Magic: The Gathering Foundations is a new set designed for beginners

Publisher Wizards of the Coast has spent the last few years targeting two very different segments of the market. Magic: The Gathering public. On one hand, you have the multiplayer game style called Commander, arguably the most popular format in the game. On the other hand, you have the ambitious Universes Beyond products, designed to turn the heads of lapsed fans and non-gamers with products that support multiple play styles. Now, the collectible card game is returning to its roots with a new set called Foundationsa collection of cards and a curated gaming experience tailor-made for newcomers.

Foundations will launch on November 15th and will have all the trappings of a main set release – which includes Play Boosters, Collector Boosters, Jumpstart Boosters, and Bundles – as well as the same pre-release pomp and circumstance as any other new card game. But it will also feature two newcomers.Magic products: a Beginner’s box and one Starter Collection.

Image: Wizards of the Coast

Image: Wizards of the Coast

Bryan Hawley, director of game design at Wizards, told Polygon that the Beginner’s box set will include 10 packs with 20 cards inside each, with two packs for each MagicThe five colors of mana. Using a mixing system originally designed for the Jumpstart product line, players will be able to combine and recombine these 10 decks into many different deck types. At least some of these packs will be pre-mixed, with the aim that players will open and explore them first alongside a detailed, step-by-step written tutorial.

“One of the things that Foundations “We’re really trying to do it differently than any of our previous attempts at an onboarding experience,” Hawley said, “is to really focus on that complete journey, (taking a new player in) I’m interested in magic, but I don’t know anything about it! through Oh, I’ve identified what I love to do and I’m going to do more of it! Therefore the Beginner’s Box is a much more elaborate experience that offers a lot more content (than previous starter sets). You can play dozens of games right from the box. »

Image: Wizards of the Coast

Image: Wizards of the Coast

Image: Wizards of the Coast

Once players have mastered the Beginner Foundations Box of 200 cards, then they can move on to the Starter Collection. This box of 350 cards will help them delve deeper into the themes and techniques they’ve already discovered, while keeping them in the warm embrace of a sort of estuary – a place of calm that should remain stable even if several new card games are released year after year.

This long-term stability is new for Magic as a whole. When a new deck is released, it only remains viable – that is, “legal” to play in certain formats – for about three years. Hawley said that the cards in the Foundations It will be legal to play on this set until at least 2029, almost double the usual duration.

“Our hope and intention is that as long as the expansion continues to do its job,” Hawley said, “helping new players learn the game, acclimate to the game, and find what they love about the game – And being this foundation of the Standard in general, it will continue to remain legal for the Standard.

Magic: The Foundations of Gathering‘ Beginner Box will retail for $29.99, while the larger Starter Collection will cost $59.99. Expect more information from Wizards ahead of this fall’s release.