(Originally published on 2025-04-05; last reviewed on 2025-04-05; last updated on 2025-04-05)
(Note: The CR and Oracle update for Tarkir: Dragonstorm came out during the editing of this article. I intentionally didn’t look at that update before publishing this post, but I will assume that at least some of the points I raise will have been fixed. Thank you for not writing a comment just to point out that the TDM update fixes one issue or another; I will get there in due time.)
With each new set release, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) updates the Comprehensive Rules (CR) and the Oracle text of any number of cards. These updates include support for new mechanics, error fixes, and improvements to the wording of rules and cards. In the past, WotC regularly published update bulletins which summarized and explained these changes. They stopped this practice in the fall of 2023, and update bulletins now release only sporadically.
In my opinion, this is not a major loss, since there had already been a trend toward simplified bulletins that merely note the introduction of new rules, without commenting on their design, and because fixes for existing errors have become practically nonexistent. As such, a CR diff found on Academy Ruins contains just as much information as I would expect from an official update bulletin these days. The truly interesting parts were the ones that explained why a new rule or a rules change was written the way it was, as they help immensely in understanding the intent behind a rule.
Of course, one can still analyze these updates and draw their own conclusions, with or without an official update bulletin. As a rules enthusiast, I quite enjoy reading through these updates and trying to understand the reasons behind them and what corner cases the new rules cover or don’t cover. If you are also interested in Magic‘s game rules and you miss the old update bulletins, this article may be for you.
Disclaimer: I have no special insight into the inner workings of WotC’s rules team, so any observations are based solely on the published updates and my own knowledge of and experience with Magic’s rules system. While I strive for completeness and correctness, I may have missed some changes; in particular, my process for archiving and comparing Gatherer revisions is still a work in progress.1
Comprehensive Rules changes
For this section, I recommend having a CR diff open in another window, such as the one found on Academy Ruins.
Updated Oracle text (nonfunctional)
With Aetherdrift, WotC finished a massive update to their card text templating (see Oracle changes, below). This affected the CR as well, since many Oracle text citations had to be updated. Some rules define or mention a specific template that they apply to, and some of these templates were also updated. For example, 702.29c used to read:
Some cards with cycling have abilities that trigger when they’re cycled. “When you cycle [this card]” means “When you discard [this card] to pay an activation cost of a cycling ability.” These abilities trigger from whatever zone the card winds up in after it’s cycled.
The card name replaced the bracketed part in actual Oracle text. The new template guidelines use “this card” instead of the card name. Accordingly, 702.29c was updated to read:
Some cards with cycling have abilities that trigger when they’re cycled. “When you cycle this card” means “When you discard this card to pay an activation cost of a cycling ability.” These abilities trigger from whatever zone the card winds up in after it’s cycled.
The following rules (or their examples) were updated: 107.1b, 110.5c, 111.4, 111.12, 113.2a, 113.6k, 113.6m, 113.7a, 118.12, 201.5a, 201.5b, 208.2a, 208.3a, 400.6, 400.7e, 407.3, 500.10, 508.1c, 603.12, 607.4, 607.5, 607.5a, 608.2k, 608.3e, 611.2b, 613.6, 614.12, 614.13a, 614.13c, 616.1f, 616.1g, 700.1, 700.14, 701.19f, 701.20d, 701.20g, 702.1b, 702.15e, 702.29c, 704.4, 707.2, 707.3, 707.4, 707.5, 707.6, 707.9a, 707.9b, 707.9d, 707.9e, 707.9f, 707.11, and 729.3.
Two of these updates come with a small error. The example for 201.5b cites the activation cost of Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon as “{BB}”,2 and the example for 707.11 refers to Olivia Voldaren, a legendary permanent, as “an Olivia Voldaren.”
A handful of Oracle text citations were not updated, particularly toward the end of the CR.3 Rules and/or examples that were not updated include: 116.2e, 712.21b, 729.5, 800.4a, 801.5a, 810.9a, and 903.4. Card text templates used by the following rules did not lose the brackets around phrases such as “this creature”: 208.2b, 701.39d, and 702.122d.
Rules support for exhaust
The new keyword ability exhaust is defined in 702.177. It simply adds the activation instruction “Activate only once” to the activated ability.
