MTG Spoils Foundation Cards That Won't Rotate From Standard For 5 Years

Magic: The Gathering made an announcement at MagicCon: Amsterdam that nobody saw coming. A secret new Standard set is releasing on November 15 of this year and will be legal in the format at least until 2029.

The new set has been named Foundations and will be the “new foundation” for Magic players looking to get into Standard.

Foundation’s products include play boosters, collector boosters, a beginner box, and a starter kit to help teach new players.

Here are all the spoilers revealed so far for the set.

MTG Foundation Spoilers – Llanowar Elves

Llanowar Elves is a bold choice for a card that won’t rotate for five years. Standard has gone years without having it in the format over fears of power level.

Being able to accelerate into a turn two three-drop, or potentially a turn three five-drop, has made Magic hesitant to keep these sorts of cards in Standard for long.

Does anyone remember turn two Oko?

MTG Foundation Spoilers – Day of Judgement

Magic continually tries to be creative in designing new versions of board wipes that fit the theme of new Standard sets. Having a non-rotating 4-mana board wipe means they don’t need to do this anymore.

Day of Judgment is a solid choice as it comes down a turn earlier than most. This potentially opens up more design space in future Standard sets for creative board wipes, since there will always be Day of Judgment available to players.

MTG Foundation Spoilers – Omniscience

Omniscience is the most Timmy card out there. If you want to win big, this is the way to do it.

Having Omniscience in Standard is an exciting choice that can potentially restrict the other cards being printed in the format. MTG doesn’t want to give people an easy way to cheat out a 10-mana, win-the-game enchantment.

MTG Foundation Spoilers – Anthem of Champions

Glorious Anthem just keeps getting better. Anthem of Champions will make token and aggro decks a little bit more viable for the next five years.

If we ever see a card like Spectral Procession printed, Anthem of Champions will be right there to create a formidable build.

MTG Foundation Spoilers – Nine-Lives Familiar

For those of you with dice to spare, Foundations has Nine-Lives Familiar. It’s a chump blocker or sacrifice outlet that just keeps coming back.

Nine-Lives Familiar will return at the beginning of the next end step, so you can sacrifice it both on your turn and your opponent’s turn. In formats like Commander, that’s four sacrifices until your next turn!

MTG Foundation – Borderless Treatment

MTG also informed players that there will be borderless treatments for the set. We get a sneak peek of the borderless versions of Nine-Lives Familiar and Anthem of Champions above.

MTG Foundation – Alternate Art

There will also be alternate art for select MTG Foundations cards! So far, we can confirm that Omniscience, Nine-Lives Familiar, and Anthem of Champions will receive the alternate art treatment shown above.

MTG Foundation – Five Planeswalkers Confirmed

You'll have to wait to see more cards, but we will confirm that Foundations will feature 5 Planeswalkers! #MTGFoundations
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) June 28, 2024

The final news revealed for Magic: The Gathering Foundations Standard set is the inclusion of five planeswalkers! We don’t know whether these will be a new or returning cast, so we will have to wait and see.

It’s an interesting choice to have planeswalkers legal in Standard for five years, both in terms of the impact these cards can have on the format and how they will integrate the lore of these characters into future Standard sets.