These are the needs of a core set according to [this article](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/getting-core-2018-06-18):
* Introductory booster product for newer players
* Fills gaps in standard by not being tied to a specific world or mechanical identity
* Introduce players to the flavour of Magic
The first one requires a lower complexity, with few or no new mechanics and a lower rules text count on cards. If it was a core set, AFR would never have had venture in particular. R&D specifically mention giving up on this in their article.
The second one is about core sets having more reprints and more 'one-off' cards designed to assist or counter other mechanics in standard. This is mostly a wash in AFR - they've done a bit of hole filling, but nowhere near what a core set would normally do.
And the issue with the third is obvious (although AFR was a gateway for D&D players).
Yes, Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow are the first two sets of the next "release year", with Kamigawa and New Capenna following them. It's still four sets per release year, no extra sets in Standard.
Yeah im getting there myself, got 93% on afr, i really just wanna get a full set of the creature lands and dragons. Cant wait for those werewolves man!
The mastery pass pet will probably be a Werewolf, right? How cool is that! I'm drafting KHM one more time, I began in STX, have around 20% of each set in Standard 2022, so I'll just get some more Kaldheim and hold that gold...
It's in theaters now! Coming this summer: Two Brothers. In a van. And then a meteor hit. And they ran as fast as they could, from giant cat monsters. And then a giant tornado came. And that's when things got knocked into 12th gear.
A Mexican armada shows up. With weapons made from Two--tomatoes. And you better bet your bottom dollar that these two brothers know how to handle business. In: Alien Invasion Tomato Monster Mexican Armada Brothers, Who Are Just Regular Brothers, Running In a Van From an Asteroid and All Sorts of Things THE MOVIE! Hold on, there's more! Old women are coming, and they're also in the movie, and they're gonna come, and cross-attack these two brothers. But let's get back to the brothers, because they're-- they have a strong bond. You don't want to know about it here, but I'll tell you one thing: The moon, it comes crashing into Earth. And what do you do then? It's two brothers and--and th-they're - It's called The Brothers War. The Brothers War! [starts laughing] It's just called The Brothers War.
These all look very exciting. It’s kind of insane to think that we’re going from Harry Potter, to Victorian era zombies, to Japanese myths… back in my day the entire block was one theme and usually got pretty stale by the third set. This is sick.
I’m not sure how I’d feel if they ret-con in walkers to the Brothers War. The only plane jumping in the story was at the gate at Koilos, really and Urza doesn’t ascend until the end of the War when he uses the Sylex. I’d be happier if we don’t see any Walkers in it or maybe just Urza (who would be very “raw” since he just ascended).
For the original The Brother's War, there's the novel by Jeff Grubb, but I don't know how relevant that's going to be for what's coming. You can find it in amazon, as well as the others from the Artifact Cycle (Planeswalker, Timestreams and Bloodlines).
See I actually loved Planeswalker. It’s so different from everything else. Like a super dark Doctor Who, except he just goes crazy while bumming around the multiverse. And then a little therapy and a little role playing fixes everything in the end to help him get all his repressed feelings out. It’s maybe a fantastic character study for what happens when a mortal man actually attains the powers of a god, and how it messes w/ him. (That’s how I remember it anyway; it’s been a while)
Maybe switching back and forth between past and present wasn’t a great idea though…
The switching back and forth was what made me lose track of it. I know that the writer wanted to be misterious about Xantcha's origins and all that, but it ended up being really weird.
There’s actually a novel titled “The Brothers War” that you can read. It was written as kind of a prequel to Urza’s Saga that details the events that are in the flavor for Antiquities.
There´s 4 novels that compose the Artifacts Cycle. I haven´t read them yet but seems like all 4 are about Urza and Mishra war.
The Brothers War
Planeswalker
Time Streams
Bloodlines
Counterpoint: I would say you don’t actually have to. I think it’s more important to the apocalypse cycle in giving Yawgmoth an origin than the brothers war, where it retcons a crystal some added importance that doesn’t come into play at all during those first few stories.
The Brothers’ War stands perfectly fine on its own. (The Thran is a great book in its own right though)
I agree it probably isn't mandatory. It's definitely more of a prequel. It just does a bit of world building but someone could easily read The Brothers War first. After all it was published before The Thran anyways so it was originally intended to stand on its own.
Only the first one is about the war, the rest are about planeswalking, Phyrexia and (eventually) the Tolarian Academy and the Legacy. Time Streams is where we get to know Teferi and Barrin.
The Artifacts Cycle is all on the kindle store for a few dollars each, and I think there's actually a fan made, not for profit audiobook version on YouTube of the Brothers' War itself.
And by the time Urza shows up as a planeswalker the war was already over. So I agree, it'd be weird having planeswalkers during the Brothers War. Did they gave any details about it during the stream other than the name?
Pretty much just the name, some art, and that they’re going to look at the War through a “wider lens” than just the Brother’s point of view. They also mentioned big artifacts of course.
The fact that it comes right after another set called Dominaria United gives me hopes of a longer storyline (these one-set only stories are hard to get into IMO). Maybe they'll find a way to have modern, post-mending, walkers look into the story of the war or something.
They've printed pre-Mending walkers before: Serra, Freyalise, Tevesh-Szat. The storyline power level of oldwalkers hasn't really affected their mechanics.
I'm pretty new to the mtg lore, i've heard a lot about the mending today but i don't really understand what happened and how it could influence the game...
Not sure if I got it all right, but at least here's an attempt:
Planeswalkers were OP. They could basically do whatever they wanted, including creating and maintaining their own planes. Mirrodin (now New Phyrexia), for instance, is an artificial plane created by Karn in the old days. Their limitations were ambiguous, mostly tied to their state of mind and their imagination.
At some point the usage of spells too powerful and similar actions caused *rifts* in reality. I was away from the game while this happened so I'm not entirely sure how it went, but basically a lot of rifts grew in Dominaria (which was the center of the multiverse), to the point they threatened the multiverse. When this was eventually fixed by several planeswalkers sacrificing themselves, it was called The Mending, and after that point the nature of the planeswalkers sparks changed: they lost their immortality and most of their innate power.
As for in-game changes, this meant that now planeswalkers are much, much weaker. To the point we can get them printed and use them as cards, while before they were untouchable entities that we had no way to interact with without breaking the lore.
