Dies to Removal

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To summarize:

• Legends and Planeswalkers do not kill the opposing copy anymore.
• If the same legend/walker enters the field under a player's control (the player controls both), that player chooses which one to bin as a state-based action. This basically allows you to have two of the same walker activations more frequently.
• Sideboards are now 0-15 cards and not 0 or 15 cards.
• You can sideboard any amount of cards to your deck after game 1 as long as your maindeck is still at least 60 cards. This means you can have 63/12 in your game 2, but not 55/20.
• Indestructible is now an ability keyword. It means it can get removed
  by card effects now like Turn // Burn. It also means Boros Charm cannot make your permanents that are entering after you cast it, indestructible.
• Unblockable is still not a keyword.
• Additonal land plays are streamlined into "number of land plays" you are allowed per turn.

The most significant ones are the legends and sideboarding rules. I personally don't like the change to the legend rule as it waters down the significance of the legendary creatures being special. It's a change that we would need to cope up, but I probably won't still like it.

I just know I'm going to lose games to my inability to remember that this will be happening and playing under the old system. #thanksObamaMaRo

Actually, these changes are all very good for multiple reasons.

"To summarize:
Legends and Planeswalkers do not kill the opposing copy anymore.
If the same legend/walker enters the field under a player's control (the player controls both), that player chooses which one to bin as a state-based action. This basically allows you to have two of the same walker activations more frequently."

- Flavorfully, this is no different than the "my jace blows up your jace" rule (as in, neither rule makes much sense flavorfully), but mechanically this is nothing but an upgrade.

Also, you forgot to mention the Clone thing - You can "Clone" your opponents' legendary creature and neither of you lose your dude. For example, if I have a Geist of Saint Traft in play, then you cast Phantasmal Image as a Geist of Saint Traft, we each now have a Geist of Saint Traft. This has large impacts on Commander
especially.

"Sideboards are now 0-15 cards and not 0 or 15 cards.
You can sideboard any amount of cards to your deck after game 1 as long as your maindeck is still at least 60 cards. This means you can have 63/12 in your game 2, but not 55/20."

A fine change, although I'm never a fan of making things "easier" in tournament play, aka catering to the lowest common denominator.

"Indestructible is now an ability keyword. It means it can get removed by card effects now like Turn // Burn. It also means Boros Charm cannot make your permanents that are entering after you cast it, indestructible."

- I don't like "gains indestructible" as a template, it just sounds a little awkward to me, but I guess it makes sense to make indestructible work like most other things in the game. This change is a wash for me.

"Unblockable is still not a keyword."

- Fine I guess, though I don't like them making a change to add more words onto cards (Changed from &
quot;unblockable" to "can't be blocked".

"Additonal land plays are streamlined into "number of land plays" you are allowed per turn."

- Seems fine, makes some cards marginally worse but overall makes more sense.

Legendary once meant unique. Now it means nothing much at all.

Legendary once meant unique. Now it means nothing much at all.

Flavorfully, this isn't any better/worse than the previous ruleset.

Originally, the Legendary replaced all other copies, which I think is the ideal flavor rule. But my legendary blows up your legendary?! That doesn't make any more sense than "we both can have a legendary".

I see them more as leaving the battlefield rather than dying or blowing up. They're super-unique allies that fight for only one person at a time. Now, I can have an Olivia Voldaren, and you can have an Olivia Voldaren.

The clone thing I can understand since you're just copying the creature, but I don't like that we can both have the exact same, supposedly unique, creature fighting for us at the same time.

They should have left it at creating a clone or copy does not destroy the legendary creature in play.

Not even mad at the rules. Dont like it checkbox? Go back to playing veures. The lowest commen denominater is the noob. The noob is what brings new life to the game. New life means it keeps goinng. So go fuck yourself asschumps.

I like them all but the legend rule, which i'm undecided on. I'm pretty sure one of biggest factors for the legend rule change is EDH. Either that or Theros has lots of legends (which is entirely possible given that it's a greco-roman block).

I like them all but the legend rule, which i'm undecided on. I'm pretty sure one of biggest factors for the legend rule change is EDH. Either that or Theros has lots of legends (which is entirely possible given that it's a greco-roman block).

theros is prolly legend based with the heroes vs monsters duel decks

Also, you forgot to mention the Clone thing - You can "Clone" your own legendary creature and not lose either one. For example, if I have a Geist of Saint Traft in play, then cast Phantasmal Image as a Geist of Saint Traft, I have two Geists of Saint Traft in play and get to keep both. This has large impacts on Commander especially.

Wrong. The new rule prevents auto-destruct of a legend or PW of the same name if someone else casts one or copies. If you cast another of the same legendary or clone it, you have to trash one. This is addressed specifically and without doubt in the mother ship write-up (e.g., if someone pacifies your Olivia, you can clone her and bin the pacified one rather than lose both). You
cannot under any circumstances control more than one of a given legend--period.

For the most part, this rule just means that everyone gets to play their deck as built and that legends can't be hated out with clones. It's another step by Wizards to make the new and casual player more "happy" with the game. It has also been speculated that this is being done to facilitate the Theros block, which is expected to be very legend-heavy. This would make sense, as starting the new rule with M14 gives everyone a chance to settle into it before Theros goes live.

The only real problem creature I see between the the time of the new rule activation and rotation is Olivia. By nature of her stealing ability, whoever gets an Olivia on the field first blocks anyone else from playing her unless they kill the initial Olivia first. Assuming that most sensible people are going to have 6 mana before casting Olivia, if someone else drops their own Olivia, the original Olivia can just steal and thereby kill the
opposition under the new rule. Other legends will simply achieve parity through the new rule.

