Tuesday, July 14, 2009

MTG 2010 Rule Changes

Magic: The Gathering - 2010 Rule Changes: Source

1) Simultaneous Mulligans
Mulligans will now officially be handled simultaneously. This will significantly cut down on time spent shuffling before each tournament game.

2) Terminology Changes
2A) Battlefield
2B) Cast, Play, and Activate
2C) Exile
2D) Beginning of the End Step
This Is Fucking Awesome

3) Mana Pools and Mana Burn
3A) Mana Pools Emptying
Mana pools now empty at the end of each step and phase, which means mana can no longer be floated from the upkeep to the draw step, nor from the declare attackers step to the declare blockers step of combat.
This Is Fucking Horseshit

3B) Mana Burn Eliminated
Mana burn is eliminated as a game concept. Mana left unspent at the end of steps or phases will simply vanish, with no accompanying loss of life.
This Is Fucking Awesome/Horseshit

4) Token Ownership
We are matching most players' expectation by changing the rule such that the owner of a token is, in fact, the player under whose control it entered the battlefield.

5) Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack
As soon as damage is assigned in the combat damage step, it is dealt. There is no time to cast spells and activate abilities in between; the last time to do so prior to damage being dealt is during the declare blockers step.
This Is Fucking Horseshit

6) Deathtouch
First, deathtouch is becoming a static ability. Creatures dealt damage by a source with deathtouch will be destroyed as a state-based effect at the same time lethal damage would kill them.

7) Lifelink
Lifelink, like deathtouch, is turning into a static ability. If a source with lifelink deals damage, its controller gains that much life as that damage is being dealt.

22 comments:

_J_ said...

The Mana Pool / Mana Burn mechanic is...

Previously the "mana pools empty at end of phases" rule was complimented by "unspent mana in a pool at the end of a phase causes mana burn".

So if no one takes mana burn the act of emptying mana pools is simply to prevent people floating mana throughout their turn.

The oddest part of this is that if one has mana during the declare attackers step that mana goes away at the declare blockers step. That seems wonky.

"No More Mana Burn" makes me happy / sad, though. Happy because it means I can do something new with Worldgorger sad because it makes playing mana generating decks slightly easier so more people may do it.

_J_ said...

"Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack" is fucking horseshit, though.

What is the fun of attacking if I can't stack 4 abilities in response to damage going onto the stack and so negate the 3 abilities you used to pump the damage of your creatures in response to my 2 abilities used to increase my creature's attack which was only done because I knew that you had Giant Growth which you would only play in response to...

Unknown said...

I can mostly handle combat damage no longer using the stack as long as I can still play instants and abilities between the damage and cleanup phases.

_J_ said...

I am at work so did not have a chance to read through the full explanation of the combat changes.

Is damage taken now like a state based effect (a creature with 1 defense taking 2 damages dies as soon as it takes that damage) given that its being assigned does not use the stack? Or does damage still act as damage but damage prevention must be used before damage is dealt?

Unknown said...

yeah combat damage not using the stack is really complicates the game the more i think about it, with power modifiers and damage prevention.

Very frustrating.

Mike Lewis said...

do ablities and everything resolve AND THAN Damage applies outside of the stack?

or once an attacker is no blocked, damnage is applied?

_J_ said...

The useful shit from the long explanation of how combat damage works now:

The first thing that happens during the combat damage step is that combat damage is assigned. If an attacker is blocked by multiple creatures, the attacking player can divide its combat damage among them. The player starts by assigning damage to the first blocking creature in line. If that creature is assigned lethal damage, further damage may be assigned to that creature and/or the next one in line. If lethal damage is assigned to the second one, the attacking player can move on to the third, and so on. This works very similarly to trample.


If you want to activate regeneration abilities, cast damage prevention spells, pump your creature's toughness, or do any other kinds of combat tricks, you now need to do so during the declare blockers step. At that time, combat is deterministic enough to give you a good idea of what's coming. You'll be able to tell whether you need to regenerate your blocker, for example.


We know this will take some getting used to. Not only is it the biggest single change to the rules, but it actively makes cards such as Mogg Fanatic worse. (Or, if you prefer, it returns Mogg Fanatic to its original functionality. Combat damage didn't use the stack when Tempest was released.)

We've been playing with this change for months, and we've found that the first part of the change (having combat damage not use the stack) is a positive move for the game as a whole, and the second part of the change (doing different things with double blocking) comes up amazingly infrequently. That's the more complex part of the change, but it matters only when there's a double block, someone has a combat trick, and the situation falls somewhere between "kill all blockers" and "kill just one blocker."

_J_ said...

do ablities and everything resolve AND THAN Damage applies outside of the stack?


•Beginning of combat step
•Declare attackers step
•Declare blockers step
•Combat damage step
•End of combat step

The change is that:
If you want to activate regeneration abilities, cast damage prevention spells, pump your creature's toughness, or do any other kinds of combat tricks, you now need to do so during the declare blockers step.

_J_ said...

So before we would do all of our crazy shit during:

•Combat damage step

Now we have to do all of our crazy shit during:
•Declare blockers step


I think it still works that nothing actually leaves play due to combat damage until the end of combat / cleanup step. So it is not as if damage is a state-based effect (like a -X/-X creature death).

I think. I think.

Unknown said...

Ok so not only does it complicate things, but my worst fears have been realized and they have nerfed combat tricks.

Unknown said...

apparently you think wrong, because now Mogg Fanatic no longer does what he did. You can't do damage then sacrifice him anymore. At least that is how I read it.

Unknown said...

Apparently the entire sac after damage is dealt trick has been nerfed. Which means they nerfed sacrificing...

_J_ said...

Second, creatures disappearing after damage has been put on the stack leads to a ton of confusion and disbelief: How is that Mogg Fanatic killing two creatures? How did that creature kill mine but make your Nantuko Husk big enough to survive? How can you Unsummon your creature and have it still deal damage? While many of us may be used to the way things are now, it makes no sense in terms of a game metaphor and only a bit more sense as a rule.


Those examples help to illustrate what changed.

They also illustrate why the change is fucking retarded.

_J_ said...

"Apparently the entire sac after damage is dealt trick has been nerfed. Which means they nerfed sacrificing..."

It also nerfs bounce and activated abilities other than sacrifice.

Unknown said...

Reading the article again, it appears the cleanup step is completely gone and creatures just die as a state based effect.

Roscoe said...

Yeah.. this was the BIG change taht confused my entire understanding of how the game plays.

The Mana Pools empty, and burn is gone was the one that annoyed me, and bodes for MUCH greater ill, in terms of where the game is going..

Unknown said...

I'm not so sure mana burn was the crucial to the game. I am far more frustrated that combat tricks have essentially been nullified.

_J_ said...

Mana burn was there to punish people who could not add / subtract.

Kind of wonder what this does to Upwelling

Unknown said...

It continues to allow you to float mana over phases and save it up.

_J_ said...

The problem with Upwelling before was that if it were removed from play one would suffer mana burn.

Now that is not an issue.

Unknown said...

You are correct, in effect the changes makes upwelling a more powerful card.

Mike Lewis said...

this also breaks those cards that produce GG during the upkeep.