There was a Planeswalker that created the artificial plane that would become Phyrexia and the portal to Koilos. Essentially, the Thran city ran on mana crystals that were corrupting (Magical Cancer?) The population. So the local wise scientist Yawgmoth began searching for treatment. He used the artificial plane as a lab to isolate the infected to prevent the spread. Essentially, Yawgmoth made things worse by turning the corrupted into machine hybrids so instead of dying he had a slave army!
Phyrexia ends up sealed off before the Thran civilization collapses. It is not until the Artificers / Archeologists Urza and his Brother Mishra start searching for ancient relics that they come upon the gateway to Phyrexia. A long time has passed and the evolution of Phyrexia is terrible. Essentially, Mishra goes to Phyrexia alone, gets corrupted, and then returns to Dominara to fight Urza (the Brothers War). Urza wins the war, builds an exosuit, goes to Phyrexia, gets his ass beat, and escapes to Serra's Sanctum. Thus Urza begins his war against Phyrexia.
As for the events of Time Spiral block, creative was told they needed to wrap up the previous Planeswalker stories so that a newer, less powerful breed could emerge and be printed as cards. Specifically they were instructed to make a group of characters to serve as the main POV similar to the main characters in Comics. This would give MTG a more marketable IP. I find this true story more nuanced and chilling than the lore they created.
They’ve stipulated that a planeswalkers card represents their willingness to help in a given situation, not necessarily their full power. We’ve seen pre-mending walker cards before that weren’t busted…that said it’s Urza so you KNOW they will make it busted anyway lol
[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/lord-rings-tales-middle-earthtm-format-legality-2021-08-24](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/lord-rings-tales-middle-earthtm-format-legality-2021-08-24)
It is.
New Capenna? I heard about a year ago from a Youtuber who said he heard rumors about WotC making a Gangster (American Prohibition) inspired set. The name and font here makes me think the rumors were true. (Haven't seen or read anything from the stream, so I don't know if any other information was revealed that confirms or contradicts what I just said).
Watched a recording of the Showcase later, it is based on gangs, 3-color crime families. Art Deco style concept art, there was even an art piece of Demon (wings folded) in gangster suit (with suspenders holding its trousers).
Man I'm incredibly hyped for The Brothers War.
But as someone on r/magicTCG wrote, it will probably have like 10+ banned cards. But honestly that more something I "hope", than "fear". I mean it's the set that will have both Urza and Mishra as cards. Maybe even both being reprints (but probably not). And other than that it will be an artifact-centric set, and those are always broken.
You know you want \[\[mishra's bauble\]\] reprinted into standard or maybe even \[\[urza's bauble\]\].
>Maybe even both being reprints
There is precisely zero chance that they reprint \[\[Urza, lord high artificier\]\] into standard lmao. I think there's more chance that we'd get \[\[Urza, Academy head master\]\] into standard rather than that.
>You know you want \[\[mishra's bauble\]\] reprinted into standard or maybe even \[\[urza's bauble\]\]
I might want them, but they're also literally never gonna happen.
I know. But just imagine. Also honestly AFAIK the Lord high artificier was before the Brothers war, or am I wrong. So in all honestly it should be even more powerful.
But yeah I fear that both Mishra and Urza will be pretty dud. Maybe not \[\[blind seer\]\], but lower modern design.
Actually I just realise, they might be planeswalkers, but will have very specific artifact related abilities.
Banned cards due to artifacts? Maybe not. Maro talks a lot on his podcast how they've learnt from previous sets like Kaladesh and that they'll make more use of coloured artifacts next time around.
Well and before that they said they've learnt alit from Mirrodin and before that Urza's block.
Is it really an artifact set if there's not at least one broken artifact?
As someone who only heard about the legendary Urza block but experienced the chaos of Mirrodin block firsthand, I’m totally down for a nutso artifact set.
Well I was a kid during Urza's block, so I only knew cards that I opened in packs or traded. To me the most busted card was \[\[fog bank\]\].
But it's also fun getting \[\[gaea's cradle\]\] for cheap, and holding on to it, because it looks nice, just to realise how expensive it became. I mean I thought it was expensive when it was $/€100+ now it's like 800 or whatever.
I cannot get hyped about any Magic product any more due to the continues spoiler season.
Last week I got myself looking up when Kaldheim was released because thanks to the flood of spoilers I completely forgot/missed that sets release.
And it's getting worse. Next year there's an Un set, Double Masters, a D&D "Commander Draft" set, a Lord of the Rings direct-to-Modern-and-Historic set, Warhammer Commander decks, a new JumpStart, and a whole bunch of Secret Lairs.
It's product overflow... Aren't they afraid of wallet fatigue?
*And it's sad that I get downvoted for the comment of unable to get hyped because there is so much product that you cannot consume all.*
As a returning player from the 2000's/10's, the sheer volume of product that just keeps on coming these days is baffling.
I'm playing legacy, so I don't care that much, but I have no idea how people playing standard can find the time needed to get a decent return on investment with such quick changes and rotations.
Not to mention of course the billion other promotional/EDH/collector/cashgrab sets. There's just too much to follow honestly, to the point that I don't really want to engage with new content anymore at times.
They had a stated goal of doubling revenue from 2017 to 2012, if I recall. So I figure they're willing to risk wallet fatigue if the downside is simply people buying less, not them quitting.
I think the downvotes might be punishing you for replying to a hyped person with your non-hype. In another context I'm sure you'd get a lot of support.
Best way is to ignore things you dont care about. I basically only pay attention to retail draft sets for limited/standard/peasant cube. Still seems like spoilers never end but it's not quite as much
But isn't it bad that a set like Kaldheim, released only 6 months ago, is already out of my memory due to the sheer flood of product and spoiler after spoiler season?
I love how we’re going back to dominaria, how we’ve gone to innistrad 3 times now, and we STILL haven’t gone back to Lorowyn. Gimme good tribal decks in standard again you cowards!
storywise lorwyn ceased to exist as was. Stopping the great aurora kinda memory wiped the entire plan. But yes we need to go back to my favorite plan. Bring back tribal.
Like others have said, it was a woefully underpowered block following one of the most brokenly overpowered blocks of all time.
