A new, entry-level Magic: The Gathering set is on its way designed for not just new players, but experienced ones as well.
The set, Magic: The Gathering Foundations, is being touted as being made for past, present, and future Magic players. It features products for players fresh or famous and filled with cards legal in Standard, at least until 2029, according to Wizards of the Coast.
But that's not all.
It also features some iconic cards from the game's past as well as new cards to carry players through over the next handful of years of the collectible card game.
"Foundations is supposed to act as an onramp for future and new Magic players for at least the next half decade," says set designer Carmen Klomparens. "These are cards that are going to be Standard legal for that entire amount of time and...it's actually a whole product umbrella that is meant to help players get from their first games of Magic all the way to wherever they want to go in the Magic community."
Under the Foundations umbrella, players will find not just the usual assortment of Play Boosters, Jumpstart Boosters, Collector Boosters, and a Bundle, but also a couple of products unique to the set. This includes the Foundations Beginner Box, which consists of a selection of Jumpstart-style preconstructed decks, how-to-play guides, board game-like playmats designed for newer players, and more.
Talkin' MTG with WotC's Carmen Klomparens: A Look at MTG Foundations
The other new product unique to the set is the Starter Collection, which provides players everything they need to build their own decks. This includes more than 350 cards of various rarity, three Play Boosters, 13 double-sided tokens, a Deck Builder's Guide booklet, and more.
"[It] lets you get your first taste at deckbuilding, you can learn how multicolor works, you get a bunch of awesome rares that you can then take to play in events if you want," comments Klomparens.
As for what some of the cards Magic players can expect in Foundations, Klomparens says they're a mix of brand new cards and reprints that she calls "foundational" to Magic play.
Such foundational reprints include Ball Lightning, Darksteel Colossus, Gilded Lotus, Llanowar Elves, Serra Angel, and Phyrexian Arena.
As for the new cards being introduced with Foundations, the set's design team says the goal is to have cards that can both teach new players what Magic is about while still having something there for more established players.
"We have a new mythic rare Niv-Mizzet, for example, where it keys off of you casting instants and sorceries and dealing damage with them," she points out. 
"So a new player is gonna say 'oh, cool dragon that I'm supposed to play with spells,' but those of us who have played Magic a long time are gonna be like 'oh my god'...that it goes infinite with...Niv-Mizzet, Parun."
And, of course, Foundations is full of mechanics. The game designers say the set actually has the most mechanics since Time Spiral many, many years ago. These mechanics, though, are all evergreen and/or deciduous as to ensure new players get the most out of learning how they work.
"These are real foundational cards that are going to be a part of Standard and this is something that is actually really cool and fun to play with," Klomparens says. "This is something where, even in the office, we've been building decks out of foundations and the like because the cards are pretty fun to play with."
Magic: The Gathering Foundations releases Nov. 15.
