A race across worlds, wars with dragons, and deep-space voyages barely scratch the surface of what's to come for Magic: The Gathering in 2025.

Wizards of the Coast's world-renowned trading card game is scheduled for six new set releases this year, three in-world and three Universes Beyond crossovers. The in-world sets are Aetherdrift, Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and Edge of Eternities, while the Universes Beyond sets feature collaborations with Square Enix's Final Fantasy and Marvel's Spider-Man.

Ch??eck out the timeline below with each set's official release date and some extra details.

Aetherdrift

February 14, 2025

After the enormous multiversal war in March of the Machine, gateways called omenpaths opened, allowing beings other than planeswalkers to travel between world??s. This new status quo allowed Wizards of the Coast to do something unprecedented: one set featuring three dif?ferent worlds. It accomplished this feat through a death race across Avishkar, Amonkhet, and Muraganda, with the grand prize being the powerful Aetherspark. Familiar faces Chandra and Daretti return, attempting to claim the artifact, which also serves as the set's headliner card.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm

April 11, 2025

The world of Tarkir returns after a 10-year respite, and the dragons are returning along with it. Sarkhan Vol, who also returns in this set, orchestrated their comeback. The planeswalker traveled through time and prevented the dragons' destruction by reviving Ugin, whi??ch allowed them to reign supreme over Tarkir. Lastly, the wedge gameplay that spawned in the original Tarkir set is the focus of the new one.

Final Fantasy

June 13, 2025

Magic: The Gathering adds another unbelievable crossover to its repertoire, Final Fantasy. The set features c??ards based on characters, events, and game mechanics from every one of the franchise's 16 main installments. Cards adorned with Cloud, Noctis, Terra, and even chocobos are playable in the new release. Artwork was handled by artists at Square Enix and Wizards of the Coast, recreating the classics and developing original pieces just for the crossover. The Final Fantasy release begins the new policy of Universes Beyond s?ets moving forward being legal in all constructed formats.

Edge of Eternities

August 1, 2025

On the outskirts of the multiverse lies the Edge, a starfield bordering the Blind Eternities, where alien races use never-before-seen technology and types of magic to struggle for control of the Sothera system. Despite the set's focus on unfamiliarity, the planeswalker Tezzeret is a recognizable presence in the Edge, vying for power in the galaxy. Wizards of the Coast calls Edge of Eternities a science fantasy in the vein of Bethesda Softworks' Starfield.

Spider-Man

Late 2025

Wizards of the Coast teamed up with Marvel last year to release a Secret Lair superdrop featuring card designs inspired by five superheroes from the comic publisher's catalog. This year, that partnership continues with an entire booster set inspired by Spider-Man. The only confirmation of its release date so far is the second half of 20??25, but it could drop in October if it follows the pattern of the previous four sets.

Unannounced Universes Beyond Set

TBA

Confirmed for the fourth quarter of 2025, Magic: The Gathering's final release of the year largely remains a secret. The release is a tentpole set, and it features randomized booster packs for the Limited format and decks for Commander play. Rumors that the set is based on Avatar: The Last Airbender began swirling last month when cosmetic bundles on Magic: Arena's online shop featured references to components heavily utilized in the lore of the 2005 Nickelodeon cartoon. Ironically, Spongebob Squarepants, another Nickelod?eon cartoon, is confirmed as ?a Secret Lair release in 2025.

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Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance will be delisted from online stores in February 2025, and its servers will shut down. However, those who own the game c?an still play it offline.

The news of its delisting wasn't exactly broadcast very loudly. It was shared as a short blurb in the description section of online store pages.

"We will be shutting down (shut down) the Dark Alliance servers on 2/24/2025, and it ?will no longer be available to purchase starting that day," the short announcement reads. "The base game and all DLC are still available to play in offline single player by anyone who currently ow??ns it."

Dark Alliance gets delisted next year, even though you can play it offline

Admittedly, Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance getting its multipl??ayer servers shut off isn't much of a shocker. The online co-op game was negatively rece??ived by critics and players, with complaints ranging from bugs to general tedium. I attempted to play the game when it launched in 2021, but my experience didn't last long.

In our impressions of the game, we noted issues like wonky AI, lackluster? comb??at, and a dull story.

"I’m just not digging Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance right now," Zoey Handley wrote. "It feels rickety at best and annoying a??t worst. Monotonous, bland, uninteresting??."

It wasn't great, no. Regardless, it does feel a bit off for the game to get delisted when you can play it offline. Okay, I can see the justification of the servers if no one is playing it. Still, it's becoming a worrying trend to see content get delisted, sometimes without any discernable reason. One could speculate that it has something to do with licensing, but the developer (under the new name Invoke Studios) is still working with Wizards of the Coast on a new unannounced D&D project.

If you want to give the game a shot and don't mind slogging through its issues, you can pick it up now for $29.99 on Steam. But it's probably worth using that money on its spiritual predecessor Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. It's older and locked to couch co-op, but it's a muc??h, much better game.

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It was only a matter of time before the two fantasy worlds collided, and on June 13, 2025, Magic: The Gathering will finally join forces with the world of Final Fantasy to bring a stunning new set? of cards to the table.

As part of MagicCon: Las Vegas, Wizards of the Coast have revealed a bunch of new sets that will be released at some point in 2025, and while we’ll get into the other sets a little further down, the focus here is definitely on the Final Fantasy cards and the beautiful exa??mples of artwork that we’ve already seen. 

The set will feature not only well known faces from across the 16 game franchise, but also locations, spells, and mounts. It will be the largest single collection of artwork from the franchise as well, featuring artwork by both Wizards of the Coast artists and renowned Final Fantasy illustrators. 

My Final Fantasy XIV fangirl heart is overjoyed at the inclusion of an Emet-Selch card, as well as other familiar faces like Kefka from FFVI and Sephiroth from FFVII. There’s al??so a Post Moogle that’s beyond adorable, and an illustration of Tidus and Yuna wrapped in an embrace.&n?bsp;

I’ve got to be honest, I’ve managed to avoid being pulled into the world of Magic: The Gathering thus far, but this might be the set that breaks me. In fact, there’s no might about it, I’ll be pre-ordering this as soon as I possibly can. If you want to do the same, you can sign up for updates via the Wizards of the Coast website. 

All Magic: The Gathering sets revealed at MagicCon: Las Vegas

If you’re not into Final Fantasy, here are the other sets that? were also revealed during MagicCon: Las Vegas:

Innistrad: Remastered (January 24)

This reprint of the Innistrad set first released in 2011 will be the first to release in 2025. If you’re a fan of the gothic horror world filled with vampires and werewolves, then you’ll know what to expect from Innistrad: Remastered. However, there will be a new type of card included, called H?eadliners, which are described as “t?he most exciting card to collect in a release� 

Aetherdrift (February 14)

The first Standard-legal set of 2025, Aetherdrift will follow a “death raceâ€?theme in which residents from three different planes in the MTG universe will come to together to compete for the Aether Spark. Apparently it’s a trophy that provides an incredible amou?nt of power to the winner. 

Tarkir: Dragonstorm (April 11)

Tarkir: Dragonstorm will be set on the ??pl?ane of Tarkir, and will see five clans battle it out against a surge of lethal dragons. This set will include some familiar faces, including Sarkhan and the spirit dragon Ugin. 

Edge Of Eternities (August 1)

When Edge of Eternities is released in August, MTG will be jetti??ng off into space for this first-t?ime space opera. Explore beyond the edges of the known multiverse in an area known as the Solthera system, and encounter a familiar yet long-absent villain, Tezzeret. 

Marvel's Spider-Man (TBA 2025)

Although we have no specific release date for this Spider-Man themed expansion, it will work nicely alongside the soon-to-be-released Marvel themed Secret Lair Superdrop, which is coming in November. 

Secret Lair x SpongeBob SquarePants

I think you could be forgiven if you didn’t see this one coming, but yes you read that correctly. SpongeBob, and likely the rest of Bikini Bottom, is being brought into the Magic: The Gathering universe. There’s no specific release date for this one,? and I’m interested to see how it goes, so watch this spa?ce.

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Wizards of the Coast now has complete control over their card game's most popular format. Some might be surprised to learn that Magic: The Gathering's most popular and beloved format, Commander, was not already overseen by the card game's owners. The an?swer, in sh??ort, is that the format wasn't for Wizards. Commander is for everyone.

Commander was born from Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH) format on an air force base in Alaska. A Magic Judge named Sheldon Menery started to shape this format in the early 2000s around the idea of a social, player-driven philosophy. Sheldon founded the Commander Rules Committee (RC) to help guide the format down these hopeful paths. The intention of the RC has always been to encourage the social, casual nature of Commander, rather than enforce strict rulesets. Menery outlined this simply, in an interview from September 2022, saying “Commander is a social format first, and a mechanical one second.�/p>

To most people, Commander is the format that you play with a group of friends over drinks and snacks while talking about whatever and occasionally realizing that you're losing the game. That simplicity is what made Commander the most popular way to play, and often the main way people enter into Magic: The Gathering as a hobby. Balancing this social philosophy with ban lists is a difficult thing, but the upside is that the RC was run outside of Wizards of the Coast. The RC were members of the Magic community, accessible and approachable people who could directly address the critiques of?? a growing player base. When the community grew and the viewpoints of the RC weren't enough, the Commander Advisory Group (CAG) was established, inviting high-profile members of the community to be rallying points for players and new voices to influence RC decisions.

In the same interview from 2022, Menery explained, “We don’t have hard data, metrics, like a corporation might for its decision points. We don’t have profit sheets�that’s liberating.�That was the difference. The format's leadership cared about people and encouraging camaraderie; a corporation cares about selling cardboard. When Wizards started designing cards specifically for Commander, a new purpose for the RC and CAG became to assess how these cards impacted players and deci??de how to handle them.

