Magic: The Gathering Head Designer Says Protection is 'Back on A Probationary Status'

Wizards of the Coast

Magic: The Gathering head designer Mark Rosewater recently talked about the design of Core Set 2020, and in that Wizards of the Coast article, he explained that MTG Core sets will only use evergreen mechanics but when one of the cards (Blightbeetle) from the upcoming set was revealed, fans were wondering if Protection is back as an evergreen mechanic, and according to Rosewater, it is but on a "probationary status."

On his Blogatog, Rosewater answered a fan's question about the return of the Protection mechanic and if R&D changed their mind about removing the mechanic's evergreen status. Rosewater said, "Protection is back to evergreen on a probationary status."

This could mean that they're bringing back the mechanic for this set but they probably will use the mechanic sparingly. At this point, we still don't know how many cards from Core Set 2020 have the Protection mechanic but we probably won't see a lot of cards with it.

Here's what Rosewater previously said about the Core Set 2020 design: "Core Set 2019 made the decision to pull back and not bring back an old keyword (although, technically, it did have one mythic rare—Nicol Bolas, the Ravager/ Nicol Bolas, the Arisen—which used transform)," Rosewater wrote in a recent article. "Core Set 2020 decided to continue what Core Set 2019 had done.

Core Set 2020 is set to be released on July 12, 2019. Core Set 2020 is also coming to Magic Arena, with preorders for the set opening in the game later this week on June 13. The Core Set 2020 bundle in Arena includes a mythic rare Planeswalker card for Chandra as a bonus.

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Related:MTG Core Set 2020 Curated List of Promo Cards Revealed