[M10] Compilation of Known Info

[urzassedatives]

Prerelease date: July 11-12, 2009
Release date: July 17, 2009
Set size: 249 cards (101 C, 60 U, 53 R, 15 M, 20 L)
Product lineup: Five intro packs, 15-card booster pack, 6-card booster pack, fat pack

What is m10?

M10, short for Magic 2010, is the black bordered core set to be released on July 17, 2009.

Why 2010?

Every summer a new core set will be released, and in the tradition of EA sports games and cars, among other things, the name will reflect the following year.

How does this affect standard rotation?

10th edition rotates out when M10 is released.
M10, and later core sets will rotate when the new base expansions come out in the fall. This means that two cores will be standard legal for a few months every year.
Magic 2010 will rotate out of standard with Shards of Alara block, in Fall 2010. So no cards (that aren't common limited staples) in ALA block should need to be in M10.

So what is the big deal about this set?

According to WoTC, it is 50% reprints, and 50% new cards. In an attempt to rebrand the core set, and take it back to its Alpha roots, the flavor and setting of these cards is extremely open to interpretation. This set also features mythic rares, following the rarity/set size of Shards of Alara.

Originally Posted by Wotc Announcement

Since the core set now contains new cards, there will be Prerelease events and Launch Parties just like any other expansion set. Going forward, core sets will also be an integral part of high-level organized play. The Magic 2010 core set will be used in Limited-format Grand Prix events this year.

What about duals???

No existing duals will be reprinted in this set. They are making a new cycle that does not involve life loss for the 'core lands'.

Will the set help support ALA and ZEN block themes?

No, at least in the way that no cards were designed with these sets in mind.
This specific question was asked of Aaron Forsythe on an MTGcast interview several months ago. He replied that the development of M10 was done in somewhat of a vacuum, and it was all put together on a much smaller timeframe than the usual expansion set. It does not take other standard set mechanics in mind, it is focusing on a flavor reboot, and providing a starting point for new players.

Gold cards?

Using the preview cards, each color gets at least 40 cards.
40 x 5 = 200. 200 + 20 basic lands = 220. 249 - 220 = 29 Lands and Artifacts. (10th has 53 Lands and Artifacts, for comparison)
If we have gold cards, it will likely be at the mythic rarity, if at all.

Cast? Don't you mean play?

M10 is bringing a large amount of templating/rule changes along with it. Here are a few (some are not yet confirmed, but almost surely happening)
-All occurances of 'playing a spell' become 'cast/casting a spell' Confirmed on Silence
-'in play' zone becomes 'the battlefield'. Confirmed on Queen of Ants
-'removed from game' zone becomes 'exile' (to Exile may be the action of placing a card into that zone as well)
-Mana burn will be removed from the game. (Pools still empty as normal, just with no damage accompanying it.)

So what cards do we know?

Quite a bit, actually...

The Lorwyn Planeswalkers will all return, in mythic form:
Garruk Wildspeaker
Liliana Vess
Jace Beleren
Chandra Nalaar
Ajani Goldmane

Other cards return:
Black Knight
Serra Angel (Once again Uncommon!)
Birds of Paradise

On April 5th, a WoTC article says that one of the cards with new art in the DvD dueldeck is actually M10 art. There is an extra art in the Demonic deck, and Duress' art is off-theme, showing an Elf 'under duress'. Coupled with the fact that the card has been in core before...I am 100% sure it is in.
Duress
(And 8 of the 16 cards that have been in every core set...)

And some new cards have been showcased:




We also have the prerelease and release cards in the spoiler.

Sources for most of this information:
WoTC Announcement of M10
Article explaining M10 and showing some new cards

[urzassedatives]

This thread is now the compiled info thread for M10.
Please post anything you feel should be added.
As with all sets, past a certain point the spoiler will replace this thread eventually.

[Johm000]

Since they're confirmed, it's safe to add the following to the spoiler:

Ajani Goldmane
Liliana Vess
Chandra Nalaar
Garruk Wildspeaker

[Hyper Vyper]

I thought M10 is rotates out of standard when M12 comes out; not next Fall.....

I thought this was a better idea. WotC just tryin' to get more people to buy sets each year instead of making base sets last longer. I just hope they change it again.

