We’re not even a full two months through the year and already we have enough Magic releases this year to break even the most reinforced of banks.
Aside from the recent set release of Theros: Beyond Death and the upcoming main sets including Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, Zendikar Rising and Core Set 2021, there are a plethora of supplementary releases that have no doubt whetted your appetite and left you wondering how you’re going to pay rent this year.
First off, there was the announcement of the Secret Lair sets: these are sets filled with cards featuring alternate art, sometimes alongside tokens. 2020 has already laid The Year of the Rat and Theros: Stargazing on is - the former containing foil, alternative art: Pack Rat, Ink-Eyes, Servant to Oni, Marrow-Gnawer and five Rat Colony.
That’s a lot of rats for $40 or just over £30.
Theros: Stargazing on the other hand has five different versions for you to get your hands on. Each Stargazing set features one of the mono colour gods alongside two of their contemporaries, all set in foil and an alternative gorgeous, constellation inspired art style. These are for a limited time only across Worlds weekend as well so you better get in quick.
Heliod, God of the Sun - Iroas, God of Victory and Karametra, God of Harvests.
Thassa, God of the Sea - Ephara, God of the Polis and Kruphix, God of Horizons.
Erebos, God of the Dead - Athreos, God of Passage and Phenax, God of Deception.
Purphoros, God of the Forge - Mogis, God of Slaughter and Keranos, God of Storms.
Nylea - God of the Hunt - Xenagos, God of Revels and Pharika, God of Affliction.
Both of those products look amazing but that’s not where it stops. Mark Rosewater has obviously been getting his way again this year with the release of Unsanctioned: a new, silver bordered set on the way.
Releasing on 28th February - so not long to wait now - Unsanctioned isn’t like any of the silver bordered sets that came before it. Instead, we’re being treated to five 30 card decks, which will contain: sixteen new Un-cards, ten double sided tokens, ten full-art basic lands (five regular and five premium) and two 6-sided die.
These 30 card decks are meant to be combined with each other for a head-to-head gameplay experience. With all the wacky stuff you can get up to with Un-cards, there are definitely players that can’t wait to get their hands on this product.
So, that’s three supplementary products being released this year. Surely that’s enough right? Well you couldn’t be more wrong.
If you’ll remember, Wizards dubbed 2020 “the year of commander” and they weren’t lying.
With the release of Ikoria, we will see five commander decks release alongside the second mainstream set release this year. Those five decks are also going to contain a total of 71 new cards! That’s already one more deck than we usually get and a whole load of new commander cards, but that clearly wasn’t enough. In addition to those five decks we are getting two more alongside the release of Zendikar Rising, granted these are slightly less powered decks containing more reprints in an attempt to get new players playing commander, but they also contain three new cards each.
Not a fan of the prebuilt side of products? Then why not check out Commander Legends.
This is a set themed for commander but aimed at a limited-playing audience in addition to the commander players. Commander Legends will have 20 card packs with a foil guaranteed in every pack and 70 new legends. Actual drafting details are still a bit sketchy but we’ll find out soon enough.
And they still aren’t done.
Commander Legends will come with two commander decks of its own, similar to the ones being released alongside Zendikar Rising as a way for players to get on the commander bandwagon, but will still each feature three brand new cards.
So, all in all we’re getting nine new commander decks, 169 new cards for our commander brains to mess around with and to discover how to break and a new, limited take on the commander format. This is one of the biggest influx of cards Magic has ever produced for any given year, it’s like Christmas has come very early and we’re still not done. Any delicious cake needs a cherry on top.
Commander Collection Green
Wizards has announced the release of the Commander Collection for later this year. They’ve kicked things off with Commander Collection Green, which will feature eight reprints themed around green. All of these reprints will have brand new art and will surely look amazing in foil. With this announcement it seems like a sure thing that the Commander Collection going forward will feature the other four colours along with other possible themes as was with the From the Vault collections. I personally can’t wait to see what’s in the Commander Collection Green as an avid green player myself, hopefully they will be slightly more attainable than the From the Vault releases as this year has already made a joke of my financial stability.
Well, that’s a lot to take in. How about we all take a day to recover and let the realisation that we’re are going to be having endless amounts of fun in multiple formats this year sink. What are you most excited about from the avalanche of releases that we will be buried under this year? Why not drop a message in the comments or even hit us up on Twitter @gcgamingtank.
Until next time, happy gaming guys!
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