WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD
This evening, the Chinese FAQ for the upcoming Dominaria set was leaked in a post on a Chinese message board. The post includes the outline of Dominaria’s story, plus the set’s mechanics, many of the rares, and Planeswalkers. The message board went down quickly after the leak was discovered.
In a break from their standard practice, Wizards made a statement acknowledging the leak a few hours later. For those of you who still wish to be surprised, you can tune into Daily MTG over the next week for more information as they go through much of what is in the leak. However, as per Blake Rasmussen, there is still a lot of exciting information not included.
We’ve decided to share the information from the leak, but we strongly encourage those of you who wish to be surprised when preview season begins to simply close the browser and read some of our other great content such as Beck Holden’s predictions for Dominaria or some of our reviews of the stories from Dominaria’s past.
Please note that much of the below information is based on the translated leak. Wizards admitted the leak was their fault and released a translated version of the FAQ, without images, here.
Legendary Cards in Every Pack, a new Legendary Frame, and Legendary Spells
There Will be a Legendary Card in Each Pack
The FAQ states that “in every Dominaria booster pack, you’ll find at least one legendary creature.”
Legendary Sorceries
Dominaria introduces a new type of Legendary card: Legendary Sorceries. “The new Legendary Sorceries card type debuts in the Dominaria, representing extraordinary moments of the past. However, these powerful spells can be cast only if there are legendary creatures or planeswalkers to help out.” That’s right, Legendary Sorceries can only be cast if you control a legendary creature or planeswalker.
Legendary Cards Will Have a New Frame
“Starting in the Dominaria set, legendary cards other than planeswalkers use a modified card frame with additional flourishes on the title bar. This change is cosmetic and has no rules meaning.”
New Mechanics in Dominaria
Saga Cards
Dominaria introduces a new type of enchantment: sagas. According to the FAQ, “Each sagas will start a new chapter every turn and will tell you about the development of important historical events [on Dominaria].”
One of the sagas cards previewed in the article is called History of Benalia.
When you play a saga and after your draw step, you place a lore counter on each saga you control. Then, a certain effect will trigger depending on how many lore counters each saga has and is sacrificed when you add the third lore counter. In the case of History of Benalia, you will get a 2/2 white Knight creature token for one and two lore counters, then for three lore counters all of your knights get +2/+1 until end of turn, and then you sacrifice History of Benalia.
Another example of a saga enchantment is Time of Ice.
Keyword: Historic
The new keyword historic refers to a legendary, artifact, and sagas cards. “The extensive and mysterious history” of Dominaria is represented through a series of legends, sagas, and artifact cards,” the FAQ says. Cards with the new historic keyword will grant you benefits whenever you cast a legendary, artifact, or saga spell. Note that legendary lands do not get cast, so they won’t trigger historic.
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is an example of how a creature will have the historic keyword.
Returning Mechanics in Dominaria
Kicker
Kicker allows you to pay an extra cost in order to gain an extra benefit or effect. On Gluttonous Barosi, for example, you can pay four mana to have it enter the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters on it. The kicker cost can only be paid once.
Tribal
There are at least four tribal elements in Dominaria: Wizards, Goblins, Elves, and Knights.
Planeswalkers in Dominaria
Karn, Scion of Urza
Jaya Ballard
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Notable Cards in Dominaria
Oath of Teferi
Mox Amber
Legendary tribal, anyone?
Knight of Grace and Knight of Malice
The Knights of Grace and Malice are a fun spin of White Knight and Black Knight from Alpha.
They also introduce an interesting new keyword, “Hexproof from (color),” which gives the creatures hexproof…but only from a certain color. Wizards has stated before that “Protection from (color)” has fallen out of favor as a mechanic, since it can lead to real feel-bad moments, and “Hexproof from (color)” seems to be an attempt to “fix” protection.
Innistrad Land Cycle
The full cycle of check lands from Innistrad (Clifftop Retreat, Hinterland Harbor, Isolated Chapel, Sulfur Falls, and Woodland Cemetery) will be returning in Dominaria.
Dominaria’s Story and Characters
Story
The FAQ reveals Dominaria’s four story cards:
- Story Spotlight 1: Broken Bond
- Story Spotlight 2: Final Parting
- Story Spotlight 3: Settle the Score
- Story Spotlight 4: In Bolas’s Clutches
Looks like we’re in for some more of Nicol Bolas’s machinations.
Demonlord Belzenlok
Liliana’s final demon, a very powerful Elder (!) Demon.
Jodah, Archmage Eternal (Ice Age)
Jaya Ballard (Ice Age)
Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar (Urza’s Saga, Weatherlight, Invasion, Time Spiral)
Karn, Scion of Urza (Urza’s Saga, Weatherlight, Invasion, Time Spiral)
Undead Squee (Weatherlight, Invasion)
Shanna, Sisay’s Legacy (Sisay, from Weatherlight, Mercadian Masques, Invasion)
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain (Urza’s Saga, Weatherlight, Invasion-ish, Time Spiral)
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria (Mirage, Urza’s Saga, Weatherlight, Invasion-ish, Time Spiral)
No More Planeswalker Redirect Rule for Direct Damage
As we reported earlier today, the Planeswalker Redirect Rule will be going away when Dominaria is released. As a result, cards like Lightning Bolt will now say “deals 3 damage to any target,” which will include Planeswalkers. You can read more about this rule change here.
“They” Will Replace “His or Her” in Rules Text
A small but significant change is coming to the way Magic cards are templated. The English versions of cards will “now use ‘they’ as the third person singular pronoun instead of ‘he or she.'” Many players have been asking for this change for a while now, both because it is a simpler construction and is more inclusive.
No More “T: Add X to Your Mana Pool”
Another small change you might not have noticed. Instead of cards like Llanowar Elves saying, “T: Add X to your mana pool,” they will now say, “T: Add X.”
So…where’d my mana pool go?!