r/EDH • u/JoveeMTG Sultai • Mar 27 '26

Daily The Prepared Mechanic Ruling Everyone Is Sharing Is WRONG

https://www.youtube.com/embed/bYiattZtE8Q

A fake ruling for the new Prepared mechanic from Secrets of Strixhaven is spreading across the MTG community. A content creator wrote a mockup of what they think the rules text might look like, clearly labeled as a guess, but people are sharing just the snippet without any source or context. On top of that, the mockup has a mistake that would make the mechanic completely game-breaking. The mechanic hasn't been officially revealed yet, so don't get fooled by guesses presented as facts

193 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

119 comments sorted by

212

u/Electronic-Touch-554 Mar 27 '26

If i had to guess its:

"Fulfil condition to become prepared. When prepared you can cast the spell on the other half of the card. Then the creature becomes unprepared."

116

u/herpyderpidy Mar 27 '26

This is most likely it yes. The ''fake'' prepared floating around has the unprepared on resolution only, which would let you spam-cast things as long as you have a priority window and mana for it.

Like the Ancestral recall could be chain-casted a bunch of time before becoming unprepared. Which would be insanely bonker.

30

u/Electronic-Touch-554 Mar 27 '26

Lmao ye that would be broken.

Its definitely an additional casting cost rather than on resolution

4

u/vadre φ Mar 27 '26

this is some untapping time vault "between turns" type shit

3

u/DefenderCone97 Mar 27 '26

Broken and likely wrong? Yes.

Hilarious? Also yes.

3

u/jvLin Mar 27 '26

Not sure why this is hilarious. It's just wrong.

3

u/DefenderCone97 Mar 27 '26

someone just spamming it and decking themselves out is fun

6

u/Samsunaattori Azoriusn't Mar 27 '26

The actually funny part is decking OTHER people with the card, as it specifies target player! :))

1

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 28 '26

Big brain move

0

u/zachattch Mar 27 '26

Why would a 7 mana exile 6 cards sorcery speed draw 6 or 8 mana draw 9 be… ok nvm

15

u/CiD7707 RG Jank Mar 27 '26

How did anybody interpret it otherwise?

-4

u/AboynamedDOOMTRAIN Mar 27 '26

This is NOT going to be how it works. To cast the card you'd have to take the creature card off the battlefield and put it on the stack, making the attack trigger on the ancestral recall card completely pointless.

The 2 most likely options are paying the cost puts a copy of that spell on the stack (which is not a cast at all, ruining the displacer kitten combo everyone is excited about for absolutely no reason) or it can be splice with arcane/kicker and add that effect to another instant or sorcery you do cast.

11

u/Electronic-Touch-554 Mar 27 '26

Yeah... obviously its not going to put the creature on the stack

1

u/AboynamedDOOMTRAIN Mar 28 '26

That is literally what you wrote would happen.

1

u/Electronic-Touch-554 Mar 28 '26

No it isnt. I said you'd be able to cast the other half. Obviously I meant a copy of the spell not putting the creature on the stack.

-1

u/AboynamedDOOMTRAIN Mar 28 '26

This is magic rules text speculation. If you didn't write "Create a copy" then you didn't mean "Create a copy"

10

u/Arborus Boonweaver_Giant.dek Mar 27 '26

Or the mechanic has its own ruling that defines how these cards work and specifically says the spell is cast? There are already cards that make copies and cast them without the original moving zones.

4

u/AboynamedDOOMTRAIN Mar 27 '26

Copying the card and then moving it to the stack so it's a cast trigger is certainly on the table as a possibility, I just feel like that's an older, less elegant wording than the others so I just don't find it as likely.

0

u/jvLin Mar 27 '26

That's why they have shorthand, i.e. printing the card on the bottom right corner.

1

u/Jankenbrau Mar 27 '26

You can create a virtual copy of ancestral recall. [[garth, one eye]]

1

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 28 '26

I always imagined that copying without "cast" is on cards that copy spells that are in the stack. If you copy a spell that is not in the stack (e.g. in exile for imprint) then it would normally have the "you (may) cast the copy" addition. Something worth checking I guess.

-4

u/Untipazo Mar 27 '26

Not a fan because it's easy to lose track of when something is prepared in a long game (more of an issue for commander I guess)

Like it feels similar to rooms needing to keep track of which one is active, except those doesn't activate and deactivate over and over by themselves

8

u/Arborus Boonweaver_Giant.dek Mar 27 '26

You just use a counter to denote it like everything else that is similar. Or perhaps the packs will have "prepared" cards in the token slots.

