Magic 2010
Magic: The Gathering 2010 Core Set or Magic 2010 for short will be released July 17, 2009. The worldwide Prerelease will take place July 11-12, and Launch Parties will be July 17-19.
Set details
Magic 2010 will be the first core set since Beta to bring new cards. It will also be the very first core set with planeswalkers and mythic rares. Also this set will be sold in new 6-card booster packs, as well as the standard 15-card ones.
Rule changes
Many rule changes are implemented with Magic 2010, the most changes since Sixth Edition core set changes.
- Simultaneous Mulligan - Starting with the player who will take the first turn of the game and proceeding in turn order around the table, each player announces whether he or she will take a mulligan or not. Then everyone who said they would take a mulligan does so at the same time. (If no one's taking a mulligan, the game proceeds onward.) If any players took a mulligan, then just those players repeat the process to see if any of them will take a second mulligan: First they announce yes or no, then all the yeses shuffle and redraw at the same time. This continues among the mulliganers until everyone's satisfied with their starting hands. Once you decide you're not taking a mulligan, your starting hand is locked in. You can't jump back into the mulligan process later.
- Battlefield - The in-play zone is renamed the "battlefield," which brings it in line with other flavorful zone names like "graveyard" and "library." Permanents now "enter the battlefield" or are "put onto the battlefield" as opposed to "come into play" or "put into play."
- Cast, Play, and Activate - "Cast" is being reinstated as the verb used when referring to the act of playing spells or types of spells. "Play" is being kept as the verb associated with lands (and with cards of unspecified types). Activated abilities are also no longer "played" but rather "activated."
- Exile - The phrase "remove from the game" is being changed to "exile," which is shorter, more flavorful, and not at all misleading about actually being in the game. The zone is now called the "exile zone" and cards in it will be referred to as "exiled cards."
- Beginning of the End Step - The "end-of-turn step" is now called "end step" and the phrase "at end of turn" will be replaced with "at the beginning of the end step".
- Mana Pools and Mana Burn - 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. 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.
- Token Ownership - Now the owner of a token is the player under whose control it entered the battlefield.
- Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack -
- 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. As a side effect, multiple instances of deathtouch will no longer be cumulative. Second, deathtouch allows a double-blocked creature to ignore the new damage assignment rules and split its damage among any number of creatures it's in combat with however its controller wants to.
- 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. This brings the timing much closer to spells like Consume Spirit and Lightning Helix. As a side effect, multiple instances of lifelink are no longer cumulative.
Intro Packs
The intro packs are: Template:Intro packs