“Postcombat main phase” is a mouthful. But if you have topsy turvy then these two things aren’t equivalent. And neither are “at the beginning of your precombat main phase” and the weird “after your draw phase” thing that sagas do.

The names don’t change their order even with Topsy Turvy.

I noticed that a lot of MH3 cards use "At the beginning of your precombat mainphase" rather than "at the beginning of your upkeep" when they have about the same functionality. Is there any reason for that?

We prefer you having access to your card for the turn to make a more informed play.

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of stuff that triggers "at the beginning of your precombat main phase" or "at the beginning of your combat phase." These triggers often feel like upkeep triggers. Why not just use the upkeep step? Isn't that what it's there for?

The timing of upkeep made a lot more sense in early Magic when it dealt with actual upkeep costs. With upkeep costs, you wanted them before the card draw, as drawing the card signified you’d passed the time to pay it. Now that most of these effects aren’t upkeep costs, you want to let players draw their cards first to have more information for when it triggers.Beginning of combat triggers are used to focus on things that are combat relevant, so we want them happening close to combat.

With triggers at the beginning of upkeep,draw, first main phase, beginning of Combat, declare attackers or blockers and end step, why are there not more cards with until end of Combat step?

Many of them are non-intuitive, especially anything that pumps toughness.

Hi Mark. This question has been on my mind for a while, but what's with the wording on sagas? Why do they use the phrase "...after your draw step" instead of "...at the beginning of your precombat main phase?"

We like to avoid saying “precombat main phase” on cards.

"Expect more things trigger at beginning of the first main phase. We think it’s generally better than triggering at upkeep." Mark, aren't things like this the entire purpose of the upkeep phase? Unless it adds mana, why is first main phase triggering better than upkeep? Help me understand, because even the word 'upkeep' plays into this.

It has to do with what works better gameplay and designwise. If we started Magic over, I’m pretty sure upkeep would be there.

I'm enjoying DTW 1032 a lot more than I expected. Do you think there's a future where you move the upkeep to the first part of the first main phase? Or some static effect that has that change?

I doubt we’ll change the turn structure, but I do think we’ll make cards that have triggered effects there that formerly would have happen earlier.

What was the reason for having Saga's trigger on the the Precombat main phase rather then the Upkeep? It's very confusing and creates scenarios where it feels like you have 2 upkeeps to keep track of

We want you to draw your card first. Note that we don’t use at start of upkeep triggers much anymore.

Just to clarify, my understanding is you don't roll to visit your attractions whenever you open a new attraction. Instead, you only roll once a turn during your first main phase unless a card specifically tells you to roll to visit your attractions. This means, that (usually) you can't attempt to visit an attraction you've opened until your following turn. Is that correct? If it is, did you ever test visiting an attraction for free when you initially open an attraction? Maybe I'm playing it wrong but it feels kind of disappointing to open an attraction, wait a turn to attempt to visit it, miss the visit based on your roll and have to wait another turn just to potentially visit it for the first time.

There was a version we tried where you visited an Attraction the turn you opened it. It was just too good.

The article on Unfinity mechanics wasn't entirely clear on this point: The die roll for visiting attractions at the start of each first main phase is a *single* die roll for all of your attractions, right? And you only roll if you control at least one attraction? Since this is likely to come up a lot, maybe look at having the article be updated to make the answer to these questions a bit clearer?

Yes, you roll a single die for all your Attractions, and only if you control at least one Attraction.