Editing Magic: The Gathering (section)

==Post-Mending Story==
You are a [[Planeswalker]], a [[wizard]] with near-limitless potential. One out of one million intelligent lifeforms carry the potential of becoming a Planeswalker, called the Spark. The vast majority of those live out their lives without even knowing of their potential. But a very small number of those, again one out of a million becomes far more. After a traumatizing experience or a moment of supreme clarity the Spark ignites, giving the being power beyond nearly anything in the Multiverse.
	 
A Planeswalker has several abilities. First they can travel between the Planes of the Multiverse through the [[Blind Eternities]], the space between Planes in which they drift. Second they have great skill with channeling and using mana to cast spells and summon creatures. The Planeswalkers of old could do even more: they were gestalt forms of will, and could shapechange into anything they want. This also rendered them near indestructible, with their forms being easily replaceable. They were also nigh-immortal, the only thing posing a serious threat to a Planeswalker was another Planeswalker.

The old Planeswalkers were akin to gods, and continued to be so until roughly 4,000 years after the ascension of [[Urza]]. [[Dominaria]], the Nexus of the Multiverse had become something of a shithole because of various aforementioned plotlines having royally screwed up the plane and rifts in time began to appear. After the sacrifices of many Planeswalkers these rifts were sealed in [[The Mending|the Mending]], an event that changed Planeswalkers for good. No longer gods amongst mortals, they were reduced to the power of mortal casters. They also lost their shapechanging and immortality, something that vexed many surviving Planeswalkers. Some like [[Nicol Bolas]] fought with tooth and nail to reobtain their powers, some like [[Liliana Vess]] made pacts with powerful creatures to be more powerful, and some like [[Sorin Markov]] accepted their loss. Then again Sorin's a vampire and so is naturally damn near immortal anyway, so his loss was rather less significant than others.
	 
This era has eight blocks: 
	 
*[[Lorwyn|Lorwyn/Shadowmoor]], a plane that turns from bright upbeat British fairy-tale with facist [[Elf|Elves]] to a grim and gloomy spirit world filled with all sorts of nasties.  This is the block that switched faeries from joke theme deck to [[Bees|BEEEEEES!!!]] in legacy play; even ten years later four Bitterblossoms with some removal is still a solid modern deck in the $300 or less range.
*The [[Alara]] block details the attempt of [[Nicol Bolas]] to slam five parts of a fractured plane together and feast on the released energy to make himself a god again: the slamming is a success but he fails when he is beaten by [[Ajani Goldmane|that damn cat]].  
*[[Zendikar]] is Australia on steroids and [[Call of Cthulhu]]; everything can and will try to kill you. On this world rested the [[Eldrazi]], a race of non-beings that can unmake anything with a touch. Freed by the machinations of, once again, Nicol Bolas. They are fighting [[Gideon Jura]] who beat one to death with his bare hands.  
*Scars of Mirrodin returns to, wait for it, Mirrodin, which is conquered and compleated by Phyrexia. Whoops. They currently have a spy amongst their ranks; [[Tezzeret]], who was sent there by, you guessed it, Nicol Bolas.  
*[[Innistrad]] is a world of East-European gothic horror where [[vampire]]s and [[werewolf|werewolves]] run business. It is one of the best sets ever with stuff like double-faced cards, monsters that get stronger when they die and awesome flavor. At the end of the block the Helvault, a prison for lots of demons, was destroyed. Releasing its contents. This was done by... no not Nicol Bolas. Not this time. It was [[Liliana Vess]], who wanted to kill a demon, Griselbrand, that was trapped inside to get out of a faustian bargain she made with him. Incidentally (as far as Liliana Vess is concerned), this world was going to shit because the angel Avacyn was trapped inside the Helvault too and she was released along side the demons. 
*Then there is a Return to Ravnica, where the Guilds have picked up business once again for the time being, eventually they run a world-wide maze to see who gets to take control of the city. Jace Beleran wins by becoming the guildpact (I'm as confused as you). 
*Next is Theros with the awesome flavor of Innistrad but with Greek mythology and awesome mechanics to represent it. Oh and [[Creed|Elspeth]] is there.
*The last block before the paradigm shift (see below) is Tarkir, an Asian-inspired plane which divides Persians, Shaolin Monks, the Mongols, and Siberians into several clans, each with their respective Khans leading them. Then [[Sarkhan Vol]] fucks it all up with time travel courtesy of [[Ugin]], leading to an alternate timeline where the dragons of the plane never went extinct, with new Dragonlords leading the clans and ruling over the humans. 
	 
