Magic 2015

Magic 2015
Set Information
Set symbol
Keywords/​ability words	Convoke
Set size	269 cards (101 Commons, 80 Uncommons, 53 Rares, 15 Mythic Rares, 20 Basic Land) + 15 cards in the sample decks (6 Commons, 4 Uncommons, 5 Rares)
Expansion code	M15
Development codename	None

Magic: The Gathering 2015 Core Set, commonly referred to as Magic 2015 or M15 is the 16^th Magic core set. It was released on July 18, 2014.

Set details

Magic 2015 contains 269 cards (101 Commons, 80 Uncommons, 53 Rares, 15 Mythic Rares, 20 Basic Land). WotC changed the default from 60 uncommons to 80 uncommons for large sets as it makes limited play better. The default of large sets moving forward would be 269. An additional 15 cards appear in the sample decks. Magic 2015 is strongly integrated with its digital counterpart, Duels of the Planeswalkers. The set features a black / green version of the planeswalker Garruk and the "You Make The Card"-card Waste Not. The set also features a new card face with a special Magic font ("Beleren"), a holofoil stamp, revamped collector info and a decreased border size. The Magic logo for this set is colored black. The returning mechanic is convoke.

Magic 2015 introduced a templating change to cards that set a creature's power and toughness to a specific value. The term "base power and toughness" makes it clearer that other continuous effects that modify power and toughness, such as the ones created by Titanic Growth or a +1/+1 counter, apply after the creature's power and toughness are changed.

Designer credits

Multiple game world VIPs were invited to create cards for Magic 2015. Their credits appear below the usual flavor text, in smaller type.

Credited	Known for	Card
George Fan	Designer of Plants vs. Zombies	Genesis Hydra
Penny Arcade	Penny Arcade webcomic, creators of PAX	Avarice Amulet
Markus Persson	Creator of Minecraft, founder of Mojang	Aggressive Mining
Richard Garriot	Creator of the Ultima series	Shield of the Avatar
David Sirlin	Designer on Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Yomi	Master of Predicaments
Rob Pardo	Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard, lead designer of World of Warcraft	Xathrid Slyblade
Isaiah Cartwright	Lead game designer for Guild Wars 2	Warden of the Beyond
Justin Gary	Designer of Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer and Solforge Winner of Pro Tour Houston 2002, National Team Championship in Worlds 2003	Spirit Bonds
Stone Librande	Lead designer of Diablo 3, creative director of SimCity	Goblin Kaboomist
Brian Fargo	Founder of Interplay Entertainment and InXile Entertainment	Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Mike Neumann	Gearbox Software, creative director on Borderlands	Chasm Skulker
James Ernest	Owner and lead designer for Cheapass Games	Hot Soup
Edmund McMillen	Indie designer of Super Meat Boy, featured in Indie Game: The Movie	Cruel Sadist
Brad Muir	Game designer at Double Fine Productions, project lead on Iron Brigade	Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
The Magic community:	Playing Magic	Waste Not

Flavor

“

Hunt Bigger Game

”

Marketing

Magic 2015 is sold in booster packs, Intro packs, a fat pack, the new clash pack (which is a 2-Player Starter Set) and the M15 Deck Builder's Toolkit. The boosters featured art work from Ajani Steadfast, Jace, the Living Guildpact, Nightfire Giant, Soul of Shandalar and Nissa, Worldwaker. The prerelease was July 12-13, 2014, the magic online release was on July 28, 2014 and the Game Day was August 9-10, 2014. The set was promoted at the website www.huntbiggergame.com

Prerelease

There are five prerelease packs, one for each color. Each comes with a seeded booster pack that corresponds with that color. When registering for the Prerelease tournament, each player chooses one. The seeded booster pack will assist players in building a deck by providing a starting point in their chosen color. Each seeded booster pack contains a premium promo card, which players may include in their tournament decks. Each prerelease pack comes with a oversized challenge card, Garruk the Slayer, which is a key component of Magic 2015 's experience design (designed by Ethan Fleischer and Gavin Verhey). The prerelease pack further contains 5 regular booster packs, 1 activity insert, 1 Spindown life counter and 3 Wolf tokens. One player plays his or her Prerelease deck as normal. This player always goes first. The other player plays as Garruk. Garruk starts at 20 loyalty, and can activate one loyalty ability each turn. Garruk can be attacked and if his loyalty reaches 0, he loses. But if Garruk's horde of Wolves drops the player to 0, then Garruk wins. The oversized Garruk Planeswalker card can't be returned to its owner's hand or otherwise removed.

Promotional cards

• Prerelease: one of five according to the chosen color: Resolute Archangel, Mercurial Pretender, Indulgent Tormentor, Siege Dragon or Phytotitan
• Launch promo: In Garruk's Wake
• Game Day: full-art Reclamation Sage
• Game Day (Top 8): full-art Chief Engineer
• Buy-a-Box: Goblin Rabblemaster

Tokens/Emblems

"Token" now appears on the type line as a pseudo-supertype. Emblems have also received a type line, which includes the Planeswalker subtype.

