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Listed here are the latest Magic: the Gathering announcements. These are exerpted from rec.games.trading-cards.announce, other Magic Usenet groups, and other sources. September 9, 1997 DCI changes the global weighting system June 26, 1997 Wizards aquires Five Rings Publishing, maker of Legend of the Five Rings June 5, 1997 June 1st DCI banned/restricted lists changes March 25, 1997 March 21, 1997 Wizards Announces Weatherlight February 18, 1997 January 23, 1997 January 21, 1997 December 2, 1996 All Type II Restricted to become Banned November 21, 1996 Wizards Announces Fifth Edition November 19, 1996 Wizards Announcing Plans to Stop Selling the Chronicles Expansion Set November 12, 1996 Visions Pre-Release Tournaments Announced August 20, 1996 July 21, 1996 WotC Press Release : ARENA -- THE LEAGUE FOR MAGIC: THE GATHERING
July 1, 1996 Magic Rules Team Rulings General Rulings The following rulings are meant to clarify the rulebook, and how the game in general works: 1) MAJOR CHANGE: Abilities can no longer be "pumped" if you are capable of paying their cost more than once. Whenever you play an ability, you pay its cost once for each time you generate that effect. For example, you can no longer pay {B}{B}{B} to have Pestilence deal 3 damage as a single effect but would have to play the ability three times, paying {B} and dealing 1 damage each time. 2) ANOTHER BIG CHANGE: We have also eliminated most of the timing rules for decisions required by a spell or ability. The general rule is now as follows: If the decision involves seeing hidden information (such as the contents of someone's library) or choosing cards in someone's hand (other than as a cost), then the decision is not made until resolution. All other decisions are made when the spell or ability is played. The caster of the spell decides first. All that matters is what the decision is about, not who is making it; the rules for your opponent are the same as for you. This change engenders various minor reversals throughout the card set, which aren't really worth listing here. For example, players now must choose how many cards to draw for Diminishing Returns when the spell is played, not during resolution, and Vexing Arcanix now requires that the card be named when the ability is played, not when the effect resolves. Certain types of card text will systematically override this rule, such as on spells and abilities like Mind Bomb that allow players to prevent their effects. Obviously, the text on existing cards can also create exceptions to the rule; no errata are being issued to eliminate these. (For example, the decisions required for Balance are considered to hinge on hidden information.) 3) Previously it was ruled that if someone plays an effect that lasted "until end of turn" during the Heal Creatures phase, the "until end of turn" part of the effect is ignored. Similarly, any "at end of turn" effects generated during Heal Creatures are ignored. This rule should be extended so that it is in force once "at end of turn" effects have begun resolving. For example, an Ivory Gargoyle returns to play at end of turn; if it then dies due to a Vibrating Sphere, ignore the "return at end of turn" effect that triggers as a result. 4) If Mana Flare is in play and a land's ability produces more than one type of mana at the same time, the extra mana can be of any of these types. For example, if you tap Balduvian Trading Post for {1}{R} while Mana Flare is in play, you choose whether an extra {1} or an extra {R} is produced. Remember that this does not apply to lands that produce distinct types of mana; for example, Badlands only produces either black or red mana each time it is tapped for mana. 5) Permanents that cannot be the target of enchantments can still be targeted by the abilities of enchantments. For example, while Veteran's Voice (creature enchantment) cannot be played on Bartel Runeaxe (cannot be the target of creature enchantments), its ability may target Bartel normally. 6) Certain effects, such as Sustaining Spirit's, will prevent damage from reducing your life total below a certain amount. These effects trigger at the end of damage prevention, and total up all of the damage being dealt to you. If that would reduce your life total to below the threshold of the effect, the excess damage is prevented Qyou choose which. For example, a Sengir Vampire and Hypnotic Specter deal damage to you while you are at 2 life; Sustaining Spirit will prevent 5 damage, which could include all of the Specter's damage and most of the Vampire's. This same ruling applies to Ali from Cairo. Remember that effects that prevent your life total from being reduced below a certain amount have no effect if it is already below that amount. 7) If a spell or ability targets something to pay a cost, it cannot fizzle against that target when it resolves. For example, Benthic Explorers instructs you to "untap target tapped land an opponent controls" as the cost of its effect; the fact that the land will (typically) be untapped when the effect resolves won't cause the effect to fizzle. 8) If a creature is given rampage twice, its total rampage value is equal to the sum of the rampage values. For example, if you play Rapid Fire on Gabriel Angelfire and then use his upkeep ability to give him rampage, he will have a total of rampage: 5. REVERSALS 1) Glyph of Doom was misfiled when we made the rulings on blocking abilities last year. It actually destroys all creatures that the target wall is blocking at the time the spell resolves, though not until end of combat. 2) Mind Bomb does not force you to discard cards to prevent its damage, so Library of Leng does not allow you to discard them to the top of your library. 3) The second ability of Mishra's Factory is "this card becomes an Assembly Worker." The ability can be used if the card is already an Assembly Worker; this will also reset the land's base power and toughness to 2/2 if an effect had changed them. CARD ERRATA 1) The errata for Eater of the Dead has been scrolled back to one of the earlier versions: "{0}: Remove a creature card in any graveyard from the game to untap Eater of the Dead. Use this ability only while Eater of the Dead is untapped." While this allows a single tapped Eater to empty the graveyards of creatures, this is less undesirable than having it loop with enchantments like Krovikan Plague. 2) When Lord of Tresserhorn comes into play, you lose 2 life rather than paying 2 life, so your life total goes down if it's below 2. 3) Magus of the Unseen has the same errata as Ray of Command: the artifact only becomes tapped if you lose control of it at end of turn. 4) Arcum's Whistle, Nettling Imp, Norritt, and Siren's Call only force creatures to attack during the turn in which the spell or ability is played, not for the rest of the game. SPECIFIC CARD RULINGS None. Tom Wylie rec.games.trading-cards.* Network Representative for a***a@a***s.edu Wizards of the Coast, Inc. | |