Morningtide Release Primer

With the Morningtide release just over a week away, we thought it was an appropriate time to go over some of the new keyword abilities one should expect at the table. This is only an overview of the new abilities and you are encouraged to download the official DCI Morningtide Rules Primer.



As Lorwyn had a strong tribal theme, Morningtide has a stong class theme. Expect to see Rogues, Shamans, Wizards, Warriors, and Soldiers in this set of 150 cards being called into service to support your deck in the Release Tournament. The most common event organised for the Release weekend are "Limited" where the player is provided a pool of cards with which to play. At the Release weekend, most venues will provide a "Sealed" Lorwyn tournament pack and two Morningtide booster packs. A sealed pack contains at total of 75 cards which includes 45 random cards and 30 basic lands. Of the 45 cards, one can expect to typically find 32 common cards, 10 uncommon cards, and 3 rare cards. Booster packs contain 15 cards. Within the Booster pack, the player can typically expect to find around 11 common cards, 3 uncommon cards, and 1 rare card.

~

New Keyword Abilities

To start off, "Evoke" makes a return appearence from Lorwyn and is found on seven elemental creature cards in Morningtide . Although the creatures with evoke in Lorwyn all had "comes into play" effects, the creatures with evoke in Morningtide all have "leaves play" effects. Basically, the player can choose to pay the evoke cost and just obtain the ability, not the creature so the creature will be sacrificed when it comes into play. Alternatively, the player may choose to pay the full cost for the creature and its evoke ability.

Prowl:
Prowl is a static ability that is found on nine Morningtide creatures, sorceries and an instant. This ability is restricted to certain Rogue cards. A card with prowl allows the player to pay an alternative mana cost if a player was dealt combat damage. Futhermore, the damage dealt to the player had to be dealt by the specified creature (Goblin or Faerie) and / or a Rogue.

Kinship:
A dozen Morningtide creature cards will contain the "kinship" ability word. This ability will allow the player to look at the top card of their deck. If the top card shares a creature type with the card with the card with kinship ability, you may reveal it to obtain a stated bonus (gaining life, etc.). Note that if the palyer does not reveal the top card, the bonus cannot be obtained. Also important to note is that the top card, revealed or not, remains on top of the library.

Reinforce:
Reinforce is an acitvated ability on seven Morningtide cards. This ability is used only while the card with that ability is still within its owner's hand. A card with this ability will allow a player to to pay the card's mana cost and discard it in order to give a target creature a stated number of (+1/+1) counters.

~

We hope this brief overview will assist the new or casual Magic player at the Morningtide Release event. For more information on Release events, visit the Wizards of the Coast Magic website.