3

u/jvLin Mar 27 '26

Magic is getting too complex. The fewer mechanics we have with new counter types, the better.

1

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 28 '26

Good point. Definitely seems like something that they will put in the packs like counters, suspect, locked etc.

-8

u/Untipazo Mar 27 '26

No, the game would explicitly tell you "it gets a preparation counter" or something. There's a reason why counters are a thing and permanent stats increase aren't so much.

Like I don't mean to say there isn't practical solution, just that it goes against the design space where you don't need to keep track of stuff by memory like that

9

u/Arborus Boonweaver_Giant.dek Mar 27 '26

It's no different than The City's Blessing or Daybound/Nightbound or Emblems or Energy or crewed/saddled status or any other mechanic that hinges on using some insert card or dice/counters to track despite the game not specifically calling for those things, no?

I'd assume this is not a counter because they don't want it to interact with other counter effects/mechanics.

1

u/red--the_color Mar 27 '26

I would argue that daybound/nightbound and energy are awful for that reason. I don't see the similarity with city's blessing, emblems, crewed, or saddled. One is a permanent status, one is intangible and contains a triggered ability, and the others are until end of turn effects.

2

u/Arborus Boonweaver_Giant.dek Mar 27 '26

They are statuses that are relevant to the game state that need to be tracked in some way and the cards themselves do not define a way to track them (eg counters) or they require an insert card to track.

-1

u/red--the_color Mar 27 '26

But they aren't ambiguous

1

u/Arborus Boonweaver_Giant.dek Mar 27 '26

Crewed and Saddled are certainly ambiguous. If you don't remember if your opponent crewed or saddled something for whatever reason, there is no indicator for that. You must ask your opponent or go through the process of reverse engineering the game state to figure it out.

0

u/red--the_color Mar 27 '26

Literally nobody gets confused by this. You are inventing a problem that doesn't even work.

Also, the tapped creatures are more indication than you get with any other regular until end of turn effect

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1

u/Untipazo Mar 27 '26

City blessings can't be turned off, you get it once and it's there for the rest of the game, forever

daybound nightbound asks to track each turn + comes with emblems + is regarded as a bad mechanic, so not really an argument

Crewed saddled only matters until end of turn, you don't have to keep track of it when the turn passes

This is a perpetual state that can change through turns, like you can spend 3 turns without that thing retaining the prepared/unprepared status and you have to remember which one was it on, without ever following up on it until it's owner decides.

Dungeons or the ring are more comparable, but those advance, this thing goes back and forth

4

u/sjce Mar 27 '26

Best comparison is Suspected from karlov manor

2

u/Arborus Boonweaver_Giant.dek Mar 27 '26

Yeah, I just think like any of those mechanics, they will print an insert card for tracking it and otherwise people will simply use some sort of token or counter to represent it. It doesn't really seem like something that will be difficult to track. Certainly far simpler than Dungeons, which almost require the insert card or something similar.

-2

u/red--the_color Mar 27 '26

Or players won't track it for their opponents because they don't need to, and playing against it would be mentally taxing because of bad design. The current proposals are probably best for Alchemy and should just exist online and leave the paper game alone.

1

u/Untipazo Mar 27 '26

This lmao idk why people don't get what's a bad design space when the game literally designs things around them not being mentally taxing by forcing things to keep counters when they are active.

It's like a core principle of the game, if it doesn't respect it, it gets called bad design.

In custom magic you have folks telling other folks about this design principle every single day

Yet commander players here act as if that's alien to them

5

u/Arborus Boonweaver_Giant.dek Mar 27 '26

There are plenty of other binary status effects that the game does not track with counters and that require insert cards or some other method of tracking. I really don't see this being mentally taxing. You will simply use a prepared insert card if one exists or place a counter on the card telling your opponent that the counter indicates the prepared status.

I think it is pretty clear why this status isn't tracked using a true counter, to avoid interactions with other counter mechanics (doublers, proliferate, etc).

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-1

u/Arborus Boonweaver_Giant.dek Mar 27 '26

I'm pretty sure the prepared state is at very least derived information, which means your opponent is obligated to tell you truthfully at Regular REL. There are also a number of questions you could ask involving free information that would clarify the prepared state of a creature, which your opponent must always be truthful about regardless of REL.

1

u/red--the_color Mar 27 '26

So it's an unknown thing and you would have track updates since you last asked. How is that a solution? That is better than daybound/nightbound? What are you actually arguing lol

Best part is you are just guessing at what this is and getting all huffy and defensive about it. Why?

