Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes Update Bulletin

Assemble your team and get ready to learn about the changes to the game rules (and the Oracle text of a few cards) coming with Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes. The official rules can be found on our rules page. If there is a discrepancy between this summary and the official rules, the official rules take precedence.

For detailed descriptions of each of the new mechanics, check out Matt Tabak's excellent mechanics article.

New Keyword Abilities

702.193 and 702.194 are the new rules that explain how the power-up and teamwork abilities work, respectively

Heal (701.69)

A new rule defines what it means to "heal" damage. Although this had previously been used in reminder text, such as that of regenerate, it now appears in rules text and has an official definition!

Vibranium Token (111.10)

A new subrule defines a Vibranium token.

601.5

This new rule covers a slightly strange case that can come up when a player is asked to divide or distribute something (usually damage) while casting a spell or activating an ability. Normally, such a decision is made before any costs for that effect are paid. But sometimes, the amount of what would be divided is based on a cost. In that case, you can choose any option that would be legal considering the costs you could pay. You effectively decide how you're paying any costs a little earlier in the process than normal. As an example, consider the activated ability of Captain America, First Avenger. In that case, unattaching the Equipment is a cost of the ability. Since the mana value of the Equipment you will unattach is used to determine how much damage you divide, and that division needs to be decided before you pay costs, you have to choose which Equipment you'll unattach before you divide the effect. This may seem obvious, but it was a little ambiguous how that worked in the nuts and bolts of the ability-activation process. Now, it's explicitly covered.

603.12a

This rule covers cases where a resolving spell or ability requires or gives a player the option to pay a cost and also creates a triggered ability that might trigger based on whether the cost is paid. The language here was needlessly specific and has been generalized to enable slightly different designs than we already had. Hawkeye, Master Marksman benefits from this update.

700.16

This rule explains what it means to be worthy, at least in the context of Magic's rules.

702.122b

A new rule defines what it means for a Vehicle to be "crewed by" a creature, which is slightly different than the existing definition for what it means for a creature to "crew a Vehicle."

Phasing and "Last Known Information"

The rules for several abilities referred to whether a permanent had changed zones to determine whether to use the "last known information" of that object on the battlefield, which is relevant for triggered abilities and some specific effects. This is inconsistent with the way we've written the rules for some other abilities, and it technically created an unintended (and I believe largely unnoticed) loophole if that permanent phased out. As far as the game is concerned, the phased-out permanent isn't there anymore, but it also didn't technically change zones. This has been corrected by simply changing the words "changes zones" to "is no longer on the battlefield." This change affects mechanics like explore, connive, deathtouch, lifelink, wither, and infect.

707.12a

A new subrule makes it explicit that if an effect says a player "may cast" several copies of one or more objects, that player may choose to cast only some of them.

Turning Permanents Face Down (712.16, 730.2j)

Certain kinds of permanents can't be turned face down. This includes permanents that are already face down. It also includes double-faced permanents that are already on the battlefield and permanents which contain a double-faced component that are merged (thanks to the mutate mechanic). However, in the latter two cases, the rules were missing some language to explain what happened if the spell or ability that tried to turn one of those permanents face down also tried to set its characteristics. Allowing those effects to apply to a face-up permanent would create all kinds of weirdness with regards to the layers of continuous effects (I should really write about layers sometime). If it is already face down, nothing happens. Now, the rules properly reflect that for the other two categories.

800.4i

If you've read this far, you're probably really into obscure facts about Magic's rules and this change will be right up your alley. The card Avenge costs less to cast if a player attacked you during their last turn. In a multiplayer game, however, a player that attacked you during their last turn might leave the game, resulting in a situation where, for the rest of the game, that player definitely attacked you during the last turn that they took and Avenge would just always cost less to cast. Obviously, this isn't the intention, so a new sentence in this rule explains that, for a player that has left the game, the game can only see information about that player's last turn until the point where they would normally have started a new turn.

If Everything's Special, Nothing's Special

Magic has a specific set of actions called "special actions." These are things like playing a land or turning a creature with morph face up. These actions don't use the stack and can't be responded to. The rules contain a list of these special actions, as information about how they work. (I should really write about special actions sometime.) Separately from that, however, there are several abilities that refer to themselves with some variant of the words "[this ability] is a special kind of activated ability …" Somewhat nonsensically, these are not special actions, despite the fact that they call themselves special. We've removed most instances of abilities calling themselves special like this from the rules. None of these edits are functional. They're just a way for us to make the rules ever so slightly more sensical to people trying to learn them using the official rules.

