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Magic: The Gatheringhas been trying to revitalise the Standard format ever since the pandemic. Lockdown all but killed the format in paper, with people retreating to Arena where they could play more games, and quicker.
We’ve had an overhaul of the ban system, rotation has been extended, and now we have Foundations. Meant to serve as a pool of cards that will remain legal in Standard for as long as possible, it’s also serving as an introductory set and a reprint set all at the same time.
More details on the set were revealed at MagicCon Vegas’ Foundations debut panel. Despite its generally lower power level, Foundations is looking like one of the most interesting releases the game has had in a long time.
Mechanics
Unlike most other releases, Foundations isn’t strictly about anything. It isn’t a Western like Outlaws of Thunder Junction, or an ode to horror like Duskmourn. It’s Magic: The Gathering, distilled into a set that conveys everything the game does well in a way that’s ‘gentle, but real’.
With that in mind, there aren’t any major mechanical themes at play in the set. Instead, it does a bit of everything, with each colour relying on what it does best. Take white, which has a heavy focus on creature tokens, lifegain, and, as the Beginner Box deck suggests, lots and lots of Cats.
The idea is that you’re able to look at Foundations and get a good understanding of what the colour pie does, before other sets come along and hone in on specific aspects for their designs. Black can sacrifice creatures and has a lot of Vampires, while green loves Hydras and Elves, playing extra lands, and casting big, expensive spells.
Foundations is going to be legal in Standard until at least 2029, however Wizards has plans for it to remain legal for much longer if it proves a success. It could simply remain part of the format indefinitely.
That doesn’t mean it’s sticking to the basics, though. Foundations might be a baseline and a good place to start for beginners, but it’s also making use of plenty of deciduous mechanics we’ve not seen in a while as well, with a particular emphasis on raid, prowess, threshold, and flashback to help teach various game concepts.
Beginner Box
The Beginner Box is designed to be the starting point for any new Magic: The Gathering player, giving you an easy way to learn how to play with preconstructed decks in a guided environment. Though the Beginner Box has already been revealed, and we’ve even already had the chance to play with it, a few more of the themes coming in the box were shown off.
Alongside the Cats and Vampires we already knew about, Wizards announced white will be getting a second deck called Healing, blue Pirates and Wizards, and red a deck called Inferno that likely combines Burn and Dragons. Perhaps the most interesting of the bunch is green, with Elves being one of the most popular creature types in the game.
Crucially, none of the cards found in the Beginner Box are exclusive to it. Everything inside can be found in regular Foundations booster packs, which helps give us a better idea of what exactly the main set will be looking at as we head into its preview season. As someone who has a Wizard deck, and whose friend has an Elf deck, I’m very eager to see what’s coming.
Stater Collection
The other product new for Foundations is the Starter Collection. This is meant to be the next stage of learning Magic, when you’re already familiar with the rules but don’t have the biggest collection to explore strategies and get creative with.
In a press pre-briefing event for the MagicCon panel, senior designer Carmen Klomparens described the Starter Collection as the “ultimate shoebox” of cards, harkening back to when veteran players would bestow newcomers with boxes of their old cards to help them get started.
Like the Beginner Box, the Starter Collection largely consists of over 350 cards found in the main Foundations set. However, it does include one extra card to help new players experience receiving their first promo: a textless version of the 10/10 vanilla Dinosaur, Gigantosaurus.
Slowly Ramping Up Complexity
An interesting part of Foundations’ design that is highlighted by the Starter Collection is that the set isn’t just teaching the basics. Old core sets had a problem of being too oversimplistic, and not letting new players get into the interactions and synergies that make Magic so much fun.
Foundations might be keeping things from going too busted, but it is giving new players the tools to feel out beyond the basic keywords and rules. One of the examples given was the inclusion of Demonic Pact and Harmless Offering – two cards that seem confusing to new players on their own, but put together can knock an opponent out of the game incredibly easily.
Another example are the multicolour cards. Multicolour isn’t going to be playing a major role in Foundations, but different ways of doing multicolour cards will be present, ranging from your traditional cards with two or more colours in their casting cost, to more advanced ways like a differently coloured flashback cost. It all safely teaches you advanced concepts of Magic in a way that mimics how veteran players first did it themselves.
Foundations Jumpstart
Despite coming under the Foundations name, Foundations Jumpstart is its own set that won’t be legal in Standard. Instead, this is, effectively, the third major Jumpstart set following the original and Jumpstart 2022.