While the cooperation between Wizards and the RC was mutually beneficial, the design goals for Wizards' formats and Commander are completely different. The RC is, technically, not an official rules-making body. Their decisions might effect the competitive scene of Commander, but the format is designed for flexibility in how each play group will play the game. These lines can blur and become more difficult as Wizards prints cards with Commander as a focal point for design. Menery explained in an article in 2015, "There is a global, centralized vision ??for the fo?rmat. It’s up to you to figure out how your personal vision meshes with that or doesn’t, but our vision includes the idea that yours does not perfectly line up with ours."

The RC's approach to Commander has long been fairly hands-off, part of the goal to allow players a sense of freedom and expression through deck building and play. This continued as Commander pushed onward in the aftermath of Sheldon Menery's passing in September 2023. His claim that the personal vision of some play??ers may not perfectly align with the goals?? of the RC became prophetic a few days ago.

On September 23, the RC banned four cards: Mana Crypt, Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom. Nadu had already been removed from other formats, and ??most did not miss it. The other cards were banned because of their ability to ramp up the speed of games, the ability to accrue "fast mana" and jump into the mid-game by your first or second turn. The cards were format-warping, but people were quick to point out the strange inconsistencies in the banning philosophy while comparing which cards were and were not banned. Then, things escalated.

According to some members of the CAG, the RC made these choices without consulting the CAG at all. Criticism was lobbied at the RC initially, but that took a turn too. The banning of these cards was considered an economic hit for card investors selling on the secondary market. Prices for several of these cards had reached between $80 and $800, Mana Crypt in particular. The drop in prices on a line graph were stark and vertical. The vitriolic threats that were fired around are actually best captured in a post from Wizards of the Coast in the aftermath. They said, "we've seen players and fans share a diverse range of passionate opinions—far too many of which were harmful or malicious" and "it is never appropriate to threaten somebody... we will not hesitate to take action against i??ndividuals who threaten to harm community members or employees."

The RC posted a document describing their reasons for the bans in question, why they didn't alert the community these cards were being monitored, and why the CAG was not informed of these decisions. When threats at Committee members, particularly targeting Olivia Gobert-Hicks, continued, Jim LaPage went to social media to defend Olivia, breaking the RC's confidentiality voting in a clear attempt to mitigate the anger. LaPage's X account went private soon after. Some CAG members tweeted resignations amidst all this for reasons that are still unknown at the time of reporting. Since the list went up, according to all sources from the Magic community, Comma??nder format lea??dership, and Wizards themselves, nothing stemmed the tide.

On September 30, Wizards of the Coast announced that control over ??the Commander format now belonged to them. Social media pos?ts from RC and CAG members soon followed.

At this time, it is too soon to say for certain what the consequences of this shift from a volunteer force to Wizards will be. Wizards has indicated that "the vision for a social format will not change." In a livestream on October 1, Wizards tackled the very issue of making decisions with profit sheets. Aaron Forsythe responded, "Yes, Hasbro wants things. Yes, my boss wants things... I have a lot of freedom to execute as I see fit... Our goal is t??o make this thing last forever... making the game fun as possible for as many people as possible is how we're gonna make our money." They also provided some comments on the nature of their proposed "bracket" system and the new Committee that mostly amounts to no real answers for players until something more official is released.

Discussing the banned cards at the center of all this, Wizards designers revealed they believe the cards to be "mistakes" that they "would not want to make by today's standards." While the implicatio??n is that these cards will remain banned, there was no confirmation that they will stay that way. All we know for now is that Wizards is "evaluating" the ban list and making no changes at this time.

In a 2019 article b??y Shel??don Menery discussing the history of Commander, he concludes with, "The history of Commander has been a long, strange, and unexpected trip. How we got here is a compelling story, but it’s more important to focus on where we are and where we’re going." More than ever, the story of Magic's most popular format feels adrift in unknown waters. Wizards of the Coast produces game pieces for their official formats and happily u??plifts their secondary market with restrictive reprint policies. Commander is now an official format too.

Still, it is better for anger to be targeted at a faceless corporation than individual volunteers. The admin for the official Commander Discord server posted a statement that included this observation, "You will never again get the privilege of one-on-one communication with a decision maker of the format. There’s ??no doubt that the people who will be taking over managing Commander will be kept mostly anonymous for their own safety, given what just happened to the Rule??s Committee."

What will become of the social format is anyone's guess. In the final sentence of his history article, Sheldon Menery takes?? an optimistic approach toward the future. He wrote, "From where I sit, the sky is the limit."

In the immediate aft?ermath of Wizards taking control of Commander, listed prices of Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus started to rise.

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Magic: The Gathering invites players to experience a game filled with many intentionally funny cards, which is a great thing to think about when trying to blow off steam after losing a game due to lack of? mana.

I love those, but the cards that make me laug??h the most are those that come with abilities that are just baffling---and that are still intended for serious competitive play. Let's look at some of the strangest cards in the history of the game, shall we?

Force of Savagery

Achieving success in a match of MTG might involve engaging in perilous behavior and the employment of straight-up suicidal creatures, but Forc??e of Savag?ery is a completely different beast.

Even though it has a cost of three and comes with 8 strength, that counts for nothing by itself because landing on the battle?ground as is will cause it to die immediately, splattered on the pavement. Force of Savagery isn't a card that merely works bette??r as a combo piece---it's that very rare card that depends on combos to even stay alive, let alone be useful.

Goblin Bomb

The?? only predictable thing about goblins is their troublemaking ability. Goblin Bomb is hilarious because it makes the result of a game that's meant to be about mental wits hinge entirely on luck. Its owner will only have to pay two mana, which is pretty low for something that could obliterate the opponent in 5 turns, but it's highly unlikely that you'll get the desired outcome out of five coin tosses in a row, considering how they're meant to be 50/50.

Though Goblin Bomb will hardly prove a reliable killing-blow machine, it might very well work wo?nders in terms?? of making your opponent feel highly anxious.

Mogg Assassin

And yet another coinflip, but this ??time in true hardcore goblin mode. With Mogg Assassin, losing the coinflip won't cause you to merely delay the detonation of a bomb that will destroy the opponent but actually light the fuse that will result in its owner's undoing.

Paying three mana for a 2/1 creature that can end up destroying every single one of its owner's cre??atures?? is a ridiculous gamble that only a true goblin-hearted player would go for.

Divine Intervention

MTG is like tennis: It's very expensive, and every match has a decisive result. I mean, unless you're playing with Divine Intervention. This is the only card of the game that might force a game to end in a draw. Imagine trusting your deck and abilit??ies so little that you put in a card that isn't meant to help you win, but also trusting luck so much that you believe you'll make it until you have the eight mana required to make it work.

Goblin Game

Though Planeshift was conceived as a serious expansion set, I suspect it's but a greatest hits collection of the dumbest ideas for cards that th??e people at Wizards had ever come up with. So many of the Planeshift cards are bizarre to the point of feeling like someone forgot to mention that they're not meant to be serious, and Goblin Game is the best of the bunch.

Did you come to play a card game? Too bad, because Goblin Game forces players to go look for objects, hide them, and then reveal all the concealed objects at once. The one who reveals fewer objects ends up losi??ng half of their HP but rounded up, meaning that no one can ever lose the game to this??---but they will never recover their dignity.

Shahrazad

This card has one of the longest texts in the history of the game, but going through the effort of reading and trying to understand it is more than worth it because of all the confused laughter you'll get out of it. Long story short, Shahrazad has players pausing their current game to start another MTG match inside that one with their remaining cards. All that just to? have the winner halving the HP of the adversary.

The best part about it is how there are no rules to stop the madness in case any of these players have more Shahrazad cards, meaning that they can trigger up to eight MTG subgames deep.

Raging River

At this point you're probably already aware that long texts tend to mean just dumb and confusing abilities. I'd love to have the infamous Sorrow's Path here, but I've previously talked about it in an even more fitting list, so it's time for R?aging River to get the spotlight. For some reason, this enchantment has?? both players picturing a river, then dividing defending and attacking creatures among the river's two margins to make the process way more convoluted for everyone involved.

Chaos Orb

Did you ever think wind conditions could stand behind you becoming the greatest MTG player of all time?

This is the only serious card in the history of the game that you need to actively drop on top of the opponent's side of the play area, but that's not all. Players will also have to hope that it does a flip during its fall, because only then will it destroy all permanents it comes in contact wi??th. Chaos Orb is such a dumb card from the early days of the game that even Wizards went on to spoof it in the Unglued set.

Illicit Auction

You gotta wonder just how confident the people behind making MTG in the early da??ys were when so many cards just took you away from the actual game. This time, we have Illicit Auction, a card that turns a match into a silly bidding contest that will culminate with the "winner" paying a likely unreasonable amount of HP to gain or main??tain control of a creature. Absolutely none of this is worth it in any way.

Quarum Trench Gnomes

A 1/1 creature for the price of four mana is quite a lot---unless it comes equipped ?with an amazing ability. Quarum Trench Gnomes' ability is extremely topical, but also annoying to the point of getting the right opponent to ragequit. These little fiends can render plains incapable of producing white mana, which is just a vile ability that doesn't exist in any other creature against any other type of land.

Whoever came up with the idea for Quarum Trench Gnomes must have really hated the color White---or was perhaps trying to warn us about the serious dangers of fracking. In that case, then kudos for the incredible fo??resight and satirical abilities on display.

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Friendship is magic!

Warlocks are one of the most customizable Dungeons & Dragons classes, with a patron at level 1 and the actual subclass (the all-important Pact) at level 3. While patron choice has a huge impact on the flavor of your warlock, the mechanical meat of thi??s layered and rewarding class lies ??in your choice of Pact.

