MTG Modal Double-Faced cards in Zendikar Rising add new twist

The spoiler season for Zendikar Rising, a new set coming to Magic: The Gathering, is underway. MTG fans got their first look at Modal Double-Faced cards today. 

Wizards of the Coast revealed Valakut Awakening and Valakut Stoneforge today, a new Modal Double-Faced card within Zendikar Rising (ZNR). The new cards allow players to choose which side of the card they’d prefer to put into play on the battlefield. Most of the Modal Double-Faced cards are either creatures, Sorcery, or Instants. The back faces are always lands, synergizing with the ZNR land theme. 

Within MTG Arena, both faces of the card are visible and there’s a hint bar in the bottom left corner of each face for tabletop gameplay. When a Modal Double-Faced card isn’t on the battlefield or the stack, it only has its front face characteristics. WotC used Shipwreck Dowser, an M21 creature that returns target Instant or Sorcery card from the graveyard to hand, as an example of how Modal Double-Faced cards work when not on the battlefield or stack.

Since a Modal Double-Faced card only has its front face characteristics when in a player’s graveyard or library, Shipwreck Dowser could tutor Valakut Awakening since it’s an Instant Modal Double-Faced card. But a card like Adventurous Impulse that reveals a creature or land from your library wouldn’t work with the Modal Double-Faced card Valakut Awakening/Valakut Stoneforge. 

Players can check out Modal Double-Faced cards when ZNR releases via MTG Arena on Sept. 17 and through tabletop booster packs on Sept. 25.