With so much Magic: The Gathering news over the last few days, WeeklyMTG host Blake Rasmussen dedicated time to clearing up lingering questions and taking a deeper look into all the announcements made while at Gen Con. He highlighted more information about the Assassin’s Creed “Beyond Booster,” a new type of pack that will debut with the set, as well as additional color about yesterday’s unbannings.
Assassin’s Creed Details and New “Beyond Booster” Pack Type
Perhaps one of the more interesting notes from the stream was details on the upcoming Universes Beyond Assassin’s Creed set and a new booster type that will be debuting alongside it.
Assassin’s Creed will come with what is being called “Beyond Boosters,” which are packs that will focus on telling a story from within Assassin’s Creed universe. These packs will be a mix of new cards and reprints, likely with new Assassin’s Creed-themed artwork. Rasmussen wouldn’t provide any more details but we will learn more about these packs as the set gets closer to the release later next year.
Assassin’s Creed is a small set, with a different release lineup than normal sets. For example The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth was a “complete” set with a full line of supporting products: Jumpstart, Set, and Draft Boosters, Collector Boosters, etc. The upcoming Final Fantasy set is going to be a larger set, with a complete suite of products like Tales of Middle-earth or any other traditional Magic release.
(Un)Bannings
There’s been plenty of talk among players about the decision to unban Preordain in Modern and Mind’s Desire in Legacy. The two cards have been banned for quite some time, with Mind’s Desire getting banned from Legacy 20 years ago, while Preordain was banned from Modern 12 years ago.
As part of today’s Q&A session, Rasmussen was asked why Pioneer didn’t receive any changes during this Banned and Restricted update. He said that Wizards believes that Pioneer is fairly healthy, with a wide range of decks viable in the format. There’s almost always going to be one deck that is more consistent than others, and Nykthos Ramp takes that spot in Pioneer at the moment—but not in a dominating way.
Modern was heavily discussed by those in charge of the Banned and Restricted lists, but they didn’t find anything worthy of a ban given the diverse metagame at Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings. Rasmussen discussed how there may be a need to shake up the meta at some point in the future, potentially even by unbanning a large portion of currently banned cards. While he is not part of the team that decides what to do, Rasmussen felt that R&D would take a step-by-step approach to unbanning cards by slowly reintroducing a few cards at a time to not massively disrupt the game.
Wilds of Eldraine Story, Part 1
For those who follow Magic’s overarching plot, the first part of the Wilds of Eldraine story is available for players. Written by K. Arsenault Rivera, this first chapter, called “Pure of Heart,” follows the stories of several characters after the events of the New Phyrexian invasion and the breaking of the barriers between planes, known as Omenpaths. Former planeswalker twins Rowan and Will Kenrith take center stage, trying to unite the realms in the face of a changed Eldraine.
A newcomer to the story is Kellan, a mysterious character who is rumored to play a major role in the plot. He fancies himself a hero of sorts and is on a quest to find himself. While not much is revealed about what role he will play in Eldrain’s overall story, it’ll be exciting to see what these characters do next.
Future Sets
Over the weekend at Gen Con, Wizards of the Coast announced much of their set release schedule for the next few years, revealing everything from the Western-themed The Outlaws of Thunder Junction to a set of Universes Beyond Fallout Commander decks.
Rasmussen explained on the stream that the gap in major releases in 2024’s fourth quarter was intentional, though there will be some smaller sets that they were not ready to reveal at the time.
He also took time to clarify that Pioneer Masters is an Arena-only set and will not have a physical release, while also stating that Wizards of the Coast has no intentions of bringing Modern to Arena despite the fact that Modern Horizons 3 will come toArena. There is always the possibility of introducing Modern eventually, sometime in the distant future—but as of now, it is not happening.
Odds and Ends
Interestingly, Rasmussen was also asked about any updates on the long-anticipated Netflix animated series, announced all the way back in 2019. At the time, Avengers: Endgame Directors Joe and Anthony Russo were slated to direct the series, which would create a brand new story that is supposed to “expand on the stories of the Planeswalker.” However, Blake has no information on the series and quickly moved on to another question.