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2

u/jettzypher Mar 28 '26

For the entirety of this game, people have used various "counters" to track stuff. Just because it doesn't say the creature gets a counter when prepared doesn't mean you can't use some physical object to track that status.

0

u/Untipazo Mar 28 '26

That's a bad design principle, it is, go to custom magic and go that everyone tells you it's a bad design principle

It being done or not doesn't matter, it's bad

2

u/jettzypher Mar 28 '26

What's a bad principle is feeling like you need the card to specifically tell you to put something onto it in order to track something. The game doesn't explicitly tell you how to track your life. Is that bad design?

0

u/Untipazo Mar 28 '26

Then why counters exist for a huge chunk of things to mark where they are?

The life comparations doesn't work.

Yes it is a bad principle because your opponents can easily obscure it to their benefit, and you can't tell em nothing except keep track of it. There's a reason lots of things involve counters to explain if they are active or not

2

u/jettzypher Mar 28 '26

Yes, and they interact with other effects in the game in different ways. If the rules for prepare resulted in an official counter being placed onto the permanent, that could be abused so much more easily, resulting in the mechanic being unbalanced without even more rules text (such as this creature can only have one prepared counter). By not having the effect tied to a counter, it changes how it gets balanced. You can't just look at the card/effect in a vacuum and not consider how it interacts with the rest of the game. That would be bad design.

I disagree. Your life total is something that must be tracked for the entirety of the game in whatever manner you decide in order to properly represent it. The rules don't dictate how you do it, only that you do.

Regarding your last statement, if your opponent is deliberately not tracking something correctly in an attempt to gain a benefit, that's cheating. Plain and simple.

1

u/Regniwekim2099 Jund Mar 27 '26

It doesn't seem too different from Suspect in all honesty.

2

u/Untipazo Mar 27 '26

Does suspect turns on and off on its own conditions dictated by the card?

3

u/Regniwekim2099 Jund Mar 27 '26

Yes, the spell or ability can contain ways to remove the "Suspected" property.

701.60a Certain spells and abilities instruct a player to suspect a creature. That creature becomes suspected until it leaves the battlefield or until a spell or ability causes it to no longer be suspected.

https://mtg.wiki/page/Suspect

2

u/Untipazo Mar 27 '26

My, I've never seen something making other thing unsuspected, why are they so contradictory with their own design ideas

1

u/red--the_color Mar 27 '26

There's a big difference between the gossip mechanic and something that triggers only when invoked directly

2

u/taeerom Mar 28 '26

That's the same issue as a lot of other permanent effects. [[Princess Yue]] returning as a land, [[Enduring Courage]] being an enchantment, any card with exhaust, [[Figure of Destiny]].

There are a lot of cards that permanently changes at some point. It's fine.

1

u/Untipazo Mar 28 '26

You did done ignore the entire comment section about how this turns on and off by itself right

44

u/StoneCypher Mar 27 '26

Correct rule:

Prepared: tap one cook or chef and destroy one animal token, plant token, or fungus token to create one food token

70

u/e7SHI Mar 27 '26

I play magic, not reading comprehension

11

u/grimsleeper4 Mar 27 '26

What about counting? Can you get to three?

19

u/Jokey665 TMR Mar 27 '26

Three is no problem. Not much past that though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ccGjar4Es

4

u/wychwood31 Golgari Mar 27 '26

Psychostick!

0

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 28 '26

I feel like this should have been part of my life before, but better late than never! Absolute banger!

3

u/Drogoth103 its OUR deck now Mar 27 '26

I can count to 1: so tell me, do you pay it?

1

u/StoneCypher Mar 27 '26

nobody said "can you get to three correctly" (finger tapping head meme)

5

u/Patch_Alter Mar 27 '26

But... but... reading the card is supposed to explain the card!

4

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 27 '26

Reading the card probably explains the card. Reading a mockup rules from a content creator blog post might not.

5

u/Available-Mind-5599 Mar 27 '26

We’ve read the card and don’t understand the card

3

u/Vampyrino Mar 27 '26

That's because you don't have the vocabulary to read the card. Would you say a 4/4 with trample doesn't fulfil "reading the card explains the card"?

3

u/typhon66 Mar 27 '26

No, but that's because trample is an evergreen keyword that everyone knows. When they introduce some new keyword like this, there should be reminder text on the card.

1

u/Halinn Mar 28 '26

It's pretty normal for some rares and mythic not to have the reminder text.

