairy tale world of Eldraine, we return to the Greek mythology world of Theros. Last time, the planeswalker Elspeth fought on behalf of the Sun God Heliod, only for him to betray her and cast her to the underworld. Now, she attempts to fight her way out to seek revenge, and in the process, unleashes all sorts of ancient horrors.
Note that there is no tie-in novel.
In the Standard format, the following sets will be legal.
- Guilds of Ravnica
- Ravnica Allegiance
- War of the Spark
- Core Set 2020
- Throne of Eldraine
- Theros: Beyond Death
Banned cards in Standard.
GETTING STARTED
Official guide to starting Magic
To see what a game is like, check out Geek and Sundry's Spellslinger series, where Day[9] battles various geek celebrities, often losing, using simple and easy to follow decks.
For the digital card game, you can play Magic Arena potentially for free. It has its own thread.
For the physical card game, there are many ways to get on board. If you go to a local game store (LGS), the owner will give you a simple Welcome Deck for free, after demonstrating how to play the game. The Spellslinger Starter Kit (Core Set 2020 edition) has two simple decks that you do not shuffle so you and a friend can get a guided tour through how a game of Magic can work. Planeswalker Decks are pre-constructed decks with four brand new cards, including unique planeswalker cards and one additional booster pack. While not particularly strong, they will allow you to actually play casual games. Challenger Decks (2019 edition) will allow you to compete in Standard tournaments using real decks for, before release, much cheaper than buying the cards individually. Note that the latest decks will have cards that have rotated out of Standard by Throne of Eldraine's release. A new set of decks will release in April.
If you want to build your own deck, a Deck Builder's Toolkit (Core Set 2020 edition) will give you a decent starting collection of cards, including 125 fixed cards, 100 basic lands, four booster packs, and perhaps most importantly, a good box for your cards. A new Toolkit will release with Theros: Beyond Death.
The big thing to look forward to, however, is the Prerelease event held for every set. You play using the Sealed format, where every player is given a box with six booster packs and a random additional rare card. From this pool of cards, all of which you keep, each player builds a deck of 40 cards and participates in a Swiss-system tournament. This is a fun and casual event, where everyone is still trying to figure out the set, so don't worry about messing up. In addition to normal duels, there are also Two-Headed Giant events, where you pair up with another player and face off against another team.
Prerelease events will be held on January 17–19, 2020. Call your local game store a few days ahead of time to register for the Prerelease, or they might just run out of room. Find local game stores here.
BOOSTER CHANGES
There are now three kinds of booster packs.
First, there are the classic ones, now called Draft Booster Packs. Besides normal art, you can also get alternate art "constellation showcase-frame" versions of the gods, demigods, and planeswalkers.
Second, there are Theme Booster Packs. You get 35 cards just of the color indicated, or whatever theme the set goes with. 34 of the cards are a mix of commons and uncommons, more of the former but there's no set ratio, and 1 rare or mythic rare, with 1/10 packs having an additional rare or mythic rare. These are about $7. Starting with Theros: Beyond Death, these come with two rares in each color that aren't in Draft Booster Packs.
Last, there are Collector Booster Packs, which are about $20-25. The contents are
- Two premium foil basic Nyx Lands, which are full-art basic lands
- Eight premium foil common, uncommon, or non-Nyx basic lands
- One ancillary card—each booster will contain one card from an ancillary release, including Planeswalker Decks, Theme Boosters, and the Buy-a-Box promo.
- One non-foil rare or mythic with the extended-art frame
- One premium foil rare or mythic rare—this can be either the standard frame or the extended-art frame
- One non-foil Saga or constellation showcase-frame card—these can be uncommon, rare, or mythic rare and can include the borderless planeswalkers
- One foil constellation showcase-frame card
- One premium foil token
Joining Modern, Legacy, and Vintage, there is a new non-rotating format.
Pioneer covers all Standard sets from Return to Ravnica on. Launched in October, it's already become huge, especially due to both Modern and Standard having problems. It's also significantly cheaper than Modern, with greater ability to do well with your existing Standard decks. The format started with a ban list containing the fetch lands, but added more as the format developed.
Arena Release Date: January 16, 2020
Prerelease Weekend: January 17, 2020 – January 19, 2020
Release Date: January 24, 2020
Card image gallery
Variant image gallery
Mechanics: Escape, devotion, constellation, saga
Escape
It's time to break out of the underworld. Escape allows you to cast cards out of the graveyard for the specified cost, which includes exiling other cards from the graveyard. You can do this repeatedly, as long as you have other cards to exile. Some spells get a benefit when you cast them for the escape cost.
Devotion
On Theros, showing your devotion to the gods will bring many benefits. Devotion looks at the colored mana symbols in the casting costs of permanents you control, and cards will have different effects based on them. For example, if you control no other permanents, then Daxos will provide devotion to white of 2, meaning he will have 2 toughness.
Constellation
On Theros, enchantments link you to the world of the gods and their night sky. Constellation effects trigger whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control. The effects are different for each card.
Saga
Theros is a world of tales. Returning from Dominaria, sagas are enchantments that tell a story over time, with a different effect each turn. When it enters the battlefield and after you draw for your turn, you add a lore counter and trigger the corresponding effect. Then after the last one, you sacrifice the enchantment. This makes it useful for constellation, devotion, and escape.
SCHEDULE
Premier events schedule
Arena Release Date: January 16, 2020
Prerelease Weekend: January 17, 2020 – January 19, 2020
Release Date: January 24, 2020
Spring set: Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
Summer set: Core Set 2021
Next fall set: Zendikar Rising
OTHER THREADS
Throne of Eldraine
Core Set 2020
War of the Spark
Ravnica Allegiance
Guilds of Ravnica
Core Set 2019
Dominaria
Arena on Gaming side
Arena Closed Beta on Gaming side
Rivals of Ixalan
Great Designer Search 3
First Hangouts OT
http://www.**********/forum/showthread.php?t=1424890 - Last GAF thread - Ixalan
RESOURCES
Official articles - Nicknamed the Mothership, these articles are the primary source of news. Recommended columns are Making Magic, written by the head designer, Mark Rosewater (aka MaRo); Magic Story, which tells the story, written by various authors; and Play Design, written by various Magic developers. The other articles generally discuss deck building.
Card image gallery - Best way to see all of the spoiled cards together, but only updates once a day.
Blogatog - Tumblr ran by Mark Rosewater where he answers questions, updates very frequently.
Drive to Work - Mark Rosewater's weekly podcast about Magic that he literally records as he drives to work. Two episodes are released every Friday.
MTG Reddit - The best place to get new card information. The community sucks, though.
Gatherer - The official method of searching through released cards. Has autocomplete.
Scryfall - The better search method, with bigger cards, but it doesn't have autocomplete.
Game store locator
