Core sets were discontinued after Magic Origins in 2015, but were reintroduced with Core 2019. The reintroduction made it possible to move away from the Two-Block Paradigm, and create room to print three large standalone sets each year. Thus, the codename Salad was transferred from the small set in the proposed Dominaria block, to this core set. Like Magic 2010 to Magic Origins before, this core set contains a mix of new and reprinted cards. However, it is primarily geared toward incoming players. In contrast to earlier Core Sets, the design team started out by building the Welcome Decks and Planeswalker Decks. They had the freedom to design or reprint whatever cards they needed to make an optimal experience. The team then used the cards they made for those two products as a starting point around which to build Core Set 2019.
Core Set 2019 contains 280 cards (20 basic land, 111 common, 80 uncommon, 53 rare, and 16 mythic rare) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. 25 additional cards are found in the set's planeswalker decks. These are numbered #281/280 to #305/280. A unique Buy-a-Box promotional card numbered #306/280 is also considered to be part of the set.[9] In addition, 8 common and uncommon cards from the Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan and Dominaria sets (numbered #307/280 to #314/280) have been printed in the Welcome Decks with the Core Set 2019 expansion symbol. The common taplands sometimes replace a basic land in the land slot of booster packs. 181 cards are new, the rest is reprinted.
More than 30 white, blue and red commons were accidentally packaged in Dominaria boosters and found two months before release.
Due to the transition from the Two-Block Paradigm to the Three-and-One Model Core Set 2019 is one of the few Core Sets with a development codename.