I've been using this Pact of the Chain build in my own game, and I can thoroughly recommend it! The Pa?cts all have their own playstyles to recommend them, and the Pact of the Chain might seem underwhelming at first glance, as wizards already get the find familiar ??spell. However, the warlock familiar is an entirely different animal. Quite literally.

The Pact of the Chain allows the warlock to cast the find familiar spell as any run-of-the-mill wizard can, but while most find familiar spells can only summon a fairly ordinary creature, albeit a magical version, Pact of the Chain warlocks can choose their familiar from imps, pseudodragons, quasits, and sprites instead??. My personal favorite is the psuedodragon, for reasons I'll come to soon.

A??ll familiars have their own initiative and can take a move and an action (such as the Help action to give the caster an advantage on their attacks against that target). Pact of the Chain familiars, unlike other familiars, can be commanded to attack by their pacted warlock, but the warlock must give up their own action to give their familiar an?? attack on the warlock's initiative. Luckily, the Investment of the Chain Master invocation from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, allows you to use your bonus action to attack with your familiar.

The other key part of this build is that the Investment of the Chain Master means that whenever your familiar forces an enemy to make a saving throw, it uses your spell save DC instead of its usual saving throw. This is where the pseudodragon shines compared to the other familiars: its sting attack has very limited damage but forces its victim to make a Constitution saving throw using the warlock’s spell save DC for the saving throw. If the target fails the saving? throw, they become poisoned for an hour, which imposes a disadvantage on all attack rolls and ??ability checks, and if they fail by 5 or more, they immediately fall unconscious.

What this means in practice is that the familiar can move within 5 feet of an enemy on its turn and use the help action to give the warlock an advantage on their next attack against the target. The warlock can use their bonus action to command the pseudodragon? to attack t??he target. The warlock then has their own standard action free to make an attack with an advantage on the target from the help action or cast another spell.

This has some potential weaknesses: if the pseudodragon gets taken out?? (which did happen to my warlock's familiar during an early adventure), your combat ability is somewhat hampered, though you still always have your spells. Luckily, Pact of the Chain warlocks can ??use their reaction to give their familiar resistance to the damage it just took. Look after your familiar and it will look after you!

You can also use any familiar to deliver touch-range spell attacks on your turn with your attack modifier rather than theirs, so you may wish to consider taking the Magic Initiate feat for the Sorcerer and gain the Shocking Grasp cantrip, ??as Sorcerers use Charis??ma for their spell attacks.

Warlock Pact of the Chain Build

Attributes: H??igh Charisma (vital for any Warlock �put your highest attribute score in Charisma and ideally take a species bonus to Charisma?). Other attributes are very much up to you.

Patron: Patrons that provide access to spell attacks such as Scorching Ray from the Fiend or the Genie, or the Tentacle of the Deep from the Fathomless, or touch spells such as Cure Wounds from ?the Celestial, have sl?ightly better synergy with this build.

Invocations (level 2): Agonizing Blast a??nd another invocation that you will replace at lev?el 3 with Investment of the Chain Master.

Pact (level 3): Pact of the Chain with the pseudodragon.

Spells: Eldritch Blast is the real favorite here, as it is a ranged spell attack that you can use in conjunction with your familiar's help action. For your other cantrip, Mind Sliver subtracts 1d4 from the target's next saving throw, making them more vulnerabl?e to your pseudodragon's poison.

The post Try this devious DnD Pact of the Chain War??lock build appeared first on Destructoid.

Local Game Stores are becoming increasingly difficult to find as the world shifts to digital storefronts. Luckily for those living in remote areas or whose favorite store closed down, Magic: The Gathering has a th??riving online player base across many platforms.

Many popular platf??orms take the (excuse the pun) magic from the tabletop to the internet. Each accommodates a variety of game modes? and features which makes some more appealing than others.

Play??er preferences are primarily formed aroun??d three criteria: 

• Game modes (Ex. Standard, Commander, Two-Headed Giant)
• Accessibility (Installation, setup, cost)
• User Experience (Interface, gameplay automation, matchmaking)

With those in mind, here are the best ways to play Magic: The Gathering (MTG) online:

The best Magic: The Gathering online games

Honorable mentions

Tabletop Simulator

While Tabletop Simulator can be used to play virtually any tabletop game, it doesn't mean that it's easy. MTG can be played in Tabletop Simulator but requires a tremendous amou?nt of work for every player involved.

• Players will need to create or find a table suitable for MTG on the Steam Workshop.
• Decks must be created and imported into the game with assets for each card.
• The process of finding games is left up to the player, mostly an option suitable for games between friends
• Costs $19.99 for each player

XMage

When XMage works, it's one of the best clients for playing MTG online. Unfortunately, XMage is rife with issues both in and out of the game. Pla??yers frequen??tly mention being unable to download the client due to website errors or experiencing other game-breaking bugs.

• Modern interface, considered a successor to Cockatrice
• Completely free
• Infrequent updates - new sets are usually introduced within a month of release
• If bugs are present, it could be months before they're addressed
• During a good patch, XMage is considered a go-to platform, but those patches are becoming increasingly rare

4. Cockatrice

Cockatrice launched in 2010 and was the community’s first attempt at digitizing Magic. Wizard of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering Online was the primary platform for players who wanted to play Magic over the internet. But for many paper players, payi??ng for an additional digital collection of cards simply wasn’t affordable.

Cockatrice launched with th??e promise of a completely free-to-play Magic experience online, a promise that has held up to this day.

Pros: 

• Complete card library
• Full control of the gameplay means it’s easy to undo or fix mistakes
• In-game chat for communication
• Can play every type of game mode
• Free to use and doesn’t require paying for cards

Cons:

• No automated actions - it’s important for all players to be well-versed in the rules and mechanics
• Arguments over how to resolve cards are common
• Complicated to set up, not a simple download and play process
• Barebones, the quality of the experience is left entirely to the players
• Smaller pool of players means games can be difficult to find

As time has passed, so too have the technology and capabilities of the internet. While Cockatrice still receives support and occasional updates, the interface is dated and the client feels like a chat room from the early 2000s. Setting up and playing on Cockatrice has gotten easier over the years, but can still be o?ff-putting to some players.? 

3. Magic: The Gathering Online

In 2002, Wizards of the Coast launched Magic: The Gathering Online, which could be considered a pioneer of online card gaming. While heavily criticized for its in-game economy and numerous bugs, MTGO h??as managed to stay alive despite facing many competitors over its two-decade lifespan. 

Unlike Cockatrice, MTGO provides gameplay automation, meaning instead of arguing with your opponents, you can blame the computer for everything (and you will). At ??any point in time, MTGO can be described as a buggy but complete experience. For those who don’t mind the costs associated with a digital collection, there isn’t ?a more comprehensive platform for playing Magic online. 

Pros:

• Complete card library
• Official Wizards of the Coast product
• Players own their cards as digital assets, can trade and sell them
• Can play every game mode
• Automated actions simplify the gameplay process and takes the burden off of players

Cons:

• Have to purchase or rent digital cards to use, can be very expensive
• Client tends to lag in later stages of games
• Many bugs with card interactions or with the client itself
• Client feels very outdated
• Only in English
• Only for Windows

Unfortunately, MTGO is only available in English and on Windows PCs. This severely harms the accessibility factor which lowers our o??verall rating ??for MTGO. 

2. Magic: The Gathering Arena

Since its launch in 2018, Magic: The Gathering Arena has been the reigning champ when it comes to the most streamlined MTG experience on the market. Arena is a vast improvement over Wizards of the Coast’s first child, MTGO. The UI has been modernized and the game rules engine was built from the ground up and is written in a way that allows for endless develo??pment. 

Pros:

• By far the most streamlined gameplay experience - all phases, spells and triggers are automated
• Free to play - cards can be earned with currency obtainable in-game, though can also be purchased with real money
• The most polished of all options
• Ranking system, matchmaking, automated events
• Official Wizards of the Coast product
• Translated into eight different languages
• Easy to download and jump right into games
• Tutorial and in-game guides

Cons:

• Doesn’t contain the complete card library, only around 10,000 cards out of the 26,000+ (since Ixalan) 
• Game modes such as Commander and Two-Headed Giant aren’t available
• Can’t trade or sell cards. Cards can only be obtained through purchasing packs or utilizing a Wildcard system.

Even though it has a smaller card library and only five game modes (four of which are similar to but not entirely identical to paper MTG game modes), Arena earns its place as #??2. For people new to Magic, Arena is the place to be. While other options mostly cater to people already familiar with MTG, Arena provides a tutorial, helpful tooltips, and beginner decks to introduce beginners to various mechanics.

1. SpellTable

SpellTable is the new kid on the block (or at least on this list). During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the future of paper MTG was unclear. SpellTable, previously known as VirtualEDH, was quickly developed as a way to keep the Commander game mode alive? (since Commander had limited online support at the time). 

Within months of its inception, SpellTable joined Wizards of the Coast and was able to expand support to all formats. SpellTable maintains the authentic paper MTG experience by utilizing a mobile phone or webcam and a good olâ€?tabletop surface. Over time, the devel?opers have enhanced the app with features that create a sort of “paper Magic 2.0â€?feeling. 

Pros:

• The most authentic paper Magic: The Gathering experience online
• Use all physical cards that you own (including proxies)
• Sort of an augmented reality experience since card images can be read by the client 
• Official Wizards of the Coast product
• Supports all game modes 
• Easy-to-use interface
• Free

Cons:

• Requires a webcam or phone and space to set up a suitable playing area
• No built-in matchmaking system. Finding games and play groups requires some work from the player
• Some of the popular Discord groups require a subscription in order to use their matchmaking services
• Gameplay done over a webcam can make it easier to cheat

Despite being created as a temporary solution for paper MTG due to social distancing, SpellTable has continued to be a popular choice for playing MTG online by players around the world. No other app captures the “dining room table with your buddiesâ€?aspect of Magic: The Gathering quite like SpellTable does. 

