During the Magic Showcase 2021, Magic: The Gathering revealed bold multimedia plans for the coming year.
The world’s premier trading card game has big plans for its thirtieth anniversary, as hosts Jimmy Wong, Joe Johnson, and Becca Scott showed today. With next year’s sets, Magic: The Gathering will revisit an old setting, introduce a new plane, and return to its home world’s plane.
Q1 2022 will see the release of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Set 2000 years after the original Kamigawa block, the Japan-inspired locale has evolved into a sci-fi dystopia, and its Emperor will be a familiar face for series fans. Vice President of R&D, Aaron Forsythe and Senior Creative Director, Jess Lanzillo assured that the new set will address cultural and design issues from the original sets, bringing brand-new gameplay mechanics.
Q2’s set is one of the most unique settings yet, Streets of New Capenna. This new locale is inspired by gangster stories, a city created by angels by now ruled by demon crime families. These five new factions are based on three-colour combos, and apparently New Capenna is a location dear to planeswalker Elpseth Tirel.
Magic Showcase showed the back half of 2022 will bring players back to the game’s original setting, Dominaria, for Q3’s Dominaria United and Q4’s The Brothers’ War. The latter will show the events of a war between Urza and Mishra, two of the most iconic characters of the game, while Dominaria United will mark the game’s anniversary.
Principal Designer Daniel Ketchum also announced that Netflix’s forthcoming Magic: The Gathering animated series will arrive in the back half of 2022, starring Brandon Routh as planeswalker Gideon Jura. Routh appeared briefly on the Magic Showcase stream to share his excitement for the role, and his love of the game.
Gideon will be the central character of the show, which will be accessible to fans and complete newcomers alike. A prequel novel, penned by Django Wexler, will arrive alongside the show, focusing on the connection between Gideon and poster-boy Jace Beleren. Meanwhile work on the show is progressing, with most of the voice acting complete.
Forsythe also spoke about the return of in-store play, with the Wizards Play Network supporting local game stores as they are able to re-open and welcome players safely depending on their local conditions. A Companion App will launch to support both participants and organizers during in-store and home play, while new events will expand opportunities for new, social, and Commander players. Store Championship events will return with unique prizes branded for each store, while Commander Parties will offer a social, storytelling-based place to participate in the game’s most popular variant.
Of course, there are two sets left for 2021 as well, both taking place on the gothic horror plane of Innistrad. Midnight Hunt will focus on werewolves when it launches September 24, while Crimson Vow will take players to a “vampire wedding” as Olivia Voldaren looks to seize power over the plane. The sets will be featured in “Innistrad Double Feature” draft events with new variant cards based on classic horror movie designs. More will be revealed in a stream on September 2.
A staggering amount of bonus sets and products peppered the Magic Showcase—Commander Collection: Black offers reprints of essential black cards for Commander; four new Pioneer Challenger Decks will arrive on October 15; and five new Secret Lair collections are available now, including a beautiful set of cards from the original Kamigawa set, reprinted with authentic art. Next year’s Secret Lairs will bring both Fortnite and Street Fighter cards.
Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate will continue to delve into the Dungeons & Dragons crossover event, while the newly-minted Universes Beyond line will debut with its Warhammer 40,000 and Lord of the Rings crossovers. These unprecedented sets will be steeped in art from their source materials, right down to basic land cards.
Lastly, head designer Mark Rosewater announced Unfinity, the latest in the line of extremely casual, goofy “Un-sets.” This parody set will focus on an intergalactic carnival, leaning into every amusement park trope under the sun with a retro sci-fi feel.