New Artifact Type

• Vibranium

New Creature Types

• Eternal
• Gamma
• Inhuman
• Kree
• Shi'ar
• Skrull
• Spy

New Enchantment Type

• Plan

New Glossary Entries

• Heal
• Power-up
• Teamwork
• Vibranium Token
• Worthy

Oracle Updates

Maintaining the Oracle database isn't a one-person job; it takes teamwork. Rules, editing, digital teams, and more have worked together to bring you this powered-up Oracle update!

Seeing the Card Explains the Card

We noticed that a few cards that allow you to optionally reveal the top card of your library then refer to that card's characteristics regardless of whether you revealed the card. Normally, this isn't an issue, as any question like "Is this a creature card?" will get the answer "No!" from the rules if the card wasn't revealed, but it can cause some confusion in cases where the card is already revealed due to another effect. We've updated Doors of Durin, Elven Farsight, and The Maelstrom (yes, the plane card) to use the template from Isolated Watchtower, as that refers to the characteristics of the revealed card explicitly. Here's Doors of Durin as an example.

Old text:

Whenever you attack, scry 2, then you may reveal the top card of your library. If it's a creature card, put it onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. Until your next turn, it gains trample if you control a Dwarf and hexproof if you control an Elf.

New text:

Whenever you attack, scry 2, then you may reveal the top card of your library. If a creature card is revealed this way, put it onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. Until your next turn, it gains trample if you control a Dwarf and hexproof if you control an Elf.

Earmarked Mana

Magic has tons of cards that add mana but give you a particular restriction on what you can or can't spend that mana on. Normally, we apply that restriction to the mana itself. For example, Jegantha, the Wellspring's last ability says ": Add . This mana can't be spent to pay generic mana costs." However, one card in Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes darted off with a nonstandard template that applies the restriction to the player who added the mana and defines how they can spend that mana. We've brought Karolina Dean, Runaway in line with our standards and, in the process, applied the same update to Thran Turbine.

(Rules Entity's Note: This has the bonus of bringing Thran Turbine more closely in line with its printed text, which always brings me joy. —Eric)

Old text:

Flying
At the beginning of your first main phase, add {W}{U}{B}{R}{G}. You can't spend this mana to cast spells from your hand.

New text:

Flying
At the beginning of your first main phase, add {W}{U}{B}{R}{G}. This mana can't be spent to cast spells from your hand.

Mite Add a Word

The effect of Hulk's Thunderclap when its additional cost is paid can be slightly unclear in some cases. Specifically, it might be confusing that, whether the target is an artifact or enchantment, it still needs to be a noncreature permanent either way. We've updated the text of this effect by adding an additional "noncreature" for clarity, matching the text on Haywire Mite.

Old text:

As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may behold a Gamma creature. (You may choose a Gamma creature you control or reveal a Gamma creature card from your hand.)
Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to another target creature. If this spell's additional cost was paid, destroy target noncreature artifact or enchantment.

New text:

As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may behold a Gamma creature. (You may choose a Gamma creature you control or reveal a Gamma creature card from your hand.)
Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to another target creature. If this spell's additional cost was paid, destroy target noncreature artifact or noncreature enchantment.

Words Throne Away

In all the chaos with the usurping, some of the words on Killmonger, Ruthless Usurper seem to have gotten lost somewhere. (Suspicious.) In particular, the words that tell you how long he gets his power bonus didn't make it onto the card. We're fixing that so that you know it only lasts until the end of the turn.

Old text:

Trample
Whenever Killmonger attacks, he gets +1/+0 for each artifact defending player controls.
Whenever Killmonger deals combat damage to a player, that player sacrifices an artifact of their choice and you create a Treasure token.

New text:

Trample
Whenever Killmonger attacks, he gets +1/+0 until end of turn for each artifact defending player controls.
Whenever Killmonger deals combat damage to a player, that player sacrifices an artifact of their choice and you create a Treasure token.

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Magic: The Gathering | Marvel Super Heroes is available now from your local game store, TCGplayer, Amazon, and elsewhere Magic is sold.