The new core set 2021 brought in some new ways of playing and new abilities, but they always include…

Iconic Cards

The core sets that magic bring out don’t have a story line and instead include some favourites that wizards (the owners of mtg) like. here are the five most iconic cards that you have to know. i have put them below in the order of the colours (white, blue, black, red, green). NOTE: all of the cards are converted mana cost 1.

Healer’s Hawk

Name: Healer’s Hawk

Type: Creature, 1/1

Set: Core sets

Rarity: Common

Ability/s: Flying, lifelink

good with mass healing decks, along with flying to protect yourself from other flying attacks

Opt

Name: Opt

Type: Instant

Set: Core sets

Rarity: Common

Ability/s: Scry 1, Draw a card.

This card is good for Izzet decks (Red and Blue instant and sorcery deck, guild of Ravnica) for triggering “whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell…” abilities. Also very good for a new core set 2021 style of play: red and blue draw decks, which have cards with abilities starting with “Whenever you draw your second card each turn…”.

Duress

Name: Duress

Type: Sorcery

Set: Core sets

Rarity: Common

Ability/s: Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a non-land, non-creature card from it. That player discards that card.

Good for softening up your opponents near the start of the game, and letting yourself get out big creatures without dying before that.

Shock

Name: Shock

Type: Instant

Set: Core sets

Rarity: Common

Ability/s: Shock deals 2 damage to any target.

This card is good for Izzet decks (Red and Blue instant and sorcery deck, guild of Ravnica) for triggering “whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell…” abilities. Also good for red aggro decks, which are decks that try to kill you in the first five turns by getting out lots of cheap spells.

Llanowar Elves

Name: Llanowar Elves

Type: Creature, 1/1

Set: Core sets

Rarity: Common

Ability/s: tap: add a one green mana to your mana pool.

Great for Mono-green decks which try to get out big creatures quickly, and this card is pretty much an extra forest which you can play as well as a land on your turn.

Prowess

Wizards also brought back an Izzet ability – Prowess.

“Whenever you cast a non-creature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.”

Prowess is good for small creatures e.g. 1/1s, becuase then if you were to cast shock twice and you had 3 1/1s, they would all turn into 3/3s. Goblin Wizardry is one of the cards which allows you to create two 1/1 goblins with prowess:

Goblin Wizardry

Name: Goblin Wizardry

Type: Instant

Set: Core set 2021

Rarity: Common

Ability/s: Create two 1/1s with prowess.

Next time: Theros, Beyond Death!