As Wizards of the Coast has developed MTG over the past few years, it has become no stranger to crossovers. Many of these have been featured in MTG’s Universes Beyond series, allowing fans to bring their favorite characters from other intellectual properties into their MTG decks. While this decision brought some controversy into the community, a new crossover seems to have most MTG MOBA fans excited! MTG is coming to Smite, and with it, the opportunity to play some of your favorite MTG characters in a very popular gaming genre has arrived. While many characters featured are precisely as you expect, one bizarre inclusion in Smite’s trailer sparked speculation across the community.
MTG Smite Crossover
On January 31, 2023, Titan Games revealed their newest gameplay trailer for their hit MOBA game Smite. This game features various gods and other characters from mythology and allows players to duke it out in a MOBA setting.
The MTG Smite Crossover event features the five characters showcased in the thumbnail for the trailer. Jace, Liliana, Karn, and Chandra have all been core characters in MTG storylines for a long time. Even Nicol Bolas seems to be coming to the MTG MOBA crossover but is not currently available as of the writing of this article. The fifth character being featured here is a bit bizarre.
Karn, Liliana, Chandra, Jace, and Atraxa are now available as playable skins over some of Smite’s previous characters. Many were somewhat confused about why Atraxa was featured over the current face of the Phyrexian invasion Elesh Norn. This led to some wild speculation about untold plot twists that may appear in the Phyrexian storyline. There has since been proof, however, that this is likely not the case.
Is Atraxa Going to Ignite Her Spark?
It’s no secret that the MTG community has all eyes on Atraxa. Ever since Wizards of the Coast revealed a new version of the character that features a card type we’ve never seen before, the MTG community has been excitedly discussing what that could mean. That said, Elesh Norn seems to be taking the Phyrexian spotlight in the current MTG storyline, bringing up a whirlwind of questions about why Atraxa is being featured in this crossover instead.
Based on this trailer’s contents, some MTG players are beginning to speculate that this may be because of what has yet to come in the Phyrexian storyline. Some players believe that this gameplay trailer may suggest Atraxa could become a Planeswalker:
“Atraxa’s such a weird choice, especially when there’s this whole speech where Chandra is using “we” in a way that would suggest to anyone uninformed that Atraxa is also a Planeswalker”
Pacmantis
“Maybe this is just a leak of a major MOM plot twist! :P”
Imnimo
“Atraxa planeswalker was not in my bingo list”
Jeskaisekai
As mentioned in the first quote, this speculation was primarily inspired by Chandra’s speech that took place during the trailer. Basically, Chandra referred to MTG’s incoming characters as Planeswalkers, which could include Atraxa. While this speculation was exciting to discuss, and while it is still a possibility that Atraxa could ignite her spark in the future (though Phyrexian Lore may contest that), some things seem to identify this as hearsay:
“In the game smite it has their splash screens as cards. Atraxa is “Legendary Creature” while all the others are “legendary Planeswalker”
The info in game says Planeswalkers AND creatures coming to the game :)”
GalaktikFlame
While this may not have been the insane plot leak that some players wanted it to be, having a Phyrexian Planeswalker (one that was initially Phyrexian and not Compleated) would be an exciting concept, even if it may be an impossibility.
MTG Smite Player Review
Aside from the Atraxa discussion, how are players interested in the MTG MOBA crossover enjoying the gameplay? According to player reports, even though the crossover only features some skins and other accessories, some nice details have been added:
“I just bought the whole thing recently while it’s still on a 33% discount and the skins are great. I especially love how Karn is given a champ who’s ult resembles the legacy weapon.
There’s more to this though, there’s free missions for each character that awards you with a pfp of the character and their own announcer pack. Atraxa has a great one that references each Praetor and even Yawgmoth at one point I think. Great touches.
Lastly, only the first 5 skins are out now but the next 5 are available in 80 days along with their own missions.”
Moist-Mystery
Alongside some promising quality and even more characters coming soon, many MTG players are impressed with the quality of the Planeswalker skins:
“So this update was actually announced during their world’s tournament about two weeks ago. I am honestly surprised it took this long to make it to the mtg side of reddit. As both a huge magic and smite fan, the skins look fantastic in the game. I was so excited for this crossover, and it delivers.”
WoodwardUpper
In terms of pushback, there are some players upset about the price tag attached to the crossover:
“I love Smite, and I love Magic, but this package costs like $80 for ten skins and a couple miscellaneous cosmetics. Hard to justify.”
Fluxxed0
Who is Yet to Come?
As mentioned earlier, not all of the skins for this crossover are currently available. Thankfully, there is some information on what characters in Smite will receive these new skins. MTG players are speculating about what characters could be coming:
“Artemis is probably Vivien. Tiamat is definitely Bolas because they’re built the same. Otherwise, not sure sure about the other three. Mulan could be Elspeth, but maybe Gideon. Chronos is probably Teferi. Eset is kind of crap shoot because her character is a little generic. Maybe Tamiyo?”
Packrat1010
“not played the game myself but I heard mulan was narset and eset was avacyn”
Infinite_Bananas
Whatever ends up coming as a result of this crossover, it does look like some of the MTG community is having fun with it, and that can only be a good thing.
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