Limited Guide: Foundations - Draft, Pre-Release, and Sealed Formats!

The 30th Magic: The Gathering World Championship has just been won by Javier Dominguez, who is now a two-time world champion and the player of the year! But that's not all that happened this past weekend.

Namely, the Magic: The Gathering Foundations spoiler season is now near its end, and we also got a truckload of new information at the 2024 MTG World Championship. For instance, Wizards of the Coast announced how the next sets will impact the formats, and changed a critical combat rule, which is incredibly relevant for limited formats. If you're out of the loop, please check out this excellent article by judge Antonio Carlos.

In this article, however, we'll go through this set's mechanics, archetypes, mana bases, and removals, all through the lens of Draft, Sealed, and Pre-release formats.

Let's understand how this new MTG set aims to bring a friendlier design and act as a gateway for new players, as well as become Standard's new foundation.

Mechanics

Foundations does not include new mechanics; all mechanics included in this set are very common in constructed formats and have been largely featured in other recent Limited formats (particularly Modern Horizons 3).

Flashback

Flashback lets us play spells in our graveyard for a certain Flashback cost.

Threshold

Threshold grants your cards new effects if you have 7 or more cards in your graveyard.

So, cards with this ability are usually stronger in longer games.

Prowess

Prowess grants creatures +1/+1 until the end of the turn each time you cast a noncreature spell. It is excellent with cantrips and combat tricks, and always makes players wonder whether a certain block is favorable.

Raid

This ability creates different effects when you attack. In this set, these effects trigger at your end step or when the creature in question enters the battlefield. It is particularly efficient in aggressive strategies that want to keep pressuring the board at all times.

Morbid

This ability creates effects if a creature dies that turn. In this set, Morbid effects happen at the beginning of your end step or when the creature in question enters the battlefield. It is very effective with sacrifice strategies, as it creates a lot of value.

Landfall

Landfall triggers when a land enters the battlefield under your control. Spells that put more lands on the board on your turn are very efficient with this ability, as are fetchlands in general.

Foundations Archetypes

Azorius Flying

This blue and white archetype centers around flying creatures.

Look for flying creatures or creatures that have synergy with them, and try to abuse their evasion to deal as much damage as possible.

Empyrean Eagle is the most critical card in this archetype, and is an excellent aggressive option.

Spectral Sailor is also exceptional, as it can deal damage early on and give you card advantage whenever you have a few manas left.

Mischievous Mystic is a way to increase your board by using other creatures that draw you cards, like Spectral Sailor or Skyship Buccaneer and Strix Lookout.

Kykar, Zephyr Awakener is great with the other spells in this deck.

Healer's Hawk is a way to get ahead early on, as it will give you a few life points. As for Valkyrie's Call, it is an incredible way to preserve your board and create many problems for your opponents.

You can also play a variant of this archetype with Angels and use lifegain in your favor!

Speaking of Angels, Dazzling Angel and Exemplar of Light work really well together. Giada, Font of Hope and Youthful Valkyrie are key pieces in this archetype as well. And the classic Serra Angel is a way to keep pressuring your opponents and also keep a blocker to protect your life points.

You can use Angel of Finality to play around decks that use the graveyard or flashback spells.

Sphinx of Forgotten Lore lets you reuse your spells, and it is an efficient body in combat.

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Orzhov Lifegain

This black and white archetype interacts with lifegain, which triggers its cards.

For this archetype, look for creatures with lifelink or creatures that gain life when other creatures under your control enter play, like Dazzling Angel, which works as an engine for this game plan.

Fiendish Panda is an excellent option for this archetype because it buffs itself and returns another creature to the board.

Elenda, Saint of Dusk has a great body for its mana curve, and has protection against instants. You'll easily be able to attack a few times with her and meet her conditions to giver her menace and make her an even greater threat to your opponents!

Bloodthirsty Conqueror turns all the damage you deal to your opponent into lifegain (With this card in play, creatures with lifelink will give you twice as many life points whenever you deal damage to an opponent with them).

Exemplar of Light is a way to preserve our resources, as it draws us cards while we use the ones we have in our hand.

Ajani's Pridemate works really well in this archetype. It can even spiral out of control and become a relevant threat later on. If you manage to play a Healer's Hawk on turn 1, you'll probably have a 3/3 on turn 2.

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Boros Aggro

This red and white archetype is aggressive and focuses on playing low-cost creatures to finish the game as fast as possible.

Kellan, Planar Trailblazer is one of the best cards on turn 1, and can get even better when we get more mana. Savannah Lions is also quite aggressive. Healer's Hawk, in turn, deals damage more easily.

Resolute Reinforcements, Prideful Parent, and Searslicer Goblin are great ways to increase the number of creatures on your board.

Krenko, Mob Boss, when well-protected, can overpopulate the board and win the game on its own.