The post Best ways to play Magic: The Gathering online appeared first on Destructoid.

The Chronurgy Wizard is an interesting class choice, forgoing the usual fire and brimstone of aggressive Wizard classes to instead manipulate the battlefield, giving your teammates more time and your opponents les?s. For those looking to change the outcome of battle through careful planning and supportive tactics, this is the class for you. 

This guide will go over the basics of the Chronurgy Arcane Tradition, giving players insight into preferred stats, races, backgrounds,?? feats, spells, and multiclass options. This way, whatever your DM throws at you, you'll be prepared. Hell, y?ou'll have been prepared long before they even thought of what to throw at you.

Best Chronurgy Wizard Build Options

Stats

• Strength - Unimportant, lowest points possible.
• Dexterity - Semi-important. Useful for initiative, saving throws, and Wizard AC.
• Constitution - Semi-important. Useful for saving throws and max HP.
• Intelligence - Most important, highest points possible. Primary spellcasting attribute.
• Wisdom - Mostly unimportant. Useful for some saving throws.
• Charisma - Unimportant, lowest possible points. 

Races

• Gnome - Gnomes give +2 INT, as well as +1 DEX or CON depending on the subrace. Also have an advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic. The best general choice.
• Vedalken - Vedalken give +2 INT and +1 WIS. They also provide an advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic. Make sure your DM is okay with races from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica.
• Variant Human - +1 to two stats of your choice, preferably INT/CON or INT/DEX, and allows access to one free Feat, discussed later. The free Feat can be very strong early.

Background

• Mage of High Sorcery or Sage - Gives proficiency in Arcana and History. Backgrounds are more for RP purposes, so the benefits are minimal.

Feats

• Alert - +5 to initiative, you can't be surprised, and creatures you don't see don't gain an advantage on attack rolls against you. Pairs well with the Chronurgy Wizard's Temporal Awareness ability to give yourself tons of bonuses to initiative.
• Metamagic Adept - You learn two metamagic options and gain 2 sorcery points. Choose Extended Spell and Quickened Spell as your two metamagic options to continue with the theme of manipulating action economy.
• War Caster - You have an advantage on saving throws to maintain concentration, and when taking an attack of opportunity, you can instead cast a single target spell on the target. Keeps your spells going, and has an added bonus of better opportunity attack options.
• Lucky - You can reroll one d20 or force to reroll an attack roll against you three times per long rest. Generally useful in any situation. 

Spells

Chronurgy Wizards have access to a number of unique spells, as well as the entirety of the Wizard spell list. This list will?? contain the most notable and useful of the Chronurgy-specific spells. 

• Gift of Alacrity - 1st level spell. For eight hours, give a target +1d8 to initiative rolls. Pairs incredibly well with other initiative-boosting feats and passive abilities. It may not be worth using too often early in the game, but it becomes a solid use of a level 1 spell slot later on.
• Fortune's Favor - 2nd level spell. Lasts for one hour. Gives an ally the ability to reroll a d20 on an attack roll, spell check, or saving throw one time. Alternatively, if the ally has been attacked, they can use the spell to roll a d20, a give the lower of the two dice to the enemy attacker as their attack roll. 
• Pulse Wave - 3rd level spell. Targets in a 30-foot cone must make a CON saving throw. Creatures take 6d6 force damage on a failed save, or half of that on a successful save. If they fail, the targets are also pushed or pulled 15 feet, depending on your choice. The spell is solid damage, mixed with an interesting utility effect that can hit several targets. 
• Temporal Shunt - 5th level spell. As a reaction, you can make an enemy who is attacking or starting to cast a spell make a WIS saving throw. If they fail the saving throw, they vanish, only reappearing at the start of their next turn. Taking an enemy out for a whole turn is insane, and as a reaction even better. One of the best Chronurgy spells.

Multiclass Options

• Wizard/Fighter 2 - Two levels in Fighter give you Action Surge, allowing you to take another action in one turn. This pairs nicely with other spells that manipulate the action economy and enables you to start fights with multiple big spells. Also gives some amount of bonus health, as well as proficiency with all armor/shields.
• Wizard/Sorcerer 3 - Gives players access to metamagic, similar to the feat above. This grants players three sorcery points, which can be raised to five if paired with the metamagic adept feat. More Quickened and Extended spells is nice, but keep in mind that you will have to raise your CHA to 13 to level the Sorcerer class. 
• Wizard/Artificer 1 - Only requires one level, but grants proficiency in Con saving throws, and grants proficiency with shields and armor up to medium. A nice upgrade with a very small requirement.

With all this in mind, becom??ing a master Chronurgist who warps time and space on the?? battlefield is within your grasp. Remember, there's no time like the present unless you're a Chronurgy Wizard. Then you can just make the present any time you want.

The post Best Builds for a Chronurgy Wizard in D&D 5e appeared first on Destructoid.

Magic: The Gathering is set to collaborate with Marvel in a deal that spans m??ultiple decks and years. This news came courtesy of Wizards of the Coast via press release a??nd a new, rather down-to-earth YouTube teaser video.

Multiple Planes Makes For Easy Collabs

Focusing on the press release, fans won't have to wait too long for the first Marvel Universes Beyond collab deck. In 2025, WotC will release the first tentpole Magic set (a full card collection complete with boosters, starter decks, etc.) and continue to create new boosters and sets well into the future. No definitive end date was provided for this collaboration at this time.

President of WotC, Cynthia Williams, has the following to say regarding this collaboration, "We are extremely proud to collaborate with Marvel to bring its iconic characters to fans around the world in new ways. These tentpole sets will build on the tradition of incorporating beloved fan-favourite ?characters and elements from world-class brands into Magic: The Gathering."

The YouTube video, on the other hand, only provides a small tease rather than anything of substance. If any of the other Universes Beyond Magic the Gathering decks are anything to go by though, fans have? little to worry about??.

Universes Beyond is Wizard's of the Coast's ongoing crossover event with MTG. Each set takes major characters, places, and terms from the show and builds a full set around it with varying success. For anyone out of the know, recent properties to cross over are Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings with Fallout, Final Fantasy, and Assassin's Creed coming in the near future. So yes, players will be able to play two-headed giant matches of Clive and Altair versus one of the Doctors and Iron Man within a few years. What a time to be aliv?e.

The post Marvel Starts its Not-So-Secret Invasion of Magic: The ?Gathering in 2025 appeared first on Destructoid.

Bill the Pony can be a commander

In case you haven't heard, there's going to be a Lord of the Rings Magic: The Gathering set out this summer. While the art shown off so far has been marvelous, it turns out that the team over at Wizards of the Coast has a lot more going for it than cool art. We spoke to Ovidio Cartagena, lead art director on the set, about what to expect. Spoiler alert: Wizards is going big on this set.

What's the deal with the Lord of the Rings set? A recap

Beyond the obvious reason of "money," Cartagena likens the Lord of the Rings set as a natural fit for Magic: The Gathering because of its commitment to "Universes Beyond," which have crossed over with franchises like Transformers, Warhammer 40K, as well as Secret Lair drops like The Walking Dead, Fortnite, and Street Fighter.

Liz Stewart, Senior Communications Manager at Wizards of the Coast, says that the team went "all-in" on the flavor of the set, which was the result of long hours of textual research from Tolkien's work. That research shows, as locations like The Shire, Minas Tirith, and the Paths of the Dead are going to be on full display, and all of the lands will include paths the characters from the series had to traverse throughout the world: you can even see them as specks sometimes in zoomed-out shots! Alongside those aforementioned perilous lands, t?he set also isn't afraid to get silly. Bill the Pony is in, and can even be a Commander. Sam's cookware has been adde??d to "multiple cards as an Easter egg," Cartagena teases.

For those of you who are unaware, The Lord of the Rings legalese can get complicated. For this project, the team worked specifically with Middle-earth Enterprises (MEE), a steward of much of the "core" material that comprises the most popular bits of Tolkien's work: including The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the cleverly-stretched appendices (which are found at the end of Return of the King, and ad??d some extra lore bits into the mix). I asked about their experience working with MEE, and Cartagena noted:

"We worked primarily with Middle-earth Enterp??rises. It was pretty easy. Working within the confines of the book was a good fit, because that's how most of us got to Tolkien's lore. Yes we wanted to reference other parts...but the Lord of the Rings is such a rich set that we didn't run out of things to talk about for sure."

When asked how the team handled some of the source material, specifically the Eye of Sauron, they thought out-of-the-box at first before delving too deeply into some of the mor??e commonly accepted interpretations:

"How are you going to do an eye [of Sauron]? Well, [we're] not going to do the eye, yet. Sauron was designed as this dark wizard, I love the design...the armor has the Palantir on the chest so he always has access to it. For Frodo, we wanted a more heroic shot of him. Several years pass b?etween when he inherits the property of the ring, and when he embarks upon his journey."

Yes, Nine Nazgul can be played together on the battlefield, and the?re's a Witch King card. The main event is the 18 borderless "seam cards," which depict the Battle of the Pellinor Fields without borders. Wizar?ds of the Coast calls it a "war painting," and just one artist (Tyler Jacobson) worked on it. Cartagena shares some insight into the ordeal: "It was an epic undertaking. It took a while to get it right. 18th and 19th-century paintings were looked at for reference. It took eight months, and Minas Tirith is on one side, with Barad-dur on the other. It's meant to be read from right to left to flow like the scene itself in the books."

Sagas (multi-step cards that play out kind? of like adventures) return, which is a natural fit for this set. Planeswalkers are out (fine by me!) and Oathbreaker is in, acco??rding to Mike Turian, product architect for this set:

"All of the cards in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth products are legal in Oathbreaker. The set doesn’t have any Planeswalkers in it, as early on we agreed that Planeswalkers ??didn’t fit into the setting of Middle-earth. Beyond that, we try to make fun Magic cards that support all of our formats."

