Some spoilers for Magic: The Gathering's latest set Throne of Eldraine are up, including the planeswalker Oko revealed last month, and gamers got a glimpse of the new mechanics for the set.
Throne of Eldraine is the latest set soon to be released by Wizards of the Coast. Based on Grimm Fairy Tales and the knights and valor of Camelot, the mechanics in this set mirror this in the form of adventures, courtly virtue, and food.
The first new mechanic is Adventure. New to Magic: The Gathering, creatures with Adventures have a lower half that resembles a storybook. The right half is the creature's text and stats. The left half is the Adventure. While in the hand, library, or graveyard, the card is considered a creature only. When the player casts it, they can cast it as either the creature or the adventure which will be the instant or sorcery half with the new "Adventure" subtype.
If played as a creature, it hits the battlefield as normal and the Adventure text is ignored from then on. If, however, it's cast as an Adventure and successfully resolves, complete the action, but instead of going to the graveyard the card is exiled until it's brought back. This is not unlike the Stoneforge Mystic getting banned and then unbanned. The player can cast the creature half of that Adventure at any time they could normally cast creature spells, be it the turn the Adventure was played or a future turn.
Next is Adamant. Not as new as Adventure, the Adamant mechanic is similar to other loyalty-style mechanics gamers have seen over the years. Meant to represent said loyalty to each of the five courts serving the Throne of Eldraine, cards can be cast for their cost, but if a certain amount of mana of that card's color was spent to cast it, the card has a bonus or 'instead" text, depending on the card.
The amount seen so far has been universally three mana of that particular color, which clearly rewards playing these cards in either a mono-color deck or a multicolor with solid mana manipulation to ensure all three can be hit in early turns. Otherwise they may come into play too late to matter unless they can be used in later turns to swing the board state back in the player's favor.
A surprising amount of fairly tales involve food. Even the trailer video Wizards of the Coast released for Magic: The Gathering's Throne of Eldraine showcases gingerbread people. Functionally, Food plays a role very similar to the treasure tokens or Eldrazi scions from previous sets which would now be counted as Historic cards in the new format. Food tokens are artifacts created by certain cards, and for two colorless and tapping them, Food can be sacrificed for 3 life. Useful in itself, but Wizards of the Coast has suggested other cards will make use of food tokens, so don't go eating them all right away.
Look for these new cards coming soon as they're released, along with the four new sets to follow.
Magic the Gathering Arena is available now on PC.
Source: Wizards of the Coast