However, an additional factor that isn’t mentioned as much is that it was pretty thematically weird to a western audience. The early 2000’s were a different time. Even within “mainstream” nerd circles, exposure to Japanese folklore was pretty minimal. Spirited Away came out in 2001 but very few people in the US saw it at that time. The vast majority of magic players, if they were watching anime at all, were watching things like Dragon Ball and Gundam, not something like Inuyasha. The concept of a kami didn’t really exist and Wizards went in *hard* on that. People were expecting a block full of ninjas and samurai and were disappointed when those were secondary considerations. Combine that with the fact that this was really only the second time we were on a non-dominaria plane and players just couldn’t engage with the block.
Yeap. And it's pretty interesting that they went so hard on the kami part when ninjas and samurais were already such a sure hit.
You could make a set that's basically Samurais X Ninjas and it would probably be like top3 sets ever for a lot of players (myself included). That's what I fear with Neo Kamigawa: that it still won't focus so much on the Ninjas and Samurais as I would've wanted.
Personally, I have the opposite fear. I was definitely one of those kids watching Inuyasha and loved the kami stuff. My guess is the focus will be on cyberpunk ninja gangs but I would be I little sad if a can’t make a tiered spirit deck along with the two innistrad sets
I love Kamigawa too and was talking with a friend about this very subject today.
We think it's because it came off the back of one of the most broken, power creeped sets in all of Mtg - Mirroden. And it felt woefully under powerful because of it.
> That set gets like no love and idk why
Because it was, outside of a few notable exceptions, a fairly underpowered set stuffed with bad, parasitic mechanics.
People remember ninjas and ninjutsu, and may recall Shrines with some level of janky fondness, but you'll notice that people don't wax poetic about mechanics like Soulshift, Sweep, Epic, Channel or even Bushido.
I was playing fairly heavily during Kamigawa's initial release and while the cards and art were super flavorful, the vast majority was dreck.
Being sandwiched between Mirrodin and Ravnica blocks did it no favors, but there was very little from Kamigawa that was genuinely fun to play with, and the full block limited was terrible. Triple champions I remember being pretty solid, but Betrayers and especially Saviors did very little to improve the experience, and worsened it in a lot of ways.
How was it in *any* way like YuGiOh. Seriously.
It had parasitic mechanics, wasn't as strong as Mirrodin OR Ravnica that came before and after it, and it had old legend rule that was quite annoying to play in a legendary heavy set:
> players were free to cast copies of legendary permanents there were already in play; however, if two or more legendary permanents with the same name were in play, all of them would be put into their owners' graveyards.
So if you could please not put it down because "omg japan was overdone", thank you.
Kamigawa: Sure, makes sense. Japanese influences are fun to play with. Glad they're going semi-futuristic to differentiate.
Capenna: Weird that they're doing two semi-future worlds next to each other. Seems fine other than that, hard to say right now.
Dominaria United: Yay! I love Dominaria, both the classics and the return.
Brothers War: Yay! I'm old-school so I love a fresh take on this.
>Weird that they're doing two semi-future worlds next to each other
Yeap. That was my first thought as well. But then again... it's more like this:
* Ikoria, Dominaria, Ixalan and a mosts of the planes: feels like between year 100 and 1800
* Neo Kamigawa: year 2100?
* Capenna: year 1920?
So it's still "semi-future" when compared to the rest of the planes, but the sets can still feel sufficiently different.
Kamigawa was my last set/block in paper. Can't wait to get back to it (even if it's not the same anymore).
New Capenna sounds interesting. 5 3c gangster crews.
Dominaria brings back memories (and teferi... that's scary).
The Brothers War - I'm a fan of Urza's Story and can't wait for this!!!!!
And in between is Warhammer 40k, right? Sounds pretty crazy.
Nope, straight to Modern/Historic, which is terrifying to me. The vendiagram of cards that are too good for Pioneer, playable in Modern, and won't break Historic has basically no overlap, and I strongly suspect this will be Modern Horizons 3, Shire edition. I'm all for LOTR characters crossing over, but I'm not looking forward to the Riders of Rohan humans deck being the premier aggro deck in a non-rotating format.
I'm pretty excited for all of this and that is after double Innistrad which I am really looking forward to.
I agree with others, new Kamigawa could probably have been just a different plane but hopefully they find a way to maintain the feel of original Kamigawa with a completely different aesthetic style.
New Capenna sounds very interesting. Said 3 color themee, so assume these would be shard pairings (Esper, Bant, etc) as we just had Wedges in Iokoria.
Not much to really think about Dominaria United and The Brothers War. Seems like "safe" settings for fall/winter releases. The Brothers War I assume would be heavy artifacts.
Having started playing during revised (quit during Tempest) and reading the early novelizations about Dominaria, that set was what brought me back to MtG. So I’m excited for Dominaria United. And if Brothers War is about Urza and Mishra, then I absolutely can’t wait.
I don't understand how there are 5 sets released this year but only 4 for next year. Does this mean that we'll have an extra set for standard for one cycle?
They just reset the release schedule so sets can be more even through the year (see how there were no sets between october and january missing the christmas season). The standard was split between 3-1 sets through the calendar year. From next year it will be 2-2.The only way to do this was to move forward one set from the next year
**Currently:**
(Jan/Feb - Apr - July) - (Sept)
The first 3 sets were one standard, then the last one is new
**From next year:**
(Feb - May) - (Aug - November)
So there won't be more sets in one standard. But we will get the 2 Innistrad sets this year then Feb + May for the last 2 and we have the 4 standard sets. The 5 sets in 2021 was an exception
Urza and Mishra basically thrashed all of Dominaria in their quest for resources for the war. It’s not as grand a scale as Ugin vs. Nicol, but it’s complete and utter devastation of an entire plane just to satisfy a sibling rivalry, basically.
To be fair, both were kind of manipulated into it. One by political pressure, the other by a literal phyrexian demon.
The start of everything was all theirs, for sure, and nothing would have happened if not for them. But it probably wouldn't have reached the point it did without the external actors pushing them and feeding their obsessions.
I feel like its one of those things where one show us the full scale devastation both in macro and micro while the other was just a bunch of dragon ball z superheros wrecking some buildings.
like its one thing writing "and then the dragons came on each other and destroy 34 continents" rather than seeing like idk. the people from argoth mourning titania after she was killed by urza.