[caption id="attachment_382720" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Wizards of th?e Coast - art by Kieran Yanner[?/caption]

The Lord of the Rings Magic set will have four pre-constructed Commander decks

Announced as part of the press event, Magic will ????be getting four new Commander decks in the set:

• Eowyn: Riders of Rohan
• Frodo: Food and Fellowship
• Galadriel: Elven Council
• Sauron: The Hosts of Mordor

All four Commande?r decks include a collector booster, sample pack, and two legendary traditional foils.

So when is the Magic: The Gathering Lord of the Rings set coming out?

In addition to the set itself and the aforementioned commander decks, there will also be jumpstart boosters, as well as a starter kit (two preconstructed 60-card decks). Yes, there will be a Secret Lair drop too (call the Professor!) based on 1978 Bakshi film, which will be on sale in June. Summer, Autumn, and Winter Ents are in as digital Magic: Arena pets, as well as a pet "One Ring" if you pre-order the set on Arena. The ring will melt if?? you ?lose a game, which is neat, but still very interesting in the context of Tolkien not wanting certain elements of his work to be romanticized.

Here's a full breakdown of when the Magic Lord of the Rings sets are out:

• Pre-release is June 16-22
• Arena (digital) launch is June 20
• Full launch is June 23

Here's a gigantic preview of Magic: The Gathering Lord of the Rings cards and playmat art!

[gallery columns="9" link="file" size="medium" ids="382536,382537,382538,382539,382540,382541,382542,382543,382544,382545,382546,382547,382548,382549,382550,382551,382552,382553,382554,382555,382556,382557,382558,382559,382560,3?82561,382562,382563,382564,382565,382566,382567,382568,382569,382570,382571,382572,382573,382574,382575,382576,382577,382578,382579,382580,382582,382583,382584,382585,382586,382587,382588,382589,382590,3825??92,382593,382594,382595,382596,382597,382598,382599,382600,382601,382602,382603,382604,382606,382607,382608,382609,382610,382611,382612,382613,382614,382615,382616,382617,382618,382620,382621,382622,382623,382624,382625,382626,382627,382628,382629,382630,382631,382632,382633,382634,382635,382636,382637,382638,382640,382641,382642,382643,382644,382645,382646,382649,382650,382651,382652,382653,382654,382655,382656,382657,382658,382659,382660,382661,382662,382663,382664,382665,382666,382668,382669,382670,382671,382672,382673,382674,382675,382676,382677,382678,382679,382680,382681,382682,382683,382684,382685,382686,382687,382688,382689,382690,382691,382692,382693,382694,382695,382696,382697,382698,382699,382700,382701,382702,382703,382704,382705,382706,382707,382708,382709,382710,382711,382712,382713"]

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The Phyrexians are back with a vengeance

Wizards of the Coast is still rolling with multiple Magic: The Gathering sets each year (for both paper Magic and digital variants like Magic: Arena), and the next set, March of the Machine, is ready to debut in April.

There are some heavy-hitting artists backing this set, including the always fantastic Magali Villeneuve: who I would consider one of the greatest artists in the history of Magic. You can get a look at some spoiler cards for March of the Machine below, as well as some full art. The full story of the set can be read here.

March of the Machine is out on April 21, 2023 in full, with pre-release events starting on April 14, and a digital release on ?April 18.

All the new and returning mechanics from March of the Machine set

Battle (new card type & new mechanic)?? - Battles are a brand new card type introduced in March of the Machine. It represents Phyrexia’s inva??sion of the multiverse and everyone else playing a little defense.

Each battle in March of the M??achine is a transforming?? double-faced card:

Front Back

Casting a Battle

• Battles can be cast during your main phase if the stack is empty, ?just like creatures, sorceries, and other non-instant spells.

• Each battle enters the battlefield with a number ?of defense counters on it equal to its defense, found in the lower right corner of the front face. This tells you how much damage it takes to defeat a battle. Much like planeswalkers, battles can be attacked and damaged. But unlike with planeswalkers, the general idea isn't to cast them, protect them, and hope they stick around. You're batt?ling to take them out.

Protecting & Attacking a Battle

• A battle’s subtype provides rules for how it can be attacked. Since every battle in this set has the subtype Siege, they all play by the same rules. As a Siege battle enters the battlefi?eld, its controller chooses an opponent to be its protector. Every player except a battle's protector may attack it.

• Only a battle's protector may block creatures attacking it. Don't confuse protector for controller. You're going to? attack battles t??hat you control—the first time in Magic that you've been able to attack your own permanents.

• Battles are susceptible to more than just combat damage, though. Some spells and abilities? may specifically say that they cause damage to be dealt to battles. Also, any spell or ability that says "any target" can target a battle.

Defeating a Battle

• Any damage dealt to a battle cause that many defense counters to be removed from it. When the last defense counter is removed from a Siege battle, the battle is defeated and a triggere??d ability triggers.

• As this ability resolves, the battle's co??ntroller exiles it then ??casts the back face from exile without paying its mana cost.

Backup - The forces defending their homeworlds aren't doing so alone. Backup is a new t?riggered ability that allows creatures to help a friend—or even themselves—in a pinch.

• Whenever a creature with backup enters the battlefield, y??ou put that many +1/+1 counters on a target creature. If you chose another creature as the target, that creature also gets every ability of the original ?creature that is printed below backup until end of turn.

Incubate - Incuba??te is a new keyword a?ction that allows you to create Incubator tokens.

• An Incubator token is a new kind of p??redefined token, joining ones such as Food and Treasure. It’s also a transforming double-faced token.

• An Incubator token is a colorless artifact toke??n with "{2}: Transform this artifact." The back face is a 0/0 colorless Phyrexian artifact creature. The instruction to incubate will include a number which indicates how many +1/+1 counters to put on the Incubator token. Those counters don't do much while the ?token has its front face up, but they do a great job of keeping the Phyrexian artifact creature alive once it transforms.

Chaos Ensues - Planechase is a major feature of the Commander decks in March of the Machine. On? previous plane cards, chaos abilities had the trigger condition, "Whenever you roll [CHAOS]." Starting with March of the Machine, this condition has been replaced by "whenever chaos ensues." With respect to the planar die, nothing has changed; rolling [CHAOS] will still cause these abilities to trigger. Howev?er, now there are ways to have these abilities trigger that don't involve the planar die at all.

March of the Machine spoiler reveals

Main set

[gallery size="medium" ids="371263,371264,371265,371266,371267,37??1268,371269,371270,371271,371272,371273"]

Commander

[gallery size="medium" ids="371287,371288,371289,371290,3?71291,371292,371293,371294,371295"]

Multiverse Legends

[gallery size="medium" ids="371?296,371297,371298,371299,371300,371301,371302,371303,371304,371305,371306"]

Promo pack cards

[gallery columns="5" size="medi??um" ids="371307,371308,371309,37??1310,371311"]

March of the Machine spoiler full art

[?gallery columns="2" link="file" size="large" ids="371274,371275,371276,371277,371278,371279,371280,371281,371282,371283"]

The post Wizards ju??st revealed some March of the Machine cards for Magic: The Gathering appeared first on Destructoid.

The publisher is making changes to its long-term plans

Future digital? plans seem to be shifting for Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. Several video games in development have reportedly been shut?? down by Wizards of the Coast, as the company looks to make changes in its long-term plans.

A new report from Bloomberg?? claims at least five video games have been cancelled by Wizards of the Coast. A spokesperson told Bloomberg that Wizards is "committed" to digit?al games. But it has also made changes to its long-term portfolio to "focus on games which are strategically aligned with developing [Wizards'] existing brands", or that show promise in expanding or engaging their audience in new ways.

There will be under 15 people losing their jobs due to the changes, though the Wizards spokesperson tells Bloomberg that they will eb given a chance to seek new roles within the company. Both Hidden Path Entertainment and OtherSide Entertainment are studios potentially affected by the development, according to IGN.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOWGnC3h9WQ

Forgotten realms

Wizards of the Coast has been in the digital realm for a while, but has been making a heavier push in over the last few years. Notably, the company turned to Divinity developer Larian to take up the Baldur's Gate series and work on Baldur's Gate 3. While currently in Early Access, the RPG is slated to go live with its 1.0 version later this year. It's been garnering some praise for its early efforts, too. Some other projects, like the Dark Alliance reboot, haven't been so warmly received.

Wizards had previously stated it has "seven or eight" games set for the near future. It's also been opening studios like Archetype Entertainment, to develop its own video game projects. Parent company Hasbro, however, has been facing a financial downturn, with shares falling 40% last year.

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It's out on June 10

At this point, Wizards of the Coast has plenty of IP under their belt to send to the planes of Magic: The Gathering with Hasbro running things. And whatever they don't own, they can likely lock down a deal for: like the upcoming Lord of the Rings set, and the recent Street ?Fighter crossover. So when Dungeons and Dragons or Baldur's Gate is involved, people perk up. That includes the Baldur's Ga??te Commander set, which we were given a brief look at recently.

The next Commander Legends set is Battle for Baldur's Gate, and it's out on June 10 (with a pre-release session from June 3 through June 5). The big focus this time is features from past sets, like the "dungeon" mechanic from Forgotten Realms (with just the Undercity dungeon card, with the intent to possibly share one across the table), backgrounds (like "raised by giants"), and more legendary creatures: to funn??el into the RPG theme of the Battle for Baldur's Gate Commander set.

