MagicCon: Las Vegas’s preview panel is finally here, lifting the curtains on many of Magic’s most heavily anticipated sets. While Marvel Super Heroes and The Hobbit are some of the biggest crossovers Magic has ever seen, in-Universe Magic has not been left behind. Reality Fracture has been hyped up for years now, and players are finally getting a first look at what the set has in store. Between reimaginings of the Power Nine, the return of Garruk, and wild pack seeding, there’s a lot to enjoy here.
What If Ancestral Recall Was Black?
While Wizards of the Coast officially revealed four cards from Reality Fracture today, we’ve seen most of them before. Thankfully, while early leaks have spoiled the show slightly, Wizards still had one exciting reveal up their sleeve in Bloodline Recollector. Offering Ancestral Craving, a black variant of Ancestral Recall that adheres to the color pie, this vampire warlock is the Serialized Headliner of Reality Fracture.
As exciting as this card looks, it might not see play outside of Commander. In Aristocrats decks, in particular, this Bloodline Recollector will be an auto-include, thanks to cards like Plaguecrafter and Fleshbag Marauder. Even if you only do this once, getting three cards for so cheap is more than worth it, and it only gets better if you can repeatedly cast Ancestral Craving.
Sadly, in constructed, Bloodline Recollector’s Prepare requirement might be too strict. Not only does it take a lot of setup to kill three creatures, but all of your hard work gets undone by a simple Burst Lightning or Fatal Push. Because Bloodline Recollector becomes Prepared on the End Step, there’s no real trick that you can use to sneak an Ancestral Craving through interaction, either.
Both Sides of the Mirror
At this point, especially following the leaks, it’s no secret that Reality Fracture mixes up the Magic Multiverse. While it doesn’t combine it with Universes Beyond as originally suspected, it does introduce us to the “Echoverse.” Within the Echoverse, Reality Fracture will take us to Hexhaven, an ally-colored alternative reality version of the Strixhaven Colleges on Arcavios. While it doesn’t combine it with Universes Beyond as originally suspected, it does introduce us to the “Echoverse.” This is what Wizards is calling the brand new universe that Jace has created to write the wrongs of the Phyrexian invasion.
As we’ve seen throughout the story, and now officially in spoilers, this means we’ll be getting alternative reality variants of classic characters. Snapcaster Mage, for instance, has been reimagined as Stingcaster Mage, who is red rather than blue. While this is already a cool twist that delivers on the “What if” concept players have been longing for, Wizards is taking things even further.
In Reality Fracture, Wizards has managed to seed packs, so they’ll contain both the normal universe and the Echoverse version. This means if you open a pack with Chandra, Torch of Defiance, it’ll also contain Chandra, Chill of Compliance 100% of the time. This is the big ‘you know it when you see it’ change for Reality Fracture that Wizards has been hyping up for literal years.
Currently, it’s unclear just how many cards will be getting this treatment, but it’s confirmed for each of the main characters. Judging by the newly revealed art for the set, we know that Garruk, Vraska, Chandra, Ajani, and Lilliana are all appearing in this set, and will have this two-per-pack treatment. Notably, not all of these characters are Planeswalkers in the set; however, it’s definitely good to see Garruk again after so long.
Products and Release Dates
Despite not being released for five whole months, on October 2nd, Wizards also unveiled the products for Reality Fracture today. For the most part, these are all pretty typical, although we are only getting one precon, this time around. Dubbed Multiverse Reforced, this is a unique four-colored token-based deck that supposedly lets you “warp reality to power up.”
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, Reality Fracture is also getting a “Secret Lair bundle.” Currently, information about this new product is being kept up Wizards’ sleeves, but it already sounds like a neat collectible. Potentially, this product could mean Reality Fracture is getting its own Secret Lair Superdrop, but that’s not confirmed right now.
Ultimately, there’s still a lot we don’t know about Reality Fracture, and we won’t learn more for a while. Given it’s still so long away, we’re likely not going to see any more spoilers for a few months, at least. Thankfully, we won’t be bored in the meantime, as both Marvel Super Heroes and The Hobbit will be released in the interim.
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