Magic: The Gathering officially recognizes a new multiplayer format, Oathbreaker
The Commander-adjacent multiplayer format uses planeswalkers instead of legendary creatures
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The Commander-adjacent multiplayer format uses planeswalkers instead of legendary creatures
Here’s some good news for any crossover fans of both Magic: The Gathering and The Lord of the Rings. A new LotR-themed MTG card set is up for preorder. It’s called The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, and you can preorder the cards in a number of configurations, including Commander decks, set boosters, jumpstart boosters, collector boosters, and more (see on Amazon). They’re all set to release June 23. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s take a look at what’s available.
Collector Booster packs are pricy, but they come with the best cards of any packs. Each Collector Booster pack includes 15 cards, with 5-7 Rare or higher rarity cards, plus 8-10 Foils.
Set Booster packs are meant to be fun to open, with a wider variety of cards on offer. Each Set Booster pack comes with 12 cards, including 1 Foil and 1 Art card. These packs also include between 1 and 4 cards of Rare or higher rarity.
Draft Booster packs are designed for people who want to play a match with new cards quickly. The idea is that everyone opens 3 packs and passes them around to draft cards for a deck. Then you add some Land cards and play. Each Draft Booster pack comes with at least 1 Rare or Mythic Rare card. You also have a one-in-three chance of getting a Traditional Foil card in a pack.
Jumpstart Booster packs are particularly cool for people who just want to hop into a game without any fuss. To do so, just open two Jumpstart packs, shuffle them together, and you have an instant randomized deck you can play with. This includes the proper mix of spells, creatures, and lands for a well balanced deck. Each pack contains one thematic Rare card exclusive to these Jumpstart packs, one Rare or Mythic Rare from the main LotR set, and two shiny foil Land cards.
Four new Commander decks are also available to preorder. These are meant to be played in multiplayer free-for-all Commander matches. You can buy them individually or in a 4-pack that gives you all of them at once. Also as usual with MTG preorders, the Commander deck box art is not yet available, so you’ll have to use your imagination.
Each Commander Deck comes with a 2-card Collector Booster Sample pack containing 2 special treatment cards from the main LotR set, including 1 Rare or Mythic Rare, plus 1 Traditional Foil.
I suspect this Lord of the Rings-themed Magic set will bring in lots of new (and long-lapsed) players. If that’s you, this is the bundle to pick up. It comes with two ready-to-play decks of 60 cards each (including 1 foil Mythic Rare card and 4 Rare cards), a How-to-Play guide, two boxes for deck storage, and codes to unlock both decks to play online in MTG Arena.
These bundles offer an assortment of items from the Lord of the Rings MTG set. You get 8 Set Booster packs, 4 Traditional Foil alternate-art cards, 40 Land cards (including 20 foils), plus a “spindown” life counter, a card storage box, and two reference cards.
The gift edition of the bundle includes the same as the standard one, plus one Collector Booster. The price difference is less than a Collector Booster pack, so you might as well pick up the gift edition if you’re going for a bundle.
If that’s not enough for you, check out the new Magic: The Gathering Commander Master series, which is also available to preorder on Amazon.
Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed or on Mastodon @chrislreed.
We’ve seen 14 cards so far, but still don’t know the rules…
“We remain especially cautious on Hasbro’s Wizards segment given its over-monetization of Magic. Wizards recently tried a similar tactic with D&D — proposing changes to its licensing agreement which led to substantial pushback from the community including calls to boycott the D&D movie,” BofA explained. […] “We’ve spoken with several players, collectors, distributors and local games stores and have become aware of growing frustration. The primary concern is that Hasbro has been overproducing Magic cards which has propped up Hasbro’s recent [earnings] results but is destroying the long-term value of the brand,” Bank of America analyst Jason Haas wrote in November. The oversupply of Magic cards means “card prices are falling, game stores are losing money, collectors are liquidating, and large retailers are cutting orders,” Bank of America explained. The bank names “weak fan engagement with Hasbro’s brands” and “fading appetite for Magic releases” as key downside risks for the stock.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
It’s been over two months since the release of last Magic: The Gathering set, “The Brothers’ War.” There, the original Magic plane of Dominaria was under attack by one of the most evil forces in the Multiverse. Now, it’s time to head to the plane behind the invasion, and take on the enemy in their home turf.
Welcome to “Phyrexia: All Will Be One.” Unlike the relatively peaceful blue skies and natural oases of Dominaria, the plane of New Phyrexia is a twisted fever dream–one full of death, decay, and metal monstrosities held together by tissue and tendon. At the helm is the loathsome leader, the “Mother of Machines”: Elesh Norn.
Phyrexia: All Will Be One (ONE) is a large set, bringing 271 new cards into rotation. Both flavorfully and mechanically, it is a much different landscape than the previous two Dominaria-based sets we played with. To tackle your prerelease, or get a head start on building new decks for constructed, you’ll want to have an understanding of everything going on in ONE.
February 10 is about to become a momentous date in the history of Magic: The Gathering, as the ninety-fifth expansion, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, officially releases. The 271 card set contains the penultimate instalment of the Phyrexian story arc, encompassing gorgeous artwork, tempting rares, and further exploration of the Phyrexian language and culture.
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: How to play Magic: The Gathering Arena, The best card games on PC, MTG Arena codes
It’s not easy for a game to stand the test of time. As technology evolves and the scope of knowledge in the world grows, so too do our expectations. Even the most innovative games’ popularity will generally dwindle over time, as newer releases build on their predecessors’ successes to bring a better, fresher experience to the table. However, a select few–games like Tetris, Scrabble, and Chess–are so pure and perfected in the fundamentals of their gameplay that they’re essentially timeless in their appeal, and have maintained their popularity over the years as a result. Magic: The Gathering is an example of such a game.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the original trading card game. And it’s not just still around on the fringes of society; it has boomed in popularity in recent years. With a string of well-received new card sets, the post-COVID return of high-level competitive play, and the release of an incredibly user-friendly new digital client, there has never been a better time to get into MTG.
That said, getting your feet wet in the game can be an intimidating endeavor at the start. There have been over 20,000 unique Magic cards printed since its inception in 1993. It’s a complicated game, to be sure, with an incredible level of depth to its strategy. There have even been full-length books written on how to use a single card! Even Hall of Fame players and pros would surely tell you that they’re never done learning, and that there’s always room to improve.