MTG Star Trek mechanics: Strange New Worlds and Beam Me Up explained

Three different Forests count as one land for Strange New Worlds. That's the first rule to learn about the MTG Star Trek mechanic that cares how many places you've been, and it changes how you build a mana base. Beam me up is the transporter mechanic, and it lives in your graveyard: it recasts instants and sorceries out of your graveyard by sending a creature back to your hand. Strange New Worlds and Beam Me Up each come with their own set of gotchas, so each one gets its own rules and deckbuilding breakdown. If you liked my assimilate and federation explainer, it's the same format.

Strange new worlds and beam me up at a glance

Strange New Worlds counts the differently named lands you control, and Beam Me Up recasts spells from your graveyard. Both are in the main MTG Star Trek set, so you'll see them at prerelease and in Commander.

The short version of each:

• Strange New Worlds is an ability word. It counts the differently named lands on your battlefield, and it gets stronger the more unique lands you play.

• Beam Me Up is a keyword ability on certain instants and sorceries. It lets you cast the spell from your graveyard by returning a creature you control to its owner's hand and paying a listed cost.

One cares about your lands. The other cares about your graveyard and your creatures. You can build around either one without touching the other.

What is Strange New Worlds in MTG Star Trek?

Strange New World is an ability word for abilities that count the number of differently named lands you control. Each name counts once, no matter how many copies of that land you have.

Wizards' example: three Forests, an Island, and a Breeding Pool give you three names. That makes The Traveler a 3-power creature. Every Strange New World card uses the count its own way. Deep Space Scan, for example, checks the number as it resolves and sizes its effect from there.

The flavor is spot on. Visiting the same planet five times doesn't make you an explorer.

How strange new worlds counts your lands

Strange New Worlds looks at the names of lands you control right now, on the battlefield. Tapped lands count. Lands you control but don't own count. Lands in your graveyard don't.

Five gotchas to know before you build:

Snow basics have their own names. Snow-Covered Forest is a different name from Forest. A mono-green deck running both gets two names out of its basics. In Commander, where basic lands are exempt from the singleton rule, that's a free extra name per color.

Full-art basics share a name. A holodeck Forest, an away team Forest, and a default Forest are all named Forest. Art doesn't matter.

Blood Moon changes types, and names stay put. Blood Moon turns nonbasic lands into Mountains, but your Breeding Pool is still named Breeding Pool. Your count holds. Your mana is a separate disaster altogether.

Copy lands copy the name. Vesuva entering as a copy of your Breeding Pool is named Breeding Pool. It adds a land and zero names.

Fetch lands can cost you a name. Evolving Wilds is its own name while it sits on the battlefield. Crack it for a basic you already have, and your count drops by one. In a Strange New Worlds deck, think before you fetch.

How to build a Strange New Worlds deck

Build a Strange New Worlds deck by playing as many different lands as you can and fetching nonbasic lands with your ramp.

Swap basics for nonbasics. In Commander, every nonbasic land is a guaranteed new name, since singleton keeps you to one copy. Run as many on-color duals and utility lands as your mana can handle.

Run snow basics next to regular basics. One Forest and one Snow-Covered Forest beat two Forests. Do this in every color you play.

Pick ramp that grabs typed duals. Nature's Lore, Farseek, and Skyshroud Claim all search for land cards with a basic type, which includes shock lands and other typed duals. Ramp that only finds basic lands hands you duplicate names.

Add extra land drops. Exploration and similar effects get you more names per turn. The Landing Party deck is built around exactly this kind of plan.

Hold a land or two late. Your count lives entirely on the battlefield, so anything that destroys lands resets you. A couple of lands in hand lets you rebuild the count the turn after a wipe.

The Landing Party Commander deck, led by Commander Spock in green, white, and blue per Wizards' Commander deck announcement, is the natural starting point.

What does beam me up do in MTG Star Trek?

Beam Me Up is a keyword ability that lets you cast certain instants and sorceries from your graveyard. The cost: return a creature you control to its owner's hand, then pay the mana listed in the ability.

The basics from Wizards' mechanics article:

• Returning the creature is part of the cost. Once you announce the cast, your opponents can't respond by removing that creature. It's already gone.

• The spell is exiled afterward, always. Whether it's resolved or countered, it doesn't matter. You get one replay.

• Card type still controls timing. Instants with Beam Me Up work at instant speed. Sorceries wait until your main phase and the stack is empty.

• Mana value never changes. Open Communications has mana value 1 whether you cast it from your hand or beam it back.

The upside is on both ends. You get a spell back, and the creature you return gets to enter the battlefield again, with its enter-the-battlefield triggers and minus any Aura an opponent stuck on it. Your crew comes back from the transporter pad better off than when they left. Reg Barclay would still refuse to step on the pad.

