Ahoy planeswalkers! What a wild couple weeks it’s been for the average Vorthos looking forward to Dominaria. Last week, Wizards accidentally let the release notes slip out for a large portion of the set. Suddenly, when we should have been in prime speculation territory, we had access to half the cards, and Wizards was left scrambling for how best to cover the cats that had been let out of the metaphorical bag.
Then, something rather remarkable happened. Many members of the community have decided that they want to block out the spoiled cards as much as they can. Most other community members who did look at the released cards have made a point of not overtly discussing their contents. Wizards consequently walked back their planned early rollout of Dominaria info, only introducing us to the new Saga card type.
I’ve managed to (mostly) dodge the revealed information, so I’ve decided to plow ahead with the column I started drafting before the accidental leak: looking at a few points of (deliberately-released) Vorthos data we do have about Dominaria and making predictions about some of the mechanical themes we might see in the set. And so, to readers who are joining me in trying to wait for preview season, I say, “Welcome, and enjoy this spoiler-free content!” And, to readers who have checked out the Dominaria release notes, I say, “Welcome! I hope my blind predictions are amusing to you, in your greater knowledge, and that not everything is ludicrously off-target!”
There are three major pieces of the lead-up to Dominaria and the information we’ve received about the set itself that I see as inspiring possible mechanical themes. And I’m going to start with the biggest one:
Gather Legends
Back in December, the official Magic Twitter feed innocuously dropped in the tagline for Dominaria: “Gather Legends.” With such long-absent characters as Karn, Teferi, Jhoira, and Jaya Ballard looming on the horizon, it’s an attractive slogan that draws attention to the return of these beloved characters. What I am wondering, however, is whether it’s also pointing towards a mechanical theme we might see in the set. There’s been a notable uptick in legendary permanents since the release of Kaladesh:
- Ixalan block: 33 legendary cards (counting double-sided cards once)
- Amonkhet block: 27 legendary cards
- Kaladesh block: 27 legendary cards
- Shadows Over Innistrad block: 23 legendary cards
- Battle for Zendikar block: 22 legendary cards
- Magic Origins: 13 legendary cards
- Khans of Tarkir block: 31 legendary cards
The last year before the Gatewatch era fully began (Khans block plus Magic Origins) saw Wizards make forty-four legendary permanents; and the first year of the Gatewatch era functionally held that steady with forty-five. With the first year of sets that would be in standard with Dominaria, that went up to fifty-four—a twenty percent increase, partially fed by Aether Revolt’s unexpected (to me, at least) cycle of mono-color legends and Amonkhet’s uncommon legendary monuments. Then Ixalan, the first block that will always be part of Dominaria’s standard, went hard on legendary permanents. The legendary enchantment-lands and cycle of elder dinosaurs give it a full fifty percent more than Battle for Zendikar.
This is quite an increase. We’re looking at a Standard environment that might have the most legendary permanents available to players since Kamigawa block rotated. I don’t think we’re looking at full Kamigawa-style “legends matter and every permanent at rare is legendary”; but I think we could see some kind of legends-matter subtheme, possibly pushed for Standard, plus an increased number of legendary permanents. It is also worth remembering that the last set on Dominaria was Future Sight, which gave us (among many other things) the keyword Grandeur.—a way to make extra copies of a legendary creature useful. I’m not sure Grandeur itself is coming back, but I think we could be seeing a few cards planted for Standard that reward you for playing with legendary creatures or permanents, and maybe something akin to Mirror Gallery that allows you to have multiple copies of legendary permanents in play.
Feeding The Cabal
We know the Cabal is back and better than ever under the leadership of Liliana’s last demon, Belzenlok. There is perhaps no faction in Magic’s history more firmly associated with the graveyard. If you comb through old Cabal cards, discarding, sacrificing, exiling cards from the graveyard, and Threshold all pop up. This should make for an exciting addition to a Standard environment that already has Embalm and Eternalize, allowing players to get value off of creatures they might discard or sacrifice.
Silumgar’s Exploit mechanic from Dragons of Tarkir seems like it could be a great, flavorful fit for this faction, although its tepid Storm Scale rating of 6 make it an unlikely inclusion. Alternatively, Ixalan’s various forms of graveyard hate might pave the way for the return of a powerful, beloved mechanic from previous visits to the Cabal’s native Otaria. Flashback allows players to get value from discarding their own cards, and combines with creatures and cards that allow you to discard your own cards to have an effect on your opponent. Alternatively, perhaps we’ll see flashback at some point next year, while the graveyard hate is still around but after Embalm has rotated out.
The Forward Order
Jay Annelli has speculated that the Forward Order seems poised to be the Cabal’s chief rival faction, which might also make them the Gatewatch’s allies on Dominaria. We don’t have a ton to go on for direct cards yet—Cleric of the Forward Order is the only official Forward Order card from Magic’s history—but Annelli has a way of being right about things.
If the Cabal is defined mechanically by its use of the graveyard as a resource, I would look for the Forward Order to interact with the graveyard in a way that denies the Cabal access to those resources. An Ingest-like mechanic is probably too narrow, but I could see a series of creatures with abilities similar to Deathgorge Scavenger being part of the Forward Order. This could also serve as another safety valve for something like flashback (not to mention The Scarab God), helping to balance out powerful graveyard abilities for Limited and Standard.
Alternatively, it could be interesting to see the order feature a series of creatures with sacrifice effects that serve as a mirror to the Cabal. Where the Cabal might have a creature akin to Banewhip Punisher, who can be sacrificed to destroy target creature; the Forward Order might have a creature who can be sacrificed to make another creature indestructible. A series of sacrifice effects that allow you to boost you and your creatures on one side versus a series of creatures whose sacrifice effects attack the other side could be a good way of mechanically capturing the feel of the battle between two forces that differ greatly on a philosophical level. It may even tie in with the narrative, as there are some rumbles that a certain major returning character may not be long for this world.
Beck is a financial aid counselor and theatre history Ph.D. student who lives in the greater Boston area. He believes in playing standard like a Johnny, drafting like a Spike, and only playing modern decks that involve the number eight.