If you’d all be so kind as to come in and seat yourselves in an orderly manner, then we may begin. I am Arrester Alistair, and I am here to conclude the Ravnica Allegiance Prerelease Primers with a brief precis on Addendum, the keyword associated with the Azorius Senate. If I may have your attention?
Wonderful. Let’s begin.
Addendum is an ability word appearing exclusively on Instant spells and spells with Flash- that is, spells that can be cast any time you have priority. Being an ability word, Addendum has no meaning by itself; however, it indicates to you that the spell has additional effects or is otherwise more potent if cast during your own main phase. So in essence, you may cast a spell with addendum at any time, but if you cast it within a more narrow timeframe, it becomes stronger. To clarify: The only condition on gaining the benefit of Addendum is that the spell was cast and resolved within the confines of your Main Phase. It need not be cast ‘as a sorcery’; if you were to use Preocognitive Perception as a response to an opposing charlatan’s antics in order to find an appropriate answer, you would Scry 3 before drawing 3 cards, since Addendum has been satisfied. The stack needn’t be empty for Addendum to work; it just needs to be your Main Phase.
Beyond that, Addendum is largely self explanatory. Each spell on which Addendum appears clearly details its benefits (as mentioned, Addendum itself has no technical rules meaning; it exists only to thematically group similar cards), so I encourage you as always to carefully read the cards, and to bear in mind your options: casting the Addendum spell whenever it’s needed, or casting it when it’s most potent. Also remember that the Addendum is not optional; you cannot choose to ‘ignore’ the Addendum effect if you were to cast the spell in your own Main Phase. It’s unlikely that this situation will occur, but keep it in mind in case you only need 3 damage rather than 5 to kill an opponent’s Truefire Captain so you don’t end up hitting yourself for 5 with a Summary Judgment.
That will be all for today, and indeed for the Prerelease Primer week as a whole. Now, If you’ll allow me to break character to conclude, I hope you all have an excellent Prerelease weekend, and the very best of luck to all of you. Go forth and use what you have learned here, and see you next week!
Today’s Rules Tip was written by Alistair Crook