Magic 2010
Magic: The Gathering 2010 Core Set (Magic 2010), the current core set, was released July 17, 2009. The worldwide Prerelease took place July 11-12, and Launch Parties took place July 17-19.
Set details
Magic 2010 is the first core set since Beta to bring new cards. It is also the first core set with planeswalkers and mythic rares. There are no legendary cards in the set, unlike the previous core set. This set is sold in the new 6-card booster packs, as well as the standard 15-card ones which have the makeup first set forward in Shards of Alara.
Because the set contained new cards, a pre-release was held for the set, at which a promotional version of Vampire Nocturnus was given out to players. The promotional card for the launch party was Ant Queen, also a new card.
Marketing cards
Boosters of Magic 2010 come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a "tips & tricks card" or a creature token from Magic 2010. One face of the Magic 2010 bonus card has one of fifteen different rules tips or is one of eight different creature tokens. The other face has one of 13 advertisements for organized play programs, Zendikar, Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox Live, Magic Online, fat packs, From the Vault: Exiled and Ultra Pro products for Magic.
Tips & Tricks
The tips & tricks cards are:
- Assigning Combat Damage
- Planeswalker Cards
- Parts of the Turn
- Battlefield & Exile
- Damage & Lifelink
- Deathtouch
- Mana Pool
- Tokens & Counters
- Building a Deck
- Limited Formats
- The Stack
- Two-Card Combos
- Two-Card Combos
- Two-Card Combos
- Two-Card Combos
Tokens
The Magic 2010 tokens are:
*/* Avatar produced by Ajani Goldmane- 1/1 Soldier produced by Captain of the Watch
2/2 Zombie produced by Cemetery Reaper
1/1 Goblin produced by Siege-Gang Commander
3/3 Beast produced by Garruk Wildspeaker- 1/1 Insect produced by Ant Queen
- 2/2 Wolf produced by Howl of the Night Pack and Master of the Wild Hunt
- Colorless 3/4 Artifact Gargoyle produced by Gargoyle Castle
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 - There will no longer be a time-window between the assigning of damage and the damage being dealt in which activated abilities or instants could be played. Instead, damage is dealt as soon as the players have finished assigning it.
- Multiple blockers are assigned damage in succession - If a creature is blocked by multiple creatures, the attacking players numbers the blockers in the order the attacking creature will deal damage to them. A creature can only assign damage to a blocking creature with a higher number if all creatures with numbers below that creatures number have been assigned lethal damage.
- E.g.: A Trained Armodon (green, 3/3) is blocked by a Grizzly Bears and a Cylian Elf (both 2/2). The attacking player numbers the Bears as "Blocker #1" and the Elf as "Blocker #2". Now the defending player casts Shelter and gives the Bears protection from green. The attacking player now must assign 2 damage to the Bears and can only assign 1 point of damage to the Elf. Both 2/2's survive as the Bears damage is prevented by protection and the Elf is not dealt lethal damage. Meanwhile the Armodon is dealt a total of 4 damage and is destroyed since the damage on it exceeds it's toughness.
- 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.
- Bands with Others - Bands with Others was changed to allow more creatures into the bands.
Cycles
- Color Hosers: Each of these uncommon cards is specifically designed to be played against its enemy colors — Celestial Purge, Flashfreeze, Deathmark, Ignite Disorder and Mold Adder (with only the adder having any effect at all - being a 1/1 - against decks without cards of its enemy colors).
- Dual Lands: Each of these rare lands comes into play tapped unless you control a basic land of one of the appropriate types — Glacial Fortress, Drowned Catacomb, Dragonskull Summit, Rootbound Crag and Sunpetal Grove.
- "Lucky charms": Each costing
and hosting an ability that allows its controller to gain 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.) - Planeswalkers: The original cycle of Planeswalkers from Lorwyn was reprinted as mythic rares — Ajani Goldmane, Jace Beleren, Liliana Vess, Chandra Nalaar and Garruk Wildspeaker.
- Tribal Lords: Each of these rare creatures gives other creatures of their type +1/+1 and has an additional ability related to them — Captain of the Watch, Merfolk Sovereign, Cemetery Reaper, Goblin Chieftain and Elvish Archdruid.
Mirrored pairs
Magic 2010 has 4 mirrored pairs.
