When Wizards talked about the schedule for sets out to 2026 they also talked on what the story will be doing. We will be seeing three year long story arcs that will make up the next major saga for Magics story; Codename-Metronome*. The three arcs are; The Omenpath Arc (2023-2024), The Dragon Storm Arc (2024-2025) and The CENSORED* arc (2025-2026).
*As many of the sets are still in the very very early processes of being made, some info hasn't been fully given out and code names, ect are used instead.
Omen Path Arc (2023-2024)
Q4- 2023
Wilds of Eldraine
-Return to Eldraine with bigger focus on fairy tale theme
Desparked Planeswalkers- Will and Rowan
planeswalker- Ashiok
Major Legendary Creatures - Kellan and Eriette
Major events (Spoilers for length)
-Rowan "falls to the dark side" in part by being manipulated by Ashiok and Eriette using her trauma of the Phyrexian war, the lost of her parents and her desparking and the friction with Will over the kingdom to get her to work with them.
-We meet Kellan a half fae human teenager who find out through his quest that his father is Oko. He finds an omenpath and starts a muti-planar journey to find his father.
-Ashiok seems to have plans involving gathering powerful individuals and seems to takes Eriette off plane for this reason.
Last Caverns of Ixalan
-A return to Ixalan but with it as a backdrop for "Underground world"
Desparked Planeswalkers- Huatli and Saheeli
Planeswalker- Quint
Major Legendary Creatures - Kellan and Amalia
Major events
-Saheeli has moved to Ixalan via Omenpath usage
-We learn that the Fomori (seen a few times in flavor text and card) were a mutiplanar colonizing empire, nicknamed the Coin Empire by Quint, that at one time tried to take over the core of Ixalan.
-The Mycotyrant and Aclazotz are freed on Ixalan and possibly the rest of the multiverse.
-Amalia, a vampire disillusioned by her faith after meeting Aclazotz, joins Kellan traveling the planes.
2024
Murders at Karlov Manor
-Ravnica 4 but with it as a backdrop for a "Whodunnit" top down set.
Desparked Planeswalkers- N/A
Planeswalker- Kaya (card) Ral (story)
Major Legendary Creatures - Kellan, Alquist Proft, Etrata
- Several murders happened on Ravnica and the detective team of Alquist Proft, Ravnicnas greatest sleuth, Kellan, Kaya and Etrata join together to figure out whodunnit with several guilds leadership and status quo shakened up.
-A powerful telepath/mental-mind mage appeared as a hooded figure in Proft memory palace and takes something from the detectives mind. No gender was hinted.
-Niv was show to be tracking and planning on taking control of the omenpaths popping up over Ravnica and make the plane the center/hub of the newly united multiverse.
Outlaws of Thunder Junction
-A "villains" set that mixes in elements of the Western/ Cowboy genre
Desparked Planeswalkers- Vraska
planeswalker- Oko, Ral (story) and Ashiok (story)
but really Jace who got a card
Major Legendary Creatures - Kellan, Annie Flash, Tiny Bones, Rakdos and the other members of Okos gang, Akul
-We enter on Thunder Junction, a midway plane that many omenpaths open into and where settlers of all kinds from all different planes have set up home.
-We end Kellans storyline as he finds his father Oko who has been recruited by Ashiok, along with several other villains to rob a vault on the plane of Thunder Junction. Father and son morals conflict as Kellan learns his father is nowhere the hero Kellan is.
-We find that this whole story Ashiok had been Jace in disguise who betrays Oko and he and Vraska take the true treasure, a child from an alien looking speices that has a living map of the mutiverse in his mind,
-In Epilogues we find out what happend to Jace and Vraska. Jace was able to keep more of his true self using his telepathy put his unphyrexian self aided by the halo that poured out of Luxior when Elspeth stabbed him. While unable to full keep in control enough of Jace was left to trick his mind and thus body into rejecting phyrexia as a virus.
-Finally either through this and/or Phyrexia being phased out/ Norn dying Jace as able to regain his mind and went looking for Vraska. Jace redid what he did on her to him and put mental shields around her mind to let her regain control of her mind and ordered her body to reject the oil and metal in her. Knowing its not enough and scared Jace goes the one place he can think of most for help and take Vraska and himself to his mom Ranna Beleren.
-Ranna is able to heal Jace and Vraska, taking months to do so but only able too due Jace's mental command to their bodies to reject phyrexia as well as Ranna having learned how to use phoenix feathers as a way to replace organs and body parts by using its fire to burn way the infection and then having the reminding flesh as a base to regrow new organs and limbs.
-Jace and Vraska heal and learn of the omenpaths and desparking and believing they need to fix the multiverse, taking the phoenix metaphor of death and rebirth they set out on an yet told plan to heal what phyrexia took. To this end Jace would hide himself as Ashiok first doing so at the end of WOE where it was him who freed Eriette after Ashiok fled and get the crew together to rob the vault and freeing the child, Loot. Now with a living map to the mutiverse in real time, the family of a telepath, a gorgon and their adopted child head out to fix what phyrexia broke.
The Dragon Storm Arc (2024-2025)
Bloomburrow
- A "Funny Animal" trope themed plane (see Redwall) with no humanoid beings and all animals are to scope
Duskmourn: House of Horror
- A new Horror plane thats much more modern horror (with 70's/80's horror period being mentioned) and the whole plane is set within a singel haunted Manor
2025 (The rest of sets are being worked on and such we only have codenames for the sets and will be updated as we know info)
Tennis
-A "Death race" set across three planes now connected by the Omenpaths. Two of the planes are planes that have been visited in a premier-set but not returned to and the third is a plane that we have seen on cards, but it hasn't been the main setting of a premier set yet.
