Today is the third day of announcement week and the first day of Grand Prix Las Vegas. If you’re reading this then it means the official “Announcement Day” announcements dropped and it’s time to unravel all that was contained inside. Of course the big announcement was the reveal, well the official reveal at least of Ixalan.
In case you missed out on the original soft reveal of Ixalan you can check out all the coverage from that announcement and then hop back here for more juicy goodness plus the rest of the product slate Wizards just announced. Let’s be honest, you might as well kiss the money in your checking account goodbye now.
Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, & Explorers of Ixalan
Pirates. Versus. Dinosaurs.
YES! YES!! OH SWEET EREBOS YES!!!
This is it, this is what Mark Rosewater was talking about. The announcement we, Magic fans, have waited so long for. Muraganda Petroglyphs finally finds a home. Dinosaurs are coming to Magic. Pirates are coming to Magic. A decade after Kamigawa we can finally fulfill all of our Ninja vs. Pirate dreams!
Ixalan sounds a lot like Zendikar on the surface, but will hopefully have more of a focused top-down Indiana Jones design than Zendikar which had a bottom-up design around landfall and land mechanics. I’m expecting a lot more adventure this time around and maybe the return of the Quest mechanic.
Ixalan will also have an art book and the dinosaurs look amazing and true to the feathered nature we now understand they possessed. It’s nice to see Wizards go with this version of dinosaurs for their own world. I’m sure they’re going to look amazing. Honestly I have nothing bad to say about this announcement and I was worried that the name-drop a while back would kill some hype. Boy was I wrong.
Return to Dominaria
Oh, oh my. Is that, is that correct? Dominaria? Wow. Just, so many thoughts.
So this is really what today’s “Tales From the Pit” was referring to. In case you’re unfamiliar with Dominaria it was only the main focal point of the story for a million years before Urza and Karn pretty much destroyed the entire plane and then Teferi, Jhoira, Jeska, and Venser laid waste to whatever was left. The last set to feature Dominaria was Judgment which was released on May 27, 2002.
We return on April 28, 2018, almost exactly 16 years from when we left the home plane of Liliana and countless other planeswalkers. Is Radha still there? Is anything left of Otaria? There are so many questions I expect we’ll be talking about it for the next year in fact. This is easily the biggest announcement of the day and something all Magic fans will be very, very excited about.
Oh, and the icing on the cake, Richard Garfield is on the design team! Like I said, your checkbook is toast.
25th Anniversary Masters Edition
Okay, sigh. The excitement level drops off a cliff here because I think we’re getting a bit inundated with Masters products. Modern Masters 2017 came out earlier this year. Iconic Masters comes out this fall. Now 25th Anniversary Masters comes out in the spring? I think we really need to focus on one Masters product each year.
Also, I have to admit, there’s some concern here about overlap between Iconic Masters and 25th Anniversary Masters. What’s the real difference here. I mean, how can they still have gas in the tank after so many masters products, unless…
Are they killing the reserve list? Could that be it? For the 25th anniversary they’re going to just jump off the deep end and reprint duels, power, tabernacle, everything?! This is it, sell your collections, burn your foils, run for the hills folks!
Oh wait, wait, this set will have cards from every single expansion. Ah, that makes sense. I was worried for a second that Legacy would become affordable. So Iconic Masters will focus on Iconic Creatures and 25th Anniversary Masters will highlight every expansion in the game’s history. That’s pretty exciting but I’m still concerned about burnout. Hopefully there aren’t any more must-have draftable supplemental sets…
Unstable
MARK ROSEWATER IS THE HAPPIEST MAN ON THE PLANET!
Okay, children. Gather ’round so the old man can tell you a story about how Unhinged Limited was the single greatest Magic experience in the history of limited Magic. Seriously. You could end up having to play with no hands. Or your permanents could be destroyed by players at other tables. It was wild. It was insane. It was an amazing experience.
This isn’t the most important or exciting announcement being made today, but after more than a decade without a silver-bordered set this is the one that I’m personally the most excited for. For me, Magic is all about experiences shared with friends and no experience has brought me more joy in my Magic life than drafting Unhinged with my closest friends.
Core Set 2019, Duel Decks & From the Vault
The rest of the announcement is pretty straight forward. We already knew about the core set’s return but now we have a date for it. Duel Decks will feature Merfolk and Goblins implying that tribal will be a theme in Ixalan, something we haven’t seen in a while and will likely mesh well with the return to Dominaria, a plane that also has Merfolk and Goblins.
Lastly, the next From the Vault will feature all flip cards so here is a preliminary guess at the contents:
- Arlinn Kord
- Bloodline Keeper
- Delver of Secrets
- Elbrus, the Binding Blade
- Garruk Relentless
- Huntmaster of the Fells
- Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
- Kytheon, Hero of Akros
- Liliana, Heretical Healer
- Ludevic’s Test Subject
- Mayor of Avabruck
- Reckless Waif
- Thing in the Ice
- Ulrich of the Krallenhorde
- Westvale Abbey