Players at Theros Beyond Death prereleases found a nice surprise as they opened their packs today—a new ad card giving us a glimpse of Ikoria Lair of Behemoths, Magic: the Gathering’s next expansion set.
An ad card found in packs of Theros Beyond Death.
The card shows the planeswalker Vivien Reid, known for her Arkbow, flanked by a stampede of animals running away from a giant monster—likely one of the behemoths referred to in the set’s name. Vivien first appeared in a story set on Ixalan and was last seen when she traveled to Ravnica to fight in the War of the Spark: Ravnica, after which she helped Vraska try to hunt down Dovin Baan in War of the Spark: Forsaken.
UPDATE: Head Designer Mark Rosewater confirmed that Ikoria “will have a story, not just a summary,” unlike Theros Beyond Death.
Ikoria Lair of Behemoths was revealed last September when Wizards of the Coast announced all of the expansion sets for 2020. In the announcement, Head Designer Mark Rosewater said that Ikoria is monster-centric plane that will allow you to play and make monsters. According to Rosewater, making monsters is “one of the craziest mechanics we’ve made in quite a while.”
The set will be released on April 24, 2020 and will be accompanied by five Ikoria Commander decks. The decks will feature 71 brand-new cards, a record high for the Commander product. All of the new cards will feature spells, lands, and creatures set on Ikoria, which won’t be found in Ikoria draft boosters, while any reprints could potentially be from anywhere within Magic’s pantheon.
Don’t miss our previous coverage of the announcements for Ikoria Lair of Behemoths and Ikoria Commander decks.