Ultimate
-A return to Tarkir that will feature elements from both Khans of Tarkir and Dragons of Tarkir
The CENSORED Arc (2024-2025)
Volleyball
- A top down Space Opera fantasy set
Wrestling
- A return to Lorwyn (and likely Shadowmoor )
2026
Yachting - A return to Strixhaven
Ziplining
- A capstone set (Ie War of the Spark and March of the Machine) of this story Saga.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
based on description from the end of the first ixalan story will Thunder Junction be the home place/plane of Angrath? (how his home is described is as if a wild west plane and could be the town blacksmith)
based on description from the end of the first ixalan story will Thunder Junction be the home place/plane of Angrath? (how his home is described is as if a wild west plane and could be the town blacksmith)
You keep bringing up the blacksmith like it means anything. Blacksmiths are not wild west specific. Blacksmiths have existed (and called that) ever since people started working steel and iron...
I have to admit I am really not feeling this omenpath arc and turning the Wild West plane into a villain gallery feels so... fan-arty. I am curious about the space-opera set and how they itnend to make it still feel like Magic, but I think they simply might not.
Really curious about Lorwyn though. I'd be ecstatic if the whole UB and omenpath business wouldn't smother my excitement for Magic stuff. :/
Regarding Tennis. Maro said, two of the planes are planes that have been visited in a premier-set but not returned to. So that creates a relatively short list:
Alara: While I don't think Alara fits a race theme well, it actually does have a really nice variety of environments, which makes sense for a race set.
Ulgrotha: Probably not.
Rabiah: No, lol.
Mercadia: I could see it, but they probably want to use Mercadia for more merchant oriented themes.
Lorwyn: Unlikely since we return there soon.
Tarkir: Same as Lorwyn.
Kaladesh: Actually makes a lot of sense, especially since this is where vehicles were introduced. Not entirely sure how much Kaladeshi would want to enter a death race though.
Amonkhet: Just doesn't fit the aesthetic at all.
Ikoria: I don't see how monster world goes together with racing.
Kaldheim: Yeah, same as Amonkhet.
Arcavios: Arcavios' current main theme is a wizard school, so I don't think that meshes very well with a death race.
Capenna: This is where my money is. The theme fits Capenna so well and the whole mafia theme kind of adds a layer of "illicitness" to the thing, which is often a part of deathrace stories.
Interestingly, it rules out Kamigawa, which kinda fits the aesthetic we saw in the concept art.
So based on this, I would say Capenna is pretty much a given. It's just too good a fit.
As for the second, there's nothing that stands out to me. I think it might be either Kaladesh or Alara. Leaning towards Kaladesh, though I find the whole "death race" thing to be a weird fit for Kaladesh. I only mention Alara, because of its variety of environments, but that's a fairly weak link. That skull-truck does look a bit Grixisy though.
As for the third plane, Maro said that it is a plane that we have seen on cards, but it hasn't been the main setting of a premier set yet. That clarification of that last part makes me think that it is one of the planes we have seen in a premier set, but not as a main setting, which narrows it down to three planes:
Meditation Plane: Haha.
Regatha: Regatha could work because we know so little about it, that they could just make up whatever.
Vryn: This is where my money is. I think the visuals of the concept art, with the bike just meshes very well with Vryn, because Vryn is a world of rings and the bike has these very prominent not-wheel rings in its design. Plus, in general I think it jut fits the aesthetic well enough. The Mage-Rings make for nice milestones for the racing track and could even be used as stands for spectators.
Some other noteworthy planes in case the wording by Maro is a deliberate red herring:
Gobakhan: A plane that will likely never be able to support a full set all by itself. It also has a nice wasteland aesthetic, allowing WotC to inject some Mad Max tropes. Also, the diamond storms add a hazard which might make the race more interesting.
Equilor: Honestly I think from a pure storytelling perspective this could be cute. Time flows more slowly on Equilor, meaning any second spent in the Equilor part of the race track means a further delay in the overall race, adding a strategic layer to completing through this part. It's really difficult to convey this through cards, so I doubt they'll do it.
Kylem: I could see this being the plane that kickstarted the whole thing in the first place, due to their competitive nature. If Vryn wasn't such a good fit, I'd bet on this one.
Fiora: Yeah, I doubt it. Fiora is an intrigue world, not a racing world.
Shandalar: Has the same advantages as Alara with the further bonus of being a largely blank slate.
Zhalfir: I wonder if they want to do something with Zhalfir soon or if it's just put on the shelf for now. I could see it working for a racing set technology wise since Wizards wants to turn it into a Wakanda expy, but it feels odd for Zhalfirans to participate in a death race.
Just my thoughts over everything after some days to think stuff over (and new job has me extra busy) (Spoilers for length);
Murders at Karlov Manor
On the one hand I like the Ravnica guilds/faction sets and I was hoping we see a Strixhaven style one the next time we hit Ravnica where all the guilds don't have one unique mechanic but instead shares some but uses them in different ways (also how morph/manifest/megamorph was used in Tarkir). That said I love murder mystery stuff so I'm extra excited for the story and flavor of this set and its great to have set on Ravnica that can focus on characters and elements that aren't strictly part of the guilds like we got a bit with War of the Spark. And as most of the golgari where killed/compleated so we could have this set to show them regrouping ect and not having an official guild leader /system set up until the next time they wanna do a guilds ravnica set.