Dauntless Veteran buffs the board when you attack with it and is a great option to make your creatures even stronger. Goblin Surprise plays a similar role and can also give you two bodies on the battlefield.

Heroic Reinforcements is another incredible way to finish the game. It buffs your creatures and summons more creatures on the board.

Finally, we have Frenzied Goblin which might just turn the game in your favor by removing an enemy blocker. As for Swiftblade Vindicator, if you play it with the right combat tricks, you can win the game very unexpectedly.

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Selesnya Counters

This green and white archetype focuses on buffing your creatures, so look for permanents that put +1/+1 counters on them, as well as creatures that interact with these counters.

Skyknight Squire is a great option to buff your board. It also gains evasion as we put creatures on our battlefield. As for Sylvan Scavenging, we can either use it to get counters or increase our board.

Treetop Snarespinner is an excellent way to use leftover mana at the end of the game, and is a great defense because your opponents will hardly be able to go over its body.

Ajani, Caller of the Pride is a very efficient planeswalker in this archetype. It activates its main mechanic and its abilities give you evasion through double strike. It is a great way to finish matches!

Vivien Reid is also a terrific option. It gives you card advantage and can remove artifacts or enchantments that are difficult to remove. As for Good-Fortune Unicorn, it is another way to develop more creatures, so it's quite relevant.

Scavenging Ooze is a great option to gain life and control the graveyard, so it fits the main game plan.

If your opponent can't answer it, it can win the game on its own, and it is particularly strong against archetypes that interact with the graveyard or self-mill.

Wildwood Scourge's design is very effective early on and at the end of the game. It becomes a giant creature and makes the board very uneven.

Ghalta, Primal Hunger is huge, and you can take advantage of this archetype's buff strategy to put it in play earlier. It is an excellent finisher.

Considering you'll also have access to lifegain like Dazzling Angel, Ajani's Pridemate is another great option in this archetype.

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Dimir Threshold

This blue and black archetype focuses on increasing the graveyard to take advantage of the Threshold mechanic.

As a result, it is a Midrange strategy, so look for as much value as you can.

Kiora, the Rising Tide is the main reason to play this archetype, and is the best option if you want to build it. Dreadwing Scavenger is another great creature, as it filters your hand as you attack with it.

Faebloom Trick is exceptional to disrupt your opponent, feed your graveyard, and develop your board.

Creatures with evasion are ideal, as they let you connect damage while you hold off enemy pressure with your other creatures.

Strix Lookout is another option to filter your hand, and Consuming Aberration is incredibly strong after you swap resources with your opponents as the game goes on. With this card, you'll always come out on top in these situations.

Furthermore, look for removals for your first few turns, like Stab and Witness Protection, besides definitive removals like Hero's Downfall and Bake Into a Pie.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General is great in this archetype, as she fills the board and nearly always trades favorably.

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Izzet Spells

This blue and red archetype uses many spells to activate or trigger its cards' effects.

Balmor, Battlemage Captain gives you an aggressive game plan, and, when you play it with creatures that have prowess, it can end the game very quickly.

Flashback cards are incredibly efficient for this archetype, as you can reuse them later on.

Sphinx of Forgotten Lore is precisely the type of card this archetype needs. It makes all your spells even stronger.

Archmage of Runes is another way to preserve your resources. You'll also be able to discount the cost of your spells with it.

Drake Hatcher, Homunculus Horde, and Mischievous Mystic are interesting pieces because they build a board for this strategy and also interact with its main mechanic.

Rite of the Dragoncaller, despite very strong, is a bit expensive for this archetype, which is a problem. When you can finally play it, you'll usually have limited resources, so you'll need to consider your choices wisely. However, if you can preserve your resources and play it, it can be quite decisive.

Firebrand Archer and Firespitter Whelp are ways to deal damage to opponents directly. If you play them with Niv-Mizzet, Visionary, they can draw you many cards, but, because of how much Niv costs, you'll need to adopt a control game style to use this strategy.

Tolarian Terror is another aggressive option for this archetype. You can play it really early on after you play a sequence of spells. Spectral Sailor is a great option to draw many cards when you run out of resources.

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Simic Ramp

This green and blue archetype focuses on mana ramp. The goal is to get more mana on the first few turns and cast heavy spells before your opponent can cast theirs.

That being said, its key card is Llanowar Elves, as it lets you play 3-cost spells as early as turn 2.

The earlier you play Tatyova, Benthic Druid on the board, the better it is, and is important you cast it only if you can play a land immediately afterward. That's how you'll make the most out of its effect.

Creatures with effects that demand mana, like Treetop Snarespinner and Spectral Sailor, are welcome in this archetype. They're also very efficient.

Sire of Seven Deaths, Quilled Greatwurm, and Koma, World-Eater are great reasons to play this strategy, as they heavily impact the board. Wildwood Scourge is an excellent way to use any mana you have available.

