Fans of Magic: The Gathering have some bad news today as Wizards of the Coast announces that Unfinity's release date has been pushed back. This upcoming set for Magic, which sports art and cards depicting a fantastical super carnival attraction flying through space, was the newest in the game's history of Un- sets, which favor more absurd and comedic card concepts and gameplay features. As for reasons for the Unfinity delay, part of it is due to the pandemic.
In an official post on their website, Wizards of the Coast wrote the following: "Due to ongoing supply chain complications from challenges associated with COVID-19, the release of Unfinity, our fourth Un- set originally slated for April 1, 2022, will be delayed until the second half of 2022." The problems cited for Unfinity's delay, that of supply chain complications, has been a known quantity affecting sea freight shipping trade around the world and impacting multiple industries, not just tabletop gaming, since the COVID-19 global pandemic began.
Wizards of the Coast did confirm however that this delay is only affecting Unfinity's release date. The publisher was quick to mention their upcoming set, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, the sci-fi far future return of their East-Asian fantasy setting, is still on schedule for its original release date.of February 18 worldwide. As for a new Unfinity release date, Wizards of the Coast did ensure readers that updates will be pending in the coming months.
While it is odd that these issues are affecting one set of Magic cards and not the other, Unfinity's delay does illustrate the logistical issues the industry still faces in 2022. Despite widespread vaccinations and the availability of boosters to defend against different strains of COVID-19, shipping companies and ports across the globe are still dealing with the aftermath of increasing demand and the bottlenecking caused by the availability of ports and scheduling conflicts. While this means the latest Magic set won't make its appropriate release date of April Fool's Day, the reasons why are out of Wizards of the Coast's hands.