The panel also showed art of Kaya so I we will likely see if she has her spark or not (as well as Ral). I feel like Kaya is 50/50 if she's deparked and I think Ral will defiantly be.
I also would love the idea that all the stuff happens in Teysa family mansion and she isn't aware of it until the end when the killer(s) are caught and she comes in wondering why the **** their are people running around in her Mansion.
Outlaws of Thunder Junction
I kinda wish we could just have a wild west plane and a villains set separate but I can see why some of the power that be wouldn't be keen on a Western setting and needing the villains angle to go with it. I'm not a fan of westerns personally but after Kamigawa and New Capenna I welcome magic having more nontraditional fantasy settings and there is a lot of stuff to work with. New character looks cool and wonder if she's meant to be a villian or not.
For the figures outlined my guesses are tiny bones, Vraska, Jace, Oko, the new character and Rakdos. We will see if Vraska, Jace and Oko are still sparked but my guess is maybe all of them are and the new character is a planeswalker. And neat to see the first set that clearly couldn't happen until now with the omen paths letting all the villains. This being Angraths home plane would be cute but I don't see anything outright about Angrath being from western world and is vague enough to work either way.
Also glad they got a consultants on this and hope this will show a bit of diversity in mtg we don't get a lot of.
Bloomburrow
I'm not one of the "too many humans" people as imo diverse human cultures and representation > non-humans in fiction, but as I said with Thunder Junction I'm here to see more nontraditional magic setting and this fits. Plus I always felt it was a mistake to not having talking non-humanoid animals on Eldraine so I'm glad that choice was helpful to make this setting feel different. Wonder if this plane got hit by phrexia or was one of the ones that realmbreaker hadn't reached yet.
It would also be fitting if this was a the homeplane of Grist who would fit here as she is a just an insect and hopefully still has her spark if so. Otherwise I think this would be the first set without a desparked planeswalker (as Grist is the only canon animal planeswalker) and if no Grist as a planeswalker maybe we will get another animal walker on this plane. Also maybe this the home plane of Chatterfang.
Duskmourn
I'm split. On the one hand I love Innistrad I'd kinda just like to keep all the horror tropes and themes there. On the other hand I love the theory that the plane/mansion is some malevolent entity that was once only able to capture planeswalker now getting tons of people now due to the omenpaths which are unstable so likely those people are fully trapped and are not planeswalkers who can just walk away. Its also just a good use of the omethpaths letting them do a setting (a plane all inside a mansion) that couldn't maybe work a living world before now.
While I don't think they would show up as a card I could see this as Ashioks home plane as Ashiok could be seen as magic version of Freddy Krueger. And if the theory is true we could also see a few of desparked characters up now having to deal with a threat unable to just walk away, such as Nissa and Chandra* ending up here looking for Zendikar or Sorin/Arlinn now desparked and once the monsters on their home now victims on this one.
"Death Race"
Not my thing really but I have a vehicles deck so my melvin side will enjoy it and I like seeing set ideas that use the omenpaths. I do agree that one of the death race planes is likely Kaladesh, it fits well and I could see a storyline of Saheeli joining in order to find a pathway to Ixalan/Huatli. I'd be happy if the other returning plane was Alara (its my "lorwyn/Kamigawa") and this would help show the world off without needing to address the issues with the worlds card identity. Not sure on the third personally so really I think with the art the only plane I can think of for this is Kaladesh.
Tarkir 2
Tarkir was never my favorite set card wise but I do wanna see how things have changed pre-phyrexia. My guess is the clans/khans return and some of the dragons join them (changed to be more pro-humanoid after the phyrexian war) though none of the dragonlord will. Some of the dragonlord I think will be killed off but a few will remain as enemies. We already know Narset (and likely becomes a Khan in this timeline once again) and Sarkhan have been desparked here so only question is if they work in Ugin and if Ugin is still a planeswalker or not. That said I do think it makes more sense that Ugin is still sealed away with Bolas and why Tarkir has been unbalanced by Ugin being dead (khans)/healing coma (dragons).
"Space Opera"
Once again I support magic doing nontraditional fantasy settings and after looking over stuff in Starfinder I would love to see magics take of space fantasy. Only thing I don't care for (which might change) is aliens being used as a creature type vs just making new creature types for each new species. This might be also a good place to reprint some of the Warhammer cards as Universe Within cards. Also would be neat if this was a backdrop set featuring Dominaria as it is canon Dominaria has a full solar system. Be funny to also have (desparked or not) Jace here to make Space Belern canon.
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor 2
I'm not a huge lover of Lowyn/Shadowmoor but I do believe most of magics planes and worlds are returnable in some way and after Kamigawa 2 I'm happy to see Lorwyn is getting a mulligan. Gonna guess day/night will return and fits the flavor of the world changing on the day-night cycle. My personal theory is since we last saw Lowryn the plane will still change from Lorwyn to Shadowmoor and semi-regularly but peoples memories are retained and some elements of Lorwyn are in Shadowmoor and vice-vers such as Kithkin having Shadowmoor like eyes even during Lorwyn. Similar to Kamigawa 2 I don't think most of the old mechincs will show up (though hybrid likley would be cute to use here) though I think there will be a minor Lorwyn creature type matters theme.
