#MTGFOUNDATIONS is EASILY one of my favorite Magic: The Gathering sets of the past 4-5+ years which was surprising to me because it is a Core set with a lot of reprints. Typically, because I don’t play 60-card Tournament formats anymore, and because I’ve collected the cards I actually want in their original printings – I tend to take a pass on Core Sets, but this set is AWESOME!
In the past, Core Sets have been more about redefining what is legal in Constructed Formats like Standard than actually adding new and interesting game pieces to the game.
There’s obvious exceptions to the rule across time:
A really well designed Land Cycle.
I would argue, in the past the formula for a Core Set was to jam a small number of exciting new cards into a mostly reprint set that is geared toward shaping and framing how Standard will look; while this dynamic is clearly in play in #MTGFOUNDATIONS (it is going to be a big reshaper of Standard for many years to come!) I also observe the set has a higher ceiling on the number of quality new designs than I’d normally expect to see in a Core Set. It’s a deep set.
I definitely found myself reading the spoiler and making a list of tons of cards I wanted to pick up for the various multiplayer formats I play, including PDH, EDH and Multiplayer Battle Box!
Another attribute of Foundations that comes across positively for me is a consolidated return to using the #MAGICTHEGATHERING IP (Intellectual Property) as the backbone of a Core Set as opposed to a Universes Beyond setting. I got into Magic 30+ years ago because I fell in love with the first Core Set and the flavor of Shivan Dragon, Royal Assassin, Hypnotic Specter and Craw Wurm.
“Craw Wurms are Superheroes too!”
Sure, I liked Spider Man comics and Lord of the Rings – but I liked that Magic was it’s own thing with its own monsters, characters and settings that I could explore as opposed to an empty vessel to carry other IPs.
As a critic of WoTC’s choice to make Universes Beyond a regular thing, and apprehension that the choice comes at the price of costing #MAGICTHEGATHERING some of its inherent “Magic-ness” and great flavor -I can honestly say that #MTGFOUNDATIONS gets my vote for the most Magic-y Core Set of all time.
Long story short, and editorializing aside, #MTGFOUNDATIONS is an awesome set, with great Magic flavor, choice reprints, and useful new designs that I actually look forward to collecting.
Since I pretty much exclusively play multiplayer formats like Battle Box, EDH, PDH, and Cube for fun now, I’ll be sharing my insights into what are my favorite new cards in Foundations and where I’m most excited to apply those cards in my multiplayer games.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: PAUPER COMMANDER PICKS
I’m a big fan of #MTGPauper and #PDH (Pauper Commander). As much as I love playing the most powerful decks, I’m also a fan of Powering down sometimes and playing at different Power Levels in my casual games.
The two Commons I’m most excited to add to my PDH collection:
I actually love the simple, straightforward name of “Hungry Ghoul” to describe this as a Magic creature that isn’t defined by a particular planar location. I enjoy cards that feel Evergreen in flavor.
I also think Infestation Sage has a real shot to be a straight up Pauper Constructed card.
Let’s get to my Commander Top 8:
A set that I REALLY liked from recent memory was #MTGBLOOMBURROW. One of the things I appreciated about that set was the anthropomorphic creature types playing a main role in a Typal themed set.
“Hare Apparent is a nice Grizzly Bears.”
As fun as it was to cast Grizzly Bears back in 1995, it is still appealing to cast creatures that have animal themes in 2024. I also observe that Bloomburrow was a set that my Wife, Hayley, enjoyed (because of the cute animal creature flavor) and it was a game that we enjoyed playing and collecting together.
Of the Bloomburrow creature types, her favorite is Rabbits (her favorite card is Regal Bunnicorn) and she likes to play beatdown decks.
We worked on building a Finneas, Ace Archer together but ultimately the project fell a little flat because there simply were not enough unique Rabbit cards to realistically build a Rabbit deck with but Hare Apparent kind of shores up that problem by virtue of its unique ability to play more an unlimited number of copies in a 100-card singleton deck.
For a fun, casual powered game – I think that playing a bunch of Hare Apparent is a great starter kit for building a neat Rabbit Tokens themed deck.
My favorite way to brew a Commander deck is to build around a theme and my favorite theme to build around is creature type.
It’s a fun context to explore because it gives one a neat insight into what exactly the flavor of the various creature types are with regard to gameplay and asks the deckbuilder to make choices about how to include all the favorite designs while also executing a game plan.
