Magic 2011

Template:Expansion Magic: The Gathering 2011 Core Set (Magic 2011) is an advanced level and current Core Set which was released on July 16, 2010. The worldwide Prerelease took place July 10-11, and Launch Parties took place July 16-18.

Set details

Like its predecessor Magic 2010, nearly half of the cards in Magic 2011 were new.

A promotional version of the new card Sun Titan was given out to players at the Prerelease event. The promotional card for the launch party was the new card Ancient Hellkite.

Mechanics and themes

Magic 2011 uses all the evergreen mechanics except for double strike and intimidate. The mechanics flash, regeneration and shroud each appear on only one card, either an uncommon or rare. Magic 2011 is the first core set to use a non-evergreen mechanic, scry, which will not appear in the next core set Magic 2012.

Magic 2011 attempts to give planeswalkers more of a presence, by printing two cycles of "signature spells". Because planeswalkers have to be mythic rare, many players do not see the planeswalker characters very often. The names and artwork of these common and uncommon spells each feature one of the five planeswalkers originally printed in Lorwyn, meaning that players will now see the planeswalker characters a lot more often.

Magic 2011 continues to push vampires as a major black tribe. It contains more vampires than Magic 2010, and is the first core set to contain more vampires than zombies.

Marketing cards

Boosters of Magic 2011 come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a "tips & tricks card" or a creature token from Magic 2011. One face of the Magic 2011 bonus card has one of nine different rules tips or is one of six different creature tokens. The other face has one of 13 advertisements for organized play programs, Scars of Mirrodin, Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox Live, Magic Online, fat packs, the Planewalker Novel - Tests of Metal, the movie the Sorcerer's Apprentice and Ultra Pro products for Magic.

Tokens

The Magic 2011 tokens are:

• */* Avatar produced by Ajani Goldmane
• 3/3 Beast produced by Garruk Wildspeaker
• 3/3 Bird with flying produced by Roc Egg
• 2/2 Ooze produced by Mitotic Slime
• 1/1 Ooze produced by Mitotic Slime
• 2/2 Zombie produced by Grave Titan

Tips & Tricks

The tips & tricks cards are:

1. Planeswalker Cards
2. Parts of the Turn
3. Deathtouch
4. Tokens & Counters
5. Building a Deck
6. Limited Play
7. The Stack
8. Gatherer Card Database
9. Leylines

Rule change

• Deathtouch was changed so that it followed the normal damage assignment rules, instead of ignoring them. Instead, any non-zero amount of damage dealt by a source with deathtouch would now be considered lethal damage. This is a more elegant solution that still allows a creature with deathtouch to kill multiple blockers.

Cycles

Magic 2011 has 9 cycles:

• Color Hosers: Each of these uncommon cards is specifically designed to be played against its enemy colors — Celestial Purge, Flashfreeze, Deathmark, Combust and Autumn's Veil. (First three are reprints from Magic 2010.)
• Dual Lands: Each of these rare lands comes into play tapped unless you control a land of one of the appropriate types, — Glacial Fortress, Drowned Catacomb, Dragonskull Summit, Rootbound Crag and Sunpetal Grove. (Reprinted from Magic 2010.)
• Leylines: Each of these rare enchantments costs plus 2 mana of the appropriate color. Each can start the game in play if it is in a player's opening hand - Leyline of Sanctity, Leyline of Anticipation, Leyline of the Void, Leyline of Punishment and Leyline of Vitality. (Leyline of the Void reprinted from Guildpact.
• "Lucky charms": Each of these uncommon artifacts costs and has an ability that allows its controller to gain one life whenever a spell of the appropriate color is played — Angel's Feather, Demon's Horn, Dragon's Claw, Kraken's Eye and Wurm's Tooth. (Reprinted from Darksteel.)
• Mythic Titans: Each of these mythic rare giants are 6/6, cost 4CC, have a color themed ability (Vigilance, firebreathing etc.) and have a powerful ability that is triggered by them entering the battlefield or attacking — Sun Titan, Frost Titan, Grave Titan, Inferno Titan and Primeval Titan.
• Planeswalkers: A cycle of mythic rare planeswalkers — Ajani Goldmane, Jace Beleren, Liliana Vess, Chandra Nalaar and Garruk Wildspeaker. (Reprinted from Magic 2010 and Lorwyn.)
• Uncommon Signature Spells: Each of these uncommon spells contains the name of one of the five original planeswalkers from Lorwyn, and is meant to replicate and/or benefit from that planewalker's abilities — Ajani's Pridemate, Jace's Ingenuity, Liliana's Caress, Chandra's Spitfire and Garruk's Packleader.
• Common Signature Spells: Each of these common spells contains the name of one of the five original planeswalkers from Lorwyn, and is meant to replicate and/or benefit from that planewalker's abilities — Ajani's Mantra, Jace's Erasure, Liliana's Specter, Chandra's Outrage and Garruk's Companion.
• Tribal Lords: Each of these rare creatures gives other creatures of their type +1/+1 and has an additional ability related to them — Knight Exemplar (knights), Captivating Vampire (vampires), Merfolk Sovereign (merfolk), Goblin Chieftain (goblins), and Elvish Archdruid (elves). (Last three are reprints from Magic 2010.)