1. 1/1 Sliver for Sliver Hive
2. 1/1 Soldier for First Response and Raise the Alarm
3. 1/1 Spirit with flying for Spirit Bonds and Triplicate Spirits
4. 1/1 Squid with islandwalk for Chasm Skulker and Coral Barrier
5. 3/3 Beast with deathtouch for Garruk, Apex Predator
6. 2/2 Zombie for Necromancer's Stockpile and Waste Not
7. 2/2 Dragon with flying and “: This creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn” for Brood Keeper
8. 1/1 Goblin for Goblin Rabblemaster
9. 3/3 Beast for Feral Incarnation and Soul of Zendikar
10. 1/1 Insect with flying and deathtouch for Hornet Nest and Hornet Queen
11. */* Treefolk Warrior with “This creature's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Forests you control” for Kalonian Twingrove
12. artifact token named Land Mine with “, Sacrifice this artifact: This artifact deals 2 danage to target attacking creature without flying” for Goblin Kaboomist
13. Emblem for Ajani Steadfast
14. Emblem for Garruk, Apex Predator

Sample decks

The Magic 2015 Core Set comes with five thirty-card sample decks. Each sample deck has several cards numbered 270 and higher that do not appear in Magic 2015 booster packs. They include classics like Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire and Mahamoti Djinn. These 15 cards are legal for tournament play in any format that includes the Magic 2015 core set. The Deck Builder's Toolkit 2015 contains a single copy of card numbers 270 and 272-284, and two copies of card number 271 Divine Verdict.

Cycles

Magic 2015 has ten cycles:

• Planeswalkers: six mythic rare Planeswalkers — Ajani Steadfast, Jace, the Living Guildpact, Liliana Vess, Chandra, Pyromaster, Nissa, Worldwaker, and Garruk, Apex Predator.
• Plane souls: six mythic rare 6/6 Avatar cards — Soul of Theros, Soul of Ravnica, Soul of Innistrad, Soul of Shandalar, Soul of Zendikar and Soul of New Phyrexia.
• Legendaries: five rare legendary creatures — Avacyn, Guardian Angel, Jalira, Master Polymorphist, Ob Nixilis, Unshackled, Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard.
• Enemy colored painlands: five rare dual lands with ": Add to your mana pool. : Add M or N to your mana pool. [This] deals 1 damage to you." Here, M and N are enemy colors of mana — Caves of Koilos, Shivan Reef, Llanowar Wastes, Battlefield Forge and Yavimaya Coast (reprinted from 10th Edition).
• Paragons: five uncommon 2/2 color Lords — Paragon of New Dawns, Paragon of Gathering Mists, Paragon of Open Graves, Paragon of Fierce Defiance and Paragon of Eternal Wilds.
• Slivers: five uncommon slivers. — Constricting Sliver, Diffusion Sliver, Belligerent Sliver, Leeching Sliver and Venom Sliver.
• Sedge creatures: five uncommon creatures that get +1/+1 if you control a basic land of the appropriate allied color and can gain an ability for a payment in that allied color. This cycle uses the other allied color than the cycle from Magic 2013. All activated abilities are targeted or affect all creatures you control. — Dauntless River Marshal, Jorubai Murk Lurker, Nightfire Giant, Kird Chieftain, Sunblade Elf.
• Wizard Staves: five uncommon artifacts that cost and have an ability that allows its controller to gain one life whenever a spell or land of the appropriate color is played. — Staff of the Sun Magus, Staff of the Mind Magus, Staff of the Death Magus, Staff of the Flame Magus and Staff of the Wild Magus (reprinted from Magic 2014).
• Walls: five cross-rarity Walls with 0 power and an ability. — Wall of Essence, Wall of Frost, Wall of Limbs, Wall of Fire and Wall of Mulch.
• Same-color enhancers: a loose cycle of five common cards that are more effective when played in conjunction with cards of the same color. — Sanctified Charge, Statute of Denial, Festergloom, Foundry Street Denizen (reprinted from Gatecrash), and Hunter's Ambush.

Functional reprints

• Krenko's Enforcer is a near-functional reprint of Skirk Shaman from Planar Chaos, save for creature type.
• Shaman of Spring is a functional reprint of Striped Bears from Weatherlight, save for creature type.

Colorshifted

• Frost Lynx, blue colorshifted version of Kor Hookmaster

Strictly better

• Crowd's Favor is strictly better than Kindled Fury.
• Reclamation Sage is strictly better than Setessan Starbreaker.
• Nimbus of the Isles is strictly better than Coastal Hornclaw.
• Sungrace Pegasus is strictly better than Armored Pegasus.

Strictly worse

• Carrion Crow is strictly worse than Screeching Bat.
• Festergloom is strictly worse than Loss (Profit/Loss).
• Marked by Honor is strictly worse than Vow of Duty.
• Nimbus of the Isles is strictly worse than Adarkar Windform, Air Servant, Battleground Geist, Cerulean Wyvern, Chasm Drake, Cloudheath Drake, Ethersworn Adjudicator, Faerie Invaders, Frostwind Invoker, Phantom Monster, Shinen of Flight's Wings, Spire Monitor, Vigilant Drake, and Voyager Drake.
• Rogue's Gloves is strictly worse than Mask of Memory.
• Statute of Denial is strictly worse than Dismiss.
• Tyrant's Machine is strictly worse than Crown of Empires and Trip Noose.

Preconstructed decks

Intro packs

The intro packs are:

Intro pack name	Colors Included					Foil rare
Price of Glory	W		B			Resolute Archangel
Hit the Ground Running		U			G	Mercurial Pretender
Infernal Intervention			B	R		Indulgent Tormentor
Flames of the Dragon		U		R		Siege Dragon
Will of the Masses	W				G	Phytotitan

Clash pack

Magic 2015 comes with a clash pack which contains two bicolored decks.

Clash pack deck name	Colors Included
Fate		U			G
Fury				R	G

External links

• Hunt Bigger Game, Magic 2015 trailer