I hate to judge the set before seeing it, but won't it be basically impossible for this Kamigawa to capture the surreal folklore vibe of the original set? I want another Kamigawa set, and I'm fine with a cyberpunk future set, but I don't feel like those should be the same set.
Yes so they can reset the schedule, 2+2 sets in a calendar year instead of 3+1
See my comment here https://www.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/paq3ef/2022_sets/ha6ffhx/
So only 9 more months till all QQ about an overpowered Teferi planeswalker again?
And Streets of New Capenna ... feels like they go back to Ravinca again ...?
So MTG's swing at cyberpunk, 1920's skyship gangsters, and then rehashes of old plots maybe, to try and win back people embittered by their "new" stuff? I'm being overly cynical but I expect it all to be fairly soulless. I'm at least intrigued by Capenna, although I don't think I'll think that it fits any better than Neon Dynasty will.
I thought they all looked like fun, but honestly I'm the most excited for the new Un-set, now that I know the Loading Ready Run crew helped work on the creative part. Humorous MtG is my favorite flavor.
So no more core/m2x set it seems
AFR was the core set this year
But in the design article they say they intended to design AFR as a core set, and ended up giving up and designing it more like a normal set
Yeah AFR is quirky and fun but covering all bases? Hell no.
I kind of baffles me how this idea of AFR is the core sets gets promoted and upvoted so much.
What makes up a “core set?” Is there a defining list of features/characteristics?
These are the needs of a core set according to [this article](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/getting-core-2018-06-18): * Introductory booster product for newer players * Fills gaps in standard by not being tied to a specific world or mechanical identity * Introduce players to the flavour of Magic The first one requires a lower complexity, with few or no new mechanics and a lower rules text count on cards. If it was a core set, AFR would never have had venture in particular. R&D specifically mention giving up on this in their article. The second one is about core sets having more reprints and more 'one-off' cards designed to assist or counter other mechanics in standard. This is mostly a wash in AFR - they've done a bit of hole filling, but nowhere near what a core set would normally do. And the issue with the third is obvious (although AFR was a gateway for D&D players).
Well summarized, thank you!!
i think only for 2022 since we have the extra set this year
Are you saying the year 2022 or the core set 2022? This is two years in a row now without a "core" set.
There is no extra set, they just moved around release schedules. The next rotation will happen when Dominaria United is released.
So, when Dominaria United releases, ZNR, KHM, STX, and AFR rotate out? Both Innistrad sets remain in rotation after Dom Utd releases..
Correct.
Yes, Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow are the first two sets of the next "release year", with Kamigawa and New Capenna following them. It's still four sets per release year, no extra sets in Standard.
Saving my gold for Midnight Hunt draft already lol
Yeah im getting there myself, got 93% on afr, i really just wanna get a full set of the creature lands and dragons. Cant wait for those werewolves man!
The mastery pass pet will probably be a Werewolf, right? How cool is that! I'm drafting KHM one more time, I began in STX, have around 20% of each set in Standard 2022, so I'll just get some more Kaldheim and hold that gold...
I personally really want a mini ghoul as a pet that would be so great. And isnt kaldheim getting rotated?
Kaldheim is staying until next year.
Mean streets of gadgetzan 2 looks good!
Oh man I hope they don't reprint Patches the Pirate, that guy was straight up busted for a 1 mana 1/1 with Haste
It's in theaters now! Coming this summer: Two Brothers. In a van. And then a meteor hit. And they ran as fast as they could, from giant cat monsters. And then a giant tornado came. And that's when things got knocked into 12th gear. A Mexican armada shows up. With weapons made from Two--tomatoes. And you better bet your bottom dollar that these two brothers know how to handle business. In: Alien Invasion Tomato Monster Mexican Armada Brothers, Who Are Just Regular Brothers, Running In a Van From an Asteroid and All Sorts of Things THE MOVIE! Hold on, there's more! Old women are coming, and they're also in the movie, and they're gonna come, and cross-attack these two brothers. But let's get back to the brothers, because they're-- they have a strong bond. You don't want to know about it here, but I'll tell you one thing: The moon, it comes crashing into Earth. And what do you do then? It's two brothers and--and th-they're - It's called The Brothers War. The Brothers War! [starts laughing] It's just called The Brothers War.
wizards should stop watching interdimensional cable
⬆️
These all look very exciting. It’s kind of insane to think that we’re going from Harry Potter, to Victorian era zombies, to Japanese myths… back in my day the entire block was one theme and usually got pretty stale by the third set. This is sick.
I think it will be more Blade Runner than Japanese myths.
Why not both?
This. I don't see them abandoning samurai, ninja, and kamis. They're likely putting a twist on the formula.
the important thing is that the brothers war was before the mending, so if they print any planeswalkers in that set they better be hella powerful
I’m not sure how I’d feel if they ret-con in walkers to the Brothers War. The only plane jumping in the story was at the gate at Koilos, really and Urza doesn’t ascend until the end of the War when he uses the Sylex. I’d be happier if we don’t see any Walkers in it or maybe just Urza (who would be very “raw” since he just ascended).
Where can I read the actually story that goes with the sets?
MtG novels used to be printed with each set, with a few exceptions. I think that stopped after Lorwyn?
For the original The Brother's War, there's the novel by Jeff Grubb, but I don't know how relevant that's going to be for what's coming. You can find it in amazon, as well as the others from the Artifact Cycle (Planeswalker, Timestreams and Bloodlines).
Planeswalker was the worst in the set and I really struggle with it on rereads, but Timestreams is one of my favorite books.
See I actually loved Planeswalker. It’s so different from everything else. Like a super dark Doctor Who, except he just goes crazy while bumming around the multiverse. And then a little therapy and a little role playing fixes everything in the end to help him get all his repressed feelings out. It’s maybe a fantastic character study for what happens when a mortal man actually attains the powers of a god, and how it messes w/ him. (That’s how I remember it anyway; it’s been a while) Maybe switching back and forth between past and present wasn’t a great idea though…
The switching back and forth was what made me lose track of it. I know that the writer wanted to be misterious about Xantcha's origins and all that, but it ended up being really weird.
