Wizards of the Coast has been pushing the boundaries of MTG a lot recently. In 2025 alone, we’re having a racing-themed set in Aetherdrift and a space-themed one in Edge of Eternities. As if those weren’t already weird enough, there’s also that pesky Standard-legal Spider-Man swinging about.
Given we’ve seen the neon-soaked streets of Kamigawa and the Wild Wild West of Thunder Junction recently, it seems like Wizards can’t surprise us anymore. That being said, a match-three-themed puzzle plane would certainly have us scratching our heads. Apparently, within the walls of Wizards R&D, such a plane not only exists but was planned a decade ago.
Considering all the weird and wacky goings-on we’ve seen recently, it may only be a matter of time before this set becomes a reality.
Match-Three Madness
According to Head MTG Designer Mark Rosewater, MTG’s match-three-themed puzzle plane was conceived around the same time as Innistrad. Originally, this bizarre set would have been released just after Innistrad in 2011. Sadly, this exciting plan never came to pass, since Wizards wanted to only design one new plane per year.
As Mark Rosewater recounts in a new article on “The Ins and Outs of Innistrad Remastered,” this made Innistrad grow from a one-plane experiment to a three-plane block. Considering how beloved the original Innistrad block was, it’s hard to say this was a bad thing at all. As we now know, however, this change did come at the cost of a very peculiar set.
In their article, Rosewater sadly didn’t name this match-three-based plane. Instead, it was only alluded to as a creation of designer Brain Tinsman, who pitched it during a design contest. Few details about this set were revealed outside of a vague gesturing at the match-three-themed mechanics.
“Brian recognized that match-three games had become a phenomenon and was inspired to make a plane whose mechanics and flavor played into that space.”
Mark Rosewater
Sadly, after this brief teasing reveal, the match-three-based puzzle set didn’t appear again in Rosewater’s article. Importantly, however, the fate of this set and plane weren’t explicitly confirmed. This means it could still exist within Wizards design files, potentially just waiting for the right opportunity to appear.
A Puzzling Place
While we know basically nothing about it, a match-three-based MTG plane is equal parts weird and exciting. Maybe such a place would include a lot of triple mana cost cards, or maybe it’d be the plane that brings back Meld. Considering that Meld debuted in Shadows over Innistrad, it’s possible this puzzle plane was pieced apart and used in other sets.
If Magic’s match-three puzzle plane did survive, there’s one obvious place it could be. As ThougthseizeScoop points out on Reddit, Xerex appears to be the perfect home for a plane concept like this. First appearing in Planechase 2012, Xerex is known for having reality-defying Escherian physics, although saying ‘known’ is rather generous.
To date, Xerex has only appeared on three MTG cards, excluding those from Un-Known events. Even though one of these, Invasion of Xerex is a Battle, we don’t know much about this MTG plane. Given the basis in math-y geometry and weird physics, however, some match-three mechanics might not look out of place.
While there’s no telling if Xerex is actually this mystery puzzle plane, we might end up finding out sooner rather than later. Back in April of 2023, Mark Rosewater ran a poll to see which Battle-having plane players might want to go to next. Once all was said and done, Xerex ended up coming out on top, claiming 27% of the final vote.
Sadly, until Xerex finally gets a set of its own, we may never know what a puzzle-themed MTG plane looks like. Unfortunately, even if we’re optimistic, Xerex’s appearance may be a long time coming. Now that Universes Beyond fills up half of the MTG-release calendar, we’ll be waiting a very long while.