Corey Bowen, leader designer for Magic and on the Battle for Baldur's Gate Commander set, had the theme of heroic adventures and teamwork in mind when their team crafted the set. The gist was to lean into the social aspect of Commander as well as some of the larger-than-life elements of the universes they're drawing from. You can really see that in some of the cards below, many of which are legendary and are pulled directly from D&D classes, like a halfling knight, devil noble, and a human wizard. Lightning bolt and fireball were something the team "had to include," because of the flavor involved, as two of the most recognizable cards in the game's?? history.

Without further ado, card previews/spoilers!

Battle for Baldur's Gate Commander set cards:

[gallery link="file" ids="322216,322217,322218,322220,322221,322222,322223,322224,322225,322226,32222??7,322228,322229,322230,322231,322232,322233,322234,322235,322236,322237,322238,322239,322240,322241,322242,322245,322246,322247,322248,322249,322250,322251,322252,322253,322254,322255,322256,322257,322258,322259,322260,322261,322262,322263,322264,322265,322266,322267,322268,322269,322270,322271,322272,322273,322274,322275,322276,322277,322278,322279,322280,322281,322282,322283,322284,322285,322286,322287,322288,322289,322290,322291,322292,322293,322294,322295,322296,322297,322298,322299"]

The post Magic reveals the Magic Baldur’s Gate Commander set, here’s some cards appeared first on Destructoid.

Roll for initiative

Dungeons & Dragons is yet another gaming franchise that's making its way to the big screen, and this one has been a long time coming. Whispers of the film started back in 2013, when the battle for legal rights started, and pre-production started in 2017, when Hasbro officially announced that the movie was happening. After a delayed release date from 2021 due to the pandemic's effect on production, the Dungeons & Dragons movie got pushed to 2023.

The newest update on the film comes from Wizards of the Coast's D&D Direct Event, where it announced the project's official title: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The logo was also unveile?d, which draws heavily from the game's b?randing.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHXWY_gPzMw

Actors attached to Honor Among Thieves include Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, Sophia Lillis, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Regé-Jean Page. We don't know yet what the plot of the movie will look like, but we do know that it's being written and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the duo known for directing the 2018 film Game Night.

Dungeons & Dragons has surged into the mainstream in recent years largely due to actual play podcasts �the most prominent among them being Critical Role and The Adventure Zone. Many of these shows, and other independent D&D-inspired projects, have branched out into other media like comic books, animated series, and even their own official Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings.

It was only a matter of time before mainstream Hollywood caught onto the trend, but as someone who fell down the D&D content rabbit hole a few years ago, I can only hope that they do the property justice when there have been so many incredible indie projects. If this Dungeons & Dragons movie gets the treatment that most other gaming p??roperties get onscre?en, I'm going to be pretty disappointed, to put it plainly.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is set to release in theaters on March 3, 2023.

The post The Dungeons & Dragons movie just dropped its new title, logo appeared first on Destructoid.

11% across certain products

Magic: The Gathering card pricing is increasing for certai??n lines, due to the "cost of goods, transportation, and manufacturing."

Wizards of the Coast says t??hat due to industry trends they're increasing prices "around 11%," on "select products," starting in September. Draft and? set boosters are the most significantly impacted, but here's the list of stuff going up in price later this year:

• Draft Boosters
• Set Boosters
• Collector Boosters
• Bundles
• Jumpstart Boosters

Also note that "Commander decks, meanwhile, have a price increase going into effect with Streets of New Capenna [later this month]: there are no plans ??to increase the price of Commander decks further in July."? Masters, Modern Horizons, Secret Lair, Challenger Decks, or Universes Beyond will not see increases...yet. Dominaria United will be the big product coming in with this new price hike.

Naturally, this comes after record-setting profits, with the recent Kamigawa set ("the best-selling Winter set of all time") hailing as one of the most successful sets ever. Will the labor force see any of that yield? Or perhaps pile on more "cost of goods" expenses for Magic: The Gathering card pricing? Wizards of the Coast is in a precarious situation when it comes to scale, and being owned by Hasbro comes with certain corporate ??responsibilities. You can see the motivati??on for passing the buck in this case.

The post Magic: The Gathering card pricing is going up for some ?products appeared first on Destructoid.

Out on April 28 in Arena, and April 29 in paper

Magic: The Gathering is still setting a blazing pace for new sets, and New Capenna is just around the corner. It feels like the fairly well-received Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set just got here, but come April 28 weekend (with a pre-release the week before), we're getting the follow-up in both Arena and in proper paper form. With that? out of the way, let's get to the New Capenna keyword??s.

Connive

"Draw X cards then discard X cards. Put a +1+1 card on that creature for each? nonland card discarded this way."

Depending on the effect, this could end games, especially if you connive a hasted? creature. I'm looking for?ward to seeing what people come up with here: one example shown is a 1/4 flying creature with ward 1 that can also connive, which could be useful in limited play.

Casualty

"Sacrif?ice a creature with power 1 or greater, when you do, copy this spell."

The classic creature sacrifice archetype is back, but available in many color options, it seems. One card in the New Capenna set is a two-cost blue mana spell (instant) that lets you look at the top two cards of your library: put one of them into your hand and the other on the bottom of your libr??ary. Copying it should be fairly easy for some swarm decks.

Blitz

"If you cast this spell for its blitz cost, it gains haste and when this creature die??s, draw a card, sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step."

Similar to connive, I can see this ending games if done correctly. Haste on command can be deadly, especially in red, as one of the below cards s?hows.

Alliance

"?Whenever another creature?? enters the battlefield under your control, [do an effect]."

This is a pretty standard effect that's in every set, but geared toward the thematic element of other creatures entering the battlefield and triggering an effect. Green swarm should be a fun color for this on??e.

Shield Counters

"If a creature with a shield c??ounter on it would be?? destroyed or dealt damage, remove a defense counter from it instead."

It's kind of ?like an ammo-based hex. You can play around with them and swap them around or add more depending on your build, and?? it should make for some pretty unique decks.

Hideaway (the returning old keyword)

"When this permanent enter?s the battlefield, look at the top X cards, exile one face down, and when you meet a condition, play it fo??r free."

We've seen this in many competitive card games, including modified forms in many recent Magic? sets, and it's back! In any ca?se, the New Capenna keywords are looking spicy.

There's a few other things Wizards is doing to make New Capenna stand out. Borderless and extended art cards will return, as will flashy gold-stamped foils: McCall says this is the "coolest foil they've ever made." The Gala Greeters minion also has a different version for each language Wizards publishes Magic in, "based on a golden age" for that region.

You can get a look at all of the ab?ove in the gallery below!

[gallery link="file" size="medium" ids="315674,31?5675,315676,315677,315678,315679,315680,315681,315682,315683,315684,315685,315686,315687,315688,315689,315690,315691,315692,315693,315694,315695,315696,315697,315698,315699,315700,315701,315702,315703"]

The post Here are the Magic: The Gathering details and keywords for the mobster-themed Streets? of New Capenna set appeared first on Destructoid.

And a bunch of cards, too

Magic is constantly adding to its repertoire of keywords, and even in standard when sets rotate out, it's knowledge you'll always need to be accumulating. Here are the Magic: ??Kamigawa Neon Dynasty keywords and me??chanics you'll need to navigate in February.

Modifications

Equipment, auras you control, and counters are modifications, which can impact different ways modifications can interact with specific cards. For instance, one card (Goro-Goro, a Legendary Creature) can create a 5/5 red Dragon Spirit creature token with flying for 3 colorless mana and two mountains. You can only activate this if you control an attacking modified creature. As a side note, it's auras you control.

Ninjutsu (returning mechanic)

For a cost, return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking. This is a familiar concept, as some current/recent cards already have something similar to this.

Channel (returning mechanic)

For a cost, discard [x]: then do an effect. Examples shown so far include "search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle," and "the owner of target nonland? permanent puts it on the top or bottom of their library." Wizards notes that this can smooth out mana issues as a secondary option of sorts.

Legends (returning mechanic)

Wizards says it has more "f?ertile ground" for legendary creatures and multi-color commanders, so there will be a large s??wath of legendary creatures in this set.

Cycles

Some cards will provide extra options, like Ao the Dawn Sky, which can put up to seven nonland permanent cards with a total mana value of four or less from among seven cards onto the battlefield, or put two 1+/+1 counters on each permanent you control that's a creatu?re or vehicle after it ?dies.

DFC Sagas

Sagas will return with th?e m??ain purpose of "causing stories to come to life," and representing "tradition" in the set. One saga will transform into a 3/3 haste trample creature after it expires.

Reconfigure (new)

For a ?cost, attach to target creature you control; or ?unattach from a creature. Reconfigure only as a sorcery. While attached, this isn't a creature. Wizards says this is going to be one of the main "cybernetic" enhancement fantasies in the set.

Artifacts and?? enhancement synergy will also play a part in the set, as well as samurai an??d warrior traits.

You can check all ???the Kamigawa Neon Dynasty keywords out in the gallery below!

[gallery link??="file" size="medi??um" ids="305715,305716,305717,305718,305719,305720,305721,305722,305723,305724,305725,305726,305727,305728,305729,305730,305731,305732"]

The post Here are the Magic: Kamigawa?? Neon Dynasty keywords and mechanics appeared first on Destructoid.

"PLAYVOW"

Want another Magic: Arena free pack? Well, the ne?w set is here! And l?ike clockwork, another "play" code is ready to be plugged in.

This one is "PLAYVOW," which unlocks three free Crimson Vow packs. If you're playing Magic: Arena on a PC, you can input the code directly on the store. If you're playing on mobile, you need to annoyingly enter it on the official Arena site after logging in. Of course, there's a lot more to come beyond this Magic: Arena free pack offer, as Magic doesn't stop.

As a recap, we just came out of the other half of the 2021 Innistrad set (read: spooky?), Midnight H??unt. Consi??dering it arrived on September 16, some people may not have even taken in all of Midnight Hunt, but Crimson Vow is here all the same. It'll be the king of the castle until January 2022, at which point the cyberpunk Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set will be the new hotness.