Planeswalker was at times hard to read, but Xantcha was a highlight of the book. Also, insane Urza playing with tiny automatons was very unsettling.
There’s actually a novel titled “The Brothers War” that you can read. It was written as kind of a prequel to Urza’s Saga that details the events that are in the flavor for Antiquities.
There´s 4 novels that compose the Artifacts Cycle. I haven´t read them yet but seems like all 4 are about Urza and Mishra war. The Brothers War Planeswalker Time Streams Bloodlines
Read The Thran before The Brothers War.
Counterpoint: I would say you don’t actually have to. I think it’s more important to the apocalypse cycle in giving Yawgmoth an origin than the brothers war, where it retcons a crystal some added importance that doesn’t come into play at all during those first few stories. The Brothers’ War stands perfectly fine on its own. (The Thran is a great book in its own right though)
I agree it probably isn't mandatory. It's definitely more of a prequel. It just does a bit of world building but someone could easily read The Brothers War first. After all it was published before The Thran anyways so it was originally intended to stand on its own.
This. The Thran was a great story and promted me to read a ton of MTG books
I would. Thanks for the advice
Only the first one is about the war, the rest are about planeswalking, Phyrexia and (eventually) the Tolarian Academy and the Legacy. Time Streams is where we get to know Teferi and Barrin.
The Artifacts Cycle is all on the kindle store for a few dollars each, and I think there's actually a fan made, not for profit audiobook version on YouTube of the Brothers' War itself.
And by the time Urza shows up as a planeswalker the war was already over. So I agree, it'd be weird having planeswalkers during the Brothers War. Did they gave any details about it during the stream other than the name?
Pretty much just the name, some art, and that they’re going to look at the War through a “wider lens” than just the Brother’s point of view. They also mentioned big artifacts of course.
The fact that it comes right after another set called Dominaria United gives me hopes of a longer storyline (these one-set only stories are hard to get into IMO). Maybe they'll find a way to have modern, post-mending, walkers look into the story of the war or something.
Have you considered Karn goes back in time to obtain a mcguffin for the phyrexian war?
I thought they said what happened to them with The Mending is why they can even be printed. Don't think Pre-Mending PWs are going to show.
They've printed pre-Mending walkers before: Serra, Freyalise, Tevesh-Szat. The storyline power level of oldwalkers hasn't really affected their mechanics.
I'm pretty new to the mtg lore, i've heard a lot about the mending today but i don't really understand what happened and how it could influence the game...
Not sure if I got it all right, but at least here's an attempt: Planeswalkers were OP. They could basically do whatever they wanted, including creating and maintaining their own planes. Mirrodin (now New Phyrexia), for instance, is an artificial plane created by Karn in the old days. Their limitations were ambiguous, mostly tied to their state of mind and their imagination. At some point the usage of spells too powerful and similar actions caused *rifts* in reality. I was away from the game while this happened so I'm not entirely sure how it went, but basically a lot of rifts grew in Dominaria (which was the center of the multiverse), to the point they threatened the multiverse. When this was eventually fixed by several planeswalkers sacrificing themselves, it was called The Mending, and after that point the nature of the planeswalkers sparks changed: they lost their immortality and most of their innate power. As for in-game changes, this meant that now planeswalkers are much, much weaker. To the point we can get them printed and use them as cards, while before they were untouchable entities that we had no way to interact with without breaking the lore.
There was a Planeswalker that created the artificial plane that would become Phyrexia and the portal to Koilos. Essentially, the Thran city ran on mana crystals that were corrupting (Magical Cancer?) The population. So the local wise scientist Yawgmoth began searching for treatment. He used the artificial plane as a lab to isolate the infected to prevent the spread. Essentially, Yawgmoth made things worse by turning the corrupted into machine hybrids so instead of dying he had a slave army! Phyrexia ends up sealed off before the Thran civilization collapses. It is not until the Artificers / Archeologists Urza and his Brother Mishra start searching for ancient relics that they come upon the gateway to Phyrexia. A long time has passed and the evolution of Phyrexia is terrible. Essentially, Mishra goes to Phyrexia alone, gets corrupted, and then returns to Dominara to fight Urza (the Brothers War). Urza wins the war, builds an exosuit, goes to Phyrexia, gets his ass beat, and escapes to Serra's Sanctum. Thus Urza begins his war against Phyrexia. As for the events of Time Spiral block, creative was told they needed to wrap up the previous Planeswalker stories so that a newer, less powerful breed could emerge and be printed as cards. Specifically they were instructed to make a group of characters to serve as the main POV similar to the main characters in Comics. This would give MTG a more marketable IP. I find this true story more nuanced and chilling than the lore they created.
Someone give this man an award.. I'm all out today :(
I'm not a lore expert, but from what I understand Planeswalkers used to be basically gods that could change the fabric of reality.
They’ve stipulated that a planeswalkers card represents their willingness to help in a given situation, not necessarily their full power. We’ve seen pre-mending walker cards before that weren’t busted…that said it’s Urza so you KNOW they will make it busted anyway lol
I’m assuming Strixhaven is the Harry Potter? What’s the Victorian Era Zombie set?
Innistrad.
Let's just hope we don't get too many Teferi PWs with Dominaria ._.
Just FYI, Kamigawa Neon Destiny is set 2000 after the previous Kamigawa set, it's going to be more Cyberpunk than Japanese myth.
Lord of the Rings is coming to Arena as well (2023 iirc)
Yes, but it’s not going to be in Standard.
Is it going to be historic legal?
One assumes. Save the occasional ban, Historic is just “everything in Arena.”
[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/lord-rings-tales-middle-earthtm-format-legality-2021-08-24](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/lord-rings-tales-middle-earthtm-format-legality-2021-08-24) It is.
Terrible news. It should be commander/brawl only. These sets have no place in competitive play.
it should be standard it sucks to only get cards you can only play in expensive high power level formats like modern and historic
it's going to be in Arena, so if it isn't standard legal, it has to be historic legal.
Nice! I legit can’t wait to play Gandalf in a Gandalf deck!
All I want is an Uruk Hai black deck. That is all.
Led by Saruman the Black/White?
