On July 13, 2009, the rules of Magic will change slightly. These are mostly small changes that won’t be noticed, but some are importand. I’ll summarize each one, but if you want to read everything, there are detailed descriptions here.

1.  Simultaneous Mulligans

Starting July 13, mulligans will no longer be taken be one person first, then the other person. Instead, everyone will take announce their mulligans at the same time and take them simultaneously. If you didn’t know that you were supposed to take the mulligans in a certain order, than this won’t affect you at all.

2. Terminology changes

This is a change that won’t affect gameplay at all. In play now is the battlefield, spells that are played are now cast, abilities are activated, cards that are removed from the game are exiled, and abilities that happen at end of turn now happen at the  beginning of the end step. (While things that last until end of turn end after those things)

3. Mana Pools and Mana Burn

Mana burn is gone. Also, mana polls empty after every step and phase, instead of just emptying after every phase.

EDIT: I just realized that this invalidates the poll… I’ll close it now.

4. Token Ownership

Instead of the owner being the person who controlled the effect that put it into play, the owner is now the player whose control it came into play under.

5. Combat Damage No Longer Uses the Stack

This is simple. This eliminates a ton of tricks, and Mog Fanatic is now much less useful. Also, the way multiple blockers are handled has changed. Instead of the attacker assigning damage as s/he chooses, s/he chooses the order in which the creatures receive the damage, and damage is not done to the second creature in line at all until enough damage has been done to he first creature to kill it.

6&7. Lifelink and Deathtouch no longer use the stack

Both of the effects happen as a state-based effect as soon as the damage has been done. This means that if you are at 1, and block a 3/3 with a 2/2 with lifelink, and you let a 1/1 go through, you will not die. Under the old rules, lifelink would go on the stack, but then you would die before it could do anything. Also, 2 instances of lifelink now create only one effect. (For example, under the old rules, if you played Titanic Ultimatum on a rhox war monk, you would gain 14 life from the attack, but now you will only gain 7.)

Now for the preview cards. They are also in the article:

This is the new nonbasic duel land. It looks like Wizards is printing more and more nonbasic land hate, and they actually managed to print nonbasic hate on a nonbasic land with this card. This is probably a cycle of 5 lands with the same effect, only different colors, so this card is actually 5 preview cards in one.

This is a 2/1 with lifelink. Not a big deal.

This card is also not a very big deal, because it’s a 2/2 which will destroy one creature, and one artifact, enchantment, or land.

Any deck with enough skeletons, vampires, and zombies to make this useful will also have enough removal to destroy it as soon as it comes into play.

Hello. The Conflux FAQ has been posted on the wizards website. You can download it here.

I’ve been looking through the FAQ for some of the rules questions I’ve had. The first quote I’ve copied is from a comment I posted this:

Card 4: Magister Sphinx
(Image) The card says “When Magister Sphinx comes into play, target player’s life total becomes 10.” This is what I posted:

If you’re about to lose, you are suddenly at 10 life. If your opponent is playing a life gain deck, it’s all nullified. If your opponent is at 20, and you have a wound reflection (Shadowmoor, rare, black, enchantment) in play, and you play this, you win. (If your opponent is at 20, and his life total becomes 10, he lost 10 life. I’m almost certian about this.) (I think I just found a combo!)

I got a comment saying that this was wrong, and that the life total becomes 10, and the opponent doesn’t lose the life. Now, look at this quote from the FAQ:
“For a player’s life total to become 10, what actually happens is that the player gains or loses the appropriate amount of life. For example, if the targeted player’s life total is 4 when this ability resolves, it will cause that player to gain 6 life; alternately, if the targeted player’s life total is 17 when this ability resolves, it will cause that player to lose 7 life. Other cards that interact with life gain or life loss will interact with this effect accordingly.”

The second quote is from an argument I had with Zach about Progenitus. I thought I could switch prison term to Progenitus because I’m not targeting it, and Zach thought I can’t do that. Here’s the quote from the FAQ:

“– Progenitus can’t be enchanted or equipped.”

It turns out I’m wrong about this one. I can’t enchant it with prison term, even switching it from another creature.

Hello! There have been a ton of cards revealed. Ten today, plus Wizard’s official Meglonoth. As usual, you can download all 96.

Card 1: Maelstrom Archangel

Yes, it’s mythic number seven. This is a domain card, which thankfully can’t go into Zach’s Bant deck. It probably will go into his 5 color dragon deck, though. An extra creature in that deck is just what he needs for it.

Card 2: Charnelhoard Wurm

This card is going straight into my Jund deck, obviously. It not only has trample, but when it uses trample to hit the opponent, you get a card from the graveyard.

Rules Question

In a game I was playing with Zach yesterday, Zach had out Shield Dancer:

If the image quality is too low, it says

2W: The next time target attacking creature would deal combat damage to Shield Dancer this turn, that creature deals that damage to itself instead.

It’s a 1/3.

I attacked with a 13/13 with trample, and Zach blocked with his Shield Dancer, and paid the cost. But, the creature has trample, so it would normally only deal 3 damage to Shield Dancer. The question is, does it deal 13 damage to itself or does it deal 3 damage to itself and 10 to Zach? There is no answer to this in Gatherer, so I’m going to make it a poll here.

EDIT: Well, the polls don’t seem to be working, so I put it in the sidebar instead. It does seem to be working in the sidebar, so please vote.