Magic: The Gathering has revealed the full set list for January’s Dominaria Remastered, in what has been the single shortest preview season the game has ever had.
Dominaria Remastered features reprints from a variety of sets based in the world of Dominaria. Classic cards from Alpha all the way through the 2018’s Dominaria have been included in this reprint-only set, with many of them including new art.
With the full card gallery now available on the official MTG site, a number of high-profile reprints have been confirmed. Cards like Wrath of God, Fact or Fiction, Mystic Remora, Vampiric Tutor, Gamble, Forgotten Ancient, Sylvan Library, Zur the Enchanter, Maze of Ith and the five enemy-colour checklands were all revealed.
One of the biggest draws of the set is its inclusion of the four one-mana tutors: Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Worldly Tutor will all receive regular prints, the set’s showcase retro frame prints, and new, borderless art by long-time MTG artist Richard Kane Fergusson. A number of other cards will also receive borderless art mostly the rares and mythic rares, however a few, iconic cards like High Tide and Chainer’s Edict will also receive the treatment.
Eschewing the usual eight days of drip-fed reveals, Wizards of the Coast decided to showcase the whole of Dominaria Remastered all at once. Speaking on the Weekly MTG stream, communications director Blake Rasmussen suggested that this decision was due to ongoing concerns over ‘release fatigue’, with sets frequently being revealed before the previous ones had even hit shelves.
It was stated that, while preview seasons for tentpole releases like Phyrexia were already mostly locked in, further experiments to the preview schedule like this could be coming to address complaints from players who feel there is just too much being revealed and not enough time to enjoy the cards we have. This also lead to the delaying of the set following Dominaria Remastered, Phyrexia: All Will Be One.
While this is a sudden, radical change in preview season structure that is almost completely unprecedented for the game – with many assuming it would follow the usual eight-day format of every other set – it comes hot on the heels of a highly critical Bank of America report that called out Hasbro’s handling of MTG. It cited the frequent releases and endless previews as concerned, which in turn resulted in a big dip in the value of Hasbro stock.
Magic is a huge, slow-to-change game planned out years in advance. Changes like these don’t happen overnight unless there were big concerns at Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro. The hosting of a ‘fireside chat’ regarding Magic by Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks to investors scheduled for December 8 also suggests we could be seeing more massive changes like this coming sooner than many anticipated.
Dominaria Remastered launches on January 13. Our first look at Phyrexia: All Will Be One is next week, on December 13.
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