It was a busy day for Weekly MTG as the Magic: The Gathering May announcement event was held, sharing a lot of new information about upcoming sets and events for the original trading card game. During the live stream, we got information about the Warhammer 40,000 Universes Beyond collaboration, July's Double Masters, and a Dominaria United release date along with other announcements.
Warhammer 40,000 Magic: The Gathering Cards
Set to release on August 12th, the Warhammer 40k Universes Beyond collaboration will be made up of 4 Commander decks and 3 Secret Lair Drops that will cover not just the 40k era, but also some other Warhammer eras. This was a collaboration that Harless Snyder shared the team was really excited for saying it, "made a lot of sense for us because a lot of people in the building are hardcore fans". With a big world like Warhammer has they didn't feel that a few Secret Lairs was enough to explore it, so they decided Commander Decks made sense, and given how factional the grim dark future can be, Commander helps keep all the factions in their own lane flavorfully (at least until deck builders start making their own creations). Another aspect emphasized was that like Magic, Warhammer is a very social game and Commander is the best 'format' to highlight that for Wizards, who want to present each of their partners in the best manner possible.
The four Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks are:
- Tyrannid Swarm (green-blue-red)
- Forces of the Imperium (white-blue-black)
- Necron Dynasties (mono-black) and,
- The Ruinous Powers (blue-black-red)
For the first time, Commander decks will come with a special collector's edition option to buy. This version will be fully foiled, and making use of a new treatment called the "Surge Foil" that we are told is beautiful, and cool, although according to our hosts just about everything in Magic is both of those. There were a few preview cards shown, including The Ruinous Powers' face card, and Abaddon the Despoiler.
The decks will have new cards, as well as reprints of old cards with new Warhammer style art. Fabricate is one of the cards getting that new artwork. Beyond the Commander Decks though there are also three Secret Lairs coming with them available to order from August 12th, through the 22nd. The Warhammer Secret Lairs are:
- Secret Lair x Warhammer 40,000: Orks
- Secret Lair x Warhammer Age of Sigmar
- Secret Lair x Blood Bowl
There were no previews of these, but with the Orks, we can obviously expect that race to have an appearance there, while Age of Sigmar will show off some of the more fantastical Warhammer products, and Blood Bowl will presumably show characters from the brutal sport adaptation. For unique Secret Lair cards, Wizards has committed in the past to printing de-universes beyonded versions as part of the List in future sets. The first ones to have that happen were the Stranger Things Secret Lair cards, which had Magic native versions in New Capenna. There is no such commitment for cards in the commander decks, so if you want the mechanics of Blood for the Blood God! you should be ready to buy that version of the card.
Double Masters 2022 Is Just Around the Corner
While Commander Legends: Baldur's Gate is starting previews next week, Wizards started showing some more of their hand for the reprint-only set Double Masters 2022 which will be released on July 8th, 2022, with previews starting on June 16. Like the first Double Masters, each pack will have 2 rares, and 2 foil cards. The set will have Draft and Collector's packs, and all rare and mythic rare cards in the set have foil-etched versions. This can be pretty, but also pretty prone to bending as seen in Commander Legends so hopefully that has been taken care of.
One of the chase rares of the set was revealed for sure with the first-ever reprinting of Wrenn and Six who can often run near $100 after its printing in Modern Horizons. Also previewed were Liliana, The Last Hope, and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. New art for these cards will generally only be on borderless versions, though there is also another new foiling process called textured foils, which will be on only a select set of cards including both Wrenn and Liliana.
The textured foil version will make use of the borderless art and according to Harless and Blake, it has a sort of a 3d texture that you can feel. They reassured everyone that it isn't enough to feel through plastics (I sure hope not!), and the effect gives a sensation of motion with light moving over it in the video they displaced. Of Planeswalkers in the set, only Liliana and Wrenn will have it, though there are other, still unrevealed Planeswalkers in the set. If you are interested in the preview events, they start on July 1 and run through July 7th depending on when your store wants to schedule them. There is a pair of release promos available in that time and through release - new art foil etched versions of Weathered Wayfarer and Bring to Light (and unlike some release promos these are also in the set).
Dominaria United Release Date Unveiled and Set Jumpstart Announced
The third set they were doing announcements for, although they had no previews for, was Dominaria United. They announced a Dominaria United release date of September 9th, with pre-release events taking place in the week leading up to it. This will be the start of a story arc covering multiple sets paying off something that has been built up to and threatens both Dominaria, and the multiverse at large. Given they mention its been built up to, it is almost certainly the Phyrexians given that we've seen 1 or 2 of them in various sets, and it would tie in with the Brother's War some as well. We'll find out more later in the year, but it looks like the Phyrexians will be back in force if I'm reading the tea leaves right.
Beyond the release date, the other big Dominaria United announcement was the creation of Set Jumpstart boosters. No longer for Jumpstart will you have to wait for them to randomly make a new bunch of them; instead like Commander products they will be tied into each sets release.
Each one of the set Jumpstart Boosters will have cards from the set, including a rare or mythic rare, two foil basic lands, and one jumpstart-only rare designed for the boosters. These will be available as part of the pre-release events, and will be replacing Theme Boosters going forward. They also stated that they will vary themes by set, and that jumpstart boosters from different sets should be fine to mash together and play.
Other Magic: The Gathering Announcements
Beyond the three sets, there were a handful of announcements that don't really fit in anywhere so we'll quickly run them down here.
Wizards Presents Announced
Wizards have caught the streaming event fever that has been all over the video game world and will be doing their own big presentation event this summer. Set for August 18th, Wizards Presents will have products from any, and all of their product lines including Dungeons and Dragons, and Magic: The Gathering. For Magic, this will be a preview of Dominaria United, an introduction to the storyline they hinted at today, and an announcement of 2023 products.
Alchemy Horizons Baldur's Gate Announced
The Magic Arena team felt it would be a waste not to use some of the cool Commander Legends: Baldur's Gate cards, even if the platform doesn't support multiplayer, or commander. So they created Alchemy Horizons Baldur's Gate which will have 250 cards for Alchemy and Historic that will tie in some with the Commander Legends Baldur's Gate, albeit likely modified for the different format and play constraints. The set will release on Magic Arena on July 7
Local Store Play Announcements
A new Love Your Local Game Store event was announced to be starting on July 1st. Starting then, if you spend $50 USD or more on sealed product you will get a special edition retro framed Sol Ring with the new style art that they have used in recent reprints.
Additionally Store Championships will be returning. This will happen July 9-17 with formats ranging from Draft, and Sealed, to Standard, Modern or Pioneer to find out who is the best player at your store. Promos will include a Flame Slash for everyone, an Archmage's Charm for the top 8, and Bob, I mean Dark Confident for the winner.
And that was everything announced during the May Announcement event. A lot is going on in the Magic world right now and in the coming months so stay tuned for more.
