There was a lot to enjoy about each of the MTG sets released throughout 2024. Each set contained a fair few exciting cards that helped to mix up and revitalize multiple formats. Unfortunately, while every set had great cards and Limited gameplay, the tone wasn’t beloved by MTG players.
Between Murders of Karlov Manor and Duskmourn: House of Horror, 2024 certainly seemed to have a tone problem. Due to the art direction of these sets, the tone ended up being far lighter than expected, much to the chagrin of many players. Thankfully, it seems Wizards of the Coast won’t be repeating this mistake in back-to-back years.
A Tonal Change
Despite traveling to some of the most out-there places in Magic’s multiverse, apparently, 2025 won’t be getting any wackier. This is according to MTG’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, who recently discussed this topic on Blogatog. Answering a question from Tumblr user Hakkairequiem, Rosewater revealed that “Aetherdrift is the lightest in tone of this year’s sets.”
First things first, this answer presumably only cares about the in-universe sets being released throughout 2025. Not only do Universes Beyond sets not tend to have a unique story but Marvel’s Spider-Man is bound to be fairly whimsical. With this in mind, we’re only looking ahead at Tarkir: Dragonstorm and Edge of Eternities.
Before we get to those sets, however, it’s worth talking about Aetherdrift for a moment. While this set hasn’t been fully spoiled yet, it’s clear the tone is fairly tongue-in-cheek. We’ve got plenty of unusually named cards like Pedal to the Metal and Full Throttle, and even the whole “Start your engines!” mechanic.
Despite these tonally light elements, Aetherdrift is fairly dark at its core. For starters, the race itself is firmly within the ‘Death Race’ genre, since, as MaRo points out, it’s a race where people die. As if this wasn’t a dark enough edge, Jace shows up during the story being pretty darn evil and definitely a bad parent to Loot.
With this in mind, while Aetherdrift is on the lighter end of the MTG tone spectrum, it’s hardly all sunshine and rainbows. Technically, the same was true of both Murders at Karlov Manor and Duskmourn: House of Horror. Despite their aesthetics which caused frustration among players, both these sets were undeniably grim in tone.
A Suspected Shift
Looking ahead, it makes sense that Rosewater seems confident in giving this answer. After all, based on what we know, this tonal shift is fairly expected. Tarkir: Dragonstorm, for starters, just looks like a classic MTG set with the game’s usual serious fantasy-focused tone. If the set is anything like the old trips to Tarkir, there won’t be much room for memes.
Following on from this, we’ve got Edge of Eternities. While this set does have the potential for some silly space-based shenanigans, it seems Wizards is going in a different direction. Based on the art of Tezzeret above, it seems this is very much possible.
Given we’re progressing through Magic’s current three-year story arc, it’s no wonder things are getting more serious. From what we’ve seen in Aetherdrift, Jace has plans, and he’s not afraid of getting a bit mind-control-y to make them happen. On top of that, Valgavoth is still lurking around being generally up to no good.
Ultimately, while this tone change may be unsurprising in the grand scheme of MTG, we don’t know how it will manifest. Duskmourn was meant to be a horror-themed set, after all, but it leaned too hard into the 80’s era. There’s a non-zero chance that Edge of Eternities may suffer from the same problem.
We can only hope that Wizards will have learned their lesson following Duskmourn’s controversy. Sadly, even if this has happened, it’s not guaranteed Wizards will have been able to implement any changes. Given the two-year development cycle of an MTG set, the tone for 2025 may have already been locked in. Subsequently, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens as the year progresses.