The Magic Foundations panel at MagicCon: Las Vegas debuted a great deal of information about the set, including tons of previews, but possibly the biggest reveal came after the panel, when Wizards of the Coast (WotC) shared the set’s mechanics overview article.
Mechanics
Below you’ll find several cards featuring returning mechanics in Magic Foundations. A full breakdown of these mechanics can be found here.
Flashback
Threshold
Prowess
Raid
Changes to Damage Assignment Order
With the release of Magic Foundations in November, the concept of damage assignment order will be completely removed. Currently, damage order is “…used whenever an attacking creature was blocked by more than one creature,” however according to WotC, this iteration has become “…unintuitive, adds a fair bit of rules baggage, and losing it means more interesting decisions and less double-dipping if you know the tricks.”
With damage assignment order removed, it reads as follows:
“Damage assignment order no longer exists. If a creature is facing multiple opposing creatures in combat, that creature’s combat damage is assigned and dealt as its controller desires during the combat damage step. Other players won’t necessarily know what’s going to happen.”
Below is an example of the current mechanic versus the new.
Current: “I attacked with a 5/5 creature and you blocked with a 3/3 and a 4/4, I would put your creatures in one of the two possible orders. Let’s say I put the 3/3 first because I really want it gone. You’re holding a spell that can save one of your creatures, such as Giant Growth. After the order is set, knowing the 3/3 is first in line, you cast Giant Growth on the 3/3. During the combat damage step, I need to assign at least 3 damage to the 3/3-now-6/6 before I can assign any to the 4/4.”
With Damage Assignment Removed: “…my 5/5 attacker gets blocked by your 3/3 and your 4/4. It’s now the declare blockers step, after blockers are declared, our last opportunity to do anything before combat damage is dealt. I pass priority. You have that Giant Growth in hand. You can still save the creature of your choice. We’ll say you want to save that 3/3, probably for the same reason I wanted it gone, so you pump it up to a 6/6. We move on to combat damage, and now I get to assign my creature’s 5 damage any way I want. Most likely, I’ll take out your 4/4, as it’s the best I can do. But maybe I have, you know … plans and would rather deal 3 damage to the 6/6 and 2 damage to the 4/4. That’s okay, too.”
According to WotC, removing damage assignment “streamlines some rules that are complex and anchored a bit in the past” and will also place the decision making abilities of the attacking player on more equal footing with the player blocking.
While this change may catch many enfranchised players off-guard, WotC states they’ve been testing the change internally for over a year and are confident the decision will be beneficial for the game.
Read the original article from WotC.