The rule also handles the interaction between Elvish Refueler and the mana ability of Loot, the Pathfinder. If something looks for a keyword action that consists of multiple steps, such as casting a spell, scrying, or in this case activating an ability, it usually becomes “active” only after the action has been completed. For Elvish Refueler, this would ordinarily mean that the effect from its static ability would continue to work while I was in the process of activating an exhaust ability; only after the activation process was complete would the effect “shut off.” As a result, I could start to activate an “exhausted” exhaust ability and during that activation process activate Loot’s already exhausted mana ability, effectively activating two exhausted exhaust abilities in one turn. Subrule 702.177b prevents this by making the effect of Elvish Refueler’s ability shut off with the start of the activation process.
At this point, I wonder if that rule isn’t a bit too effective. While casting a spell or activating an ability, the legality of the action is checked twice: once at the very beginning and once halfway through, after the proposal. Technically, the effect of Elvish Refueler’s ability shuts off before the second check; this means that the activation of an already activated exhaust ability would never be possible, because the second legality check will always fail. On the other hand, the same issue exists for cards that can be cast for as long as they remain exiled: right at the start of the casting process, they are moved from exile to the stack, meaning that the permission to cast them no longer applies. Since there isn’t a lot of controversy around such cards and the intent is sufficiently clear, this loophole is probably fine.
Rules support for start your engines!, speed, and max speed
The new keyword ability start your engines! and the speed value of a player are defined in 702.179. The new state-based action which gives a player their initial speed is defined in 704.5z. The new keyword ability max speed is defined in 702.178.
Start your engines! has no text of its own; the ability’s sole function is to serve as a marker for the state-based action. During Aetherdrift’s preview season, I did not expect this mechanic to use a state-based action. My initial assumption was that a player’s speed would become 1 immediately upon controlling a permanent with start your engines! Comparing the mechanic to its three closest predecessors—ascend, daybound, and space sculptor—I see arguments for both variants. Space sculptor uses a state-based action and is the most recent of the three keyword abilities, so start your engines! might simply be following the current trend. On the other hand, space sculptor is the only ability that requires choices, potentially by multiple players at the same time; in a complicated board state, bundling all these choices into a state-based action avoids having to figure out the exact order things happen in. Start your engines! requires no choices, so it’s closer to ascend and daybound in that regard.
Whatever the reasons may be, this implementation has a few consequences one should keep in mind. There can be situations where I briefly control a permanent with start your engines! but my speed won’t become 1 because the game state changes before state-based actions are performed (this probably involves a card like Hypergenesis). In a similar way, I might control a permanent with start your engines! and one of my opponents loses life, but the triggered ability won’t trigger because my speed hasn’t become 1 yet. Last but not least, any future card designs with start your engines! need to consider the fact that abilities like “This creature gets +X/+X, where X is your speed” will not always work intuitively. For example, if a 2/2 creature with start your engines! and with that ability enters under my control while an opponent controls Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, the bonus will not save it from dying.
The triggered ability associated with having speed has no source, just like the abilities associated with rad counters or with being the monarch. To ensure that a player’s speed never becomes more than 4, the ability has an intervening “if,” which prevents copies of the ability from increasing the speed beyond max speed.
If a player is instructed to increase their speed by a certain value while they have no speed, their speed becomes that value. Currently, the only way to increase speed is the triggered ability, so this will happen most likely because a player with no speed copies another player’s ability with Return the Favor.
Then there is the max speed ability. It’s simply defined as “As long as your speed is 4, this object has ‘[Ability].’” As many people noticed, this definition does not cover cards where the ability is supposed to work outside the battlefield, such as Leonin Surveyor. While the abilities granted by those cards’ max speed abilities would work in the respective zones, the max speed abilities themselves do not. As a result, Leonin Surveyor has its activated ability only while it’s on the battlefield, but never while it’s in the graveyard. Amusingly, this omission is not found elsewhere—the glossary entry states that the ability functions in whatever zone the granted ability would function in, and the Gatherer rulings for max speed do the same. It’s just the rule itself—the only point where it matters—that the error occurs.
Rules support for Wolverine, Best There Is
The unique wording found on Wolverine, Best There Is gets defined by the new subrule 701.9g. As one might expect from reading the card’s text, it involves twice the damage and represents a replacement effect.
Saddle (no changes)
None of the new cards with saddle require a rules update. However, this would have been an excellent opportunity to add “total” to saddle’s definition, which has been missing since the ability’s debut in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. For now, the CR continue to stop creatures from teaming up while saddling a Mount.