Strixhaven 2
The fact we are coming back here right before the capstone set of this story saga really makes me think we will see Kasminas group (maybe now desperate with many members desparked) being a factor in the story either as big bads or trying to stop whatever bad is happening. Like I like Strixhaven but feels kinda soon to return to it. Will confirm if Liliana was depsarked since she was here helping rebuild so this where she would be if desparked. Guessing this will be the Guilds of Ravnica/Ravnica Allegiance of this story saga and be a more traditional Strixhaven return before the next set just uses the plane as a setting.
"Ziplining"
Can't say much except I think this will feature Kasmina cabal. Quint might be a main character as this is his home plane and would maybe play into his arc of being a (desparked) planeswalker.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
because in that same lair compost is likely a teaser for “caverns of ixalan” with “ Tocatztli” that spider is easily another god from the two shown already.
The death race and one path arc seem a set up for the release of Bolas.
I don’t believe he’ll return as a major threat, but even if he merely escaped- that would be a momentous consequence and villain victory enough.
perhaps whatever occurs on Tarkir is meant to distract a sparkbearing Ugin away from the meditation realm?
I doubt the main source of conflict concerns Bolas however. If anything it’ll probably be conflict over the chaos caused by the omenpaths overall with one side seeking to ‘fix’ the phenomenon, whilst others try to preserve it. The end result may see the Planeswalker spark rekindled among some De-walkers.
meh. There doesn’t seem to be enough tent pole releases based upon MtG’s own IP to pull this off in my opinion. I’m kinda annoyed at all this Secret Lair + Universes Beyond /‘gimmick’ stuff they’ve been pulling lately.
The anecdotal counterpoint: My bro who hasn’t been into mtg for years bought for my birthday, the Lord of a Rings Jumpstart box, so I could teach my other adult sibs how to play using a franchise they already enjoy.
…I didn’t have the heart to tell him how much I loath the business model- and to be fair, if it causes interest in the actual game AND IP of MtG among my siblings, then yeah, consider me won over.
But I have a feeling that these new collectors are gonna be more akin to fandom collectors- their interest only goes as deep as the centering of their preferred franchise -which to be fair is how I feel about MtG’s main IP and story as well.
My fear is that eventually, MtG will be like Lego, providing the building blocks to represent other games in competitive formats- but lacking an identifiable IP with a strong narrative.
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
At this point in time and with info we have I think this is very likely and have three things swimming in my head about it;
1- The Fomori in Ixalan are a subversion of the Ancient Aliens/Ancient Astronauts trope*, with the Fomori being colonizers who where pushed out after some time. As KavuMonarch pointed out in the Ixalan 2 thread, with their "space ship" and alien like tech, the Fomori would fit in perfectly in the space set, which is the start of the CENSORED* arc and fits with them being set up as evil ancient aliens.
*Ancient Astronauts a trope of a high advance alien species influences the culture of Ancient human (often co-opted into racist theories to discredit non-white cultures feats).
2- Mythologically the Fomori are beings from Irish mythology and not friendly to the human and the other magical beings Tuatha Dé Danann. This would make them fit right into Lorwyn's Celtic mythology base (from which Irish mythology is descended from) and Lorwyn is the second set in this arc. Could be fitting of the myths if return to Lorwyn feature a conflict with the peoples of Lorwyn and the Fomori and/or end up being where we lean the origins of the Fomori.
3- As I said above I do think the return to Strixhaven right before the capstone set makes me think this will include the story thread of Kasmina and her group. I also feel the fact its Quint home and Quint is the one looking into the Fomori at the moment, it would circle back nicely to Ixalan.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
One detail that I found interesting in the planeswalker guide: It was said the Fomori were running away from something else and turned into colonizers in the process. That could also end up kind of interesting.
From a podcast interview story lead Roy Graham said that the next two mini arcs ("Dragon storm" and "Censored") will not feature a arc protagonist. Kellan was an experiment in using a main character as the connecting through line for the Omenpath arc and they wanna experiment with other systems to see what works the best for the future in connecting storylines.
Its also noted that since the Phyrexia saga cleaned up a lot of major story threads they are now gonna focus on setting up and finishing story arcs in a quicker manner. While we will still see storylines that track across years, they are moving less from "Phyrexia has returned!" -11 real world years later and 2.5 story arcs later- "ok now we gonna deal with the Phyrexians!".
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Coming back to the Deathrace set: I noticed that there are quite a few cards in recent sets that seem to enable multi-color decks, most notably Enduring Vitality and Overlord of the Hauntwoods.
So these cards could be a plant for Return to Tarkir, but what if they're actually plants for Deathrace? My prediction is that Capenna is one of the worlds we revisit and either Kaladesh or Alara would be the second. But even without Alara, the set would have a strong multi-color theme.
Plus, I expect domain or a domain-like mechanic to return to represent the race track winding through the various environments on the different worlds. Maybe Domain, but it works more like party so that Everywhere lands can work as jokers and not as instant fulfillments. If this is the case then Deathrace might push strongly towards multicolor, which would also synergize well with Return to Tarkir, which very likely will bring back the wedges.
From talks on OTJ they talked on that a future set was also working on a "mount" mechanic at the same time that OJT was also looking into it. OTJ had a more Mutate like feel to mounts while the future set had the saddle ability and they decided to use the saddle ability vs the mutate like ability instead of having two separate mechincs for the same idea.
