While the most newsworthy thing announced was received with a less than enthusiastic response, Wizards of the Coast revealed many new spoilers this morning. From the new Meld Mishra to an incredibly lucrative Secret Lair product, there is a lot of new stuff to be excited about! Without further ado, here is everything you need to know from the October fourth MTG announcement!
Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia
We now have our Melded Mishra card! It’s just as flashy as promised, and while it doesn’t offer the clean mana curve that Urza, Planeswalker‘s pieces do, there is no seven-mana cost to Meld the two cards that create Mishra. Even better, these Mishra cards have some redundancy.
Phyrexian Dragon Engine is a decent Standard aggro card on its own. This three-mana 2/2 Double Striking artifact has Unearth. This is an older mechanic, so for reference, Unearth is a mana cost that can be paid while Phyrexian Dragon Engine is in the graveyard. Unearth doesn’t technically cast a card, but it does put it onto the battlefield with Haste. The catch is that the Unearthed permanent will exile itself on your end step. There’s no need to worry about that with the Dragon Engine since it’s just supposed to Meld anyway. As an added bonus, Unearthing the Dragon Engine allows you to refill an empty hand.
Mishra, Claimed by Gix is pretty unimpressive. Chances are, outside of Commander, you will not be playing this card unless you’re seriously trying to Meld into Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia. That said, the payoff is worth it. Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia is a more significant card design than you may think. As pointed out by Mark Rosewater when spoiling this card, Mishra is an evolution of the Charm and Command mechanics that Melded technology allows possible. Charms, like Abzan Charm, give you three options and one choice. Commands, like Cryptic Command, give you four options and two choices. Mishra, Lost of Phyrexia gives you five options and three choices.
While all of these choices are incredibly powerful and will reoccur whenever Mishra attacks, he is still a creature without any evasion. This means a well-timed Murder can undo all your hard work to create this monstrosity. On the plus side, at least you can Unearth the Dragon Engine again.
For the Green mages out there that want to participate with the Meld cards going up, there is no need for disappointment! Wizards also revealed that one more Meld card will be featured in Brothers’ War, and that card will have Green in its identity.
Dominaria Remastered Spoilers
With all the crazy announcements fired off recently, it can be easy to forget that we have another reprint set coming in January. We already got some crazy spoilers from this set in the form of Force of Will, but here are some more spoilers for the upcoming Dominaria Remastered set!
The classic Mark Poole Counterspell is a release promo available with Dominaria United. This card sees an absolutely absurd amount of Modern play after Modern Horizons Two offered a legal printing of it.
Birds of Paradise is one of MTG’s most classic cards. This is a Modern mainstay that also sees a ton of Commander play. Birds of Paradise can essentially function as an extra land as early as turn one for just one mana. There’s a reason why “bolt the bird” is one of the most classic MTG sayings; leaving this card will potentially allow your opponent to snowball to an absurd mana advantage. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Birds of Paradise reprint, so many MTG players should welcome this.
This Birds of Paradise also showcases the three main treatments that featured cards will be receiving for the Dominaria Remastered set: modern border, old border, and full art.
Time Stretch, the Commander “favorite,” is returning with Dominaria United. This expensive extra turn spell has a significant price tag on the secondary market due to only having two older printings. There is a good chance that this printing, as a result, will curb the price of Time Stretch a fair bit. Either way, this is another decent reprint for the upcoming set.
Back in the day, Jester’s Cap was the rage when it came out. Combo strategies were at their strongest, so an ability that allows you to exile cards directly from a player’s library every turn seemed like an incredibly powerful effect. History was not as kind to this card in the long run, but it remains a janky classic regardless.
Anyone looking for an old-bordered version of this Commander favorite? Well, it’s in Dominaria Remastered, alongside a few other cards that fit the same mold.
Sneak Attack is a fine reprint. We’ve seen quite a few reprints of this card over the years, and current market averages have the cheapest versions of this card hovering around $17. If this is the weakest Mythic we see financially, then Dominaria Remastered seems like a good set.
