Party Like It’s 2029!

What’s good, Spirit Squad! Today we’re gonna go over the newest set, and in my opinion one of the most important in recent Magic: the Gathering history: Magic: the Gathering Foundations!

For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, Foundations is a set that reminds me of the various Core set releases that we’ve had in the summer, like Magic 2011 or Magic: the Gathering Origins that contain both reprints of classic fan-favorite cards and new cards that tend to have some impact on at least one constructed format.

Of course we’re going to talk about some of the cards that are actually being printed in Foundations, but first there are two relatively major points of impact that tie into this set release.

• Unlike other reprint or even other traditional Standard-legal sets, Foundations will be Standard-legal until at least 2029. We’re used to playing with Standard-legal cards for 2 years, and this has very recently been moved to 3, but the same cards being legal for 5 years in a row is unprecedented for the Standard format.
• The second is a rule change that ties into damage assignment during combat. Previously, if I attacked you with a 5/5 and you block with two 3/3’s, I had to choose one creature to be assigned 3 damage first, and then the other 2 damage could go to the creature assigned to be second. You could then cast a Giant Growth onto the one I assigned to be first, making it a 6/6. When damage finally happened, my 5/5 would die, your 6/6 would live, and your 3/3 would also live since I only assigned 2 damage to it. Now, instead of a first or a second creature, damage just… happens, and when it does I can assign it as I choose. You can still cast the same Giant Growth, but now I can choose to deal 3 or even all 5 of my damage to the one you didn’t cast the Giant Growth on and kill that creature. For Limited players and fans of Aggro decks, this is a HUGE change.

(As someone who is neither, I have no… objections to this rule change)

OK, so you mentioned new cards and reprints?

Yeah, like any other core set, Foundations has a ton of reprints and new cards that will have a significant impact on Standard, at the very least, with some potential to affect older formats. Since we’ve already seen the reprints, I’ll talk some about those first and save the newest/best for last:

(5-star reprint for Azorius Control fans!)

Day of Judgment is one of the most important cards to be printed in any Standard format. It’s not quite Wrath of God, but since Wizards of the Coast is all but done with Regeneration as a mechanic (Wolverine, Best There Is is like the only exception) they may as well be the same card. Most “sweeper” effects that get printed into Standard set have a clause that make them usually-worse than Day of Judgment: Sunfall and Deadly Cover-Up cost 5 mana instead of 4, No Witnesses usually draws the opponent a card, and even Split Up doesn’t kill everything if you have a prepared opponent.

(3-star reprint, also for Azorius Control fans)

Think Twice is one of those timeless (…not like the format, whoops) cards that just acts as a “glue piece” to let Control decks hit their land drops and play the game at their own pace. Deduce is still better in lists that contain Caretaker’s Talent, but Think Twice will see a lot more play than it looks like it should “on paper”.

(2.5-star reprint for quite a few Black decks)

Phyrexian Arena is one of those cards that has given control opponents fits for years. Aggro, Midrange, and Control decks all like having access to more cards than a control opponent, and Phyrexian Arena is a perfect “set it and forget it” card in a matchup where your life total almost never matters. Right now, Unholy Annex does a much better job at this but when it rotates players will be looking to Phyrexian Arena to do a lot of the same job.

(5-star reprint for basically anything Red!)

Abrade is one of the best removal spells we’ve seen in recent history, period. This card is “sees play in Vintage” good, and it’ll be a welcome addition to a lot of decks over the next few years.

(Llanowar Elves is legitimately worth a 6th star out of 5)

Llanowar Elves is an absolutely busted Magic card, to the point where I can’t honestly tell y’all why they keep putting it into Standard formats. The point of new sets is to have exciting new things highlighted, and Llanowar Elves is ALWAYS the most powerful thing you can be doing in a Standard format. Just know that the line of “Llanowar Elves on 1, Unholy Annex on 2” is going to come up a LOT in tournaments.

Cool. We’ve seen these before though. What’s the new stuff like? 

To put it right out there: not a single one of the new cards in Foundations is anywhere near as good as Llanowar Elves. I see this as a positive. With that said, there are still a lot of very cool and exciting cards, and I’ve picked one of each color to highlight today!

Skyknight Squire is one of those deceptively-good Aggro cards that fits into quite a few shells that already exist in Standard. There are already decks like Azorius Aggro or Jeskai Convoke that benefit from 2-drops like Regal Bunnicorn, and Skyknight Squire adds a nice bit of redundancy for those players.

Kiora, the Rising Tide is one of those cards that I feel like does everything, and there’s a chance this card will see play outside of just Standard and Commander. The draw + discard effect is great for any deck, a 3/2 is a reasonable body if you’re a deck that’s slow enough to care about blocking in combat, and the Threshold ability is going to be good enough to make Kiora a realistic win condition for multiple decks. Look out for this one.

High-Society Hunter is my Black card of the set, but it’s only a smidge ahead of Bloodthirsty Conqueror. Both are cards that can enable combo decks, but I think High-Society Hunter will ultimately play a more unique role. Bloodthirsty Conqueror does have an infinite combo with Marauding Blight-Priest that you can assemble in LIMITED, which is crazy, but I think there’s more brewing space with High-Society Hunter and graveyard-based cards like Gravecrawler. I’m excited to see which of these cards ends up actually being played more.

Boltwave is one of those simple but effective cards that will see a little play in multiple formats. Burn decks already exist in Modern, and to a smaller extent, Pioneer. An important thing to remember for these archetypes is that Boros Charm was also printed into Foundations and Monastery Swiftspear is Standard-legal, so there will be Standard Burn decks.

Last but definitely not least, Magic’s latest mascot is a card that will see a ton of play on the virtue of being plain old interesting. Loot, Exuberant Explorer won’t exactly break Standard in half anytime soon, but its ability to ramp up your mana by specifically allowing extra land drops and be a poor-man’s Tooth and Nail means that I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this card found its way into Modern Primeval Titan-based decks.

All in all, I’m pretty excited about what Foundations will bring to Standard, as well as the other formats. The idea of people getting to keep cards in their Standard-legal collections for 5 years when we were used to 2 is absolutely stellar, and I think it’ll make a lot of people reconsider the format. For the 40th time now, I also think Standard is in an incredibly fun and healthy place, so if you were kind of considering it before I think now’s the time to jump in! For anyone who’s traveling a little and playing the format here in the United States, come shake my hand and chat. As for everyone else, I’ll see y’all on the next one!