With the release of the final core set Magic Origins, all sanctioned formats as well as the group that oversees the Commander format announced their updates to banned and restricted lists. Much like the previous rules update, this one is pretty light on any major impact changes for the summer. It’s possible that a more substantive update will be pending when the new block structure fully takes hold with Battle For Zendikar in the fall, but it’s far too early to know.
The following changes are:
Standard, Modern, Legacy, Vintage
No changes
Online Formats
No changes
Commander
No changes (which has come as a surprise to many)
Functional Errata and Relevant Rules Changes
Much of what indirectly was changing with Magic sets has already been announced previously, such as the change to two-set blocks, the demotion of landwalk, intimidation and protection, the promotion of Scry and Prowess to evergreen status (meaning they can potentially appear in every set) and the naming of the Goblin War Drums ability as menace. To that end, the only functional card errata is slight: a handful of cards like Darksteel Pendant, Opt, and Soldevi Excavations had the scry ability without calling it as such. They now do. Nothing actually changes in how they work.
Rules-wise, there are a number of minor changes and clarifications of note:
- With the printing of non-Innistrad double-sided cards, any rules attached to the Sun and Moon symbols have been removed, with the face-up side of a card being the side with a casting cost. Most people did this anyway, not realizing the symbols had any rules baggage, and this makes it clearer.
- There is a small change regarding timestamps and cards turning face up or face down. Much like equipping something, now whenever a card turns face up, face down, or transforms, it generates a new timestamp.
- A rule was clarified regarding triggered abilities off something being tapped for mana now being based on what actually gets produced. This doesn’t often come up, but it can matter in a couple corner cases. Per their example, you now can’t get mana from a Wild Growth enchanted to a Gaea’s Cradle when you tap it with no creatures out.
- If you’re ever forced by an effect to shuffle something into your library but it’s not there upon resolution, you now still shuffle your library where previously you didn’t. An example of this would be if you used Chaos Warp on someone’s Commander and that player chose to put it back in the Command Zone. You would still shuffle before revealing cards.
The explanations of the non-Commander Banned & Restricted changes can be found here.
The Commander announcement can be found here.
The full list of rules clarifications can be viewed here.