You are correct, I'll edit my post to reflect this. That makes me slightly less happy about the clone changes, but I guess it makes sense.

I have to admit that when I first read about them (around 11pm last night) I had a pretty bad knee-jerk reaction. I can't say I am still thrilled or even happy about them, but it isn't like this is the first time the legend rule has changed. As mostly an EDH player (with a little dabbling in Modern and Standard, but very little, and very rarely) I am curious how this is going to impact games; at least in my group it shouldn't be a serious problem, no one stomps around with Sharuum or Uril, but one person plays Lazav, and I sometimes play Sigarda.

The land drop ruling will change how I play some games though, in regards to using Oracle and something like Exploration.

i always assumed thats how the land drops worked. 'heres a land i have 2 more, another land and and my last one'

Fine with all but Legends and Planewalkers, they literally killed the unique in them...

Right, but the land issue, and this is just my interpretation, there was actually quite a little debate about it in the Commander subforum over on sally for a little while, is this;

I play Oracle, I can now play two lands, so I do. Oracle gets removed, and now I play Exploration; with the old rules I would be able to play an additional land off of Exploration (you are actually supposed to declare where the new land comes from each time you play it.) Even though the Oracle is dead, you still get an additional drop off of Exploration.

With the new rules it appears to work like this; I play Oracle, drop an additional land, he dies or I sacrifice him, and then I play Exploration. The board looks to see how many lands I can play, but doesn't pay attention to the fact that different sources are giving me additional lands, only how many. I can still only play two, but since I already played two I can't play another land from
the Exploration. This also prevents any sort of weird shenanigans from bouncing Oracle in and out of play to allow me to drop additional lands.

As for the legend thing... One person pointed out that it can actually be a pretty good thing. With Rafiq, for example, if I swung with him and someone condemned him, and I had a way to flash a creature in, I could flash a clone in targetting Rafiq in response to the Condemn, and the clone won't die since I simply pick Rafiq as the copy that dies.

Damn, the old legend rule was perfect.

You are correct, I'll edit my post to reflect this. That makes me slightly less happy about the clone changes, but I guess it makes sense.

Why? If your opponent plays a Geist you can now have your own Geist via Phantasmal Image/etc. That is incredibly powerful.

If you don't like the Legend rule update, you have honestly never played a game of Mercadian-era Magic against Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero. Both of these newer Legend rules are fine.

The Planeswalker wording update powers up Planeswalkers and allows you to play more copies in your deck without any real drawbacks, as you can now double-activate your Planeswalker to offset the fact that you can't have multiples of a single Planeswalker in play. It also
makes it so that "guy who gets his copy of a Planeswalker/Legend in play first doesn't have a default massive advantage" by getting to have already activated an ability.

The only cards that are distinctly too good with the update are Gaea's Cradle/Tolarian Academy/Serra's Sanctum, Mox Opal, and Dark Depths.

Right, but the land issue, and this is just my interpretation, there was actually quite a little debate about it in the Commander subforum over on sally for a little while, is this;

I play Oracle, I can now play two lands, so I do. Oracle gets removed, and now I play Exploration; with the old rules I would be able to play an additional land off of Exploration (you are actually supposed to declare where the new land comes from each time you play it.) Even though the Oracle is dead, you still get an additional drop off of Exploration.

With the new rules it appears to work like this; I play Oracle, drop an additional land, he dies or I sacrifice him, and then I play Exploration. The board looks to see how many lands I can play, but doesn't pay attention to the
fact that different sources are giving me additional lands, only how many. I can still only play two, but since I already played two I can't play another land from the Exploration. This also prevents any sort of weird shenanigans from bouncing Oracle in and out of play to allow me to drop additional lands.

Wrong.
You start the turn with Oracle in play. You cast Explore/ation. You have 3 land plays, which include two "extra land" triggers. You can declare one of your extra land plays off of the Oracle. You have one "extra land plays." If you return Oracle to your hand (say via Wirewood Symbiote) and re-cast it, you again have two extra land plays.

Right, but the land issue, and this is just my interpretation, there was actually quite a little debate about it in the Commander subforum over on sally for a little while, is this;

I play Oracle, I can now play two lands, so I do. Oracle gets removed, and now I play Exploration; with the old rules I would be able to play an additional land off of Exploration (you are actually supposed to declare where the new land comes from each time you play it.) Even though the Oracle is dead, you still get an additional drop off of Exploration.

With the new rules it appears to work like this; I play Oracle, drop an
additional land, he dies or I sacrifice him, and then I play Exploration. The board looks to see how many lands I can play, but doesn't pay attention to the fact that different sources are giving me additional lands, only how many. I can still only play two, but since I already played two I can't play another land from the Exploration. This also prevents any sort of weird shenanigans from bouncing Oracle in and out of play to allow me to drop additional lands.

Wrong.
You start the turn with Oracle in play. You cast Explore/ation. You have 3 land plays, which include two "extra land" triggers. You can declare one of your extra land plays off of the Oracle. You have one "extra land plays." If you return Oracle to your hand (say via Wirewood Symbiote) and re-cast it, you again have two extra land plays.

Unless you're Alex Bertoncini.

I don't care one way or another about the new rules. I commit them to memory and keep playing.

I realized I am wrong about my above you are wrong, but the site was down when I went to go call myself on that.

You are correct, I'll edit my post to reflect this. That makes me slightly less happy about the clone changes, but I guess it makes sense.

Why? If your opponent plays a Geist you can now have your own Geist via Phantasmal Image/etc. That is incredibly powerful.

I enjoy that part of it, I thought you could clone your own legends for some reason, though. It upsets me that you still can't (only flavorfully).