- Holy Strength and Unholy Strength are both common Auras with enchant creature that give a mirrored bonus to the enchanted creature's power/toughness.
- White Knight and Black Knight are both uncommon Knights with a mana cost of CC, power/toughness of 2/2, first strike and protection from the other's color.
- Mind Spring and Mind Shatter are both rare sorceries with a mana cost of
CC which result in a player drawing or discarding X cards. - Divination and Mind Rot are both common sorceries with a mana cost of C which result in a player drawing or discarding 2 cards.
Functional reprints
Magic 2010 has 20 functional reprints:
- Act of Treason is a functional reprint of Threaten from 10th Edition,
- Blinding Mage is a functional reprint of Master Decoy from 9th Edition and Benalish Trapper from Invasion, save for creature type.
- Borderland Ranger is a functional reprint of Civic Wayfinder from 10th Edition, save for creature type.
- Canyon Minotaur is a functional reprint of Hill Giant from 10th Edition, save for creature type.
- Centaur Courser is a functional reprint of Nessian Courser from Future Sight.
- Disentomb is a functional reprint of Raise Dead from 9th Edition and Return to Battle from Portal Three Kingdoms.
- Divination is a functional reprint of Counsel of the Soratami from 10th Edition.
- Divine Verdict is a functional reprint of Neck Snap from Lorwyn.
- Essence Scatter is a functional reprint of Remove Soul from 10th Edition, False Summoning from Portal Second Age and Preemptive Strike from Portal Three Kingdoms.
- Elite Vanguard is a functional reprint of Savannah Lions from 9th Edition, save for creature type.
- Goblin Artillery is a functional reprint of Orcish Artillery from 10th Edition and Orcish Cannoneers from Ice Age, save for creature type.
- Griffin Sentinel is a functional reprint of Skyhunter Prowler from 10th Edition, save for creature type.
- Kelinore Bat is a functional reprint of Dusk Imp from 10th Edition, save for creature type.
- Mind Control is a functional reprint of Persuasion from 10th Edition.
- Runeclaw Bear is a functional reprint of Cylian Elf from Shards of Alara, Grizzly Bears from 10th Edition, Balduvian Bears from Ice Age, Bear Cub from Portal Second Age, Forest Bear from Portal Three Kingdoms and Barbary Apes from Legends, save for creature type.
- Silvercoat Lion is a functional reprint of Glory Seeker from 9th Edition, Knight Errant from 7th Edition and Fresh Volunteers from Mercadian Masques, save for creature type.
- Stormfront Pegasus is a functional reprint of Mistral Charger from Dissension.
- Vampire Aristocrat is a functional reprint of Nantuko Husk from 10th Edition and Phyrexian Ghoul from Urza's Saga, save for creature type.
- Viashino Spearhunter is a functional reprint of Sabretooth Tiger from 8th Edition, save for creature type.
- Zephyr Sprite is a functional reprint of Flying Men from Time Spiral, save for creature type.
- Zombie Goliath is a functional reprint of Dreg Reaver from Shards of Alara, save for creature type.
Intro Packs
For the first time, intro packs in a core set are two colored instead of the usual mono colored decks.
The intro packs are: Template:Intro packs
Cards added to Magic 2010
Changes in rarity
The biggest changes were the moving of the Lorwyn Planeswalkers from rare to mythic rare and the card Righteousness, which had always been rare, was moved to uncommon.
Cards removed from 10th Edition
- The cycle of Manlands, Muses (rare spirit creatures), Painlands (both allied and enemy colored rare lands) and the Weavers (2/1 Wizards that have abilities that help allied-color creatures) were not included in Magic 2010.
- The 11 legendary cards that were added to 10th Edition were not included in Magic 2010.
- With the removal of Story Circle, there are no white enchantments that grant protection from a color in the core set. Core sets had the Circle of Protection cycle for a long time. Now, there are no enchantments that grant protection.
- The instant Windstorm is a uncommon replacement for the rare sorcery Hurricane, the latter damages players also while the former does not.
- There are no cards with the fear keyword ability in the set. The similar keyword Intimidate was introduced into the Comprehensive Rules but was not printed on any cards until Zendikar's release.
- The rare sorcery Day of Judgment in Zendikar provided a replacement for the rare sorcery Wrath of God, the latter prevented regeneration while the former does not.