On the morning of Dominaria United’s first official prerelease day, Wizards of the Coast released an announcement featuring some errata to a collection of cards spanning multiple sets. Most of the resulting changes are insignificant but can have considerable implications in corner scenarios. If these scenarios occur, it will mean the difference between winning and losing a game. This means that the cards covered in this article will no longer play as they read. Only one of these will impact your Dominaria United Prerelease events this weekend, so don’t fret too much. That said, some of the cards affected will be Standard Legal, so MTG Arena fans will want to pay attention!
Yotia Declares War
Yotia Declares War’s old text:
Read ahead (Choose a chapter and start with that many lore counters. Add one after your draw step. Skipped chapters don’t trigger. Sacrifice after III.)
I — Create a 0/2 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying named Ornithopter.
II — Tap any number of untapped artifacts you control. When you do, Yotia Declares War deals that much damage to target creature or planeswalker.
III — Up to one target artifact you control becomes a creature with base power and toughness 4/4 until end of turn.
Yotia Declares War’s new text:
Read ahead (Choose a chapter and start with that many lore counters. Add one after your draw step. Skipped chapters don’t trigger. Sacrifice after III.)
I — Create a 0/2 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying named Ornithopter.
II — Tap any number of untapped artifacts you control. When you do, Yotia Declares War deals that much damage to target creature or planeswalker.
III — Up to one target artifact you control becomes an artifact creature with base power and toughness 4/4 until end of turn.
Out of Time
Out of Time is a Modern Horizons Two enchantment that is, basically, a complicated board wipe. It Phases Out all creatures and gains a number of Time Counters equal to the number of creatures it Phased Out. One Time Counter is removed per the owner’s Upkeep. Once all Time Counters are removed, Out of Time dies and all the Phased Out Creatures Phase back in.
This change will not affect how Out of Time plays all that much. According to Wizards of the Coast, Out of Time was written with a template that “instructed the player to Phase permanents out instead of the permanents Phasing Out themselves.” The text has been changed to appropriately reflect this:
Out of Time’s old text:
When Out of Time enters the battlefield, untap all creatures, then phase them out until Out of Time leaves the battlefield. Put a time counter on Out of Time for each creature that phased out this way.
Vanishing (At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from this enchantment. When the last is removed, sacrifice it.)
Out of Time’s new text:
When Out of Time enters the battlefield, untap all creatures, then those creatures phase out until Out of Time leaves the battlefield. Put a time counter on Out of Time for each creature that phased out this way.
Vanishing (At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from this enchantment. When the last is removed, sacrifice it.)
Cleric Class
Unlike Out of Time, Cleric Class’s change helps to clear up some rulings misconceptions that may come up in a paper game of MTG. Cleric Class’s final chapter features an ability that can return a creature from its owner’s graveyard to play and allow the owner to gain life equal to that creature’s toughness. The issue that comes up here is that the creature is referred to as an ‘its.’ While that may not seem like a big deal, it causes some confusion when Cleric Class is resurrecting a creature that has a different toughness when in the graveyard in comparison to the battlefield. Does ‘its’ refer to the creature’s toughness in graveyard, or on the battlefield? Since this check was unclear, Wizards updated the text to reflect the check more clearly:
Cleric Class’s old text:
(Gain the next level as a sorcery to add its ability.)
If you would gain life, you gain that much life plus 1 instead.
{o3oW}: Level 2
//Level_2//
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
{o4oW}: Level 3
//Level_3//
When this Class becomes level 3, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. You gain life equal to its toughness.
Cleric Class’s new text:
(Gain the next level as a sorcery to add its ability.)
If you would gain life, you gain that much life plus 1 instead.
{o3oW}: Level 2
//Level_2//
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
{o4oW}: Level 3
//Level_3//
When this Class becomes level 3, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. You gain life equal to that creature’s toughness.
The text now very clearly reads that the creature’s toughness is assessed after it enters the battlefield (though I think the majority of players would read it that way beforehand). If the word ‘it’ was used more universally on MTG cards, this errata would likely not be required.
Delina, Wild Mage
Delina, Wild Mage features a normal triggered ability that reads like a delayed trigger ability. This ability is granted to whatever creature token Delina creates should they roll a 1-14 on their initial ability. This word change clears up when the added trigger occurs. The original text could be construed as the ability occuring as soon as the token is created, featuring a delayed effect. The updated text makes the timing of the trigger much clearer. The ability will be triggered at the end of combat, and the token exiled.
Delina, Wild Mage’s old text:
Whenever Delina, Wild Mage attacks, choose target creature you control, then roll a d20.
1–14 | Create a tapped and attacking token that’s a copy of that creature, except it’s not legendary and it has “Exile this creature at end of combat.“
15–20 | Create one of those tokens. You may roll again.
Delina, Wild Mage’s new text:
Whenever Delina, Wild Mage attacks, choose target creature you control, then roll a d20.
1–14 | Create a tapped and attacking token that’s a copy of that creature, except it’s not legendary and it has “At end of combat, exile this creature.“
15–20 | Create one of those tokens. You may roll again.
Read More: Dominaria United is Making MTG Arena Great Again
Fatal Grudge
Fatal Grudge’s print was a simple error. The idea around this card is that it’s caster sacrifices a nonland permanent in addition to its casting cost. If Fatal Grudge resolves, the opponent must also sacrifice a permanent that shares a card types with the sacrificed card used to cast Fatal Grudge. ‘Card’ in ‘card type’ was missing.
Fatal Grudge’s old text:
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a nonland permanent.
Each opponent chooses a permanent they control that shares a type with the sacrificed permanent and sacrifices it.
Draw a card.
Fatal Grudge’s new text:
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a nonland permanent.
Each opponent chooses a permanent they control that shares a card type with the sacrificed permanent and sacrifices it.
Draw a card.
Small Problems Until they Happen to You
While these, realistically, are pretty minimal issues, they do cause corner case rulings that will differentiate between a win and a loss. For the majority of MTG players, maybe besides the errata affecting prerelease play this weekend, these changes will not affect you. Should these changes affect you, however, they will hugely impact your game. Therefore, while these changes may seem small, they will impact the games where they are played. As a result, staying on top of these errata when they do come up is crucial to improving your game. If possible, Wizards of the Coast should try to minimize these errata as much as possible. Unfortunately, these texts will not change on printed versions of the card, allowing a higher chance for paper players to make mistakes. Here is another example of an errata from a recent MTG set.
You can find Wizards of the Coast’s original article outlining the errata here.