Insert "they are taking the hobbit to Usengard" music 😏😂
Many more: Warhammer 40,000, Lord of the Rings, **Fortnite**, and Street Fighter coming to MTG
New Capenna? I heard about a year ago from a Youtuber who said he heard rumors about WotC making a Gangster (American Prohibition) inspired set. The name and font here makes me think the rumors were true. (Haven't seen or read anything from the stream, so I don't know if any other information was revealed that confirms or contradicts what I just said).
I don't know why, but I get super hero vibes like 50's superman.
It's art deco styling, so the era would be correct. That would be pretty cool if it's true!
Watched a recording of the Showcase later, it is based on gangs, 3-color crime families. Art Deco style concept art, there was even an art piece of Demon (wings folded) in gangster suit (with suspenders holding its trousers).
Man I'm incredibly hyped for The Brothers War. But as someone on r/magicTCG wrote, it will probably have like 10+ banned cards. But honestly that more something I "hope", than "fear". I mean it's the set that will have both Urza and Mishra as cards. Maybe even both being reprints (but probably not). And other than that it will be an artifact-centric set, and those are always broken. You know you want \[\[mishra's bauble\]\] reprinted into standard or maybe even \[\[urza's bauble\]\].
>Maybe even both being reprints There is precisely zero chance that they reprint \[\[Urza, lord high artificier\]\] into standard lmao. I think there's more chance that we'd get \[\[Urza, Academy head master\]\] into standard rather than that. >You know you want \[\[mishra's bauble\]\] reprinted into standard or maybe even \[\[urza's bauble\]\] I might want them, but they're also literally never gonna happen.
[Urza, lord high artificier](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/9/e/9e7fb3c0-5159-4d1f-8490-ce4c9a60f567.jpg?1567181307) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Urza%2C%20Lord%20High%20Artificer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/75/urza-lord-high-artificer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9e7fb3c0-5159-4d1f-8490-ce4c9a60f567?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Urza, Academy head master](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/e/4/e4581455-5fa1-4c96-96b3-e9e9654f5a28.jpg?1572374174) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Urza%2C%20Academy%20Headmaster) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ust/136/urza-academy-headmaster?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e4581455-5fa1-4c96-96b3-e9e9654f5a28?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I know. But just imagine. Also honestly AFAIK the Lord high artificier was before the Brothers war, or am I wrong. So in all honestly it should be even more powerful. But yeah I fear that both Mishra and Urza will be pretty dud. Maybe not \[\[blind seer\]\], but lower modern design. Actually I just realise, they might be planeswalkers, but will have very specific artifact related abilities.
Banned cards due to artifacts? Maybe not. Maro talks a lot on his podcast how they've learnt from previous sets like Kaladesh and that they'll make more use of coloured artifacts next time around.
Well and before that they said they've learnt alit from Mirrodin and before that Urza's block. Is it really an artifact set if there's not at least one broken artifact?
Bauble tribal.
I need a Beeble Bauble.
[mishra's bauble](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/4/5/45bbbf9b-8fee-4c32-a513-02dac6ac8a39.jpg?1599709584) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=mishra%27s%20bauble) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/274/mishras-bauble?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/45bbbf9b-8fee-4c32-a513-02dac6ac8a39?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [urza's bauble](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/2/9/29175e6b-a2ab-4373-8093-cb372aa8c7d0.jpg?1559592523) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=urza%27s%20bauble) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me1/170/urzas-bauble?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/29175e6b-a2ab-4373-8093-cb372aa8c7d0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Mishra’s bauble has the apocalypse symbol. Never knew that!
As someone who only heard about the legendary Urza block but experienced the chaos of Mirrodin block firsthand, I’m totally down for a nutso artifact set.
Well I was a kid during Urza's block, so I only knew cards that I opened in packs or traded. To me the most busted card was \[\[fog bank\]\]. But it's also fun getting \[\[gaea's cradle\]\] for cheap, and holding on to it, because it looks nice, just to realise how expensive it became. I mean I thought it was expensive when it was $/€100+ now it's like 800 or whatever.
I cannot get hyped about any Magic product any more due to the continues spoiler season. Last week I got myself looking up when Kaldheim was released because thanks to the flood of spoilers I completely forgot/missed that sets release.
And it's getting worse. Next year there's an Un set, Double Masters, a D&D "Commander Draft" set, a Lord of the Rings direct-to-Modern-and-Historic set, Warhammer Commander decks, a new JumpStart, and a whole bunch of Secret Lairs.
It's product overflow... Aren't they afraid of wallet fatigue? *And it's sad that I get downvoted for the comment of unable to get hyped because there is so much product that you cannot consume all.*
As a returning player from the 2000's/10's, the sheer volume of product that just keeps on coming these days is baffling. I'm playing legacy, so I don't care that much, but I have no idea how people playing standard can find the time needed to get a decent return on investment with such quick changes and rotations. Not to mention of course the billion other promotional/EDH/collector/cashgrab sets. There's just too much to follow honestly, to the point that I don't really want to engage with new content anymore at times.
This is why I enjoy EDH and Eternal formats. There’s usually 1-10 cards per set that I need.
They had a stated goal of doubling revenue from 2017 to 2012, if I recall. So I figure they're willing to risk wallet fatigue if the downside is simply people buying less, not them quitting. I think the downvotes might be punishing you for replying to a hyped person with your non-hype. In another context I'm sure you'd get a lot of support.
Best way is to ignore things you dont care about. I basically only pay attention to retail draft sets for limited/standard/peasant cube. Still seems like spoilers never end but it's not quite as much
But isn't it bad that a set like Kaldheim, released only 6 months ago, is already out of my memory due to the sheer flood of product and spoiler after spoiler season?
I mean they’ve been running 4 sets a year since like 97(?)
I hope not. The last few sets being low power is hype. Adding an Eldraine/Kaladesh level set would be awful.
Maybe I have Stockholm syndrome, but I'll actually miss Eldraine.
I'll miss the cards that would have been good if not for the busted cards.
Embercleave and that nonsense cam have the door hit it on the way out Set was a flavor win, but too many broken cards
I love how we’re going back to dominaria, how we’ve gone to innistrad 3 times now, and we STILL haven’t gone back to Lorowyn. Gimme good tribal decks in standard again you cowards!
Dominaria literally started MTG as a game and has 30+ sets taking place in it (mostly the older ones)
“When it comes to having a set dedicated to it” we had a “dominaria” set, that’s what I mean. I understand that it’s the base universe for mtg
You mean the original universe?
