Fifth Edition/Rules changes

The developers of 5th Edition regonized that parts of the existing rules were far more complex than they needed to be. They removed several elements that were either confusing, counterintuitive, or a waste of time. They also added a couple of rules to eliminate some loopholes that were disliked and counter-intuitive. Finally, they introduced and expanded a few game terms. To avoid confusion for anyone who began playing Magic with the release of the Mirage standalone expansion, the Fifth Edition rules were included with Mirage starter decks. The Fifth Edition rules would became the official DCI rules in November 1996 (when Mirage cards became legal for tournament play. Notice that this was well before the release of Fifth Edition.

The Fifth Edition rules were obsoleted by the drastic 6th Edition rules change.

New terminology

• Combat Damage: This was the term now used to refer to damage dealt during damage dealing. All cards that referred to "damage in combat," such as Fog and Gaseous Form, now referred to "combat damage."
• Generic Mana: This term referred to colorless mana required for casting costs, activation costs, etc. For example, Disenchant was now said to cost one white and one generic mana.
• Landhome: "Landhome" described those creatures that depended on having a certain type of land in play to survive and attack. For example, Sea Serpent had "islandhome."
• Legendary: Artifacts and enchantments could now be "legendary." Creatures were still referred to as "legends."
• Protection: A creature could now have protection from anything, not just from colors.
• Global and Local Enchantments: Enchantments that were played on other permanents were referred to as "local" enchantments; those that were simply put into play were called "global" enchantments.

Play or draw

For several months, an optional rule had been in effect for DCI sanctioned tournaments stating that whichever player takes the first turn of the game skips his or her draw phase for that turrn. This rule became now part of the standard rules for Magic. The old rules for determining who played first now determined which player decideed who would play first (and skip his or her draw phase).

The turn structure

• End of Turn: One of the counterintuitive elements of the Fourth Edition rules was that effects that happened "at end of turn" occurred before effects that lasted "until end of turn" wore off. In Fifth Edition, this procedure was corrected by moving "at end of turn' effects to the very end of the turn. Moving the resolution of such effects out of the End phase removed any need for that phase, so the developers collapsed that phase and Heal Creatures into a single phase called "Cleanup". Note that fast effects were illegal during Cleanup just as they were during Heal Creatures, so the last chance to play fast effects was now Discard (and before the player discarded down to seven).
• Beginning/End of Phase: Effects that occured at the beginning or end of a phase, including "at end of turn' effects, now followed the same rules as specialized effects. That is, the active player's effects must resolve before the opponent's effects, rather than the active player's deciding the order in which effects resolve.

Mana and the mana pool

• Mana Sources: "Mana sources" were a new category of abilities.