Cycling (no changes)
None of the new cards with cycling require a rules update. However, two of those cards have a cycling cost containing an {X} and an ability with an X in its text that triggers when the card is cycled; this doubles the total number of such cards to four. This would have been an excellent opportunity to introduce a new rule that links the X in the cycling ability with the X in the triggered ability. For now, the X in the triggered ability remains independent, so an arbitrary value may be chosen.
701.60a (nonfunctional)
The wording of manifest dread was clarified for scenarios involving cards such as Grafdigger’s Cage.
701.16c (nonfunctional)
A new subrule for the keyword action reveal was inserted in this spot. It clarifies that a player may reveal a card even if that card is currently revealed for something else. In hindsight, this rule was probably added for the behold a dragon mechanic appearing in Tarkir: Dragonstorm.
607.3 (nonfunctional)
One of the templates used by this rule was changed from “a card exiled with [this card]” to “a card exiled with [this object].” The new template is more accurate, since the object might be a token, and it now matches other mentions of this template in 406.6, 607.2a, 607.2b, 607.2q, and 614.14.
While looking for other appearances of this template, I noticed that 604.6 could benefit from a similar update. It mentions static abilities of cards that restrict or modify how these cards can be played or cast; however, these abilities also apply if the object is a copy of such a card. As such, most instances of “card” should be changed to “object” in that rule.
702.26k and 707.4 (nonfunctional)
The wording of these two rules was changed from “[some event] doesn’t trigger [certain abilities]” to the standard “[some event] doesn’t cause [certain abilities] to trigger.”
700.14 (nonfunctional)
In this rule’s example, “that play casts Divination” was corrected to “that player casts Divination.”
Updates to card types, supertypes, and/or subtypes
New planeswalker type: Quintorius. Fifteen months after The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, this subtype has finally made it into the CR.
New creature type: Seal. This subtype appears on one card, Howler’s Heavy.
Renamed planar type: Kaladesh is now Avishkar. This subtype appears on one card, Ghirapur.
New glossary entries
Double, Exhaust, Max Speed, Speed, and Start Your Engines!
Oracle changes
Note: Most of the time, I will list only abilities with changes to their rules text, rather than the complete rules text of a card.
Large templating change: reducing card name usage in rules text (nonfunctional)
With the Aetherdrift release, WotC completed the massive templating update started with Magic: The Gathering Foundations. As a result, more than 13,000 cards got updates to their Oracle text. I cover this update in a separate post.
Rock Jockey (functional)
Along with the new template, Rock Jockey got an update to its second ability. Previously, the ability cared about the specific player who cast Rock Jockey. Now, all it cares about is whether Rock Jockey was cast at all. This could become relevant if another player casts Rock Jockey during my turn and I gain control of it during that same turn.4
Old text:
You can’t play lands if you’ve cast Rock Jockey this turn.
New text:
You can’t play lands if this creature was cast this turn.
Tragic Banshee (functional)
As printed, the -13/-13 from the self-replacement effect lasted indefinitely. It now lasts until end of turn, just as the normal effect (and just as most people would expect). The other card with this constellation of effects, Festering Newt, was not changed.
Old text:
Morbid — When this creature enters, target creature an opponent controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn. If a creature died this turn, that creature gets -13/-13 instead.
New text:
Morbid — When this creature enters, target creature an opponent controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn. If a creature died this turn, that creature gets -13/-13 until end of turn instead.
Magus Lucea Kane (no changes)
The new card Pit Automaton got errata on release so that the delayed triggered ability it creates doesn’t trigger from mana abilities. Pit Automaton is the third card that creates a delayed triggered ability which in turn copies the next activated ability; coincidentally, it’s also the third of those cards whose printed text does not account for mana abilities. The first such card, Dynaheir, Invoker Adept, also received errata to prevent a mana ability from “consuming” the delayed triggered ability. The remaining card, Magus Lucea Kane, did not receive errata since its release and is now the odd one out.
Affinity for all (nonfunctional)
Affinity has been a deciduous keyword for some time now. With this update, existing cards with a functionally identical ability had that ability changed to affinity.
This update applies to: Gearseeker Serpent, Saheeli, the Gifted, Gate Colossus, The Circle of Loyalty, Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Brine Giant, Icebreaker Kraken, Millicent, Restless Revenant, Sky-Blessed Samurai, Reality Heist, Angelic Observer, Argivian Phalanx, Riders of the Mark, Scales of Shale, and Polliwallop.