I'd bet that this is the death race set and mounts where being made as a way to cut down the number of vehicles (as artifacts heavy sets can have balancing issues and vehicles are "dead" on the field as creatures if you have no one to crew or way to animate them while mounts are normal creatures that get upgraded when saddled) and flavor-wise some character would use a mount to race vs a car or motorbike.
-Final guesses for the planes for the Race set;
Kaladesh- Original plane of vehicles and a plane that has issues for a full return so a mutiplanar set feels like a good place to return to it.
Alara- My least certain but I want a return to Alara and this might be the way to do it without needing to figure out how current Alara factions work. Also think Alara would be cool to be used to make different enviorments to race through (Kaldheim would also work thought I think trying to fit 10 mini-planes vs Alaras 5 would be more tricky).
Vyrn- Home plane of Jace that just got a lot of focus, from BTS Vyrn has been up to be a setting for several set but cut mostly due to it not having a strong card theme to work from which this kind of set might help work around.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I'd bet that this is the death race set and mounts where being made as a way to cut down the number of vehicles (as artifacts heavy sets can have balancing issues and vehicles are "dead" on the field as creatures if you have no one to crew or way to animate them while mounts are normal creatures that get upgraded when saddled) and flavor-wise some character would use a mount to race vs a car or motorbike.
The balancing issues of artifacts is their colorlessness, not the fact they're artifacts. Recently non-utility artifacts come coloured more often than not and I'm pretty sure the vast majority of vehicles in Death Race will be colored.
Personally I find mounts in a death race set a bit weird. Could work, but I dunno. It feels like it's diluting the idea a bit. Also considering how similar they work it'd be kinda awkward game-play wise.
Personally I wish they had gone the mutate rule for mounts, but whatever.
I'd bet that this is the death race set and mounts where being made as a way to cut down the number of vehicles (as artifacts heavy sets can have balancing issues and vehicles are "dead" on the field as creatures if you have no one to crew or way to animate them while mounts are normal creatures that get upgraded when saddled) and flavor-wise some character would use a mount to race vs a car or motorbike.
The balancing issues of artifacts is their colorlessness, not the fact they're artifacts. Recently non-utility artifacts come coloured more often than not and I'm pretty sure the vast majority of vehicles in Death Race will be colored.
Personally I find mounts in a death race set a bit weird. Could work, but I dunno. It feels like it's diluting the idea a bit. Also considering how similar they work it'd be kinda awkward game-play wise.
Personally I wish they had gone the mutate rule for mounts, but whatever.
I think mounts would help the set/theme feel more in the fantasy genre since we'd have people racing on unicorns and dragons as well as cars and bikes.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
oh by the way darreti is in the set so that might mean one plane is fiora (is fiora the never done in preimer set plane. and when he said that he was talking only had for supplament sets)
-Death race set is called Aetherdrift and features racers trying to win "the aetherspark"*. Looks like Kaladesh and Amonkhet are in it with the 3rd plane unclear to me. There will be 10 groups of races, one for each color pair, with goblins and bugs are two of the groups. Chandra is co-leading another and seemly is racing looking for Nissa. Daretti is here and depsarked
-Tarkir 2 is called Tarkir: Dragon Storms, dragons are popping out of dragon storms like crazy and sarkhan seems to be enjoying it. Ugin, still sparked, is here. The plane will be getting a soft-flavor reboot after consultants have since gone over it.
-Space set is Edge of Eternities: it is set on "The Edge" a sci fi setting that is "outside of the mutiverse" and on the edge of it and the blind eternities. Tezzeret is here, spark status unknown.
*-my thought form the partial shown card is its an artifacl spark that lets non-walkers planeswalk without need of an omenpath
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Amonkhet is certainly an odd choice for a deathrace setm thematically. I also find Kaladesh a bit odd given the "death" part of deathrace. Kaladesh seems a bit too utopian to allow death races in their streets.
Anyway, my money's still on Vryn, but considering that Amonkhet is in I feel like anything goes at this point.
The second half of this year will be rough with a space set wedged between two UBs. Hopefully they manage to integrate EOE into magic proper. Exploring what is "outside the multiverse" could potentially be interesting.
You got it, Maro let slip that the 3rd plane "has dinosaurs on it"
EDIT (updated with more info from the panel video)
-Aetherdrift will be focus on vehicles
-The clans have returned which (along with the updated with the consultants input) is a reason for a shift in looks and flavor as they discover the ways of their pasts. And seemly new kinds of dragons (which was hinted at with the concept art) have shown up as well.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Magic Foundations has 10 "main characters" (as seen on the lands) and each of them seemly are gonna show up in the upcoming mainline sets. The characters are;
Chandra is coming up in Aetherdrift, Liliana and Zimone seem clear for strixhaven 2 and Loot in general is being set up for something.
My one real guess atm is Ajani on Lorwyn as a nod to him being part of the Lorwyn 5 and would keep the vibe of no humans on the plane and maybe Kellan too looking into the fae of the plane.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
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*As many of the sets are still in the very very early processes of being made, some info hasn't been fully given out and code names, ect are used instead.
Omen Path Arc (2023-2024)
Q4- 2023
Wilds of Eldraine
-Return to Eldraine with bigger focus on fairy tale theme
Desparked Planeswalkers- Will and Rowan
planeswalker- Ashiok
Major Legendary Creatures - Kellan and Eriette
Major events (Spoilers for length)
-We meet Kellan a half fae human teenager who find out through his quest that his father is Oko. He finds an omenpath and starts a muti-planar journey to find his father.
