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.
Kobayashi Maru Scenario brings a Demonic Pact-style threat to blue. The newly previewed Star Trek enchantment costs one generic and two blue mana and offers a different unchosen mode at the beginning of its controller's upkeep. Three are beneficial; the fourth makes that player lose the game.
The useful modes draw two cards, create two 1/1 red Officer tokens, or return up to one opposing creature with mana value three or less to its owner's hand. Because the bounce mode says “up to one,” it can be selected even when there is no suitable target. Eventually, however, a player who keeps the same enchantment through enough upkeeps faces the remaining loss mode.
The strategic twist is to give it away after taking the three good modes. Donate can transfer control directly, while Commander options such as Zedruu the Greathearted or Inniaz, the Gale Force offer other routes, subject to their own costs and conditions. Changing controller does not turn the existing permanent into a new object or erase the modes already chosen. On its new controller's next upkeep, only the loss mode remains.
That is not an immediate kill when the donation resolves. The recipient has a window to remove or return the enchantment before that upkeep. Even after the triggered ability goes on the stack, appropriate interaction with the ability can matter. The plan therefore needs protection and careful timing, not simply a three-mana enchantment plus any gift effect.
Returning the card to hand and recasting it, or exiling and returning it to the battlefield, creates a new object and resets its history. That supports a different plan: recycling the useful modes rather than handing away the loss. A deck must choose which approach its support cards actually enable.
The current development is the new blue card's access to these constructions, including Commander color identities that cannot run black's Demonic Pact. It is a preview-stage strategy, not an established tournament result or evidence of widespread adoption. Its practical appeal is a flexible value engine with a dangerous ceiling and a genuinely meaningful exit requirement.
The useful modes draw two cards, create two 1/1 red Officer tokens, or return up to one opposing creature with mana value three or less to its owner's hand. Because the bounce mode says “up to one,” it can be selected even when there is no suitable target. Eventually, however, a player who keeps the same enchantment through enough upkeeps faces the remaining loss mode.
The strategic twist is to give it away after taking the three good modes. Donate can transfer control directly, while Commander options such as Zedruu the Greathearted or Inniaz, the Gale Force offer other routes, subject to their own costs and conditions. Changing controller does not turn the existing permanent into a new object or erase the modes already chosen. On its new controller's next upkeep, only the loss mode remains.
That is not an immediate kill when the donation resolves. The recipient has a window to remove or return the enchantment before that upkeep. Even after the triggered ability goes on the stack, appropriate interaction with the ability can matter. The plan therefore needs protection and careful timing, not simply a three-mana enchantment plus any gift effect.
Returning the card to hand and recasting it, or exiling and returning it to the battlefield, creates a new object and resets its history. That supports a different plan: recycling the useful modes rather than handing away the loss. A deck must choose which approach its support cards actually enable.
The current development is the new blue card's access to these constructions, including Commander color identities that cannot run black's Demonic Pact. It is a preview-stage strategy, not an established tournament result or evidence of widespread adoption. Its practical appeal is a flexible value engine with a dangerous ceiling and a genuinely meaningful exit requirement.
Original source: MTG Star Trek Introduces New Win and Lose the Game Cards ↗MTG Rocks