Magic: The Gathering turned 30 years old this weekend, and to celebrate, Wizards of the Coast hosted a panel at Gen Con 2023 to look far into Magic’s future. They revealed all of the sets coming in 2024 and 2025, as well as some as far away as 2026!
Don’t miss our coverage of the other announcements made at Gen Con: Pioneer is coming to MTG Arena alongside Pioneer Masters, the Angel-themed Secret Lair Commander deck, plus Jurassic Park, Fallout, Assassin’s Creed, and Final Fantasy are all coming to Magic in the next two years.
Q1 2024: Ravnica Remastered
Kicking off 2024 will be Ravnica Remastered.
Ravnica is one of Magic’s most popular planes—so much so that we’ve already visited it three different times over nine sets: the original Ravnica block (Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpact, and Dissension in 2005-2006), the Return to Ravnica block (Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, and Dragon’s Maze in 2012-2013), and the finale of the Gatewatch arc “block” (Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, and War of the Spark in 2018-2019).
Ravnica Remastered will feature cards from all three blocks and will “play into everything that makes Ravnica Ravnica, especially the guilds,” Magic’s Head Designer Mark Rosewater said.
And, since it’s a retro set, we will also be getting a new set of reprints in the retro frame—just like in Dominaria Remastered. Check out Hallowed Fountain, Krenko, Mob Boss, and Arclight Phoenix!
Q1 2024: Murders at Karlov Manor
Following Ravnica Remastered will be 2024’s first premiere set: Murders at Karlov Manor. Though it will take place on the plane of Ravnica, it is not a fourth Ravnica block (so not a Return to Return to Return to Ravnica, if you will).
Instead, Murders at Karlov Manor is a top-down murder mystery set that just happens to take place on Ravnica. It is a new kind of design from Wizards called a “backdrop” set in which they “take a brand new mechanical theme but put it in a known world.” It will “play into all of the genre tropes of a murder mystery,” Rosewater said, and “the murders are woven into the story and there are mysteries woven into the game itself where you the players will get to solve puzzles and solve your own mysteries.”
The last time Magic did a mystery set was Shadows Over Innistrad and it wouldn’t be surprising to see that set’s mystery-focused mechanics, Investigate and Clue tokens, return in Murders at Karlov Manor.
And speaking of Clues, Wizard of the Coast will be releasing a Clue-themed (as in the board game, Clue) multiplayer product alongside Murders at Karlov Manor.
Ravnica: Clue Edition will be a multiplayer product that is a self-contained, unique experience. It is not a reskin of the Clue board game but is instead a “brand new whodunit experience” that combines Clue and Magic. Exactly how that will be done is still a mystery but we’re excited to find out!
Q2 2024: Outlaws of Thunder Junction
Outlaws of Thunder Junction will be Magic’s first set in the second quarter of 2024. It is all about villains, according to Rosewater. Now that the omenpaths have opened up the multiverse to non-Planeswalkers, villains from across the universe are gathering on a brand new (to us) world.
The set will feature the Western genre at its core to build a frontier fantasy setting. It will also be the conclusion of the “omenpath” arc, the first of three arcs in Magic’s new “Metronome” storyline which will begin this Fall with Wilds of Eldraine.
What villains will the set feature? Well, just take a look at the image above. That’s clearly Oko, Thief of Crowns in the sky with a Magic cowboy hat on. Below Oko are six silhouettes, some of which are more identifiable than others. Vraska is clearly the second from the left, while Rakdos is on the right. The left-most character could be Tinybones—as for the others, well, we’re very interested.
Q2 2024: Modern Horizons 3
Modern Horizons returns for its third iteration in Q2 2024 with Modern Horizons 3.
The Modern Horizons series are sets that include new cards (as well as reprints) that skip Standard and go directly into Magic’s Modern format. Traditionally, non-Standard sets would only be legal in eternal formats like Commander, Legacy, and Vintage, but Modern Horizons is intended to fill that gap and help add new cards to Modern without having to worry about Standard.
The series has been a huge hit since its introduction with Modern Horizons 1 in 2019, which is currently Magic’s best-selling set of all time. It made over $200 million in two years and produced so many powerful cards (Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis—which broke Modern and got banned—Wrenn and Six, and Force of Negation)
that it changed the face of Modern and eternal formats. (That best-selling record is currently being challenged by The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, which is already Magic’s second best-selling set and which Hasbro expects to outsell Modern Horizons 1 around the end of 2023.) While Modern Horizons 2, released in 2021, didn’t match the original’s success, it had a similarly massive impact on Modern and the eternal formats with cards like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Urza’s Saga.
Modern Horizons sets “have access to all of the mechanics of the past,” Rosewater said. “But, Modern Horizons 1 and 2 didn’t actually have access to all of the mechanics of the past because there are some things we couldn’t print on a single face! Modern Horizons 3 fixes that!”
“Modern Horizons 3 is introducing double-faced cards to Modern Horizons. So you want to see cards that transform into Planeswalkers or make use of mechanics that you couldn’t do on a single face? Well, Modern Horizons 3 will do that.”
Modern Horizons 3 will also be coming to the MTG Arena—though the Modern format itself will not.
