Writer Wizards of the Coast has spent the previous couple of years focusing on two very totally different segments of the Magic: The Gathering viewers. On the one hand, you will have the multiplayer model of play known as Commander, arguably the sport’s hottest format. However, you will have the bold Universes Past merchandise, designed to show the heads of lapsed followers and non-players alike with merchandise that assist a number of kinds of play. Now the buying and selling card recreation is returning to its roots with a brand new set known as Foundations, a set of playing cards and a curated play expertise custom-built for newcomers.
Foundations launches on Nov. 15, and can have all the trimmings of a mainline set launch — that features Play boosters, Collector boosters, Jumpstart boosters, and Bundles in addition to all the identical pre-release pomp and circumstance as every other new set of playing cards. However it’ll additionally characteristic two new-to-Magic merchandise: a Newbie Field and a Starter Assortment.
![Nine-Live Familiar is a Creature, a cat, that costs 1 colorless and two black mana. At 1/1, it has special abilities that allow it to revive itself after death.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Z3Og-fQG8aeagghhKe3GympQPt8=/0x0:773x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:773x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25508796/0066_MTGFDN_MainNew.jpg)
Picture: Wizards of the Coast
![Anthem of Champions is an Enchantment costing one green and one white mana. It gives creatures the caster controls a 1/1 buff.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5hXX3soBASW73zMHLhJr_HQ79L0=/0x0:773x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:773x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25508797/0116_MTGFDN_MainNew.jpg)
Picture: Wizards of the Coast
Wizards’ recreation design director Bryan Hawley instructed Polygon that the Newbie Field will embody 10 packets with 20 playing cards inside every one, with two packets for every of Magic’s 5 colours of mana. Utilizing a mix-and-match system initially designed for the Jumpstart product line, gamers will be capable to mix and recombine these 10 packets into many various sorts of decks. Not less than a few of these packets will likely be pre-shuffled, with the intent that gamers will first open and discover them alongside an in depth, step-by-step written tutorial.
“One of many issues that Foundations is de facto attempting to do otherwise than any of our previous makes an attempt at an onboarding expertise,” mentioned Hawley, “is to essentially deal with that full pathway, [taking a new player from] I’m fascinated by Magic, however I don’t know something! up by way of Oh, I’ve recognized what I love to do and I’m going to do extra of that! So the Newbie Field is a considerably extra built-out expertise that has much more content material [than previous starter sets]. You’ll be able to play dozens of video games straight from the field.”
![Day of Judgement is a Sorcery costing two colorless and two white mana. It destroys all creatures on the table.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9Zk9tJMYFrPr54tKMDhSDWPUpYE=/0x0:773x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:773x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25508799/0140_MTGFDN_MainRep.jpg)
Picture: Wizards of the Coast
![Omniscience is an Enchantment costing 7 colorless and three blue mana — which is quite a lot. It allows the caster to cast spells from their hand without paying their cost in mana.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XREJ0n5WSHNI0E4lspN0eKfDuK0=/0x0:773x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:773x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25508798/0161_MTGFDN_MainRep.jpg)
Picture: Wizards of the Coast
![Llanowar Elves is a Creature, and Elf Druid, that is 1/1 and adds a green mana when tapped.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jk2PwVglD5RJr5yXDC_MB3PdV5k=/0x0:773x1080/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:773x1080):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25508800/0227_MTGFDN_MainRep.jpg)
As soon as gamers have mastered the Foundations Newbie Field of 200 playing cards, then they’ll transfer on to the Starter Assortment. That 350-card field will assist them to increase on the themes and strategies they’ve already found, whereas additionally serving to maintain them nicely inside the heat embrace of a form of estuary — a spot of calm that ought to stay secure at the same time as a number of new units of playing cards are launched yr after yr.
That long-term stability is a brand new characteristic for Magic as an entire. When a brand new set of playing cards is launched it solely stays viable — that’s, “authorized” to play in sure codecs — for about three years. Hawley mentioned that playing cards from the Foundations set will likely be authorized to play till at the least 2029, or almost twice the same old size of time.
“Our hope and intention is that so long as the set continues doing its job,” Hawley mentioned, “serving to new gamers study the sport, get acclimated to the sport, and discover what they like in regards to the recreation — and being that basis for Customary usually — it’ll proceed to stay Customary-legal.”
Magic: The Gathering Foundations’ Newbie Field will retail for $29.99, whereas the bigger Starter Assortment will value $59.99. Count on extra info from Wizards within the lead-up to the discharge this fall.