After that comes Streets of New Capenna, then Dominaria: United, and The Brother's War. Those sets will last through November 2022 and by then, we'll have a new standard rotation, with Zendikar, Kaldheim, Strixhaven, and Forgotten Realms cycling out.?? It should be a pretty interesting rotation, especially after people figure out all of the Innistrad ins and outs. After all, we're stuck with the two Innistrad sets until the ?end of 2023, barring any potential card bans (which we haven't had yet for standard at the time of publication).

The post Magic: Arena just launched the Crimson Vow set, here’s a new free pack code appeared first on Destructoid.

Well, three Crimson Vow spoiler cards, kind of!

It's spoiler season for the new set, and Destructoid has two exclusive MTG Innistrad: Crimson V??ow ??spoiler cards to share!

Let's break them down.

Dawnheart Geist (two cost, one colorless, one white mana)

So Dawnheart Geist is a classic two-drop creature, with the ability to grain two life after casting an enchan??tment: a nice effect, but with combo potential.

As a spirit, it interacts with a number of existing Innistrad: Midnight Hunt cards, which were just introduced into the meta. Cards like Thraben Exorcism and Patrician Geist, among others, could work with the spirit trait. It might not see standard play, but I wouldn't hate to see it in a draft d?eck where I'm a?lready flush with enchantments.

As an uncommon card, it's not going to break the bank in both paper Magic or in Arena.

Path of Peril (three cost, one colorless, two black mana)

Path of Peril is a little more interesting. So it's a sorcery, and lets you destroy all creatures [wit??h mana value two or less] by paying its base three cost. So this is already useful since it's a sweeper, especially in limited play. Note that it also has cleave.

If you forgot what cleave does, it lets you cast ?a spell for its cleave cost. If you do, you remove the words in square brackets, such as search your library for a [basic land] card, [reveal it,] put it in your hand, then shuffle. In this case, it would remove the? "mana value of two or less."

I can see this being a sideboard card in some play, as folks leverage the kicker-esque effect of board wiping swarms of little creatures/tokens, or bigger threats. I can't tell you how many times I've seen swarm decks in platinum rank or above in Arena where this would have been useful.

You can check them out in the gallery below: and note the extended art option for Path of Peri??l!

[gallery ids="292025,292026,292027"]

The post Here a?re two exclusive Magic: The Gathering Innistrad Crimson Vow spoiler cards appeared first on Destructoid.

'GOLDENCOMMUNITY'

[Update: The above Magic: Arena code expires today at 11AM? ET, you still have a little bit to redeem it!]

While Wizards of the Coast has toned down the smorgasbord of free Magic: Arena code handouts, they do bust them out from time to time. There's a code for the start of every set traditionally, and sparing bonuses fo??r people to input for free stuff. Like this new one that popped up this week.

The cause for the occasion is Magic: Arena's nomination for "best game community" at the Golden Joystick Awards, which Wizards decided to turn into a code. If you input the Magic: Arena code "GOLDENCOMMUNITY" in the storefront you'll net 1000 XP (enough for a level-up) as well as two random cosmetics (I got two Japanese-region alt-art styles for cards). You have until Octobe?r 26, ?2021, to use it.

Remember that if you're on PC, the code can be copied and pasted into the storefront instantly. If you're on mobile, you're either going to need to log into the PC edition, or log into your Magic: Arena account from?? somewhere and enter it there. Yep, it's still like that.

The time to complete the mastery [season] pass for the first Innistrad set is rapidly shrinking, as Crimson Vow is poised to release next month on November 11. That's only a few weeks away! Set rotation h??as always been off-kilter every so often, and people are going to have to pony up for potentially new powerful cards pretty soon.

The post This new Magic: Arena code will get you a free l??evel and cosmetics appeared first on Destructoid.

PLAYMID and BORROWEDTIME

The spooky Innistrad set is out now in Magic: Arena, and it brings a brand new standard rotation with it. This is the moment where most of your decks (if not all) blow up, and it's time to completely reinvent the meta on the fly. For me, it's one of the most exciting times of the year for Magic, before people start to settle in on accepted decks in higher ranks. I'm als??o mostly just elated that Eldraine is gone and I won't see adventure decks every other game.

But another Magic: Arena set means more bugs, and this time it deals with the weekly win counter. As noted by the team, the launch of the set did not actually reset your weekly wins on launch (this typically happens so everyone can start completely fresh in the new expansion, and not miss out on any XP). To that end, you can use the code "BORROWEDTIME" before 8AM PT on September 23, and you'll get 4,000 free XP for your troubles. Magic: Arena has done this sort?? of thing fairly often, though typically in the earlier, more buggy days of its lifespan.

As for the next code on the docket, every expansion, including the Innistrad set, has received some sort of free pack code. This time it's "PLAYMID," which will net you free packs of the set. That code doesn't have a hard cutoff (at least for a while), as new seasonal set codes last? quite a while.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQi3raUki7s

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One starts on August 10, the other on August 15, and the last one on August 20

[Update #2: Kaladesh Remastered is now live. The same as before, log into Magic: Arena, go to the "Premiere Draft Kaladesh Remastered" button on the main menu, and select the green [free] "start" button. You have until? August 20.]

[Update: The first draft period is ending soon, so make sure you log in and rare draft at the very least! You'll find it under a green "start" button after selecting "Amonkhet Premiere Draft" on the main menu. If you resign immediately after drafting, you'll get ?50 gems (premium currency) and one free pack)]

Magic: Arena rarely gives away free stuff other than a pack or two at the start of a new set, so when this news came across my desk, I perked up. As confirmed in a new blog update, we're getting three Magic free drafts starting today, fe??aturing different sets.

To be clear, this is one "first entry fee" being waived for each event, which kicks off with Amonhkhet Remastered today. All of them will run for? five days, so you have that entire time to log in once and partake.

Here's the rub. So if you're not a fan of drafting for whatever reason (or you're new and are a bit intimidated by the prospect), you can just dive into the draft, grab the free rewards?, then cancel the run before you even play. This is typically known as "rare drafting," where instead of selecting cards that are actually beneficial and synergistic to yo?ur deck, you just take the rarest cards to save you from spending expensive wildcards.

There'?s no downside to it! Just bookmark this page if you need a reference ??point.

As a recap, here's all of the Magic free drafts:

• Amonhkhet Remastered (August 10- August 15)
• Kaladesh Remastered (August 15 - August 20)
• Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoths (August 20 - August 26)

The post Magic: Arena is ??giving away three free d?rafts starting today appeared first on Destructoid.

Oh look, some cards

So on August 12, Jumpstart: Historic Horizons will enter Magic: Arena. What does it mean? Well, it'll involve "hundreds" of Modern Horizons, Horizons 2, and 31 "new-to-Magic" cards entering the fray that are "exclusive to the digital edition of the game." While Arena has been up to its own tricks in the past and has influenced Magic as a whole, developments like this further show the impact that Arena has on Wizards as an organization.

Here's a look at a few ??cards we got fr??om Wizards to showcase the type of things that Jumpstart: Historic Horizons is going for.

Players may recognize Gadrak, as the legendary dragon is fairly recent. Zabaz the Glimmerwasp is part of the festivities too, as is Static Discharge. A?s a two-cost, it deals X damage to any target, where X is 3 plus the number of charge counters on Static Discharge. Then put a perpetual charge counter on this card and each card named Static Discharge in your hand, library, and graveyard. Global cards? Count me in!

While we weren't provided images for the following Jumpstart: Historic Horizons cards, we also know that Destructive Digger, Arcbound Shikari, Dueling Coach, Arcbound Slasher, Steadfast Sentry, Battlefield Promotion, Arcbound Mouser, and Arcbound Prototype are making it in. These cards range from Modern Horizons to M20 to WAR, to STX, to J21 appearances in terms of sets, so this initiative is spanning multiple years of Magic.

Coupled with the already-previewed cards from Wizards, you can tell this set is going to be kind of crazy. Tome of the Infinite alone is a wacky card, conju?ring "random cards" from its spellbook to your hand, including powerful drops like Giant Growth and Lightning Bolt. As a reminder, according to Wizards, "when you play in Jumpstart: Historic Horizon events, you'll automatically receive a mix of basic lands based on the packets you choose, balanced for the costs and activated abilities on the spells in your packets."

Again, Jumpstart: Historic Horizons is aiming for an August 12 release in Magic: Arena.

[gallery ids="276611,276612,276613"]

The post Here’s an exclusive look at some Magic: Arena Jumpstart: Historic Horizons Set cards appeared first on Destructoid.

'PlayDND,' sneaky

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is out now in Magic: Arena, and will be fully released in paper form worldwide on July 23, 2021. But before that happens you can reap the benefits in Arena with three free packs: just like each set before it. This one has a rather sneaky subliminal code though, as i?t doesn't directly derive from the set; rathe??r, it incorporates the inspiration behind the game.

The set might be Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, but the code is "PlayDND." That's with no spaces. Again, it'll grant you three free packs in Magic: Arena.

??While Adventures in the Forgotten Realms seems to have launched swimmingly without any major errors, the developers did add one questionable element to the game: screen shaking. Each time something enters the battlefield (ETB), the screen has a shake effect. Like a lot of people I rushed to the options menu to find a toggle to tu??rn it off, but there was none.

Some folks are reporting motion sickness due to the effect, and Wizards is "looking into" addressing it. Since I don't think anyone asked for it, you can take it out! But a toggle will do. For now, Magic: Arena free packs!

The post The D&D set is out in Magic: Arena, and you can get three free packs now appeared first on Destructoid.

Goblins! Goblins! Goblins!