Q3 2024: Assassin’s Creed
Coming in July 2024 is a crossover with one of the biggest video game franchises: Assassin’s Creed. Wizards says that “every Assassin’s Creed game gets in on the fun.”
This Universes Beyond product will be the first “Beyond Booster,” a new booster type that isn’t draftable. Instead, the booster is intended to be an experience and “take you on a journey unique to that universe.” The cards in each Beyond Booster will be a mix of new cards—which will be Modern-legal—and reprints.
Q3 2024: Bloomburrow
After the conclusion of the “omenpath” arc in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Magic will begin its second story arc of the “Metronome” storyline—called the “dragonstorm” arc—in Q3 of 2024 with Bloomburrow. Bloomburrow is a “world of anthropomorphic animals where there are no humans,” Rosewater said. “You’ll see rabbits and birds and rats and mice and raccoons. It’s a world in which the animals are the main characters.”
It’s “probably the most charming world we’ve ever made for Magic,” he continued, and the art “will melt your heart.”
That description and the art we’ve seen so far feels very Redwall-inspired. We hope that turns out to be true!
Q3 2024: Duskmourn: House of Horror
After Bloomburrow, Magic will take a hard left turn into horror with Duskmourn: House of Horror.
Duskmourn: House of Horror is “a top-down, modern horror set.” It is different than the horror we’ve seen on Innistrad and New Phyrexia, though—it will instead have a more “modern sensibility” that references horror tropes from the 1970s and 1980s.
It will be set on a brand-new world that is entirely within “a giant mansion with creepy corridors and weird rooms, really playing into all the fun of modern horror.”
The Future Beyond 2024
As if sharing their plans for 2024 wasn’t enough, Wizards also shared some details about what was coming in 2025—and even in 2026!
“None of this is carved in stone yet,” Rosewater said. “We are actively working on these products.” None of these sets even have names at this point, let alone final art, so all we know at this point are their codenames.
“Dates could change, concepts could change, but this is the path we’re all on right now,” added Jess Lanzillo, Chief of Staff at Wizards.
So with that in mind, let’s jump in and see what 2025 and 2026 have in store for Magic.
2025: Innistrad Remastered
Innistrad might be the only other plane that could challenge Ravnica for the most popular plane in Magic.
Innistrad Remastered will follow the lead of Dominaria Remastered and Ravnica Remastered by taking “all of the different visits to Innistrad and [putting] them in a fun draft environment where you can mix and match.”
2025: “Tennis”
“Tennis” will be focused on a multi-planar “death race.” Thanks to the opening of the omenpaths, non-Planeswalkers (and their sick race cars) can now cross in between planes, allowing “Tennis” to show off a death race that spans three different planes.
Rosewater couldn’t confirm which planes were involved, but he did drop a few hints. Two of the planes have already been featured in premiere sets but have yet to have a “return” set, while the third is a plane we’ve seen on cards but never visited in a premiere set.
2025: “Ultimate”
“Ultimate” will be a return to Tarkir!
Rosewater says that the design team is taking a “best of both worlds” approach to the set. “We want to take the awesome things about Khans of Tarkir and the awesome things about Dragons of Tarkir and blend them together to make a Tarkir that you’ve never seen.”
2025: Final Fantasy
The hotly anticipated collaboration between Magic and Final Fantasy will be released in 2025 and it will be a “tentpole” booster release similar to The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. It will feature each main Final Fantasy game, from the original to Final Fantasy XVI, and will be available on Arena.
2025: “Volleyball”
Magic will then start the third and final arc (which Rosewater jokingly called the “censored” arc: “I’m just not allowed to say what it is because it gives too much away”) of the “Metronome” storyline with “Volleyball.”
The set will continue to expand upon the science fiction themes and settings that have been explored in the past few years with Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and Unfinity. “When Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty came out, we really pushed the boundaries a little bit with what we could do with science fiction,” Rosewater said. “The audience responded really well to that and so we decided that we wanted to keep pushing.”
The result of that push is that “‘Volleyball’ is a top-down space opera set” that takes place in outer space.
2025: “Wrestling”
With “Wrestling,” Magic will make good on one of the most-requested “return” sets and return to Lorwyn.
“Much like we did with Kamaigawa: Neon Dynstasy, we are finding a way to bring back all the things you love about the original world,” Rosewater said, “But find new twists on it and bring a new sensibility to the world”
2026: “Yachting”
“Yachting” is so far away that Rosewater barely even knows what will be in the set. “These are sets that I’m literally in vision design right now. I can’t even tell you the mechanics of these sets because we haven’t finalized them yet!”
But, Rosewater does know one thing: that “‘Yachting’ is another return. We’re going to Arcavios, which is the home of Strixhaven.”
2026: “Ziplining”
The three years of Magic’s “Metronome” storyline (composed of the “omenpath,” “dragonstorm,” and “censored” arcs) will conclude with “Ziplining.”
Similar to War of the Spark or March of the Machine, “Ziplining” will be “a capstone event set that is a big, giant finale of the storyline.”
“I can’t tell you the theme,” Rosewater said. “I can’t tell you the villain, I can’t tell you where it happens—I really can’t tell you anything about it because everything I could tell you is spoilers galore.” But he’s so excited about the set that he asked to lead it himself.