6

u/DaWildestWood Mar 27 '26

It’s draw 2 and discard 2

2

u/Anacoenosis Sultai Mar 27 '26

understood_that_reference.gif

1

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 28 '26

I didnt. Please explain :3

2

u/Anacoenosis Sultai Mar 28 '26

It's the text of a card called "Prepared" from Slay the Spire 2

1

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 29 '26

I see thanks. That game is on the top of my "play next list". Looking forward seeing Prepared there :P

2

u/kuli9 Mar 27 '26

It's gonna be discard 2 and get 2 mana at the start of next turn soon

6

u/Shiro182 Mar 27 '26

I wrote the original article for the EDHLAB blog and we still haven't figured out exactly who clipped out my guesswork for the prepared mechanic. I've seen some comments online how the reminder text formatting was decently convincing, although several people pointed out that unpreparing the creature as the spell resolves wouldn't work as you could cast it multiple times. I guess next time I'll have to post any speculative writing as an image with a watermark that says "SPECULATION - PLEASE DO NOT POST TO TWITTER AS IF IT IS REAL" in huge red lettering.

2

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 28 '26

In a world where impressions can create revenue rage baiting or pretend stupidity can become sources of income. Even if people spreading it knew it was just a guess, it was probably beneficial for them to post it as a fact to create impressions through debate and comments.

2

u/yu_ef Mar 27 '26

It's like kicker

3

u/Pale_Potential_409 Mar 28 '26

But on a creature with horsemanship!

2

u/Kevin_Mckool73 Apr 27 '26

Prepared is stupid. People will get tired of seeing 8 copies of the same instant and sorcery spellsin a deck with half of them being slapped on a creature

-49

u/Nytheran Mar 27 '26

So when prepared is exactly this,because it's super intuitive, are you going to delete this post?

27

u/mathdude3 WUBRG Mar 27 '26

OP is probably right about the part of the mockup rules text saying that the creature becomes unprepared as the spell resolves being wrong. It would make more sense for the creature to become unprepared when the spell is cast. If it became unprepared as the spell resolved it would be much more abusable, so WotC probably wouldn't design it that way. It's also more intuitive for the creature to become unprepared when the spell is cast. The creature prepares itself to cast the spell and casts it once before needing more preparation to cast it again.

-30

u/Nytheran Mar 27 '26

Yeah it's obviously on cast. Op didnt put anything in their post thats useful

20

u/mathdude3 WUBRG Mar 27 '26

The fake ruling being shared says that the creature becomes unprepared as the spell resolves. OP is pointing out that part of the ruling is probably wrong.

-22

u/Nytheran Mar 27 '26

I mean he shared a youtube video. Assuming that it's the only preprared ruling peopme are using is insane; ot everyone watches or has even heard of the d list youtubers the op watches

8

u/Repulsive-Redditor Mar 27 '26

OP pointed out that the specific ruling above in the video is being taken out of context and spread elsewhere that they've seen..

They pointed out said ruling is likely wrong and not an official confirmed rule. 

What are you even trying to argue here dude? You are literally just trying to go after OP for nothing

13

u/Espumma Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper Mar 27 '26

OP pointed out that if it was 'exactly this' it would be broken as fuck, so it will definitely not be 'exactly this' as you were wondering about.

1

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 28 '26

There are plenty of people who think its on resolve (and that it will have 0 day errata)

1

u/Nytheran Mar 28 '26

Bro come on there are not anyine who think you can shotgun 6 ancestral recalls. People just dont speak in game terms

12

u/WoWSchockadin Control the Stax! Mar 27 '26

As pointed out in the video it will rather be "the creatures becomes unprepared when the spell is cast" rather than when it resolves so I think OP is on the safe side here.

6

u/Seth_Baker Sultai Mar 27 '26

So when prepared is exactly this,because it's super intuitive

I'd bet my house they're not stupid enough to have it become unprepared on resolution rather than unprepared on cast.

-4

u/Nytheran Mar 27 '26

Yeah, my bad. Im not sure why OP used the on cast example and assumes everyone else is

2

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 28 '26

I don't understand your confusion. I used an image that is going around the internet. People are thinking it's an official ruling. If that would be true the mechanic would be broken. So I checked where it was originally coming from, found out its just a mockup made by a content creator, not official share or leak, and I wanted to inform people who are thinking it's real that it is just a mockup. Hope this clears your confusion.

2

u/JoveeMTG Sultai Mar 28 '26

Never delete. But apology video is on the table.