Beam me up rules gotchas

Beam Me Up's biggest gotchas all come down to which creature you return: your commander, a stolen creature, a token, or one that's about to get removed.

Your commander dodges commander tax. Return your commander as the cost, and it goes to your hand (you can choose the command zone instead, but you shouldn't). Cast it from your hand, and you pay its printed cost with no tax. Commander tax only applies when you cast from the command zone. That's the single best Beam Me Up trick in Commander.

Stolen creatures go home. The creature goes to its owner's hand. If you return a creature you took from an opponent (an assimilated Borg, say), it lands in their hand, and you've given it back. Pick something you own.

Tokens work as the cost. You can return a token creature. It goes to your hand and immediately ceases to exist. That makes spare tokens the cheapest possible fuel when you don't need an enters trigger.

Tapped creatures are fine. Returning the creature doesn't require it to be untapped. Swing with it, then beam it home in your second main phase.

It saves creatures from removal. If an opponent targets your creature and you have an instant with Beam Me Up in your graveyard, cast it and return the targeted creature as the cost. The removal has nothing left to hit. (I covered this one in the MTG Star Trek prerelease guide, and it'll win games in Sealed too.)

How to build a Beam Me Up deck

Build a Beam Me Up around creatures with strong enter triggers and a steady supply of spells in your graveyard.

Load up on enters triggers. Every Beam Me Up cast is a chance to replay a creature. Mulldrifter draws two every time it comes back, which turns one graveyard spell into three cards' worth of value.

Fill your own graveyard. Self-mill and discard get Beam Me Up spells into the graveyard faster than waiting to cast them once. Looting effects are a natural fit.

Keep cheap bodies and tokens around. You always need a creature to pay the cost. A 1-drop or a token you don't care about keeps your best creatures on the battlefield when you just want the spell back.

Make your commander the fuel. If your commander has a good enters trigger, it's your best Beam Me Up target in the deck, since recasting it from your hand skips the tax.

Respect graveyard hate. Rest in Peace sends your spells to exile before Beam Me Up ever sees them. Keep enough card draw that the deck works without the graveyard.

Where to start when the set drops

Strange New Worlds is going to look weak at prerelease tables and great in Commander. In Sealed, your eight lands on turn eight are mostly basics, and you might be sitting on four names. In Commander, almost every land you play is a new name, so that same turn gets you seven or eight. Give The Traveler a fair trial the first time it hits the table in a Landing Party game on turn eight and swings for eight.

Beam Me Up is the opposite story. It's good on day one in any format, because every copy is a spell you get to cast twice. The instants are the ones to grab. A Beam Me Up instant in your graveyard is a removal answer your opponent has to play around for the rest of the game, so take them early in draft and slot them into Commander decks ahead of the sorceries.

If you're building one deck first, start with Strange New Worlds. The manabase is the only upgrade it needs, and a lot of Commander players already have a stack of snow basics and shock lands sitting in a box. Beam Me Up decks need the new cards themselves, and those won't be in anyone's binder until packs start cracking on November 6th.

Strange New Worlds and Beam Me Up FAQ

What is strange new worlds in MTG Star Trek?

Strange New Worlds is an MTG Star Trek ability word for abilities that count the number of differently named lands you control. Each land name counts once, regardless of how many copies of that land you control.

What does beam me up do in MTG Star Trek?

Beam me up is an MTG Star Trek keyword ability that lets you cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard by returning a creature you control to its owner's hand and paying the listed cost. The spell is exiled afterward.

Is Snow-Covered Forest a different land name for strange new worlds?

Yes. Snow-Covered Forest and Forest have different names, so Strange New Worlds counts them as two names. Full-art versions of the same basic land, like Holodeck and Away Team Forests, all share the name Forest and count once.

Will Blood Moon change your Strange New Worlds count?

No. Blood Moon changes nonbasic lands into Mountains but does not change their names, so your strange new worlds count stays the same.

Is a beam me up spell exiled if it gets countered?

Yes. A spell cast with Beam Me Up is exiled whether it resolves, gets countered, or fails to resolve because its targets became illegal. The creature returned as part of the cost stays in its owner's hand.

What happens if you return your commander with Beam Me Up?

Your commander goes to your hand, or to the command zone if you choose. If you cast your commander from your hand, you pay its normal mana cost without commander tax, since commander tax only applies to casting from the command zone.

What happens if you return a creature you don't own with Beam Me Up?

The creature goes to its owner's hand. If you return a creature you took from an opponent, such as an assimilated creature, that opponent gets the card back in their hand.