The following cards were not updated: Embercleave, Walking Skyscraper, Magnus the Red, and Claws Out.
Old text (example):
This spell costs {1} less to cast for each Knight you control.
New text (example):
Affinity for Knights (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each Knight you control.)
“enters under your control” (nonfunctional)
Continuing the template change introduced with Bloomburrow, some abilities that care about a specific permanent entering the battlefield had their text updated to the new templates.
This update applies to: Blood Speaker, Sword of the Meek, Sunspring Expedition, Champion of the Parish, Clinging Anemones, Frontier Siege, Ineffable Blessing (a), Ineffable Blessing (b), Metallic Mimic, Confounding Conundrum, Ancient Greenwarden, and The Prydwen, Steel Flagship.
Old text (example):
Whenever a creature with flying enters under your control, you may have it fight target creature you don’t control.
New text (example):
Whenever a creature you control with flying enters, you may have it fight target creature you don’t control.
“a permanent you controlled left the battlefield this turn” (nonfunctional)
Revolt abilities got a small update to their text. Previously, their text could be misinterpreted to mean that I simply had to have controlled the permanent at some point prior to it leaving the battlefield. Now, the text makes it clear that the permanent needs to be under my control at that exact moment.5
This update applies to: Airdrop Aeronauts, Call for Unity, Countless Gears Renegade, Deadeye Harpooner, Decommission, Solemn Recruit, Fatal Push, Night Market Aeronaut, Vengeful Rebel, Aid from the Cowl, Greenwheel Liberator, Hidden Herbalists, Lifecraft Cavalry, Narnam Renegade, Silkweaver Elite, Hidden Stockpile, Renegade Rallier, and Aether Revolt.
The following cards with identically worded abilities were not updated: Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant, Pegasus Guardian, Vrock, Minthara, Merciless Soul, and Shortcut to Mushrooms.
Old text (example):
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent you controlled left the battlefield this turn.
New text (example):
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn.
When [thing A] happens to this object or when [thing B] happens to this object (nonfunctional)
Abilities with two trigger events that both start with “when[ever]” mostly use “and” to connect these two trigger events. As a consequence of the large templating update, five cards gained a second “when” and switched from “or” to “and.” A sixth card that still used “or” was updated to also use “and.”
This update applies to: Bant Sojourners, Jund Sojourners, Esper Sojourners, Naya Sojourners, Grixis Sojourners, and Bartered Cow.
Old text (example):
When you cycle Bant Sojourners or it dies, you may create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token.
New text (example):
When you cycle this card and when this creature dies, you may create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token.
Cast this spell only during a specific combat (nonfunctional)
Three cards that can be cast only during a specific player’s combat phase got a slightly shorter template.
This update applies to: Melee, Savage Beating, and Take the Bait.
Old text (example):
Cast this spell only during your turn and only during combat.
New text (example):
Cast this spell only during combat on your turn.
Restored ability words (nonfunctional)
Four cards originally printed with an ability word were reprinted in Magic: The Gathering Foundations or Magic: The Gathering Foundations Jumpstart without those ability words. This update restores the ability words.
This update applies to: Flamewake Phoenix, Surrak, the Hunt Caller, Battle Cry Goblin, and Venom Connoisseur.
Old text (example):
At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you control a creature with power 4 or greater, you may pay {R}. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
New text (example):
Ferocious — At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you control a creature with power 4 or greater, you may pay {R}. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Devour reminder text (nonfunctional)
The reminder text for devour got an update to bring it in line with the new templating guidelines. For Jund, this update makes the reminder text less clear, since it implies that it’s always the planar controller who can sacrifice creatures, regardless of who cast the creature spell.
This update applies to: Tar Fiend, Caldera Hellion, Predator Dragon, Thorn-Thrash Viashino, Thunder-Thrash Elder, Mycoloth, Skullmulcher, Voracious Dragon, Gluttonous Slime, Hellkite Hatchling, Gorger Wurm, Marrow Chomper, Jund, Preyseizer Dragon, Thromok the Insatiable, Bloodspore Thrinax, Feaster of Fools, Ravenous Gigantotherium, Caprichrome, Feasting Hobbit, Fell Beast of Mordor, and Ravenous Tyrannosaurus.
Old text (example):
Devour 3 (As this enters, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This creature enters with three times that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
New text (example):
Devour 3 (As this creature enters, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. It enters with three times that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
Brutal Cathar & Ashroot Animist (nonfunctional)
In the text of the triggered abilities, “when” was changed to “whenever” to match the usual templates for such abilities.