-Ashiok seems to have plans involving gathering powerful individuals and seems to takes Eriette off plane for this reason.
Last Caverns of Ixalan
-A return to Ixalan but with it as a backdrop for "Underground world"
Desparked Planeswalkers- Huatli and Saheeli
Planeswalker- Quint
Major Legendary Creatures - Kellan and Amalia
Major events
-We learn that the Fomori (seen a few times in flavor text and card) were a mutiplanar colonizing empire, nicknamed the Coin Empire by Quint, that at one time tried to take over the core of Ixalan.
-The Mycotyrant and Aclazotz are freed on Ixalan and possibly the rest of the multiverse.
-Amalia, a vampire disillusioned by her faith after meeting Aclazotz, joins Kellan traveling the planes.
2024
Murders at Karlov Manor
-Ravnica 4 but with it as a backdrop for a "Whodunnit" top down set.
Desparked Planeswalkers- N/A
Planeswalker- Kaya (card) Ral (story)
Major Legendary Creatures - Kellan, Alquist Proft, Etrata
-A powerful telepath/mental-mind mage appeared as a hooded figure in Proft memory palace and takes something from the detectives mind. No gender was hinted.
-Niv was show to be tracking and planning on taking control of the omenpaths popping up over Ravnica and make the plane the center/hub of the newly united multiverse.
Outlaws of Thunder Junction
-A "villains" set that mixes in elements of the Western/ Cowboy genre
Desparked Planeswalkers- Vraska
planeswalker- Oko, Ral (story) and Ashiok (story)
-We end Kellans storyline as he finds his father Oko who has been recruited by Ashiok, along with several other villains to rob a vault on the plane of Thunder Junction. Father and son morals conflict as Kellan learns his father is nowhere the hero Kellan is.
-We find that this whole story Ashiok had been Jace in disguise who betrays Oko and he and Vraska take the true treasure, a child from an alien looking speices that has a living map of the mutiverse in his mind,
-In Epilogues we find out what happend to Jace and Vraska. Jace was able to keep more of his true self using his telepathy put his unphyrexian self aided by the halo that poured out of Luxior when Elspeth stabbed him. While unable to full keep in control enough of Jace was left to trick his mind and thus body into rejecting phyrexia as a virus.
-Finally either through this and/or Phyrexia being phased out/ Norn dying Jace as able to regain his mind and went looking for Vraska. Jace redid what he did on her to him and put mental shields around her mind to let her regain control of her mind and ordered her body to reject the oil and metal in her. Knowing its not enough and scared Jace goes the one place he can think of most for help and take Vraska and himself to his mom Ranna Beleren.
-Ranna is able to heal Jace and Vraska, taking months to do so but only able too due Jace's mental command to their bodies to reject phyrexia as well as Ranna having learned how to use phoenix feathers as a way to replace organs and body parts by using its fire to burn way the infection and then having the reminding flesh as a base to regrow new organs and limbs.
-Jace and Vraska heal and learn of the omenpaths and desparking and believing they need to fix the multiverse, taking the phoenix metaphor of death and rebirth they set out on an yet told plan to heal what phyrexia took. To this end Jace would hide himself as Ashiok first doing so at the end of WOE where it was him who freed Eriette after Ashiok fled and get the crew together to rob the vault and freeing the child, Loot. Now with a living map to the mutiverse in real time, the family of a telepath, a gorgon and their adopted child head out to fix what phyrexia broke.
The Dragon Storm Arc (2024-2025)
Bloomburrow
- A "Funny Animal" trope themed plane (see Redwall) with no humanoid beings and all animals are to scope
Duskmourn: House of Horror
- A new Horror plane thats much more modern horror (with 70's/80's horror period being mentioned) and the whole plane is set within a singel haunted Manor
2025 (The rest of sets are being worked on and such we only have codenames for the sets and will be updated as we know info)
Tennis
-A "Death race" set across three planes now connected by the Omenpaths. Two of the planes are planes that have been visited in a premier-set but not returned to and the third is a plane that we have seen on cards, but it hasn't been the main setting of a premier set yet.
Ultimate
-A return to Tarkir that will feature elements from both Khans of Tarkir and Dragons of Tarkir
The CENSORED Arc (2024-2025)
Volleyball
- A top down Space Opera fantasy set
Wrestling
- A return to Lorwyn (and likely Shadowmoor )
2026
Yachting
- A return to Strixhaven
Ziplining
- A capstone set (Ie War of the Spark and March of the Machine) of this story Saga.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
based on description from the end of the first ixalan story will Thunder Junction be the home place/plane of Angrath? (how his home is described is as if a wild west plane and could be the town blacksmith)
You keep bringing up the blacksmith like it means anything. Blacksmiths are not wild west specific. Blacksmiths have existed (and called that) ever since people started working steel and iron...
I have to admit I am really not feeling this omenpath arc and turning the Wild West plane into a villain gallery feels so... fan-arty. I am curious about the space-opera set and how they itnend to make it still feel like Magic, but I think they simply might not.
Really curious about Lorwyn though. I'd be ecstatic if the whole UB and omenpath business wouldn't smother my excitement for Magic stuff. :/
if The eldrazi are involved in that plane then things will get really interesting (they really were based on aliens if the case)
So based on this, I would say Capenna is pretty much a given. It's just too good a fit.
