Unfortunately, due to various factors, delays in the world of Magic: the Gathering aren’t too uncommon anymore. Thanks to a pesky global pandemic, countless sets and products are delayed “due to ongoing supply chain disruptions.” The worst of these delays have even kept products out of players’ hands for over a year! Subsequently, it’s no surprise that players usually aren’t too happy upon hearing the news of a product’s delay. With Phyrexia: All Will Be One, however, Wizards is hoping for a different reaction to a delay announcement. Bafflingly, as backward as it may seem, this delay might actually be a good thing!
Phyrexia: All Will Be One Week Later
To get the all-important information out of the way first, Phyrexia: All Will Be One has been delayed by one week. At first, this change was only announced for the pre-beat first look to make space for Dominaria Remastered’s unusual spoiler season. Since then, however, this week-long delay has been expanded to all Phyrexia: All Will Be One dates. Surprisingly, this critical bit of information was surprisingly easy to miss, even catching us off guard. Rather than announcing this change across social media and in a dedicated blog post, it was instead merely noted at the start of a recent Weekly MTG stream.
To lay everything out as clearly as possible, here are the dates you now need to know for Phyrexia: All Will Be One.
- First Look: December 13th, 2022
- Building Worlds & first story chapter: January 12th, 2023
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One Previews begin: January 17th, 2023
- Phyrexia: All Will be One Prerelease Events: February 3rd – February 9th, 2023
- Phyrexia: All Will be One Digital Release: February 7th, 2023
- Phyrexia: All Will be One Tabletop Release: February 10th, 2023
- Launch Party Events: February 10th – 12th, 2023
- Store Championship Events: February 25th – March 5th, 2023
Delayed, but for Good Reason
While the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately, hasn’t gone away just yet, it wasn’t the reason for Phyrexia: All Will Be One’s recent delay. Instead, Wizards of the Coast decided to delay this much-anticipated product all on their own. This may seem like quite a controversial move. However, it was for a good reason. Weekly MTG host Blake Rasmussen explained as such in the recent Livestream where this news was announced.
“We’ve heard a lot of feedback lately related to two things, we’ve actually heard a lot of feedback related to a lot of things, but I’m going to talk about two things today. One is the prevalence of preview season, and the other is releases being on top of one another. So, we are making some slight changes to adjust for that, including this quick preview season for DMR and some shifts for Phyrexia: All Will Be One.”
Blake Rasmussen – Wizards of the Coast
As Rasmussen explains, this decision wasn’t made just so that Wizards could create a little bit of chaos. Instead, Wizards is doing their best to respond directly to player feedback and the concerns that players have raised. Due to the number of releases currently being crammed into a year, MTG has left nonstop for quite some time. This has led to many once-invested players becoming disenfranchised from the brand. Subsequently, Wizards is doing their best to keep players interested and retool releases where it can. Unfortunately, as Rasmussen went on to explain, reconfiguring releases isn’t always easy.
“2023 releases are pretty locked in. There’s only so much we can tweak. But we do have a few knobs we can turn, so what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna push back, Phyrexia All Will Be One’s release date by a week. […] So again, we’re pushing it back a little bit to try to give a little bit more. You know, there wasn’t much more we could push it, given how close we are, but I think the team here felt that giving a little bit more time was important.”
Blake Rasmussen – Wizards of the Coast
Signs of Improvement
As we’ve stated throughout this article, delays often aren’t a good thing. In the mixed-up world of MTG, however, this decision may actually be cause for celebration. As Blake Rasmussen highlighted, this is what MTG players have been asking for, after all. Admittedly, a slight delay to Phyrexia: All Will Be One won’t negate the problem of MTG’s over-bloated calendar entirely. However, it is a step in the right direction. Alongside the change to Dominaria Remastered’s spoiler season, it appears that Wizards of the Coast really is listening to MTG fans right now. This should give MTG players a lot of hope for the future, as Wizards really does care about Magic.
Read More: MTG Arena Players Are Profiting off Wizards’ Mistakes