Old text (example):
When this creature enters or transforms into Brutal Cathar, exile target creature an opponent controls until this creature leaves the battlefield.
New text (example):
Whenever this creature enters or transforms into Brutal Cathar, exile target creature an opponent controls until this creature leaves the battlefield.
Look at Me, I’m R&D (nonfunctional?)
In addition to some rewrites, the rules text was updated from “comes into play” to “enters” and it now uses the existing concept of the “full text” of an object. This might be a functional change, depending on whether or not the Un-rules expand on the normal definition of “full text.”
Old text:
As Look at Me, I’m R&D comes into play, choose a number and a second number one higher or one lower than that number.
All instances of the first chosen number on permanents, spells, and cards in any zone are the second chosen number.
New text:
As this enchantment enters, choose a number and a second number one higher or one lower than the first number.
All instances of the first chosen number in the full text of each permanent, spell, and card in any zone are changed to the second chosen number.
Exile into Darkness (nonfunctional)
Continuing the template change introduced with Magic: The Gathering Foundations, “of their choice” was added to the sacrifice instruction.
Old text:
Target player sacrifices a creature with mana value 3 or less.
New text:
Target player sacrifices a creature of their choice with mana value 3 or less.
Aether Figment (nonfunctional)
The last two abilities were reordered.
Old text:
Kicker {3} (You may pay an additional {3} as you cast this spell.)
Aether Figment can’t be blocked.
If Aether Figment was kicked, it enters with two +1/+1 counters on it.
New text:
Kicker {3} (You may pay an additional {3} as you cast this spell.)
If this creature was kicked, it enters with two +1/+1 counters on it.
This creature can’t be blocked.
Champion of Stray Souls (nonfunctional)
In the second ability, the source zone and the target zone were switched to match the standard order.
Old text:
{5}{B}{B}: Put Champion of Stray Souls on top of your library from your graveyard.
New text:
{5}{B}{B}: Put this card from your graveyard on top of your library.
The Grand Calcutron (nonfunctional)
The “can be your commander” ability was moved to the bottom and the order of two words in the new second ability was switched.
Old text:
The Grand Calcutron can be your commander.
When The Grand Calcutron enters, each player’s hand becomes a program (an ordered row of revealed cards).
Players can only play the first card of their program.
If a card would be put into a player’s hand from anywhere, that player reveals it and places it anywhere within their program instead.
At the beginning of each player’s end step, if that player’s program has fewer than five cards, they draw cards equal to the difference.
New text:
When The Grand Calcutron enters, each player’s hand becomes a program (an ordered row of revealed cards).
Players can play only the first card of their program.
If a card would be put into a player’s hand from anywhere, that player reveals it and places it anywhere within their program instead.
At the beginning of each player’s end step, if that player’s program has fewer than five cards, they draw cards equal to the difference.
The Grand Calcutron can be your commander.
Scrap Trawler (nonfunctional)
The trigger event was split into two events.
Old text:
Whenever Scrap Trawler or another artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, return to your hand target artifact card in your graveyard with lesser mana value.
New text:
Whenever this creature dies or another artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, return to your hand target artifact card in your graveyard with lesser mana value.
Angelic Sleuth (nonfunctional)
In the reminder text, “colorless” was removed from the definition of the Clue token.
Old text:
Whenever another permanent you control leaves the battlefield, if it had counters on it, investigate. (Create a colorless Clue artifact token with “{2}, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.”)
New text:
Whenever another permanent you control leaves the battlefield, if it had counters on it, investigate. (Create a Clue artifact token with “{2}, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.”)
Order of the Alabaster Host (nonfunctional)
Probably due to the Magic: The Gathering Foundations templating change, “that creature” was clarified to “the blocking creature.”
Old text:
Whenever Order of the Alabaster Host becomes blocked by a creature, that creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
New text:
Whenever this creature becomes blocked by a creature, the blocking creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
Niko, Light of Hope (nonfunctional)
The duration of the copy effect now uses the standard wording for this kind of duration.
Old text:
{2}, {T}: Exile target nonlegendary creature you control. Shards you control become copies of it until the beginning of the next end step. Return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control at the beginning of the next end step.
New text:
{2}, {T}: Exile target nonlegendary creature you control. Shards you control become copies of it until the next end step. Return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control at the beginning of the next end step.