While old-bordered Swords to Plowshares already exist, this is a great Uncommon reprint regardless. Swords to Plowshares is one of Commander’s most efficient removal cards. Its cheap price tag also ensures a ton of demand.
Regional Championship Season Three Promotional Cards
Good news for the competitive MTG players out there: season three’s promotional cards look fantastic! There was a bit of pushback for our current season two’s cards, but season three showcases three competitively relevant cards that should have all Regional Championship hopefuls excited to duke it out.
Of the three cards here, Mystical Dispute, by far, sees the most play. This Throne of Eldraine Uncommon is so widely played that one copy of the card has reached $3, which is a lot for an Uncommon. The product’s target audience will greatly appreciate some extra copies of these.
30th Anniversary Promotional Cards
Revealed in this announcement are all of the upcoming promotional Magic 30 cards coming out in prereleases! To give a quick reminder of what these are, here are the ones that have been released already:
The second picture here is part of a recently spoiled set of cards from last Thursday. You can catch up on that announcement here. As for today’s new spoilers, here’s what we have:
While not made clear by the picture, these are being released alongside the Phyrexia: All Will Be One prerelease. The second card on this list is Vindicate, a powerful removal option for Commander. Temple of the False God is also a Commander favorite that sees a lot of controversial opinions from passionate Commander fans.
March of the Machine will see these cards released during its prerelease. Eternal Witness and Chord of Calling are two significant players with secondary market relevance. However, they are both dwarfed by the following promos being shown off.
How could MTG honor their 30 years of Magic without celebrating one of the most influential cards of all? This fantastic new Tarmogoyf is going to have a lot of interested buyers. I myself really want to get my hands on one of these. Glen Elendra Archmage is also a fantastic inclusion. These will be available alongside the release of the Tales of Middle Earth set coming next year.
Fast forward to Wilds of Eldraine, and we see the return of some controversial color pie-breaking effects like Hornet Queen. Goblin Rabblemaster was an absolute menace back in its Standard days. Seeing its return is pretty nostalgic.
Lost Caverns of Ixalan will see some exciting inclusions like Dragonlord Atarka and Dramatic Reversal. We have not had a premium version of Dramatic Reversal before. Considering it is a Commander homestay, there should be some demand behind that particular card.
We don’t yet know the name of the set this is being released alongside, but this is the end of the promotional cards featured in the Magic 30 celebration. You may notice a face-down MTG card in the 2022 slot. This is because the card included for 2022 has not been revealed yet. Whatever it ends up being, we are excited to see it.
Magic 30 Secret Lair
This is, in my opinion, the most exciting thing announced by Wizards of the Coast today. Pictured here are seven of the 30 cards featured in a sort of advent-calendar Secret Lair product. Each of these cards is going to come sealed in a single-card pack because there is a 30% chance that the card can come in foil. These will be going for $150 each, which is a hefty price. That said, the cards in this picture already surpass that value on the secondary market, and there are 23 more cards to come.
Each of these cards, like the 30th anniversary promotions, will feature a card printed from each year of MTG’s history.
Chrome Mox and Necropotence alone cost about $78 and $39 according to TCGplayer averages in their cheapest copy, respectively. The other cards included on this list easily exceed the $150 price tag. According to today’s announcement, these will go for sale on November first, with most areas receiving these on December first. For those who want to see everything offered with this set, that goes live on the Secret Lair site on October 24. With what we currently know about this product, this could be one of the most valuable MTG products in history.
This isn’t Everything!
Two other announcements were made this morning. These, however, were so massive that we decided to talk about them in a different place. This article was already getting a bit long, after all. Alongside these fantastic spoilers, MTG Arena is also getting some new expansions! You can read about that here. The most significant announcement today has received a lot of harsh criticism from the community. You can read about Black Lotus’s reprinting here.