As for the second, there's nothing that stands out to me. I think it might be either Kaladesh or Alara. Leaning towards Kaladesh, though I find the whole "death race" thing to be a weird fit for Kaladesh. I only mention Alara, because of its variety of environments, but that's a fairly weak link. That skull-truck does look a bit Grixisy though.
As for the third plane, Maro said that it is a plane that we have seen on cards, but it hasn't been the main setting of a premier set yet. That clarification of that last part makes me think that it is one of the planes we have seen in a premier set, but not as a main setting, which narrows it down to three planes:
Some other noteworthy planes in case the wording by Maro is a deliberate red herring:
Murders at Karlov Manor
The panel also showed art of Kaya so I we will likely see if she has her spark or not (as well as Ral). I feel like Kaya is 50/50 if she's deparked and I think Ral will defiantly be.
I also would love the idea that all the stuff happens in Teysa family mansion and she isn't aware of it until the end when the killer(s) are caught and she comes in wondering why the **** their are people running around in her Mansion.
Outlaws of Thunder Junction
For the figures outlined my guesses are tiny bones, Vraska, Jace, Oko, the new character and Rakdos. We will see if Vraska, Jace and Oko are still sparked but my guess is maybe all of them are and the new character is a planeswalker. And neat to see the first set that clearly couldn't happen until now with the omen paths letting all the villains. This being Angraths home plane would be cute but I don't see anything outright about Angrath being from western world and is vague enough to work either way.
Also glad they got a consultants on this and hope this will show a bit of diversity in mtg we don't get a lot of.
Bloomburrow
It would also be fitting if this was a the homeplane of Grist who would fit here as she is a just an insect and hopefully still has her spark if so. Otherwise I think this would be the first set without a desparked planeswalker (as Grist is the only canon animal planeswalker) and if no Grist as a planeswalker maybe we will get another animal walker on this plane. Also maybe this the home plane of Chatterfang.
Duskmourn
While I don't think they would show up as a card I could see this as Ashioks home plane as Ashiok could be seen as magic version of Freddy Krueger. And if the theory is true we could also see a few of desparked characters up now having to deal with a threat unable to just walk away, such as Nissa and Chandra* ending up here looking for Zendikar or Sorin/Arlinn now desparked and once the monsters on their home now victims on this one.
"Death Race"
Tarkir 2
"Space Opera"
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor 2
Strixhaven 2
"Ziplining"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
the “Death race” thing it occurred
the “Victor Adame Minguez” secret lair with lord of the undead and knight of the white orchid
because in that same lair compost is likely a teaser for “caverns of ixalan” with “ Tocatztli” that spider is easily another god from the two shown already.
I don’t believe he’ll return as a major threat, but even if he merely escaped- that would be a momentous consequence and villain victory enough.
perhaps whatever occurs on Tarkir is meant to distract a sparkbearing Ugin away from the meditation realm?
I doubt the main source of conflict concerns Bolas however. If anything it’ll probably be conflict over the chaos caused by the omenpaths overall with one side seeking to ‘fix’ the phenomenon, whilst others try to preserve it. The end result may see the Planeswalker spark rekindled among some De-walkers.
meh. There doesn’t seem to be enough tent pole releases based upon MtG’s own IP to pull this off in my opinion. I’m kinda annoyed at all this Secret Lair + Universes Beyond /‘gimmick’ stuff they’ve been pulling lately.
The anecdotal counterpoint: My bro who hasn’t been into mtg for years bought for my birthday, the Lord of a Rings Jumpstart box, so I could teach my other adult sibs how to play using a franchise they already enjoy.
…I didn’t have the heart to tell him how much I loath the business model- and to be fair, if it causes interest in the actual game AND IP of MtG among my siblings, then yeah, consider me won over.
But I have a feeling that these new collectors are gonna be more akin to fandom collectors- their interest only goes as deep as the centering of their preferred franchise -which to be fair is how I feel about MtG’s main IP and story as well.
My fear is that eventually, MtG will be like Lego, providing the building blocks to represent other games in competitive formats- but lacking an identifiable IP with a strong narrative.
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Could it be the Fomori arc?
At this point in time and with info we have I think this is very likely and have three things swimming in my head about it;
1- The Fomori in Ixalan are a subversion of the Ancient Aliens/Ancient Astronauts trope*, with the Fomori being colonizers who where pushed out after some time. As KavuMonarch pointed out in the Ixalan 2 thread, with their "space ship" and alien like tech, the Fomori would fit in perfectly in the space set, which is the start of the CENSORED* arc and fits with them being set up as evil ancient aliens.
*Ancient Astronauts a trope of a high advance alien species influences the culture of Ancient human (often co-opted into racist theories to discredit non-white cultures feats).
2- Mythologically the Fomori are beings from Irish mythology and not friendly to the human and the other magical beings Tuatha Dé Danann. This would make them fit right into Lorwyn's Celtic mythology base (from which Irish mythology is descended from) and Lorwyn is the second set in this arc. Could be fitting of the myths if return to Lorwyn feature a conflict with the peoples of Lorwyn and the Fomori and/or end up being where we lean the origins of the Fomori.
3- As I said above I do think the return to Strixhaven right before the capstone set makes me think this will include the story thread of Kasmina and her group. I also feel the fact its Quint home and Quint is the one looking into the Fomori at the moment, it would circle back nicely to Ixalan.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Its also noted that since the Phyrexia saga cleaned up a lot of major story threads they are now gonna focus on setting up and finishing story arcs in a quicker manner. While we will still see storylines that track across years, they are moving less from "Phyrexia has returned!" -11 real world years later and 2.5 story arcs later- "ok now we gonna deal with the Phyrexians!".
