The Final Fantasy Release Notes article was published today on Daily MTG. While this article typically provides information about how new cards interact with the rules, it also sometimes updates older rules. This article updates the rule inherent with Sagas that caused them to be sacrificed as a state-based action when they had more Lore counters than chapters after being subject to an effect that causes them to lose all abilities. With the update, a Saga with no abilities will no longer be subject to the state-based action that would cause it to be sacrificed, and it will now remain on the battlefield. It will also no longer get additional Lore counters as a turn-based action, so the Saga is now effectively “paused” where it was before it lost its chapters.
The article states the reason for this change is due to the new Saga Creatures that will be printed for the first time in Final Fantasy. As this is the first time we’ve seen those card types together, the number of interactions that can cause a Saga to lose it’s abilities is now significantly greater. A Saga Creature that losses all abilities will remain on the battlefield as a creature the same way a Sheoldred would.
Most famously, this rule interaction is what caused a copy of Urza’s Saga to be sacrificed when a Blood Moon hit the table; with the new change that interaction is very different. Urza’s Saga will now not only remain on the battlefield as a Mountain, it will also continue to have any of the abilities it was previously granted by any of its already completed chapters. So if Blood Moon comes down after Urza’s Saga’s second chapter resolves, it will be a Mountain with the ability to make Constructs. This shifts Blood Moon away from being a tool to fight against Urza’s Saga to a tool that enables Urza’s Saga to remain on the battlefield indefinitely.