[Moss_Elemental]

I think Capricious Efreet is #131, since BoP is #168.

[calibretto]

Originally Posted by Hyper Vyper

I thought M10 is rotates out of standard when M12 comes out; not next Fall.....

I thought this was a better idea. WotC just tryin' to get more people to buy sets each year instead of making base sets last longer. I just hope they change it again.

From now on the core set will rotate in the fall and a new core will be introduced each year. Core sets no longer rotate as soon as a new core set comes out. There will now be a short period of time where there are two legal core sets each year and a new core set will be released each summer. So next fall, after M2011 is released the summer before, M2010 will rotate.

I think that's right anyway.

calibretto

[pandafarmer]

Originally Posted by Hyper Vyper

I thought M10 is rotates out of standard when M12 comes out; not next Fall.....

I thought this was a better idea. WotC just tryin' to get more people to buy sets each year instead of making base sets last longer. I just hope they change it again.

From the start we've known it to be this way. Why would you have thought any different?

Aaron says in the announcement article:
"To accommodate this much more rapid core set turnover, we are changing our format rotation policy beginning in the summer of 2010 with the release of the Magic 2011 core set. Magic 2011 will not knock Magic 2010 out of Standard; instead there will be only one rotation date per year, when the large Fall set is released. When the set codenamed "Lights" is released late in 2010, it will knock the Shards of Alara block and Magic out of Standard at the same time. 2010Core sets will rotate as if they were part of the block preceding them. For approximately three months per year starting in 2010, there will be two core sets legal at a time, which is also a first."

[Masamune]

I'm just going to assume that the "50 new cards" is actually going to be reprinted every year, and the reprints will be the ones that change? Not only does this make the "They will be legal at the same time" statement pretty irrelevant, but it also makes sense in terms of the set's usefulness. However, this also means that M10 will sell well, and every one after that will hardly be worth purchasing. <_<

Have we heard any confirmation on this yet though?

[wingedcoyote]

Originally Posted by Masamune

I'm just going to assume that the "50 new cards" is actually going to be reprinted every year, and the reprints will be the ones that change? Not only does this make the "They will be legal at the same time" statement pretty irrelevant, but it also makes sense in terms of the set's usefulness. However, this also means that M10 will sell well, and every one after that will hardly be worth purchasing. <_<

Have we heard any confirmation on this yet though?

I think that's a crazy idea, for exactly the reason you stated -- no good reason to purchase cores after m10. Why would they commit to printing the same cards over and over, especially new and untested ones? Some of the new cards from m10 will be reprinted, but not all, and there will be some new cards in each of the new cores.

[pandafarmer]

I doubt this theory, just because what you've stated is essentially what they've done through the years up into this point. 50% reprints, 50% cards that were in the last core... (i know the math is off, but still)... Sure there will be some new staples created here, but as the new cards are the thing that will make this set sell in the first place, I can't see why they'd go back to an unsuccessful format. If it was indeed successful, they wouldn't have changed it.

[Masamune]

I hope so. Having core sets be an exciting release every summer would be great, but you can see where I'm coming from, in that I'm curious to see if they can keep up at this rate.

Of course, considering that we've been getting a lot more reprints IN the sets, and a lot of throwbacks (though that's expected at this point in Magic), it's not so weird.

[arsenick_wrath]

Originally Posted by Masamune

I'm curious to see if they can keep up at this rate.

Actually, they've been keeping it up at this rate, if you're talking about the amount of new cards they design per year. Alara Block and M10 both feature far less cards per set than sets in more recent years. Even with the addition of new cards in M10, we'll probably still be getting less new cards per year than before.

[Shadikka]

The Birds of Paradise in the main-site spoiler has a | instead of a linebreak in its rules text.
Just thought I'd mention it.

[Uninvited Ghost]

Originally Posted by urzassedatives

(So no cards in ALA block should be/need to be in M10)

Even though they shouldn't be/don't need to be in M2010 (so you're 100% correct), I still have to point out Unsummon, which is.

[calibretto]

Originally Posted by Uninvited Ghost

Even though they shouldn't be/don't need to be in M2010 (so you're 100% correct), I still have to point out Unsummon, which is.

unsummon hardly counts. i'm pretty sure he was referring more to cards that are native to alara block not reprints like unsummon or cancel.

calibretto