Magic: The Gathering goes back to basics with Foundations: green decks go tall, monsters get bigger

GamesCard GameMagic: The GatheringMagic: The Gathering goes back to basics with Foundations: green decks go tall, monsters get biggerWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Bryan Sola)

A hydra with eight heads

Magic’s always been tough for beginners. The starter sets, cheaper boxes that give you two premade decks and a little rulebook, are the standard way in for a lot of players. Arena has a tutorial that was recently redesigned to be a smoother on-ramp. But the problem isn’t learning how to play land and tap it to cast spells—it’s where you go from there. The steps between learning the basic rules and learning the full suite of arcane keywords, the principles of deckbuilding, and the familiarity with typical cards you need to understand what’s possible, is vast.

Which is where Foundations comes in. Rather than the kind of set that arrives, makes a splash, and then fades out, it’s intended to be a long-lasting core that’ll remain standard-legal at least through 2029, maybe further. A ground floor of cards that will be reprinted on the regular so they’re always there on the shelf of your local gaming store to direct new players toward.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Chase Stone)

A dinosaur on a rampage

Half of the cards in Foundations will be reprints, many of them well-loved classics old heads will remember. Cards like Shivan Dragon and Serra Angel, which have been around since the earliest days of Magic, but plenty from this century as well. Like the two green cards below: Wildwood Scourge, from the 2021 Core Set, and Ghalta, Primal Hunger, one of five rare elder dinosaurs from 2018’s Rivals of Ixalan expansion.

The classic mono-green strategy is going tall. You bring out as many forests as you can, pumping up the mana until you can play one of your big guns likeGigantosaurus(which is also coming back in Foundations). Ghalta, Primal Hunger, is a perfect example—a 12/12 who, like a lot of green-deck big guns, has trample. He also costs less if you control other creatures, so those Llanowar Elves you summoned while you were waiting to play Ghalta get to feel like they’re still contributing. (Llanowar Elves are also coming back in Foundations.)

Image1of3(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Bryan Sola)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Chase Stone)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Justin Gerard)

Image1of3

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Bryan Sola)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Chase Stone)(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Justin Gerard)

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Bryan Sola)

Wildwood Scourge

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Chase Stone)

Ghalta, Primal Hunger

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Justin Gerard)

Ghalta, Primal Hunger (borderless)

These are the kind of classic strategies everything else in Magic: The Gathering is built on. The speedy red aggro deck full of goblins, the slow blue deck full of counterspells, the black deck that pulls cards out of the graveyard and the white deck that overwhelms you with flying angels and also lions for some reason. These are the building blocks of Magic, and having a set that plays to those strengths, and the combinations when you start building multi-color decks, will give me a way of introducing new players to Magic beyond just handing them a Lord of the Rings starter set. Which is nice.

And it’s also appealing as someone who already learned this stuff the hard way (from videogames), because I’ve always wanted a paper deck that had ye olde cards like Savannah Lions in it.Foundationswill be playable atpre-release eventsat your local gaming store from November 8, will be available digitally in Arena on November 12, and will be available in paper Magic from November 15.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast/Justin Gerard)

A colorful dinosaur looms over a jungle

TOPICSWizards of the Coast

TOPICS

More about card gamesLegendary joker ports Balatro to the 44-millimeter screen of an Apple Watch, calls it ‘Wee Balatro’You should definitely grab today’s free Epic Store giveaway: this ‘dicebuilder’ might quietly be the best freebie of the seasonLatestFinal Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their altsSee more latest►

More about card games

Legendary joker ports Balatro to the 44-millimeter screen of an Apple Watch, calls it ‘Wee Balatro’You should definitely grab today’s free Epic Store giveaway: this ‘dicebuilder’ might quietly be the best freebie of the season

Balatro being played on an Apple Watch

Legendary joker ports Balatro to the 44-millimeter screen of an Apple Watch, calls it ‘Wee Balatro’

Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles art

You should definitely grab today’s free Epic Store giveaway: this ‘dicebuilder’ might quietly be the best freebie of the season

LatestFinal Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their altsSee more latest►

Latest

Final Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their alts

Alisaie, a side character in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, folds her arms with a confident smirk on her face.

Final Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their alts

See more latest►

Most Popular

These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre

Five new Steam games you probably missed (January 6, 2025)

I’ve seen enough: No more forcing singleplayer studios to make mediocre live service games

6 games that could be bigger hits than you’re expecting in 2025

What are your 2025 gaming resolutions?

The FBI put a $5 million bounty on the ‘Cryptoqueen’ last year but still hasn’t found her, so take your pick: Russia, South Africa, or murdered on a yacht in 2018

The Witcher season 4: Everything we know about Hemsworth’s debut on The Continent

8 bold gaming predictions for 2025

The PC game releases we’re most excited about in January

Twitter is dead, X is a cesspit, let’s make 2025 the year of the message board

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals