Magic: The Gathering Meld Cards Reportedly Stop Counting as Double-Faced Cards
A rules bulletin for Mystery Booster Commander Edition reportedly reverses the 2023 change and makes meld cards their own Comprehensive Rules category.
According to reports, Magic: The Gathering is about to stop treating meld cards as double-faced cards. The change shows up in the rules bulletin for Mystery Booster Commander Edition and undoes a ruling made in 2023, according to reports.
In the Comprehensive Rules, meld cards will get a category of their own rather than sitting beneath double-faced cards as a subcategory.
Meld Cards and Double-Faced Cards: What Changes
Melding itself works exactly as before. The only cards touched are those that interact with double-faced cards.
Magic currently has seven meld pairs, each combining two cards into one meld card.
Why Wizards Is Reversing the 2023 Rule
When Eldritch Moon introduced meld in 2016, meld cards were not considered double-faced cards.
The 2023 release of March of the Machine brought a shift from Wizards. Two concerns were given: players found the line between transforming cards and meld cards confusing, and new cards were being designed to care about double-faced cards.
The reversal is credited to modal double-faced cards that can transform. Many differences between modal and non-modal double-faced cards were erased, which left meld cards as the odd one out.
All Seven Meld Pairs
- Bruna, the Fading Light + Gisela, the Broken Blade = Brisela, Voice of Nightmares
- Graf Rats + Midnight Scavengers = Chittering Host
- Hanweir Battlements + Hanweir Garrison = Hanweir, the Writhing Township
- Argoth, Sanctum of Nature + Titania, Voice of Gaea = Titania, Gaea Incarnate
- Mishra, Claimed by Gix + Phyrexian Dragon Engine = Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia
- The Mightstone and Weakstone + Urza, Lord Protector = Urza, Planeswalker
- Fang, Fearless l'Cie + Vanille, Cheerful l'Cie = Ragnarok, Divine Deliverance
Cards Affected by the Meld Rules Change
About four cards reference double-faced cards: Invasion of Pyrulea / Gargantuan Slabhorn, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Overgrown Pest, and Tetzin, Gnome Champion / The Golden-Gear Colossus. Two of them are double-faced themselves.
Tetzin is a Jeskai-identity artifact commander. Until now, The Mightstone and Weakstone qualified as a double-faced artifact for Tetzin's front-face trigger; after the change, it no longer does.
Tetzin, Gnome Champion has fewer than 5,000 decks on EDHREC.
Where This Fits in the Mystery Booster Commander Calendar
The bulletin belongs to the product TCGKing covers in its Mystery Booster Commander (MBC) release date story, which lists a November 13 Commander-legal date.
What it means for players
- Meld pairs work as before; only interactions with double-faced cards change.
- If you run Tetzin, keep in mind that The Mightstone and Weakstone will stop triggering the front-face ability as a double-faced artifact.
- The four cards that reference double-faced cards are the ones to check.
What is still unknown
- The exact effective date of the rules change.
- The exact wording of the Comprehensive Rules change.
TCGKing updates this article as soon as Wizards of the Coast announces these details. Follow all Magic news or get it in our newsletter.
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