Four-faced

Four-faced is a keyword ability featured on a test card in the Mystery Booster set. A four-sided creature has four stages with different characteristics, and advances through stages whenever it is tapped. It is inspired by Double-faced cards, but has elements of the Level up mechanic and Sagas in the way it moves through multiple stages.

It is unclear from the test card how a four-faced creature would be configured on an actual card. The test card uses a layout very similar to the Level up mechanic, which ironically had been met with mixed reactions due to the layout. A few months before Mystery Booster was released, Mark Rosewater speculated that something similar to "triple-faced cards" found in the Duel Masters trading card game would eventually be done in Magic, but not soon.

Rulings

 * A permanent with four-faced starts at stage 1.
 * If Loopy Lobster somehow enters the battlefield tapped, it will still be at stage 1.
 * If an object becomes a copy of a permanent with four-faced, that object remains at the stage it was. If it wasn't at a stage, it's at stage 1.
 * A creature card with four-faced that isn't on the battlefield is a 0/0 creature.
 * Activating Loopy Lobster's stage 3 ability creates an effect that lasts even if it moves to stage 4 during that turn.