Elements

• Elemental Servants: Not a true horizontal cycle, these four uncommon elemental creature are instead based on the traditional four elements. Two are red and two are blue — Air Servant, Water Servant, Earth Servant and Fire Servant. These four are added to the core set as Air Elemental was removed, the last elemental of four elementals that were in Alpha.

Mirrored pairs

Magic 2011 has one mirrored pair.

• Holy Strength and Unholy Strength are both common Auras with enchant creature that give a mirrored bonus to the enchanted creature's power/toughness.

Hosers

Magic 2011 reprinted the white, blue and black members of the hoser cycle from Magic 2010, as they were widely used as sideboard cards. Red and green get new, more powerful hoser cards to deal with their enemy colors. Green also gets Plummet, one of the most efficient anti-flying hosers ever printed.

Plummet, along with red's hoser Combust, appear to be directed specifically at combating the powerful Baneslayer Angel - though they do serve other functions as well.

Functional reprints

Magic 2011 has 6 functional reprints:

• Barony Vampire is a functional reprint of Warpath Ghoul from Magic 2010, save for creature type.
• Cloud Crusader is a functional reprint of Skyhunter Patrol from 10th Edition, save for creature type.
• Cultivate is a functional reprint of Kodama's Reach from Champions of Kamigawa, save for subtype.
• Maritime Guard is a functional reprint of Lumengrid Warden from 10th Edition, Straw Soldiers from Portal: Three Kingdoms and Talas Merchant from Portal Second Age, save for creature type.
• Nether Horror is a functional reprint of Giant Cockroach from 9th Edition, save for creature type.
• Pyretic Ritual is a functional reprint of Desperate Ritual from Champions of Kamigawa, save for subtype - although it is not an arcane and therefore does not have splice onto arcane.

Colorshifted

• Assault Griffin is a colorshifted version of Jagwasp Swarm from Worldwake, Snapping Drake from Magic 2010 and Talas Air Ship from Portal Second Age, save for creature type.
• Manic Vandal is a colorshifted version of Uktabi Orangutan from Sixth Edition and Viridian Shaman from Tenth Edition, save for creature type.
• Reverberate is a colorshifted version of Twincast from Magic 2010.

Intro Packs

As of Magic 2011, intro packs will again be sixty card decks, rather than the 41 card decks they have been since Shards of Alara. They still come with a 15-card booster enclosed.

The intro packs are: Template:Intro packs

Cards removed from Magic 2010

With the removal of Mesa Enchantress, Magic 2011 is the first core set to not have an Enchantress. Mesa Enchantress replaced Verduran Enchantress in Magic 2010. Both have been used in Enchantress decks.

Trivia

The card Ancient Hellkite was the promotional card given out at release events, is is also available as a foil in the theme deck Breath of Fire.

Apart from the two cycles of planeswalker's spells, Magic 2011 contains a number of new cards that pay homage to Magic's past:

• Barony Vampire appears to be from the Dark Barony on Ulgrotha.
• Dryad's Favor depicts a Borderland Ranger in its artwork.
• Elixir of Immortality has flavor text attributed to Baron Sengir of the Dark Barony.
• Roc Egg is a reference to the card Rukh Egg from Arabian Nights.
• Hornet Sting is a reference to the card Bee Sting from Portal and Portal Second Age.
• Serra Ascendant refers to the pre-mending planeswalker Serra and her plane.
• Sword of Vengeance looks like the sword of the archangel Akroma, and grants some of her abilities to the creature it equips.

External links

• Magic 2011 product page