With Magic's big announcements today, we've gotten the big reveals on the upcoming sets for 2022.
Magic is going to be doing some serious genre-bending, which I've always been a huge fan of. While there are some other products that are definitely worth talking about (like expansions into other IPs like Lord of the Rings and Warhammer 40k,) for the canonical MTG stuff, there's some huge news.
The first half of 2022 is going to have a more urban and modern/futuristic feel.
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is a return to the plane of Kamigawa, taking place 2000 years after the events of the original block from back in 2004/2005. Kamigawa is themed around Japanese culture and folklore. The original set was something of a prequel, with events taking place before even the era of the Legends set (explaining, for instance, how the Umezawa Clan got started on Dominaria.) In Neon Dynasty, Kamigawa has seen the rise of futuristic megalopolises, with cybernetics and other technology giving us a full-on cyberpunk feel combined with its magical, kami-filled world. There's a new planeswalker from Kamigawa who is a cyber-ninja, which is freaking cool.
The next set is Streets of New Capenna. The inspiration here is a plane of gangsters, which seems to have a big Art Deco city in which rival gangs, each functioning as three-color tribes, vie for control. Apparently the city was founded by angels, but demons have corrupted it and filled its street with crime. Thus, we'll have a kind of 1920s gangster feel to what seems to be another fairly urban setting.
The back half of 2022 is going to switch gears with two sets that take place on the OG Magic plane, Dominaria. Dominaria United looks like it will be set in contemporary Dominaria, following the events of the eponymous set that came out a few years ago. I suspect we'll see a continuation of some of the mechanics introduced in that set (though Sagas seem like they're practically evergreen at this point,) with a promise of familiar characters, both good and bad, coming.
The last set of the year is The Brothers War. Way, way back in the day, the first expansion set to really flesh out Dominaria as a setting, Antiquities told the story of the Brothers War as one of the ancient past, with a sort of archaeological approach to it. This set will fully take place in that early era in which rival brother artificers Urza and Mishra fought for domination of the plane. This war of massive artifact creatures will likely mean a strong artifact theme for the set, and I'm looking forward to seeing some jaw-dropping art of dragon engines and other mechanical monstrosities set loose upon Dominaria.
Of note, when it comes to Kamigawa, there was always this problem where the flavor of the plane was very exciting, but a lot of the mechanics were pretty underwhelming (though I still think Ninjutsu was cool.) They are apparently taking a very new approach to the plane, giving it a new mechanical identity (which previous was the "legends" plane.)
I'm also interested to see that they seem to be doing a bit more of these double-visits to planes. While the three-set block structure was abandoned a few years ago, for a time they were doing two-set blocks before converting to individual set visits. However, with super-popular settings like Innistrad and Dominaria, it makes sense for them to hang out there a bit longer.
As someone who has made great use of Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, I'd be very happy if they announce a Dominaria-centric D&D setting book. I never really understood why Theros was chosen to get a book, and Strixhaven seems especially premature, but Ravnica is arguably the most popular Magic plane, so that made perfect sense as a first visit. Dominaria, on the other hand, has such a detailed history and geography, with so many potential stories, that it seems a natural fit for a D&D book. I hope that, with a double-visit to that setting, the chances of a D&D book for Dominaria are higher.
Another big announcement was the next Un-set, Unfinity, which will be a crazy sci-fi carnival theme. I don't know if silver-bordered sets can even work in Arena, but it does show a new, greater willingness to try out settings and genres that are not so strictly fantasy.
I imagine there might be some fantasy purists upset about cyberpunk Kamigawa or the gangster-filled New Capenna, or Unfinity, but I'm going to go on record that this nerd, who has been into Magic since practically the beginning, freaking loves the idea. The ideas of Magic are so elemental that I think they could work in practically any genre, but also, the fantasy genre need only show us something otherworldly and wondrous - it need not be locked in perpetual medievalism.
And I'm very excited to see WotC exploring these new frontiers.
No comments:
Post a Comment