Magic 2015

Magic: The Gathering 2015 Core Set, commonly referred to as Magic 2015 or M15 is the 16th Magic core set. It was released on July 18, 2014.

Set details
Hunt Bigger Game Magic 2015 contains 269 cards (101 Commons, 80 Uncommons, 53 Rares, 15 Mythic Rares, 20 Basic Land). WotC changed the default from 60 uncommons to 80 uncommons for large sets as it makes limited play better. The default of large sets moving forward would be 269. An additional 15 cards appear in the sample decks. Magic 2015 is strongly integrated with its digital counterpart, Duels of the Planeswalkers. The set features a black / green version of the planeswalker Garruk and the "You Make The Card"-card Waste Not. The set also features a new card face with a special Magic font ("Beleren"), a holofoil stamp, revamped collector info and a decreased border size. The Magic logo for this set is colored black. The returning mechanic is convoke.

Magic 2015 introduced a templating change to cards that set a creature's power and toughness to a specific value. The term "base power and toughness" makes it clearer that other continuous effects that modify power and toughness, such as the ones created by Titanic Growth or a +1/+1 counter, apply after the creature's power and toughness are changed.

Designer credits
Multiple game world VIPs were invited to create cards for Magic 2015. Their credits appear below the usual flavor text, in smaller type.

Marketing
Magic 2015 is sold in booster packs, Intro packs, a fat pack, the new clash pack (which is a 2-Player Starter Set) and the M15 Deck Builder's Toolkit. The boosters featured art work from Ajani Steadfast, Jace, the Living Guildpact, Nightfire Giant, Soul of Shandalar and Nissa, Worldwaker. The prerelease was July 12–13, 2014, the magic online release was on July 28, 2014 and the Game Day was August 9–10, 2014. The set was promoted at the website www.huntbiggergame.com

Prerelease
There are five prerelease packs, one for each color. Each comes with a seeded booster pack that corresponds with that color. When registering for the Prerelease tournament, each player chooses one. The seeded booster pack will assist players in building a deck by providing a starting point in their chosen color. Each seeded booster pack contains a premium promo card, which players may include in their tournament decks. Each prerelease pack comes with a oversized challenge card, Garruk the Slayer, which is a key component of Magic 2015 's experience design (designed by Ethan Fleischer and Gavin Verhey). The prerelease pack further contains 5 regular booster packs, 1 activity insert, 1 Spindown life counter and 3 Wolf tokens. One player plays their Prerelease deck as normal. This player always goes first. The other player plays as Garruk. Garruk starts at 20 loyalty, and can activate one loyalty ability each turn. Garruk can be attacked and if his loyalty reaches 0, he loses. But if Garruk's horde of Wolves drops the player to 0, then Garruk wins. The oversized Garruk Planeswalker card can't be returned to its owner's hand or otherwise removed.

Promotional cards

 * Prerelease: one of five according to the chosen color: Resolute Archangel</c>, Mercurial Pretender</c>, Indulgent Tormentor</c>, Siege Dragon</c> or Phytotitan</c>
 * Launch promo: In Garruk's Wake</c>
 * Game Day: full-art Reclamation Sage</c>
 * Game Day (Top 8): full-art Chief Engineer</c>
 * Buy-a-Box: Goblin Rabblemaster</c>

Tokens/Emblems
"Token" now appears on the type line as a pseudo-supertype. Emblems have also received a type line, which includes the Planeswalker subtype.