Grow from the Ashes is a way to get even more mana early on. It is particularly efficient with creatures that have landfall. Ghalta, Primal Hunger is a great threat.

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Rakdos Raid

This black and red archetype focuses on the Raid ability. As we need to attack to activate this ability, we basically need an aggressive game plan that interacts with Raid.

Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate is certainly the best card for this archetype - all its abilities are significant because they let you set up great attacks and preserve your board.

Perforating Artist is also relevant for this strategy. Its deathtouch deals with creatures that cost more, and can often represent great attacks. Its Raid ability creates a constant advantage for you, whether in terms of life, cards, or permanents, whenever you attack.

Searslicer Goblin's design is very impactful for this archetype. With a single activation, you can keep attacking constantly and lose just the token you created with this card. This, in turn, means you'll be able to use your other abilities and make this deck's game plan even stronger.

Battlesong Berserker can be a way to keep attacking, as it gives you evasion with its menace, and Frenzied Goblin is another way to deal with blockers and keep attacking.

Low-cost spot removals are very welcome.

Stab, Burst Lightning, and Abrade make sure we can keep pressuring our opponent. Vampire Nighthawk is an excellent card both against aggressive decks and decks that play bigger creatures, and its deathtouch can often make your opponent think twice before blocking.

Krenko, Mob Boss easily makes boards spiral out of control, which is great for this game plan, as you want to have more creatures than your opponent.

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Golgari Morbid

This black and green archetype plays effects that happen when creatures die, either yours or your opponent's.

So, you can go for a sacrifice game plan and take advantage of effects that happen when creatures die, as well as creatures with morbid. Wardens of the Cycle is a great option - it gives you either life or card advantage, depending on the game state.

Needletooth Pack makes sure your creatures are still threats, and gets stronger the more you trade them. Vengeful Bloodwitch is an interesting piece for this sacrifice concept. It drains your opponent and keeps pressuring them.

Infestation Sage, Infernal Vessel, and Reassembling Skeleton are sacrifice resources that constantly put bodies on your board.

Cards that create more than one body when they enter the battlefield are also interesting:

Lathril, Blade of the Elves, when played with a few removals, can deal a reasonable amount of damage, and create many tokens so you can develop your game plan. High-Society Hunter, besides very aggressive, works like an engine in this archetype. It draws you cards while you sacrifice your creatures.

Elvish Regrower lets you take advantage of the resources you've already spent because it returns important pieces to you, and this is how you'll keep this mechanic alive as you play. Spinner of Souls is another way to keep it alive, as it will always find creatures for you.

Ravenous Amulet can be a way to develop this archetype and finish the game by dealing direct damage to your opponents.

You can also explore a variant with Cackling Prowler that is more aggressive overall. It constantly puts pressure on your opponents and removes their important pieces to drain their life points. It also uses morbid to make your board stronger.

Snakeskin Veil and Giant Growth can be fundamental in this strategy, just like removals like Stab and Hero's Downfall, which removes bigger creatures.

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Gruul Power 4

This red and green archetype is a stompy strategy that interacts with creatures whose power is 4 or greater. This way, look for creatures above this curve or creatures that interact with them.

So, Llanowar Elves is your best card on turn 1, as it lets you play your game plan earlier by playing turn 3 creatures on turn 2. This is how you'll start pressuring your opponent. Ruby, Daring Tracker is another interesting piece; it gives you more mana on the first few turns and becomes an aggressive card in later turns.

Nessian Hornbeetle's power scales every turn if we can set up our mechanic. Garruk's Uprising is essential to develop this archetype, as it gives us resources and catches carefully calculated blocks off-guard by giving trample to one of our creatures.

Together, Ashroot Animist and Bulk Up can be quite devastating. This duo makes all our combat tricks a lot more effective.

Ambush Wolf can catch many opponents by surprise because it gives us 4 extra power in unexpected moments. Sylvan Scavenging, Spinner of Souls, and Vivien Reid are interesting cards for this dynamic. They're great ways to preserve the resources in our hand.

Ghalta, Primal Hunger is an excellent card, particularly considering it will cost less according to how many giant creatures we have on the board. With Flamewake Phoenix, we'll keep pressuring our opponents. We can also easily bring it back from our graveyard whenever we need to.

If you get more ramp, you can play Drakuseth, Maw of Flames and Etali, Primal Storm. They're both excellent finishers and can practically win you the game on the spot if you can attack with them.

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Mana Fixing

Now that we saw every archetype in this format, let's discuss how we can access these mana colors.

Lands

In this set, there are 10 dual lifelands, which make it easier for us to find the colors we need. It also includes Evolving Wilds, which is also great.

There are no lands that filter mana in this set.