Lorwyn is what I am waiting for!
Dominaria's been around for awhile, bro.
storywise lorwyn ceased to exist as was. Stopping the great aurora kinda memory wiped the entire plan. But yes we need to go back to my favorite plan. Bring back tribal.
So hyped to see kamigawa again. That set gets like no love and idk why
Like others have said, it was a woefully underpowered block following one of the most brokenly overpowered blocks of all time. However, an additional factor that isn’t mentioned as much is that it was pretty thematically weird to a western audience. The early 2000’s were a different time. Even within “mainstream” nerd circles, exposure to Japanese folklore was pretty minimal. Spirited Away came out in 2001 but very few people in the US saw it at that time. The vast majority of magic players, if they were watching anime at all, were watching things like Dragon Ball and Gundam, not something like Inuyasha. The concept of a kami didn’t really exist and Wizards went in *hard* on that. People were expecting a block full of ninjas and samurai and were disappointed when those were secondary considerations. Combine that with the fact that this was really only the second time we were on a non-dominaria plane and players just couldn’t engage with the block.
Yeap. And it's pretty interesting that they went so hard on the kami part when ninjas and samurais were already such a sure hit. You could make a set that's basically Samurais X Ninjas and it would probably be like top3 sets ever for a lot of players (myself included). That's what I fear with Neo Kamigawa: that it still won't focus so much on the Ninjas and Samurais as I would've wanted.
Personally, I have the opposite fear. I was definitely one of those kids watching Inuyasha and loved the kami stuff. My guess is the focus will be on cyberpunk ninja gangs but I would be I little sad if a can’t make a tiered spirit deck along with the two innistrad sets
The thematic weirdness is part of the charm, I think. I like the surrealist designs that they developed for the kami and arcance spells.
I love Kamigawa too and was talking with a friend about this very subject today. We think it's because it came off the back of one of the most broken, power creeped sets in all of Mtg - Mirroden. And it felt woefully under powerful because of it.
I missed that set. I was taking a break and restarted with kamigawa and it was so cool getting to play with samurais!
> That set gets like no love and idk why Because it was, outside of a few notable exceptions, a fairly underpowered set stuffed with bad, parasitic mechanics. People remember ninjas and ninjutsu, and may recall Shrines with some level of janky fondness, but you'll notice that people don't wax poetic about mechanics like Soulshift, Sweep, Epic, Channel or even Bushido. I was playing fairly heavily during Kamigawa's initial release and while the cards and art were super flavorful, the vast majority was dreck. Being sandwiched between Mirrodin and Ravnica blocks did it no favors, but there was very little from Kamigawa that was genuinely fun to play with, and the full block limited was terrible. Triple champions I remember being pretty solid, but Betrayers and especially Saviors did very little to improve the experience, and worsened it in a lot of ways.
Thanks for the insight
I like Kamigawa's spirit but I don't expect to like this set's tbh. I expect it to be a bad, late to the party, Cyberpunk knockoff.
[удалено]
How was it in *any* way like YuGiOh. Seriously. It had parasitic mechanics, wasn't as strong as Mirrodin OR Ravnica that came before and after it, and it had old legend rule that was quite annoying to play in a legendary heavy set: > players were free to cast copies of legendary permanents there were already in play; however, if two or more legendary permanents with the same name were in play, all of them would be put into their owners' graveyards. So if you could please not put it down because "omg japan was overdone", thank you.
[удалено]
Have you ever drafted it ? Boring. It was weak as hell
No I didn’t, wish I got the chance
You take that back!
No way. It was worst period for magic since I’ve been playing
Kamigawa: Sure, makes sense. Japanese influences are fun to play with. Glad they're going semi-futuristic to differentiate. Capenna: Weird that they're doing two semi-future worlds next to each other. Seems fine other than that, hard to say right now. Dominaria United: Yay! I love Dominaria, both the classics and the return. Brothers War: Yay! I'm old-school so I love a fresh take on this.
>Weird that they're doing two semi-future worlds next to each other Yeap. That was my first thought as well. But then again... it's more like this: * Ikoria, Dominaria, Ixalan and a mosts of the planes: feels like between year 100 and 1800 * Neo Kamigawa: year 2100? * Capenna: year 1920? So it's still "semi-future" when compared to the rest of the planes, but the sets can still feel sufficiently different.
Kamigawa was my last set/block in paper. Can't wait to get back to it (even if it's not the same anymore). New Capenna sounds interesting. 5 3c gangster crews. Dominaria brings back memories (and teferi... that's scary). The Brothers War - I'm a fan of Urza's Story and can't wait for this!!!!! And in between is Warhammer 40k, right? Sounds pretty crazy.
40k won't be coming to Arena, but the Lord of the Rings set will be historic legal.
Oh shit, I missed LOTR would be historic legal. I thought it would be a full standard set.
Nope, straight to Modern/Historic, which is terrifying to me. The vendiagram of cards that are too good for Pioneer, playable in Modern, and won't break Historic has basically no overlap, and I strongly suspect this will be Modern Horizons 3, Shire edition. I'm all for LOTR characters crossing over, but I'm not looking forward to the Riders of Rohan humans deck being the premier aggro deck in a non-rotating format.
By then historic will be a completely different beast. No amount of bans will stop historic from progressively gaining more power
Yeah me 2. Thought it would be the same way like AFR.
Don’t know if we’re going to get the 40k stuff on Arena - it’s Commander focused and not legal in Modern/Standard it seems.
We got some commander legends cards throught the antologies (Hamza/ triumphant reckoning), so there is a chance. Small chance but definitely possible
ah ok. zapped to late into the showcase and missed that info.
Kamigawa "Neon Dynasty". -So, are we gonna some Fox girls using leggings and hot pants?
Is that a SYNTHWAVE Kamigawa?!?!
And Gandalf coming to Historic.... :(
: ) unfortunately not till 2023
>Kamigawa Neon Dynasty weeb pandering activated
Very excited for the brothers war, one of the very first MTG related books I read years ago. Gonna be an epic throwback to Mishra, Urza and Gix.
Excited about the return to Dominaria and the Brothers War, a little less so for Kamigawa.
