MTG CORE SET 2011 M11 REGULAR MOL FACTORY SET

Magic 2011 uses all the evergreen mechanics except for double strike and intimidate. The mechanics flash, regeneration and shroud each appear on only one card, either an uncommon or rare. Magic 2011 is the first core set to use a non-evergreen mechanic, scry, which would not appear in the next core set Magic 2012.

Magic 2011 attempts to give planeswalkers more of a presence, by printing two cycles of "signature spells". Because planeswalkers have to be mythic rare, many players do not see the planeswalker characters very often. The names and artwork of these common and uncommon spells each feature one of the five planeswalkers originally printed in Lorwyn, meaning that players will now see the planeswalker characters a lot more often.

Magic 2011 continues to push vampires as a major black tribe. It contains more vampires than Magic 2010, and is the first core set to contain more vampires than zombies.

Apart from the two cycles of planeswalker's spells, Magic 2011 contains several new cards that pay homage to Magic's past:

• Barony Vampire appears to be from the Dark Barony on Ulgrotha.
• Dryad's Favor depicts a Borderland Ranger in its artwork.
• Elixir of Immortality has flavor text attributed to Baron Sengir of the Dark Barony.
• Roc Egg is a reference to the card Rukh Egg from Arabian Nights.
• Hornet Sting is a reference to the card Bee Sting from Portal and Portal Second Age.
• Serra Ascendant refers to the pre-mending planeswalker Serra and her plane.
• Sword of Vengeance looks like the sword of the archangel Akroma and grants some of her abilities to the creature it equips.

Notable cards

• The Titan cycle of cards (such as Inferno Titan) have all seen substantial amounts of play in Standard and Modern, providing large amounts of value for a single card even considering the mana investment. They particularly dominated in Standard, where they were at the top end of nearly every midrange and control deck while they were legal.
• Serra Ascendant is a potentially extremely efficient creature, but is notable due to automatically gaining its bonus in formats such as Commander where players start with more than 30 life, causing it to be one of the strongest creatures in that format.
• Viscera Seer is a strong, free sacrifice outlet that has powered numerous "aristocrats" decks like Vampires in Standard and creature toolbox and Collected Company decks in Modern, where it can be part of numerous infinite loops while also providing value against targeted removal.
• Fauna Shaman is like a creature version of Survival of the Fittest that has been used in numerous creature toolbox decks in Standard and Modern to find creatures with niche abilities for the current situation
• Steel Overseer is a powerful artifact creature playoff and a crucial part of MUD aggro decks in Legacy and Vintage, Affinity and Hardened Scales based decks in Modern, and Tempered Steel based artifact creature aggro decks in Standard.
• Pyretic Ritual is one of the few red rituals legal in Modern, leading to its use in several combo decks like Landless Belcher, Storm, and Mono-Red Prison.
• Ajani's Pridemate is one of the most iconic life gain payoffs and has seen many reprints in future sets
• Leyline of Sanctity is a powerful sideboard card that has been played in every format from Modern to Vintage to prevent against targeted spells, primarily discard spells like Thoughtseize and direct damage burn spells.
• Squadron Hawk was part of the notoriously powerful Caw-blade deck that used the hawk in numerous ways. The flying creatures were great at using the powerful Equipment fetched by Stoneforge Mystic, and its ability paired particularly well with Jace the Mind Sculptor's ability to Brainstorm, as the additional copies of the hawk could be put back into the deck and then fetched again afterward to generate significant card advantage. It now sees minor play in Modern decks like Death and Taxes and Martyr Proc, as well as white-based aggro decks in Pauper.

Banned and restricted cards

• Preordain is one of the strong cantrip cards in the game, offering an impressive card selection for a minimal cost. It has seen heavy play in Standard, Modern, Legacy, and Pauper, and was so strong in Modern that it was banned between 2011 and 2023 to reduce the consistency of blue decks.
• Primeval Titan is easily the strongest of the already strong Titan cycle, providing both substantial ramp and the ability to search for any land, including nonbasics. This ability has led to entire decks based around casting it as early as possible and abusing its ability, such as the Amulet Titan ramp deck that has existed in Modern for nearly as long as the format has existed. It is so strong as to be banned in the casual format Commander.