Artifacts

Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum are excellent ramp options. They get the lands we need and put them directly on our battlefield.

A less efficient option is Campus Guide, which gets the lands we need and puts them on the top of our deck.

Heraldic Banner buffs our creatures and can fix the mana we need (though many times we'd rather buff our creatures).

Another way to make sure we have the mana we need is Goldvein Pick. It lets us deal more damage early on and gives us an extra mana through treasures. It was very efficient in Kaldheim's Limited formats.

Creatures

There are no creatures that fix mana in this set (besides the artifact creatures we already covered above). All creatures that create mana in this set create mana of their own colors, like Llanowar Elves, Elvish Archdruid, and Ruby Daring Tracker. They work more like ramp than mana fixes.

Removals

Colorless

Meteor Golem is too expensive for its effect, that's true, but sometimes it is the only removal we have. It can also deal with any permanent, which is very relevant, so it is an ultra-versatile card.

White

Joust Through, besides giving you life, can stop nearly 69% of the entire set.

Luminous Rebuke's design, which discounts its cost, is quite interesting: because of this effect, it is not a dead card against creatures with vigilance.

Banishing Light is one of the best removals available in white.

Cathar Commando is both an aggressive creature and a solution for artifacts/enchantments.

Day of Judgment is a way to come back into the game when one of your opponents has burned all their resources. It is very efficient in Limited formats.

Make Your Move and Stroke of Midnight are versatile, and that's their greatest strength. You can use them in many ways.

Blue

Witness Protection is an excellent way to "disable" a key piece in your opponent's archetype, and remove their abilities.

Imprisoned in the Moon basically disables an opponent's key piece in exchange for ramp. It is a reasonable price to pay to deal with a problematic creature.

Aetherize, though not a removal, is such a relevant tempo play that it is as if it was. Removing all your opponent's attackers from the board can be decisive to finish a game, so that's why I included this card as a blue "removal".

Black

Seeker's Folly can be excellent against aggressive archetypes. It deals with nearly 19% of all creatures in this set. Its alternative effect, which forces your opponent to discard cards, makes it quite interesting.

Eaten Alive is a great removal, particularly in sacrifice archetypes. It exiles an enemy creature.

Stab is an excellent removal on the first few turns. It deals with approximately 50% of this entire set.

Bake Into a Pie and Hero's Downfall are classic black removals. They can deal with any creature.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General's ability, which forces opponents to sacrifice their creatures, is extremely relevant. It lets you remove threats from the board even when they have protection.

Red

Fiery Annihilation can deal with nearly 90% of the creatures in this set, and is extremely efficient. It is also one of the best red removals around, particularly as it exiles the creature in question.

Abrade is very versatile. It hits nearly 69% of this format, so it's critical to deal with problematic artifacts.

Burst Lightning often finishes the game by letting you deal 4 damage to opponents directly, but can also work as a removal. If you pay for its Kicker, it can deal with 86% of all the creatures in this set, and hits, approximately, 50% of the set for its original cost.

You can convert Goblin Negotiation into creatures by dealing excess damage and creating several tokens. It is excellent in decks that have a lot of mana to play.

Incinerating Blast deals with practically the entire set, as it hits 94% of it, but is not that great. Its speed and its cost make it less than ideal. Its looting ability is interesting, but it is so expensive it is inefficient.

Seismic Rupture and Slagstorm are ways to deal with aggressive decks. They simply clear the board.

Slagstorm, in particular, can deal damage to opponents directly, so it has that going for it. It is interesting when you don't want to use a global removal.

Chandra, Flameshaper can be a way to make the board uneven at the end of the game, as it removes many blockers at once. However, it is not that efficient as a planeswalker because it is too expensive.

Green

Green has nowhere to run in terms of removal.

Felling Blow and Bite Down are classic green removals. They force a creature to deal damage to another.

Affectionate Indrik and Bushwhack are "fight" removals, and are very efficient. The first one has a decent body and tends to stay on the board, and the second can find for you any lands you need if you don't need to use it as a removal.

Broken Wings is the standard green removal. It deals with flying creatures, enchantments, or artifacts, and is great for this set, considering there is an archetype that focuses entirely on flying creatures.

Reclamation Sage is the classic 2-for-1 card. It is a creature that enters play and deals with an enemy enchantment or artifact, so it lets us develop our game plan while we disrupt our opponent.

Foundations is, apparently, an interesting set. It includes great creatures, interesting removals, and good lands. It also doesn't include any crazy mechanics.

Your deckbuilding and how everyone else explores their decks will make or break this format. All colors can branch out of their archetypes, so you can easily splash a third color into your decks.

Which archetype looks more interesting to you?

Out of these archetypes, Orzhov Lifegain seemed quite interesting to me, as there is a combo in this strategy that you can use in any deck with black.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have any questions, please tell us in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!