My secret favorite creature type in Magic is Zombies and I enjoy the flavor of returning creatures from my graveyard to play. My preferred Zombie Commander is:
I go pretty deep into the synergy and flavor of returning Zombies from the graveyard to play for value and Zul Ashur is a very solid little Zombie to include among all-time sweet Zombie designs.
I’m not really an Eldrazi fanboy, but I know a powerful creature when I see it! Design packed a ton of stats onto this monster which makes me think it’s likely strong enough to impact the board in a meaningful way even in multiplayer. Cool use of the redundant number seven on the card: 7s everywhere!
My, my, my… Baneslayer Angel looks different in 2024!
#5. ARAHBO, THE FIRST FANG
I like animals a lot and enjoy playing and building animal themed Typal decks and Arahbo is a great addition to Rin and Seri because it sort of naturally synergizes with the Token strategy that Rin and Seri leans into.
Helpful Hunter is another sweet Rin and Seri include from Foundations worth noting.
My build of Rin & Seri tries to take advantage of double dipping on the Commander’s cast trigger and so I’m happy to add another two drop to the squad.
So far, my list has been more a list of cards that are kind of neat or cheeky that apply to a specific context or themes of the decks that I personally enjoy playing and that is a good thing in general because it’s cool when our “pet decks” get some new tools to play with.
Foundations has some great cards for building onto Typal themed decks, but as I move into the creme-de –la-creme of my favorite cards on my list they tend to become a little more evergreen as opposed to specific to support for a niche archetype. I like these kinds of designs because it makes the card pretty useful for including in a range of creature based Typal decks.
Banner of Kinship is an excellent “big Anthem” template that ports well into any Commander deck that is looking to go-wide and go-big in the attack phase. For instance, Banner also made the cut in my Finneas, Ace Archer deck that I posted above.
The card is similar to Coat of Arms in the sense that it can create A TON of added Power and Toughness to your battlefield, but unlike Coat it will only ever power up your monsters, not your opponent’s.
In my opinion, Nine-Lives Familiar is currently one of the sleeper cards in the set for Commander play and I see it as one of the best “Sacrificial Lamb” cards of all time since it will return to play from the grave up to Nine times when used in concert with a free Sacrifice outlet.
Nine Lives Familiar is a big ritual with cards like Phyrexian Altar in sacrifice decks. Typically, when cards tend to have excellent synergy with excellentcards that already exist its a strong sign the card will see a lot of evergreen play in Commander and fully expect this is a card that will make the cut in most dedicated sacrifice decks – even potentially being include worthy in high powered decks like CeDH.
#2. LOOT, EXUBERANT EXPLORER
Loot has drawn some heat on social media for its odd artwork, but it still gets my checkmark for best evergreen multiplayer staple in #MTGFoundations (even if I do think it looks more like a Funko Pop than MTG character).
I double checked with my wife, and her snap response was that it was cute, so clearly I’m wrong for being in the camp that isn’t a fan of Loot as a flavorful character.
Also, being Legendary, makes it an interesting land ramp build-around Commander, since it helps you play extra lands and has an ability to take advantage of all those extra lands in play every turn.
With that said, it’s the only card that I’m 100% certain to include in my Battle Box because of how inherently powerful playing an extra land is in that format.
#1. BLOODTHIRSTYCONQUEROR
The top end of my list, Sire of Seven Deaths and Bloodthirsty Conqueror, kind of feels like what I’d describe as “Baneslayer Angel Core Set Design” where WotC sticks a ton of sick stats onto Mythics to push pack sales of a mostly reprint set.
With that said, I actively enjoy playing with Powerful cards and recognize these ones are very solid.
Exquisite Blood is a multiplayer card that has been consistently solid for a long time and Conqueror adds a giant body with multiple abilities to that template. Another strong monster that is worth putting in the conversation to make the cut in my Powered Multiplayer Battle Box.
It also has a great creature Type – Vampire. A fact that I think puts it over the top as a potential multiplayer staple for a long time.
Since I don’t play tournaments anymore, and mostly stick to playing pods with friends (typically high powered) I’m a fan of power creep and actively welcome it at the EDH Table.
Overall, Foundations looks to be an incredible set (and I completely skipped over all the incredible reprints, of which there are many excellent ones!). I appreciate the return of core Magic: the Gathering IP flavor to the forefront of the franchise as well as the straightforward, powerful designs of the new cards in the set. Best Core Set since the Original one!