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
So these cards could be a plant for Return to Tarkir, but what if they're actually plants for Deathrace? My prediction is that Capenna is one of the worlds we revisit and either Kaladesh or Alara would be the second. But even without Alara, the set would have a strong multi-color theme.
Plus, I expect domain or a domain-like mechanic to return to represent the race track winding through the various environments on the different worlds. Maybe Domain, but it works more like party so that Everywhere lands can work as jokers and not as instant fulfillments. If this is the case then Deathrace might push strongly towards multicolor, which would also synergize well with Return to Tarkir, which very likely will bring back the wedges.
the Whole “survival” mechanic is the most obvious since vehicles can get that without any prep
rip, spawn hunter is the biggest one
I'd bet that this is the death race set and mounts where being made as a way to cut down the number of vehicles (as artifacts heavy sets can have balancing issues and vehicles are "dead" on the field as creatures if you have no one to crew or way to animate them while mounts are normal creatures that get upgraded when saddled) and flavor-wise some character would use a mount to race vs a car or motorbike.
-Final guesses for the planes for the Race set;
Kaladesh- Original plane of vehicles and a plane that has issues for a full return so a mutiplanar set feels like a good place to return to it.
Alara- My least certain but I want a return to Alara and this might be the way to do it without needing to figure out how current Alara factions work. Also think Alara would be cool to be used to make different enviorments to race through (Kaldheim would also work thought I think trying to fit 10 mini-planes vs Alaras 5 would be more tricky).
Vyrn- Home plane of Jace that just got a lot of focus, from BTS Vyrn has been up to be a setting for several set but cut mostly due to it not having a strong card theme to work from which this kind of set might help work around.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The balancing issues of artifacts is their colorlessness, not the fact they're artifacts. Recently non-utility artifacts come coloured more often than not and I'm pretty sure the vast majority of vehicles in Death Race will be colored.
Personally I find mounts in a death race set a bit weird. Could work, but I dunno. It feels like it's diluting the idea a bit. Also considering how similar they work it'd be kinda awkward game-play wise.
Personally I wish they had gone the mutate rule for mounts, but whatever.
I think mounts would help the set/theme feel more in the fantasy genre since we'd have people racing on unicorns and dragons as well as cars and bikes.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
theres one picture there riding in amonkhet
oh by the way darreti is in the set so that might mean one plane is fiora (is fiora the never done in preimer set plane. and when he said that he was talking only had for supplament sets)
-Death race set is called Aetherdrift and features racers trying to win "the aetherspark"*. Looks like Kaladesh and Amonkhet are in it with the 3rd plane unclear to me. There will be 10 groups of races, one for each color pair, with goblins and bugs are two of the groups. Chandra is co-leading another and seemly is racing looking for Nissa. Daretti is here and depsarked
-Tarkir 2 is called Tarkir: Dragon Storms, dragons are popping out of dragon storms like crazy and sarkhan seems to be enjoying it. Ugin, still sparked, is here. The plane will be getting a soft-flavor reboot after consultants have since gone over it.
-Space set is Edge of Eternities: it is set on "The Edge" a sci fi setting that is "outside of the mutiverse" and on the edge of it and the blind eternities. Tezzeret is here, spark status unknown.
*-my thought form the partial shown card is its an artifacl spark that lets non-walkers planeswalk without need of an omenpath
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
those bug like creatures could fit for it and a hint on exploring
Anyway, my money's still on Vryn, but considering that Amonkhet is in I feel like anything goes at this point.
The second half of this year will be rough with a space set wedged between two UBs. Hopefully they manage to integrate EOE into magic proper. Exploring what is "outside the multiverse" could potentially be interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sF2FKzEztM&t=19s
You got it, Maro let slip that the 3rd plane "has dinosaurs on it"
EDIT (updated with more info from the panel video)
-Aetherdrift will be focus on vehicles
-The clans have returned which (along with the updated with the consultants input) is a reason for a shift in looks and flavor as they discover the ways of their pasts. And seemly new kinds of dragons (which was hinted at with the concept art) have shown up as well.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Ah yeah, that seals it. Hadn't watched the panel when my made my previous post.
Wonder who built the race tracks there though and how. And why.
1. the space set is actually outside the blind eternity called "the edge"
2. i heard Urza might have entered this place be accident and likely while searching for a source to annihilate all phyrexians
3. unless im mistake even bolas mentions that his plans involved "the edge"
4. even though its still the blind eternities im wondering if the eldrazi's have a connection to "the edge" or not
https://youtu.be/IwvmErIw4_0?t=1586&si=zq6VVBlgSSjRiz0f
Magic Foundations has 10 "main characters" (as seen on the lands) and each of them seemly are gonna show up in the upcoming mainline sets. The characters are;
Ajani, Kaito, Liliana, Chandra, Vivien, Giada, Zimone, Tinybones, Kellan and Loot.
Chandra is coming up in Aetherdrift, Liliana and Zimone seem clear for strixhaven 2 and Loot in general is being set up for something.
My one real guess atm is Ajani on Lorwyn as a nod to him being part of the Lorwyn 5 and would keep the vibe of no humans on the plane and maybe Kellan too looking into the fae of the plane.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"