Maybe Dungeons & Dragons just isn't something that ??can be enjoyed without ??friends.

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
Developer: Tuque Games
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Released: June 22nd, 2021
MSRP: $39.99

To answer a question that some may have, Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is a spiritual sequel to Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. While there are stark differences that make this one distinct from its two predecessors, the dropping of the Baldur’s Gate name probably has more to do with the upcoming Baldur’s Gate III and wanting to avoid confusion.

Otherwise, the idea’s the same: a more action-oriented take on the pen-and-paper RPG. It’s once again set in the Forgotten Realms campaign, this time using characters from the Legend of Drizzt series. It takes place soon after R. A. Salvatore’s pulp novel, The Crystal Shards.

For what that's worth, anyway. The plot isn’t exactly dense, involving a few factions getting their hand?s on magic gewgaws that you don’t want them to have. Still, you get a chance to see some of D&D’s more prolific characters in action. There’s Drizzt, Wulfgar, Catti-Brie, and Bruenor, each with their own powers, roles, moves, and loot.

The problems with playing single-player become apparent pretty quickly. The AI in Dark Alliance is absolutely daft. I spent most of my playtime as Catti-Brie (which was probably a bad choice in retrospect) and was perfectly capable of standing on a ledge to soften up groups of enemies. They can’t work ledges, period. Rather than mull about trying to get to you, they just act like you’re not there while you take potshots. They’ll even continue conversations while you try to interrupt them by feeding arrows into?? their groin.

Not that you even need to find a ledge to stand on. You can just go outside the rathe??r tight range that enemies have and they’ll act like you aren’t even there anymore. They’ll just return to their neutral state. Then you can, once again, lob projectiles at their crotches until they fall over.

Or you could, you know, not cheese every encounter. It’s just really damned tempting. Even when I forced myself into direct combat, the enemies just aren’t that aggressive. There were many times where they just stood there as I lined my crosshairs up with their face or slashed up their friends. When they do attack, they’re simply predictable. Usually, the only way I’d die in combat was when I’d get trapped in a swarm of enemies. Other times, I had the difficulty too high and someone would l?ay me flat with a single swing.

Playing solo is just a drag. The characters prattle on the worst one-liners, and the story isn’t much to speak about. The fights are repetitive and slow, and the difficulty is all over the place. Looting is fine. It’s one of those things in video games that never really gets?? old, but it will only carry you so far.

I’m just not digging Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance right now. It feels rickety at best and annoying at worst. Monotonous, bland, uninteresting. However, I know that multi-player can offset some of the problems I had. I wouldn’t judge Left 4 Dead or Gauntlet based on their single-player, so it seems unfair to set my criticism in stone until I’ve sampled what Dark Alliance can offer. I’m not hopeful, but it’s worth giving it that chance. Though, if you wer?e planning to be a solo adventurer, maybe reconsider.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review i?n Progress: Dungeons and Drag?ons: Dark Alliance appeared first on Destructoid.

Again, it's 'Gameknights'

Magic: Arena periodically doles out new codes for hardcore and prospective players?? alike to u?se, which typically grant free packs. But this time around there's a new elusive full deck code in the wild: Gameknights.

This deck is called Avenging Angels, and is compliments of The Command Zone YouTu??be channel, who was set up with this bonus code from Wizards of the Coast. You have until June 28 to redeem it, the channel notes.

An??d here's a snapshot of t??he cards that Gameknights will grant you:

For reference that's six rares (including one rare land) and one mythic rare.

Just like previous deck promos, it'll automatically build the cards and place it in ??your "decks" section.

Avenging Angels is a fun little ride, providing some synergy with the angel tribal faction with a demon in the mix to boot. A fully built out version of this deck can also be viable in some ranks, and it mostly consists of newer cards to make it more flashy. Righteous Valkyrie is?? a standout card in case you were on the fence in terms of redeeming the code: it's something you'll be able to partially build out. For a three drop, it's exceedingly powerful.

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Welcome Boosters

For many years, Wizards of the Coast relied on "Welcome Decks" to woo in newcomers. But as a reminder, Welcome Boosters are the hotness as of mid-2020.

Wizards came to this conclusion over time through careful study, and enacted it last year. Jacob Nourigat, In-Store Play Specialist noted that "less than 5% of engaged players learned with a welcome deck." Oh, and that they don't "showcase the real fun of Magic." Naturally, things needed to c?hange, so they're revamping the system with Welcome Boosters. These shifted into the meta when Core Set 2021 hi?t.

So what's the difference?

Well these new packs of 10 cards include powerful rares (Niv-Mizzet, Parun, an actually powerful card, is one example), and a Planeswalker. In case you were wondering, Niv was not printed in Core Set 2021, and this printing "has no effect" on the card's legality. Ah the memories of using it in standard! "All five colors" will be represented in Welcome Boosters, and "in certain regions" a code for Magic: Arena will be?? included that you can use for an "introduc??tory deck." Ah, there we go, that's going to be the big strategy going into 2022.

Arena has been pushed more in general this past year, as "Arena Starter Kits" will rolled out to stores, which contain two 60-card decks with two foils, rulebooks, and more Arena codes. If you're part of the Wizards Play Network (WPN) you're eligible for five Arena starter kits, which are "store decks, not meant to be given away to players." All of this is also part of the plan to ge??t people playing in stores again.

It's a smart play and one worth revisiting as stores are opening back up in many regions. If the data is indeed correct and "less than 5%" of people were even using the Welcome Decks, then it was time for a change. And what better way to entice players into Arena (a strategy that Wizards has bee?n?? using quite a bit these past few years) than to remind people that it exists with free promos?

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I'm always down for a bit of Jumpstart

Wizards of the Coast gave Magic: Arena fans a recent update for what's going on in June, and sifting through all o??f the news, my eyes immediately went to Jumpstart.

What's Jumpstart? Well, it's a format that exists in both paper and digital Magic that lets players "smash" decks together. Boosters ??have 20 cards (all themed), and you smash two together to have a legal "grab and go" deck. As you can imagine this is even easier to do in Arena, where everything is instant, and cards are comprised of the same concept.

All of that will be returning to the game on June 4, running through July 8. It'll be 2,000 gold or 400 gems to play, and after your first two wins, you'll get a random rare or mythic. You can also play as long as you want during that time,?? as ther??e's no limitations on entries.

Oh and as a reminder, the Historic Anthology V set is live now! That?'s 25 new cards that are being added to the Historic format of the game (read: old cards). For 25,000 gold or 4,000 gems you can snag four co??pies of each of them.

So not a whole lot of news in terms of new feat?ures. A lot of that stuff will have to wait until the new set launches, and beyond.

The post Magic: Arena’s grab and go Jumpstart mode returns this week appeared first on Destructoid.

You gotta love low cost curves

Magic: Arena is? still rolling along with a heavy focus on standard, but over the past? few years, Wizards of the Coast has added several classic modes to help extend the life of the game.

"But what happens to my old cards" is always a question people ask in digital games (where resell value is zilch), and with the Historic format, Arena had an answer. Allowing folks to use their old stuff has been a boon for the game, especially as Wizards has ste?adily added cards in via thei??r "Historic Anthology" system.

With the fifth set coming to the game, we were given five exclusive car?ds to show off. Hailing from sets including, but not limited (ha) to Dragons of Tarkir, Innistrad, S?courge, and New Phyrexia, this pack adds a new wrinkle into historic play, all with very low cost curves.

I'll just take a second to say how much I appreciate cards like Dromoka's Command, which offer up multiple choices and decision points, especially at instant speed. Four, no less! And I'm a huge sucker for permanent global enchantments like Intangible Virtue, plus the potential for Stifle can get really nuanced in some Historic play. And Phyrexian mana (found on Vault Skirge) is....interesting!

It's a fun bunch!

Dromoka's Command

Intangible Virtue

Stifle

Vault Skirge

The post Exclusive: Here’s a look at some upcoming Magic: Arena Historic Anthology V cards appeared first on Destructoid.

Good luck!

Magic: Arena&nbs??p;is gearing up for several big events these next few months, in what it is calling "Summer of Legend."

That includes a surprise concept titled "Mirror, Mirror," a mode where old cards are "reprinted" in digital form. Here's t??he quick rundown:

In July, we're running a short but exciting event called Mirror, Mirror. Imagine a world where Oko, Thief o??f Crowns was printed with balanced abilities and became just another great Historic card. What if Teferi, Time Raveler was printed where he was more of a friend than foe to the format? In Mirror, Mirror, you'll explore this other universe of decks featuring rebalanced versions of some of Hi?storic's iconic banned cards. This legendary event won't stay around for long, but you'll just have to wait and see what's inside later this year.

Interesting, right? I love the implication that Oko will be "balanced" now, and Teferi was a "foe" to all of Magic: The Gathering players. I mean, it's kind of true! And in the case of Teferi, i?t took Wizards an inordinate amount of time to do something about it. But h??ere we are: in a state where the company can laugh.

It's fascinating, because this is one of the few times Arena has pulled rank and decided to rework cards to suit its needs over the more rigid and unbending paper format. In other words, it's an extremely Hearthstone thing to do and it could lead Arena down a d??ifferent path going forward, if Wiza??rds decides to pivot more into digital.

While that's probably the most intriguing concept to? me, there are a few more big announcements.

The Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set is coming to standard on July 8 in Arena, followed by July 23 in paper form. That's huge news, as you now have a transparent timer in which to hit your full Mastery (Season Pass) cap in the current Strixha?ven ??set.

Modern Horizons II is also hitting modern on June 18, and the company reminds everyone of their involvement in publishing the Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance video game due out on June 22.

It's a lot of stuff to parse! While Hasbro has done a number on their business model and player satisfaction, they're going to be printing and selling a lot of Magic over the next several months.

Welcome to the Summer of Legend [Wizards of the Coast]

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