During Magic Showcase 2021, Mark Rosewater, Magic: The Gathering’s head designer, announced Wizards of the Coast’s latest comedy Un- set, Unfinity.
Since the first Un- set, Unglued, back in 1998, these parody sets have always been a celebrated addition to the release calendar, thanks to their wacky parody-filled stylings and mechanics.
What is Magic: The Gathering Unfinity?
Magic: The Gathering Unfinity is a top-down designed set that combines Mark Rosewater’s passion for a circus-themed Magic: The Gathering set and art director Dawn Murin’s desire for a retro-science fiction set.
Through Rosewater’s and Murin’s powers combined, the pair created a giant intergalactic amusement part that fused circus, carnival, and amusement park aspects. This park was dubbed Myra the Magnificent’s Intergalactic Astrotorium of Fun and is the setting for the Unfinity set.
For those unfamiliar with the term, a “top-down” designed set is one where a set’s setting, story, and theme are established first, and the mechanics are designed around that setting. Innistrad: Crimson Vow, Kaldheim, and Amonkhet are examples of top-down designed sets.
Alternatively, “bottom-up” designed sets are created with the mechanics in mind first, with the setting and aesthetic built around those decisions.
As a Un- set, Unfinity features a great deal of humor throughout the card names, art, mechanics, and flavor text. To help enhance the comedic aspects of the set, Wizards of the Coast has sought help from Canadian comedy group LoadingReadyRun, Cracked writer ‘Seanbaby,’ and established flavor text writer Austin Bridges.
What is a Magic: The Gathering Unfinity Collectors Booster?
For the first time in a Un- set, Unfinity will have more than one type of booster available for purchase. Alongside Draft Boosters, Collector Boosters will also be available for purchase.
Unlike traditional Collector Boosters, which have become a staple for modern Magic sets, Unfinity’s Collector Boosters are slightly different. That’s because every single card within an Unfinity Collector Booster will be foil.
Unfinity Collector Boosters will also have a brand new “unique foil treatment called galaxy foil.” This new foiling technique is said to look like the stars in space.
In Collector Boosters, twelve out of the fifteen cards will be traditional foils, while three out of the fifteen cards will be the new galaxy foils.
Will Magic: The Gathering Unfinity have full art lands?
Yes, Magic: The Gathering Unfinity will feature a plethora of full-art basic lands and shock lands. Dubbed “space-ic lands,” Unfinity is continuing the trend of Un- sets featuring some of the best looking full-art lands available with not one but two different cycles of full-art lands.
The first and more common cycle of full-art basic lands available in the Magic: The Gathering Unfinity set is known as “planetary space-ic lands.” These full-art basic lands feature stunning alien vistas from planets across the Unfinity universe.
According to Wizards of the Coat, planetary space-ic lands will be found in Collector Boosters and Draft Boosters roughly 70% of the time.
As well as the planetary space-ic lands, Wizards of the Coast is offering a second, far rarer, set of full-art lands known as “orbital space-ic lands.” These basic lands provide an enchanting view of the planets from space and will show up in roughly one of every four Draft Boosters.
As if two sets of full art lands aren’t enough already, the Unfinity set also features exquisite space-themed full-art borderless versions of the ten shock lands from the Ravnica blocks. Unfortunately, these full-art shock lands are the rarest of all the lands, only available in one in 24 draft boosters and two in 24 of the designated land slots in Collector’s booster packs.
A foil version of full-art borderless shock land is guaranteed to be included within a Box Topper booster available in each Draft Booster and Collector Booster box.
Magic: The Gathering Unfinity Set Legality
Traditionally, Magic: The Gathering’s Un- sets have been printed with silver borders to denote that they are not eligible to be played outside their own constructed or limited formats. For the latest Un- set, however, this is changing, as every Unfinity card is being printed with MTG’s traditional black border.
This is because, for the first time, some Unfinity cards will be legal in the eternal constructed formats of Legacy, Vintage, and Commander.
Wizards of the Coast has created a new acorn security stamp to facilitate this change while removing silver borders. This new security stamp is visible at the bottom of the cards in place of an oval, or no, security stamp.
As Mark Rosewater explains, the “acorn security stamp means is exactly what a silver border used to.” If an Unfinity card features the new acorn security stamp, it won’t be eligible for tournament play. Unfinity cards with an oval security stamp or no stamp will be eligible for play in Legacy, Vintage, and Commander.
Magic: The Gathering Unfinity Mechanics
During Mark Rosewater’s recent ComicCon panel, a new Unfinity mechanic was revealed; Stickers. Despite not being in anyone’s hands just yet, Stickers have already become a controversial topic. Thankfully, the actual function of Stickers is fairly self-explanatory. Brought into play through cards such as Carnival Carnivore Stickers let you modify or add to a card you own. Keep in note that owning a card is different from controlling it, so you can’t Sticker your opponent’s cards.
Played from the new play item, Sticker Sheets, a Sticker can add to a creature’s name, art, abilities, or change its power/toughness. Some cards, such as Angelic Harold only allow you to stick a certain type of Sticker. Angelic Harold also showcases that, as usual with a Un- Set, art and card names matter. Once stuck to a creature, Stickers won’t be removed unless the card goes to a nonpublic zone. Nonpublic zones are your hand and your library. Once in a nonpublic zone, Stickers are removed and returned to the Sticker Sheet.
As you’ll notice on Sticker Sheets, as well as cards like Animate Object, Stickers come with another brand new mechanic; Tickets. Tickets are a new Poliferateable counter introduced in Unfinity that allows players to stick ability or power/toughness stickers.
Magic: The Gathering Unfinity Leaks & Spoilers
Currently, only twelve non-land cards have been spoiled for Magic: the Gathering Unfinity. These cards showcase the acorn and standard security seals while also providing an insight into the set’s dice rolling and wacky Sticker-based themes and mechanics.
As seen in the cards above, Killer Cosplay, Water Gun Baloon Game, and Assembled Ensemble all feature somewhat overpowered, wacky, and nonstandard mechanics that are typical of a Un- set. Subsequently, these cards are all dubbed “acorn cards” thanks to their unique security seal.
According to Mark Rosewater, “over half” of the cards the team designed for Unfinity are suitable for “the black border category” and eternal tournament play. Rosewater also stressed, however, that “all the cards in this set were designed before this distinction existed.”
“We just made cool cards for the set and later divided them into categories. We tweaked a small number of cards that were close to being non-acorn, but mostly things stayed as originally designed,” Rosewater stated.
It has also been confirmed that Unfinity will feature 30 legendary creatures in the set, one of which is The Space Family Goblinson. Most of these legendary creatures are two-color, and over a third are playable in eternal formats. This will allow Commander players to enjoy a lot of new quirky commanders.
Each of the 30 legendary creatures in Unfinity will also be available in an alternate retro-pop style called the “the showcase cards of tomorrow.” These showcase frames highlight Unfinity’s ’50s and ’60s retro-pop-inspired style. As you can see from the example above, they’re oozing with charm.
When is Magic: The Gathering Unfinity’s Release Dates
Magic: The Gathering Unfinity was initially scheduled to be released on the 1st of April 2022. Due to complications and challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the set’s release was delayed until the second half of 2022.
Following its delay, Magic: The Gathering Unfinity is currently scheduled to launch on the 7th of October 2022. In a recent blog post, Wizards of the Coast comically stated that “October 7 is the new April 1” to announce the new release date.
It is doubtful that Unfinity will launch on either Magic: The Gathering Online or Magic: The Gathering Arena. This is due to the set’s unique rules and interactions which would be incredibly difficult to adapt to digital play.
