I seriously considered making a new topic but this topic has a lot of information in it and I don't want to be a Necro bumper, but I feel this is better way to do it. Tell me if I'm wrong.
Anyway the reason I want to go on a rant is Magic is going through a rules change, some very significant ones and I want to discuss those. If no one is really interested that's ok but I felt it would be nice to let you guys know about the rules changes, how they will impact gameplay, and how I feel about them.
So here is the
article from Wizards that explains the rules changes in general, it's pretty long so I want to condense it here. I'd love to hear what you guys think about it because I think they are all good for the game in the long run. There's was "The sky is falling" when combat damage was no longer on the stack. The legend rule change to what it is now was another "The sky is falling". Wizards is a hell of a company(and my dream Job), they know what they're doing.
Change 1 "The Legend Rule"Before the M14 rules changes, if you played a legendary permanent or Planeswalker with the same name, both would die due to state based effects, it happens immediately. Now with the M14 rules changes both players can control the same legendary permanent or Planeswalker. This is MASSIVE, I can't overstate how much this changes the game.
The best Planeswalker ever
Jace, the Mind Sculptor if your opponent played one first and you played your own to kill their's, yea you're down a few cards but you're at board parity hopefully. Now If I play Jace first and they follow up with one, they are MORE far behind than if he killed both of ours. I get 1 more activation of my Planeswalker, and the nature of Planeswalkers is the more they are in play, your chances of winning go up FAST.
I want to present another change that affects the Legend rule. For example, your opponent has 2 creatures on board and you really want to kill them both. Let's say I have a
Liliana, of the Veil in play and one in hand that I can cast. Before the new Legend rule, if I -2 Sacrifice a creature and she doesn't die, I can't play my other Liliana because they would both die. Now with the M14 Legend rule if you control 2 Legendary permanents you choose 1 of them and sacrifice it. You can choose either the new or old one. So with M14, I -2 Sacrifice a creature, play my new Liliana and choose the old one the sacrifice, and now I have a fresh Liliana.
As you can see this is a big change to how the game has been played for almost 7 years. This is the most important rules change and has made my matches much more mentally intensive when I can't just answer their Legend or Planeswalker with my own.
There are more examples to get into but I want to keep this brief so I'm moving on.
Rule Change 2: Sideboards in Constructed Tournaments.Before the rules change. Your deck could be 60 cards or more and your sideboard 0 or 15 cards. Under the new rules the sideboards don't need to be 15 cards. For example I could present a deck with 62 cards and 13 cards in the Sideboard.
This does two things. The first thing it does is prevent unnecessary game losses by forgetting to sideboard out 1 card and present an illegal deck which is a game loss, this changes makes that no issue and it's a good change. It also opens up a small window for strategy also. For example you know your playing a bad match up and you need a good draw to win. It might be worth it to sideboard in 2-3 cards to increase the spell density in your deck. Yes you will have a lower chance of drawing the necessary lands, but if you do you have 3 spells more than they do and that could win you the match up. It's going to be gutsy, but an option. I also think siding in 1 card will be an option some people consider. I'm going to post a chart of what is a legal deck to present and an illegal deck to present
Game 1 Subsequent Games Legality
60/15 60/15 Legal
60/15 61/14 Legal
60/15 75/0 Legal
75/0 60/15 Legal
60/10 63/7 Legal
250/15 60/205 Illegal
60/15 50/25 Illegal
As you can see this opens up new strategies and gives players more options, which is great.
The next two are kind of fluff but I'll give a short description.
Rules change #3 Indestructible Promoted to Keyword and #4 to Keyword Unblockable Demoted to Definitely Not a Keyword#3 From the article, "I frequently get asked why indestructible isn't a keyword. The answer has always been because it doesn't need to be. It's just an English word with a definition, slightly modified for use in Magic." Basically if you know nothing about Magic and I tell you this is indestructible, you'd understand it can't be killed (well except Exile). It just a simplification for players. Good change! A little more info on a case.
Case 1: A permanent is made indestructible by another spell or ability (for example,
Withstand Death), and then it loses all abilities. Previously, it would still be indestructible, because that was just something true about the permanent. It wasn't an ability the permanent had. With the change, the permanent will no longer have indestructible.
#4 Keyword Unblockable Demoted to Definitely Not a Keyword. Before M14 cards would say there were "Unblockable". Now instead they will read "can't be blocked." It will function the same way.
That's all there is to it.
#5 Playing Additional LandsThis change is bigger than 3 and 4 but not 1 and 2. Basically it simplifies the number of land drops you get per turn. I'll give and example. Say I have an
Oracle of Mul Daya in play. Before the rules change If I had and
Oracle of Mul Daya in play, I could play 2 lands and if they killed my
Oracle of Mul Daya I could play another one and play a 3rd land.
Under the M14 rules the game checks constantly for your allowed "land drops" take the above situation. When I have
Oracle of Mul Daya in play I am allowed what is called "2 land drops". They kill my
Oracle of Mul Daya and I play another. The game checks again for how many land drops I have and it's only 2 so I can't play the 3rd lands.
That's basically it. Let me know if you guys like this kind of stuff, this was big so I wanted to share it. If you want me to help with decks, talk about the game in general, or the different formats, I'd love to, I love this game. I want to know what you guys what me to do. If you want me to record some Constructed and Draft video to watch I'd love to, I stream a little. I hope you'd enjoy my commentary and content, I've been playing for 14 years and I've rededicated myself to this game. I got second in an Invitational qualifier that I wanted to win so bad, the real kick in the nuts what instead of the $250 travel voucher they give out, he got cash.
Anyway that's my rant. I hope it's not too long but these are big changes.