Arcum’s Whistle (nonfunctional)
The ability’s text got a missing “creature’s.”
Old text:
{3}, {T}: Choose target non-Wall creature the active player has controlled continuously since the beginning of the turn. That player may pay {X}, where X is that mana value. If they don’t pay, the creature attacks this turn if able, and at the beginning of the next end step, destroy it if it didn’t attack this turn. Activate only before attackers are declared.
New text:
{3}, {T}: Choose target non-Wall creature the active player has controlled continuously since the beginning of the turn. That player may pay {X}, where X is that creature’s mana value. If they don’t pay, the creature attacks this turn if able, and at the beginning of the next end step, destroy it if it didn’t attack this turn. Activate only before attackers are declared.
Netherborn Phalanx (nonfunctional)
The reminder text lost a duplicate “then.”
Old text:
Transmute {1}{B}{B} ({1}{B}{B}, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same mana value as this card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then then shuffle. Transmute only as a sorcery.)
New text:
Transmute {1}{B}{B} ({1}{B}{B}, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same mana value as this card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. Transmute only as a sorcery.)
Ninja (nonfunctional)
In the reminder text, “nevermind” was corrected to “never mind.”
Old text:
Augment {2}{B} ({2}{B}, Reveal this card from your hand: Combine it with target host. Augment only as—oh, nevermind.)
New text:
Augment {2}{B} ({2}{B}, Reveal this card from your hand: Combine it with target host. Augment only as—oh, never mind.)
Blood Burglar (nonfunctional)
A space was added between the rules text and the reminder text.
Old text:
During your turn, Blood Burglar has lifelink.(Damage dealt by this creature also causes you to gain that much life.)
New text:
During your turn, this creature has lifelink. (Damage dealt by this creature also causes you to gain that much life.)
Henzie “Toolbox” Torre (nonfunctional)
The reminder text gained a comma.
Old text:
Each creature spell you cast with mana value 4 or greater has blitz. The blitz cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may choose to cast that spell for its blitz cost. If you do it gains haste and “When this creature dies, draw a card.” Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.)
New text:
Each creature spell you cast with mana value 4 or greater has blitz. The blitz cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may choose to cast that spell for its blitz cost. If you do, it gains haste and “When this creature dies, draw a card.” Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.)
Scared Stiff (nonfunctional)
“as long” was corrected to “as long as.”
Old text:
Scared Stiff has menace as long you control a stickered permanent.
New text:
This creature has menace as long as you control a stickered permanent.
Blast-Furnace Hellkite (nonfunctional)
In the reminder text, “as thought” was corrected to “as though.”
Old text:
Artifact offering (You may cast this spell as thought it had flash by sacrificing an artifact and paying the difference in mana costs between this and the sacrificed artifact. Mana cost includes color.)
New text:
Artifact offering (You may cast this spell as though it had flash by sacrificing an artifact and paying the difference in mana costs between this and the sacrificed artifact. Mana cost includes color.)
Banquet Guests (nonfunctional)
“Affinity for Food” was corrected to “Affinity for Foods.”
Old text:
Affinity for Food (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each Food you control.)
New text:
Affinity for Foods (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each Food you control.)
The Pyramid of Mars (nonfunctional)
“at beginning” was corrected to “at the beginning.”
Old text:
When you planeswalk to The Pyramid of Mars and at beginning of your upkeep, surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
New text:
When you planeswalk to The Pyramid of Mars and at the beginning of your upkeep, surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
“writing theme down on paper” (no changes)
With the new energy cards released in Aetherdrift Commander, it initially seemed as though the typo Modern Horizons 3 introduced into one of Gatherer’s energy rulings got fixed. This didn’t turn out to be the case: while the typo is not present in the ruling of the new cards, those cards actually have a shorter version of the ruling, making it distinct from the older version. Thus, all energy cards printed in Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Modern Horizons 3, and Modern Horizons 3 Commander still have that typo.
- Then again, WotC often omits minor changes in their own bulletins, so it’s par for the course. ↩︎
- Although this could just be an accidental preview of an upcoming vantablack mana. ↩︎
- Maybe the budget ran out at that point. ↩︎
- Has Rock Jockey theft been on the rise lately, and WotC felt the need to do something against it? ↩︎
- This update forms an interesting pair with the previous section: for enters-the-battlefield abilities, the change is from “under your control” to “you control,” while this change is the other way around. ↩︎