MagicCon: Amsterdam hosted a Preview Panel for Magic: The Gathering (MTG) on Friday, June 28, 2024. During the panel, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) employees debuted a previously unknown set, Foundations.
What Is Foundations?
Foundations offers a stable starting experience for new MTG players. The Foundations set will be Standard-legal, and for an extended period of time: while most MTG sets are in Standard for between two and three years, Foundations “will be Standard legal through at least 2029”.
In addition to Play Boosters and Collector Boosters, Foundations will also have The Beginner Box and Starter Kits. Both products were built with teaching new players in mind and will help newcomers begin their MTG collections.
Reprints
The set features a mix of reprints and new cards. Among the classics returning to Standard are Llanowar Elves, Day of Judgment, and Omniscience.
New Cards
The set also includes new cards. The panel revealed two of them, Anthem of Champions and Nine-Lives Familiar.
Anthem of Champions is a rare multicolor enchantment, costing GW, with “Creatures you control get +1/+1”. A call-back to early MTG card Glorious Anthem, the new Anthem of Champions has art and flavor text referencing MTG’s Theros plane (setting).
Nine-Lives Familiar, another rare card, costs 1BB for a 1/1 Cat creature. It tells the story of a cat having nine lives by entering with eight revival counters on it if you cast it, and then, when it dies, if it had a revival counter on it, it returns to the battlefield with one fewer revival counter on it at the beginning of the next end step.
Special Treatments
Like other MTG sets, Foundations will offer special treatments, including borderless and alternate art.
While the panel revealed no further Foundations cards, the panel did confirm that the set will also include five planeswalkers.
Foundations will release on November 15, 2024.
