Following the launch of Phyrexia: All Will Be One earlier this month, MTG players have been left without a shred of news to enjoy. While this might sound like a recipe for boredom, it’s actually what much of the MTG community ordered. After all, this downtime from Magic’s constant spoiler season allowed MTG players to sit back, relax, and actually enjoy the set that just released. Unfortunately for these relaxing MTG fans, however, this quiet lul has come to an explosive end. In the past four days, Wizards has announced a smorgasbord of new content, overloading players with new releases. Alongside revealing the first March of the Machine details, Wizards has recently announced major details about four upcoming sets!
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
Starting off the Livestream with a bang, Weekly MTG host Blake Rasmussen revealed new details about Magic’s most anticipated Universes Beyond set. While the brand has been fraught with controversy in the past, recently, player opinion has been steadily becoming more positive. The reaction to The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set is one such example of this. In case you’ve not heard of it before, the gist of the set is fairly self-explanatory. Releasing in just a few months, this Lord of the Rings crossover is MTG’s latest direct-to-modern set. The set will also launch on MTG Arena as an Alchemy set that’s one-to-one with paper.
Thankfully for prospective fans of this upcoming crossover MTG set, the wait is almost over. After being teased back in 2021, the Tales of Middle-earth is now just a few months away. Unfortunately, it’s still a little while until players get to see the first cards from the set. However, we do now have a release date to look forward to. During the monthly announcement day Livestream, Wizards confirmed the set releases officially on June 23rd. Interestingly, alongside this official release date, the Tales of Middle-earth set is also getting a “holiday release.” There’s no telling exactly what this is for now, but whatever it is, it’s releasing on November 3rd. Here are all the dates you need to know.
- First Look: March 14th
- Debut: May 30th
- Prerelease: June 16th
- Arena Release: June 20th
- Tabletop Release: June 23rd
- Holiday Release: November 3rd
Alongside announcement release dates to look forward to, Wizards also revealed the cornucopia of products available for the set. Complimenting the usual offerings of Draft, Set, Collector, and Jumpstart Boosters, the Tales of Middle-earth set features five Commander decks and a Starter kit.
Commander Masters
Following the tantalizing Tales of Middle-earth details, Blake Rasmussen announced an even more anticipated set: Commander Masters. Similarly to The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set, Commander Masters is pretty self-explanatory. As you’d expect from past Masters sets, Commander Masters is a reprint-driven set that is predominantly focused on Commander. To announce the set in style, Wizards has already revealed a trio of fantastic reprints to get players excited. These cards are Jeweled Lotus, The Ur-Dragon, and Capture of Jingzhou. Considering the cheapest of these spoilers is The Ur-Dragon at $81.64 on average, it appears the set’s value will be immense.
Alongside reprinting the $215.13 Capture of Jingzhou, Commander Masters will include plenty of new art and enticing card frames. The fanciest of these are the new “frame break borderless” cards, as seen on Jewled Lotus. As Rasmussen explains in the Livestream, this unique art treatment makes cards “feel like they’re coming at you in a variety of ways.” As if one new art treatment wasn’t enough, the set also features a “profile borderless treatment” that lets you see iconic characters like The Ur-Dragon up close and personal.
Being a Commander-focused set, it should come as no surprise that Commander Masters will launch with some preconstructed Commander decks. These four decks each play into fan-favorite Commander archetypes and feature brand-new cards to better support the archetypes. The four Commander Masters Commander decks are Planeswalker Party, Eldrazi Unbound, Enduring Enchantments, and Sliver Swarm.
Last but not least, here are the dates for Commander Masters
- First Look: May 16th
- WPN Premium Store Preview Events: July 28th – 30th
- Tabletop Launch: August 4th
Shadows over Innistrad Remastered
Switching the focus back to MTG Arena, Blake Rasmussen went on to announce new details for Shadows over Innistrad Remastered. Containing a plethora of Pioneer stables, this set is undoubtedly an important one in Explorer’s path to becoming Pioneer. According to Rasmussen, this latest step couldn’t have come at a better time. “With all of the excitement around Pioneer from this past weekend, we are moving ever closer to having Pioneer on Arena.”
Unusually the set itself, which is coming to MTG Arena on March 21st, isn’t just comprised of cards from the Shadows over Innistrad block. As to make the set even more Innistrad-y, there will be “81 cards that will include some callbacks to the original 2011 Innistrad block.” These 81 cards will supplement the 302 cards from both Shadows over Innistrad and Eldrich Moon. Unfortunately for Eldrazi fans, there’s still no word on whether or not Emrakul, the Promised End, will make the cut.
Alongside announcing details about the upcoming set, Rasmussen revealed a trio of preview cards ahead of the set’s March release. The first of these cards was Sigarda’s Aid, which predominantly sees play in Modern and Legacy Hammer Time decks. Following this, Thing in the Ice was confirmed to be part of the Remastered set. As a core part of the Pioneer Izzet Pheonix deck, fans of the format will be very happy to see this card arriving on Arena. Last but not least, Wizards also showcased Relentless Dead. While this card doesn’t really see play anywhere, it’ll nevertheless be nice to have on Arena.
Alchemy: Phyrexia (All Will Be One)
Admittedly, it’s a little bit cheeky for us to call this an announcement for an entire set. After all, not only are Alchemy sets exclusive to MTG Arena, but they’re typically only comprised of around 30 cards. Nevertheless, despite their diminutive size, some MTG players are undoubtedly excited for these sets to release. I should know, I’m one of them! Unfortunately for myself and the few other Alchemy fans, this set is already controversial. Albeit this isn’t exactly a rare occurrence, however, players really aren’t happy about Phyrexian Harvester being an Alchemy card.
For better or worse, depending on your opinions about Alchemy, it’s not long before this latest Alchemy set releases. As, during the Livestream, Blake Rasmussen revealed the Alchemy: Phyrexia Game update will take place on February 28th. This means that throughout the coming week, MTG players should have some new spoilers to digest and complain about.
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