Released October 2026

Reality Fracture

What's New

🧠Empower JaceNEW

Stack loyalty counters on a Jace planeswalker token — creating one first if you don't already control one.

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First the game checks whether you control a Jace planeswalker token. If you do, you just add the counters — no second token.
If you don't control one, you create the predefined blue Jace planeswalker token with 0 loyalty and the abilities "[−1]: Surveil 1" and "[−3]: Draw a card," then put the counters on it.
The token enters with 0 loyalty, then receives its counters during the same resolution. State-based actions are checked afterward, not between those steps.
Nontoken Jace planeswalkers don't count. Your Jace, the Mind Sculptor card can't receive empower Jace counters and doesn't stop a token from being made.
If you control more than one Jace planeswalker token, you choose which one gets the counters.
The predefined Jace token isn't legendary. A token copy of a legendary Jace can still be legendary; check what the copy effect says.

Does empower Jace use the stack?	No. It's a keyword action performed while a spell or ability resolves — the token creation and the counters just happen.
Can my opponent respond to the token being created?	No. They have to respond to the spell or ability that says "empower Jace" before it resolves.
When can I empower Jace?	Whenever the card containing it lets you — a sorcery does it at sorcery speed, an enters-the-battlefield trigger does it when that trigger resolves.
How high can the token's loyalty go?	There's no cap from the mechanic itself — every resolved empower Jace adds more counters to a token you control.
Can I use the new token's loyalty ability right away?	Yes, during your main phase with an empty stack and priority. Each permanent normally allows only one loyalty ability activation per turn.

📖 Official rule text

Card text: (Put two loyalty counters on a Jace token you control. If you don't control one, first create a blue Jace planeswalker token with "[−1]: Surveil 1" and "[−3]: Draw a card.")

Rule 701.71a

To empower Jace N means “If you don’t control a Jace planeswalker token, create a blue Jace planeswalker token with 0 loyalty, ‘[−1]: Surveil 1,’ and ‘[−3]: Draw a card.’ Choose a Jace planeswalker token you control. Put N loyalty counters on it.”

Likely interactions

🪞 Copy

A token that's a copy of another Jace planeswalker is a Jace planeswalker token, so it's a legal home for empower Jace counters even though the original card isn't.

701.71

⚡ Legend rule

Multiple predefined Jace tokens can coexist because they aren't legendary. A token copy of a legendary Jace follows the legend rule if you control another legendary permanent with the same name.

701.71 · 707.2 · 704.5j

⚡ Nontoken Jace

Controlling a real Jace planeswalker card does nothing for this mechanic — the check is specifically for a Jace planeswalker token, so you'll still create one.

701.71

📈 Proliferate

If you choose a Jace token that has a loyalty counter when you proliferate, it gets one more loyalty counter. Proliferating doesn't create a Jace token.

701.34a · 701.71

🎯 Illegal targets

If every target of a spell such as Academic Ascent becomes illegal, the spell doesn't resolve. You don't empower Jace, even though that instruction doesn't target anything.

608.2b · 701.71

🔗 copy link to this mechanic

🌲Heartwood TokensNEW

A new predefined token: a red-and-green artifact that taps for {R} or {G} and stays on the battlefield.

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A Heartwood token is a red and green artifact — not colorless, unlike most artifact tokens.
Heartwood is a full artifact type, listed alongside Treasure, Food, Clue, and the rest.
Its ability is "{T}: Add {R} or {G}" — no sacrifice, so unlike a Treasure it keeps producing mana turn after turn.
It's still an artifact, so it counts for artifact-count effects like Aerid Konstrari's pump and other artifacts-matter payoffs.
Effects that create predefined tokens can modify the definition — Tenured Tethermage makes two tapped Heartwood tokens, for example.
Early printings of the Heartwood token use the colorless artifact frame, but they're red and green artifacts per their reminder text.

Can opponents respond to me tapping a Heartwood token for mana?	No. It's a mana ability — it doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to.
When can I tap it?	Any time you could activate a mana ability, including in the middle of casting a spell or paying a cost.
Do I have to sacrifice it for mana?	No. It only taps, and it's still there next turn.
Does it enter tapped?	Normally no. Tenured Tethermage specifically creates tapped tokens, and other effects can also change how a token enters.
Can I tap a new Heartwood token immediately?	Yes, if it's untapped. Summoning sickness matters only if the Heartwood is also a creature; then it needs haste or to have been yours since your turn began.

📖 Official rule text

Card text: (It's a red and green artifact with "{T}: Add {R} or {G}.")

Rule 111.10x

A Heartwood token is a red and green Heartwood artifact token with “{T}: Add {R} or {G}.”

Rule 111.10

Some effects instruct a player to create a predefined token. These effects use the definition below to determine the characteristics the token is created with. The effect that creates a predefined token may also modify or add to the predefined characteristics.

Rule 205.3g

The artifact types are Attraction (see rule 717), Blood, Bobblehead, Book, Clue, Contraption, Equipment (see rule 301.5), Food, Fortification (see rule 301.6), Gold, Heartwood, Incubator, Infinity, Junk, Lander, Map, Mutagen, Powerstone, Spacecraft, Stone, Treasure, Vehicle (see rule 301.7), and Vibranium.

Likely interactions

⚡ Artifact sweepers

Heartwood tokens produce mana like lands but are artifacts through and through — Shatterstorm, Vandalblast, and friends wipe them out, and tokens that leave the battlefield are gone for good.

