Magic: The Gathering Designer Confirms Change to Major Game Mechanic

"Enters the battlefield" is being condensed come Magic: The Gathering - Bloomburrow later this year.

By Adam Barnhardt

Wizards of the Coast is shaking things up on the battlefield. As eagle-eyed gamers were quick to notice when the first Magic: The Gathering "Bloomburrrow" spoilers surfaced over the weekend, "enters the battlefield" will no longer be a phrase used on most MTG cards. Instead, cards will simply say "enters," shortening the text that appears on the card. Magic: The Gathering designer Mark Rosewater confirmed the change on his blog, saying the verbiage will permanently change upon the release "Bloomburrow" later this summer.

"Starting with Bloomburrow, we are changing 'enters the battlefield' to 'enters' (and this will be applied retroactively in Oracle). Entering will be connected specifically with the battlefield, so cards can't, for example, 'enter the graveyard,'" Rosewater said in a Tumblr post.

The game designer did confirm the original "enters the battfield" phrase will be used when necessary to help avoid confusion with players. "We will occasionally write out 'enters the battlefield' where we think we need it for clarity in a template," Rosewater added. "'Leaves the battlefield' is *not* being shortened to 'leaves' as we have used leave as a means to talk about cards leaving the graveyard, so it created ambiguity we didn't want."

The change is divisive with players, with some saying the change takes some of the themes out of the game. "Nah, I kinda hate this change. Enters the battlefield is cool and evocative. Enters is boring and lifeless," @DeclareAttacks tweeted.

@SaffronOlive added, "Enters the battlefield becoming just "enters" seems like a good change."

Magic: The Gathering's "Bloomburrow" set has a global release set for August 2nd. "Bloomburrow" prerelease kicks off at WPN Stores beginning July 26th. Before that, however, Magic: The Gathering "Outlaws of Thunder Junction" hits stores. The timeline for that release can be found below.

  • Story Begins: March 18
  • Debut and Previews Begin: March 26
  • Card Image Gallery and Previews Complete: April 5
  • MTG Arena Global Release: April 16
  • Global Tabletop Release: April 19
  • Prerelease Events: April 12–18
  • Open House: April 19–21
  • Commander Party: April 26 – May 2
  • Store Championship: May 4–12
  • Standard Showdown: April 19 – July 25
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