Jumpstart is by far one of the best ways to play Magic. You take two packs, shuffle them together, and you have a deck ready to go. Jumpstart Foundations is meant to tie in the main set’s Beginner Box, which teaches you have to play with decks that play very similarly, by including a wider number of themes and a higher power level.
We still don’t know exactly what themes will be coming in Foundations Jumpstart, but the cards we’ve seen for it do suggest that it’ll also play into the inherent essence of each colour. Cards like Scythecat Cub bring landfall to the set, and Taeko the Patient Avalanche fits neatly into blue’s Ninjas and bouncing themes.
It’ll also include reprints, which are often the most exciting part of a Jumpstart set. Vilis, Broker of Blood and Brimaz, King of Oreskos were both revealed in their manga alt-art styles, and we’re sure to see one or two cards that make a big splash, like Rhystic Study did back in Jumpstart 2022.
Introducing People To The Magic Multiverse
It isn’t just mechanics that Foundations is hoping to ease new players into. Magic’s lore can be easily overwhelming, and so the set is focusing on classic names and faces to give people a taste of what the multiverse has to offer.
At the heart of the set are the most famous Planeswalkers in the game. So far we’ve seen Ajani, Liliana and Vivien, each with gorgeous alt-art styles, but others are almost certain to follow.
Looking past the Planeswalkers, a large part of Foundations focuses on introducing you to characters who have either recently become a part of the ongoing story, or will be in the coming months. A cycle of full-art lands includes current major players relaxing, like Zimone in Arcavios, Ajani in Theros, Kaito in Kamigawa, Giada in New Capenna, Kellen in Thunder Junction, or Vivien in Ikoria.
Though Foundations doesn’t have a story, and is timeline agnostic, meaning it isn’t centred on the current events as of Duskmourn: House of Horror, it’s still nice that the set introduces people to one of my favourite things about Magic in a way that sparks curiosity. That’s far better than just lecturing people about what Planeswalkers are in reams of text.
Art
Though Foundations is very different from other sets in a lot of ways, it’s remarkably similar in others. One such way is the vast spread of alternate art treatments on offer.
Special Guests
Special Guests is coming back for its next outing. This is a limited set of reprints that aren’t part of the regular Foundations set, but offer some extra spice to its limited format with new, exclusive art.
Foundations is a set about Magic: The Gathering, and so the theme for its Special Guests is calling back to older showcase frames. Two of the cards have been revealed, with Embercleave using Eldraine’s storybook frame and gorgeous art from Wylie Beckert, and Temporal Mainpulation including the neon frame and anime art from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.
Japan Showcase
Introduced in Duskmourn: House Of Horror, the Japan Showcase is back for its second outing. Designed to try and court the Japanese market, these cards feature alt-art by Japanese artists, and are exclusive to Collector boosters.
The panel revealed five cards that’d be getting the treatment. Two are reprints, with Think Twice and a really stunning Progenitus, while the other three are new cards debuting in the set: Herald of Eternal Dawn, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, and Twinflame Tyrant.
Like Duskmourn’s Japan Showcase, Foundations’ will also have an even rarer shattered foil style to these cards. These proved to be among the most valuable in Duskmourn, making them highly desirable here too.
Full Art And Mana Foil
Back in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, we saw the debut of Steppe-and-Compleat foiling, which laced the foil treatment on certain cards with dozens of Phyrexian symbols. It weirdly wasn’t used again, but finally, 18 months later, it’s back.
Instead of Phyrexian symbols, though, Foundations’ Mana Foil cards will feature the five colour symbols. These will be available as rarer, alternate versions of the already rate full-art cards in the set.
It’s tricky for a set without a unifying theme like Foundations to have alt-art treatments that feel relevant and exciting, but the combination of full-art and Mana Foiling definitely helps make collecting it and picking up Collector boosters a lot more appealing.
Foundations and Foundations Jumpstart’s preview seasons kicked off today (October 25), and run for one week. The sets themselves launch on July 14, 2025. Lots of other things were also announced at MagicCon Vegas today, including 2025’s sets, and huge changes to rotation and set legality.
Magic: The Gathering
Created by Richard Garfield in 1993, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) has become one of the biggest tabletop collectible card games in the world. Taking on the role of a Planeswalker, players build decks of cards and do battle with other players. In excess of 100 additional sets have added new cards to the library, while the brand has expanded into video games, comics, and more.