111.10x · 111.8

⚡ Artifact count

Every Heartwood token you make raises your artifact count for effects that care, which is exactly what Aerid Konstrari's {6} ability is built around.

111.10x

⚡ Token doublers

If one effect doubles your creation of two tapped Heartwood tokens, you create four tapped Heartwood tokens instead. Doubling the number doesn't remove the instruction that they enter tapped.

111.10 · 614.6

⚡ Color matters

A Heartwood token is both red and green. It qualifies for either color, but an effect counting multicolored permanents still counts it as one permanent.

111.10x

🔗 copy link to this mechanic

What's Returning

📖PrepareRETURNING

Preparation creatures put a copy of their inset spell in exile for you to cast — as long as they stick around.

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Returning — first seen in Secrets of Strixhaven.

A preparation card has a two-part frame: the creature's name, cost, type line, and power/toughness are the card, and the inset frame holds its prepare spell with its own name, cost, type line, and text.
The card is only the creature in every zone — you can't find Pompous Battlemage searching for a sorcery card, no matter where it is.
When a permanent with a prepare spell becomes prepared, its controller creates a copy of it in exile that has only the prepare spell's characteristics, and that copy sticks around while the permanent stays on the battlefield and keeps the designation.
You don't cast the printed prepare spell — you cast the copy from exile, paying its costs and following its own timing rules. The permanent loses the prepared designation at the time that spell becomes cast.
A permanent can't become prepared while it's already prepared, so one creature never stockpiles two copies in exile at once.
Effects can make a permanent unprepared, which strips the designation — and with it, the exiled copy's reason to exist.

Does casting the prepare spell copy use the stack?	Yes. It's a normal cast from exile — it goes on the stack, takes targets, and can be responded to.
When can I cast it?	Follow the prepare spell's own card type: instants any time you have priority, sorceries only at sorcery speed.
How many times can I cast one copy?	Once. Casting it removes the prepared designation; you need the permanent to become prepared again to get a new copy.
What if the creature dies before I cast it?	The copy only remains in exile while the prepared permanent is still on the battlefield with the designation — lose the creature, lose the spell.

📖 Official rule text

Rule 722.1

Preparation cards have a two-part card frame, with a smaller frame inset within their text box.

Rule 722.3a

Prepared is a designation that acts as a marker which rules and effects can identify. A permanent can’t gain this designation unless it has a prepare spell. Additionally, a permanent can’t gain this designation if the permanent already has it.

Rule 722.3c

As a permanent with a prepare spell gains the prepared designation or phases in prepared, its controller creates a copy of that object in exile, except that copy has only the characteristics of that permanent’s prepare spell, ignoring other exceptions to the copying process that apply to that permanent. Those characteristics become the copy’s normal characteristics. This copy remains in exile for as long as the prepared permanent remains on the battlefield and has the prepared designation.

Rule 722.3b

A rule or effect may cause a permanent to become “unprepared.” This removes the prepared designation from that permanent.

Likely interactions

🔄 Flicker

Blinking or bouncing a prepared creature ends the designation the moment it leaves the battlefield, and the copy waiting in exile goes away with it. The returning creature is a new object that needs to become prepared all over again.

400.7 · 722.3c

⚡ Control change

If another player gains control of your prepared creature, they become the one who may cast the copy from exile — not you.

722.3c

☠️ Countered

Casting the copy unprepares the permanent. If that spell is countered, the copy is lost; it doesn't return to exile. A later effect can prepare the permanent again and create a fresh copy.

722.3a · 722.3c · 701.6a · 704.5e

⚡ Named

You may choose the prepare spell's name when an effect asks for a card name, subject to that effect's restrictions. An effect prohibiting spells with that name can stop the copy; naming only the creature doesn't name its differently named prepare spell.

722.5 · 722.3c · 201.4

⚡ Abilities removed

Removing all abilities from a prepared permanent doesn't unprepare it. Its current controller can still cast the copy waiting in exile.

722.2b · 722.3a · 722.3c

🔗 copy link to this mechanic

↩️FlashbackRETURNING

Cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard for its flashback cost, then exile it when it leaves the stack.

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Flashback lets you cast the card from your graveyard by paying its flashback cost instead of its mana cost.
The card doesn't need to have been cast before; discarding or milling it can put it in the graveyard ready to use.
It remains a normal spell on the stack. Opponents can respond, and normal timing restrictions still apply.
When the spell leaves the stack, exile it. This also happens if it is countered or an effect would return it to your hand.
Cost increases and reductions still apply. Paying a different flashback cost doesn't by itself change the spell's mana value.

Does flashback let me cast a sorcery during an opponent's turn?	No. Flashback changes where you cast the card from and the cost you pay; it doesn't give it instant timing.
Can an opponent counter it?	Yes. It is cast normally and can be responded to. If countered, the card is exiled instead of going back to the graveyard.
Can I cast the same card from exile with flashback?	No. Flashback permits casting from the graveyard, not from exile.

📖 Official rule text

Rule 702.34a

If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack.

Likely interactions

☠️ Graveyard removal

Removing the card from the graveyard before you cast it prevents that use of flashback. Once casting begins, the card moves to the stack; it is no longer in the graveyard to remove.

601.2a · 702.34a

⚡ Prepare cards

A preparation card in your graveyard has the creature's characteristics. Stingcaster Mage can't target it as an instant or sorcery, even if its inset prepare spell has that type.

722.4 · 702.34a

🔗 copy link to this mechanic

Set Timeline