New Horizons - Mechanics

Lead Designer - Don James, Jr.

New Horizons Mechanics and Rules text explained

3 new mechanics are present within the New Horizons set

Terra-Forming

Terra-Forming gives normal spells the ability to transform themselves into lands. In order to terra-form a card, a player simply announces he is terra-forming it and puts it into play near his lands tapped. As long as a terra-formed card is in play it counts only as a non-basic land permanent and no longer it's original card type. Terra-formed lands always come into play tapped and provide 1 mana of whatever color is in its mana cost. Playing a terra-formed land is the same as playing any other land: they may not be countered or responded to and only 1 land (whether terra-formed or not) is allowed per turn. There are two Gold cards within the New Horizons set that have the terra-forming ability (Hunger of the Beast and Wandering Elephant). Gold cards with terra-forming may tap for one mana of any either color in their casting costs. Artifacts with terra-forming tap only for colorless mana.

Filter

Filtering is a card drawing ability similar to the blue card "Impulse". To filter a card a player pays the spells normal mana cost and announces he is filtering the spell. The player then looks at the next X cards in his library, puts one in his hand and the rest on the bottom of his library in any order. X is equal to the number after "Filter:" (which appears on the card). Filter is like the cycling ability from Urza's Saga because it cannot be countered but does go on the stack and therefore can be responded to.

Endurance

Endurance is a creature ability, which allows creatures with activated abilities (which include the T symbol), to tap additional times before untapping. A tapped creature with "Endurance: 1" may tap 1 additional time to activate an ability, if so the creature is rotated another 90 degrees by its controller to signify it is double-tapped. A permanent tapped more than 90 degrees untaps 1 time (90 degrees counter-clockwise) and does not become fully untapped at the start of each turn as normal. A card or ability which taps a permanent, cannot be used to tap any permanent if that permanent is already tapped even if that permanent possess endurance. A card or ability, which untaps a permanent, only untaps it 90 degrees. As always only a creature fully untapped may be declared as an attacker or a blocker in combat.

*None of the above mechanics are cumulative in nature. An effect which gives 'Endurance: 1' to a creature with Endurance: 1 does not make the creature have Endurance: 2. Likewise if a spell has filter: 3 and an effect gives it Filter: 4, you may activate either ability (obviously 4 would be preferable) but you may not filter for 7.

RULES TEXT

-The New Horizons set has abbreviated or left out some traditional and new rules text on cards (i.e. reminder text)

Islandhome - if you do not control an island sacrifice this creature, your opponent must control an island for this creature to attack

High-Flying - a creature with high-flying has flying but can only block creatures with flying (like Cloud Sprite)

Other terms (Haste, Untargetable, Trample, etc,) do not have reminder text, but should be understood by non-beginning players.

CYCLES

There are two cycles of cards within the New Horizons set which have new rules text which has been abbreviated on the cards themselves

Permission Creatures

There are 15 permission creatures within the set (one in each rarity and in each color). When you play a permission creature your opponent may counter the creature itself by announcing his intention to do so. Permission creatures contain the text OMC: (meaning an Opponent May Counter). If an opponent chooses to counter a permission creature then the effects after "OMC:" take place instead of the creature coming into play. All decisions required by these effects (such as choosing which player/permanent(s) to affect) are up to the discretion of the player who played the permission creature. Effects after "OMC:" never target. A player's decision to counter or not takes place upon resolution of the spell, and therefore, the actions which result from the spell being countered may not be responded to. Of course, permission creatures may be countered by normal methods and in this case no additional abilities of the spell take place. A permission creature brought into play by other methods (other than casting it from your hand) is not subject to OMC and is treated normally.

Swap-Spells

When swap-spells resolve they go to your opponents hand and not the graveyard as normal. If a spell or ability causes a swap-spell to enter a graveyard or library that is not its owners, then the swap-spell goes directly to its owner's graveyard. Spells which switch hands by other methods (Blatant Forgery, Honor Among Thieves) are also subject to these rules. In other words, cards that go to a non-owner library or graveyard always go to their owner's graveyard instead.