Source transparency: This Digest item is based primarily on reporting from MTG Rocks. TMF summarizes and interprets the news; original reporting remains credited and linked.
Engineered Explosives is being reprinted in the main Star Trek set, opening it to Standard and Pioneer when that set becomes legal. The previewed card carries the TRK set code and collector number 0264; it is not one of the separate SDS Stardates bonus-sheet cards.
That placement is the important development. A cosmetic reprint on a bonus sheet would normally preserve existing format access, while a main-set printing adds the card to the newer formats. This gives players a scalable answer to groups of low-cost permanents without assuming it will automatically become a dominant staple.
Engineered Explosives costs X and enters with a charge counter for each color of mana spent to cast it. The number of counters is therefore not always equal to X. Spending two mana of the same color normally produces one counter; spending two different colors produces two.
Its activated ability costs two mana and sacrifices it to destroy each nonland permanent with mana value equal to its charge-counter count. Both players' permanents are affected. Casting it for zero can therefore answer many ordinary tokens, but not every possible token: copies can retain a copied card's mana value, and lands are outside the destruction effect.
The card offers flexibility against clustered one- or two-mana threats, artifacts and enchantments. Its constraints matter just as much: the mana base must produce the relevant colors, activation needs another two mana, and a deck can destroy its own board alongside the opponent's.
The advertised tabletop release is November 13. Until the new printing becomes legal, the preview is a deckbuilding development rather than evidence of an already changed Standard or Pioneer metagame.
That placement is the important development. A cosmetic reprint on a bonus sheet would normally preserve existing format access, while a main-set printing adds the card to the newer formats. This gives players a scalable answer to groups of low-cost permanents without assuming it will automatically become a dominant staple.
Engineered Explosives costs X and enters with a charge counter for each color of mana spent to cast it. The number of counters is therefore not always equal to X. Spending two mana of the same color normally produces one counter; spending two different colors produces two.
Its activated ability costs two mana and sacrifices it to destroy each nonland permanent with mana value equal to its charge-counter count. Both players' permanents are affected. Casting it for zero can therefore answer many ordinary tokens, but not every possible token: copies can retain a copied card's mana value, and lands are outside the destruction effect.
The card offers flexibility against clustered one- or two-mana threats, artifacts and enchantments. Its constraints matter just as much: the mana base must produce the relevant colors, activation needs another two mana, and a deck can destroy its own board alongside the opponent's.
The advertised tabletop release is November 13. Until the new printing becomes legal, the preview is a deckbuilding development rather than evidence of an already changed Standard or Pioneer metagame.
Original source: Shocking MTG Star Trek Zero-Mana Artifact Reprint Could Warp Multiple Formats ↗MTG Rocks