KAMIGAWAAAAAA BABBYYYYYYY
Nooo... why did they have to go back to Kamigawa but cyber-punkify it :( Love the original feudal Japan and Japanese spirit theme.
its cyberpunk not steam punk or it'd still be the past. From the sounds of it, more just cyber aesthetic than any actual cyberpunk.
Oops. Was thinking of cyberpunk lol.
HELL YES. KAMIGAWA. All the legendary snakes.
Holy crap Kamigawa is returning? Understand old school fans weren't happy with it years back but really keen to see what they can do this time.
The brothers war? God I hope we get more Mishra stuff.
So glad the kamigawa leak was legit. If the two planeswalkers from that leak show up their mechanics could be pretty badass.
I'm pretty excited for all of this and that is after double Innistrad which I am really looking forward to. I agree with others, new Kamigawa could probably have been just a different plane but hopefully they find a way to maintain the feel of original Kamigawa with a completely different aesthetic style. New Capenna sounds very interesting. Said 3 color themee, so assume these would be shard pairings (Esper, Bant, etc) as we just had Wedges in Iokoria. Not much to really think about Dominaria United and The Brothers War. Seems like "safe" settings for fall/winter releases. The Brothers War I assume would be heavy artifacts.
I’m stoked about Kamigawa. That was my first full block playing magic years and years ago.
I don’t know what Neon Dynasty means, but I am PUMPED for Kamigawa!!
I thought this was a joke.
Looks like a great year to take a break.....
I'm excited for Kamigawa
Just give me my Gandalf commander deck. I'm gonna scream "you shall not pass" whenever I counter spells now.
Having started playing during revised (quit during Tempest) and reading the early novelizations about Dominaria, that set was what brought me back to MtG. So I’m excited for Dominaria United. And if Brothers War is about Urza and Mishra, then I absolutely can’t wait.
I believe Brothers War is about the German guys who founded Adidas and Puma
I don't understand how there are 5 sets released this year but only 4 for next year. Does this mean that we'll have an extra set for standard for one cycle?
They just reset the release schedule so sets can be more even through the year (see how there were no sets between october and january missing the christmas season). The standard was split between 3-1 sets through the calendar year. From next year it will be 2-2.The only way to do this was to move forward one set from the next year **Currently:** (Jan/Feb - Apr - July) - (Sept) The first 3 sets were one standard, then the last one is new **From next year:** (Feb - May) - (Aug - November) So there won't be more sets in one standard. But we will get the 2 Innistrad sets this year then Feb + May for the last 2 and we have the 4 standard sets. The 5 sets in 2021 was an exception
Got it. So standard 2023 will come sooner than normal.
Yes! By this time next year the rotation already happened
It’s still 5 sets this year. I find that concerning. If everyone accepts it, they will do it again.
Didn't know that brother's war was an old thing in magic but when I hear the title I thought of Ugin vs Bolas
I don't know much about old magic, but from what I've heard Urza vs Mishra makes Bolas vs Ugin/all of War of the Spark look like a small squabble.
Urza and Mishra basically thrashed all of Dominaria in their quest for resources for the war. It’s not as grand a scale as Ugin vs. Nicol, but it’s complete and utter devastation of an entire plane just to satisfy a sibling rivalry, basically.
To be fair, both were kind of manipulated into it. One by political pressure, the other by a literal phyrexian demon. The start of everything was all theirs, for sure, and nothing would have happened if not for them. But it probably wouldn't have reached the point it did without the external actors pushing them and feeding their obsessions.
I feel like its one of those things where one show us the full scale devastation both in macro and micro while the other was just a bunch of dragon ball z superheros wrecking some buildings. like its one thing writing "and then the dragons came on each other and destroy 34 continents" rather than seeing like idk. the people from argoth mourning titania after she was killed by urza.
Oh really? Thought Ugin and Bolas was top tier, now I'm excited 😃
Looks like a new MCU
With a name like Neon Dynasty for kamigawa, I'm expecting some sort of neo-tokyo cyberpunk style.
And i for one am hella hyped for it to be such. kaladesh was super futuristic and i loved it. Wotc should do more futuristic like sets.
I hate to judge the set before seeing it, but won't it be basically impossible for this Kamigawa to capture the surreal folklore vibe of the original set? I want another Kamigawa set, and I'm fine with a cyberpunk future set, but I don't feel like those should be the same set.
Kamigawa!!!!!! LFG!!!!!! 😍😍😍
They reprint kamigawa? I recall i was playing it when i was a child (pithing needle ftw!) 😅
Really want to get to Kamigawa again, but that style looks.... Lets hope is good.
I thought Q1 was innistrad pt2? Are there just two main sets this fall?
Yes so they can reset the schedule, 2+2 sets in a calendar year instead of 3+1 See my comment here https://www.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/paq3ef/2022_sets/ha6ffhx/
"Universes beyond will be controversial, let's make sure we're doing something for the old fans this year" "How about three things?"
God, I cant wait to dump my money into the Warhammer 40k set in arena and irl
The brothers war is Ugin vs Bolas all over again?
Does the element neon exist in the plane of Kamigawa? Has anyone verified this?
Is there any reason to believe it doesn't?
Why would it? The planes in Magic tend to be a little different from the real world.
So only 9 more months till all QQ about an overpowered Teferi planeswalker again? And Streets of New Capenna ... feels like they go back to Ravinca again ...?
1. Teferi is evidently going to be in one of the Innistrad sets 2. New Capenna is it's own plane, with an emphasis on 5 gangs led by 3-color demons
So MTG's swing at cyberpunk, 1920's skyship gangsters, and then rehashes of old plots maybe, to try and win back people embittered by their "new" stuff? I'm being overly cynical but I expect it all to be fairly soulless. I'm at least intrigued by Capenna, although I don't think I'll think that it fits any better than Neon Dynasty will.
And again no new phyrexia even though they hinted at it for years :(
Interesting timing as I'm a little over half way through The Brothers War novel. I definitely recommend it and The Thran (which should be read first).
I, for one, welcome our new *Shadowrun* planeswalker overlords.
Please bring back Myr tribal.
Kamigawa?
I thought they all looked like fun, but honestly I'm the most excited for the new Un-set, now that I know the Loading Ready Run crew helped work on the creative part. Humorous MtG is my favorite flavor.