 * 1)  1/1 Sliver creature for Sliver Hive</c>
 * 2)  1/1 Soldier creature for First Response</c> and Raise the Alarm</c>
 * 3)  1/1 Spirit creature with flying for Spirit Bonds</c> and Triplicate Spirits</c>
 * 4)  1/1 Squid creature with islandwalk for Chasm Skulker</c> and Coral Barrier</c>
 * 5)  3/3 Beast creature with deathtouch for <c>Garruk, Apex Predator</c>
 * 6)  2/2 Zombie creature for <c>Necromancer's Stockpile</c> and <c>Waste Not</c>
 * 7)  2/2 Dragon creature with flying and “: This creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn” for <c>Brood Keeper</c>
 * 8)  1/1 Goblin creature for <c>Goblin Rabblemaster</c>
 * 9)  3/3 Beast creature for <c>Feral Incarnation</c> and <c>Soul of Zendikar</c>
 * 10)  1/1 Insect creature with flying and deathtouch for <c>Hornet Nest</c> and <c>Hornet Queen</c>
 * 11)  */* Treefolk Warrior creature with “This creature's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Forests you control” for <c>Kalonian Twingrove</c>
 * 12)  Artifact named  with “, Sacrifice this artifact: This artifact deals 2 damage to target attacking creature without flying” for <c>Goblin Kaboomist</c>

Sample decks
The Magic 2015 Core Set comes with five thirty-card sample decks. Each sample deck has several cards numbered 270 and higher that do not appear in Magic 2015 booster packs. They include classics like <c>Serra Angel</c>, <c>Sengir Vampire</c> and <c>Mahamoti Djinn</c>. These 15 cards are legal for tournament play in any format that includes the Magic 2015 core set. The Deck Builder's Toolkit 2015 contains a single copy of card numbers 270 and 272–284, and two copies of card number 271 <c>Divine Verdict</c>.

Cycles
Magic 2015 has ten cycles:

Functional reprints

 * <c>Krenko's Enforcer</c> is a near-functional reprint of <c>Skirk Shaman</c> from Planar Chaos, save for creature type.
 * <c>Shaman of Spring</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Striped Bears</c> from Weatherlight, save for creature type.

Colorshifted

 * <c>Frost Lynx</c>, blue colorshifted version of <c>Kor Hookmaster</c>

Strictly better

 * <c>Crowd's Favor</c> is strictly better than <c>Kindled Fury</c>.
 * <c>Reclamation Sage</c> is strictly better than <c>Setessan Starbreaker</c>.
 * <c>Sungrace Pegasus</c> is strictly better than <c>Armored Pegasus</c>.

Strictly worse

 * <c>Carrion Crow</c> is strictly worse than <c>Screeching Bat</c>.
 * <c>Festergloom</c> is strictly worse than Loss (<c>Profit//Loss</c>).
 * <c>Marked by Honor</c> is strictly worse than <c>Vow of Duty</c>.
 * <c>Nimbus of the Isles</c> is strictly worse than <c>Adarkar Windform</c>, <c>Air Servant</c>, <c>Battleground Geist</c>, <c>Cerulean Wyvern</c>, <c>Chasm Drake</c>, <c>Cloudheath Drake</c>, <c>Ethersworn Adjudicator</c>, <c>Faerie Invaders</c>, <c>Frostwind Invoker</c>, <c>Phantom Monster</c>, <c>Shinen of Flight's Wings</c>, <c>Spire Monitor</c>, <c>Vigilant Drake</c>, and <c>Voyager Drake</c>.
 * <c>Statute of Denial</c> is strictly worse than <c>Dismiss</c>.
 * <c>Tyrant's Machine</c> is strictly worse than <c>Crown of Empires</c> and <c>Trip Noose</c>.

Notable cards

 * <c>Ensoul Artifact</c> saw some tournament play thanks to its ability to give potentially a 5/5 beater at turn two.
 * <c>The Chain Veil</c> is a flavorful artifact referencing to the Chain Veil that lets your planeswalkers play two loyalty abilities in a turn.
 * <c>Reclamation Sage</c>: anti-artifact\enchantment creature used in sideboard in several formats.
 * <c>Goblin Rabblemaster</c>: Saw tournament play and still sees play in some modern sideboard.

Intro packs
The intro packs are:

Clash pack
Magic 2015 comes with a clash pack which contains two bicolored decks.