This era also set off a new wave of core sets: after every Block was new core set with a year in it, staring in Magic 2010 to Magic Origins (released July 2015) and adding a few new cards every series. This era also introduced Planeswalkers as cards: a new permanent type that functions as a crossover between a player, a legendary creature and an enchantment. The game currently takes place in that era, where Planeswalkers have begun to rise in large numbers with the Multiverse's infinite secrets and powers at their feet. Here you decide what you will be.

===The Two-Block Paradigm===
This system officially started in Battle for Zendikar. How to deal with the 3rd set in a block had long been a thorn in the side of Magic R&D. To fix this they decided to simply stop making 3 set blocks. Core sets would no longer be released and a Block would consist of 2 sets. Usually the first set would be large and the second set small. There would be 2 blocks per year (those years being October-September). Of course, draft structure will be different as well.  
	 
Also there is a big shift in story telling. The creative team actually knows what is going to happen quite a bit in advance (compared to before this shift) which, should provide us benefits like better foreshadowing and less [[Retcon|retcons.]] Each set contains five official (although in practice, probably more unofficial) cards that show events in the story deemed important. The official ones are called "spotlight cards" and can be identified by the planeswalker symbol watermark. The story will be across multiple platforms such as cards in the set, Uncharted Realms, Duels of the Planeswalkers, ect... Each block is still on a different plane than the blocks surrounding it, which of course means the creative team is building an average of 2 worlds per year (arguably less so in the cases when returning to a mtg world we've been to before). (Consider that the people who made [[Avatar]] spent five years building that one setting. This can't [[Not as planned|possibly end badly]].)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTpv4ZGZ8K8][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEWQ019LvYw][http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mm/metamorphosis]. 

There have been some growing pains and because WotC works so far in advance, it takes a while before we get the benefits of the lessons learned applying to Magic players (unless the lesson is to ban cards, in which case, if WotC is correct, Magic players as a whole are getting the better of 2 bad options). So don't be surprised if Standard for the next few sets will suck [http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/standard-2017-01-13] (as defined by it being bad, or it being okay, but only because WotC banned some cards, hurting players that bought a playset of those cards).

As if to make it hurt more, lately there has been tons of mistakes being made including but not limited to: 

* Not testing whether a set with Dual Lands and lands that can search for them will lead to four color decks (breaking the point of having you chose between so many colors) 
* Shorting (then increasing) the time a set rotates out, which has Battle for Zendikar be still in rotation for much more then it should have been in, while having the set after be taken out for a much shorter time.
* Having to ban four cards in short succession, not because of how generally overpowered they were like the bans of old, but instead because they never printed any good answers to them.
* Missing an infinite combo, which dominated standard until it was banned.

Most of the story thus-far involves [[The Gatewatch]], a group a Planeswalkers who have taken [http://magiccards.info/query?q=oath+of+t%3A%22legendary+enchantment%22&v=scan&s=cname oaths] to keep the multiverse safe from existential threats. Nobody likes them and they got pimp slapped by Nicol Bolas.

===The Three and One Model===	 
Whoops, turns out removing the primary source of deck staples and support cards was a bad idea after all. The block concept is out the door under this model, with a core set in the summer and three large sets in the fall, winter, and spring that will each be drafted separately. The first large set under the new model dropped in the spring of 2018 and [[Awesome|returned to Dominaria,]] while the first new core set was released in the summer of 2018. The "new plane every block" policy is also gone, as is the idea of having a "Masterpiece Series" (aka literal cardboard lottery) with every block; Wizards is going to be making the game stay on each plane exactly as long as they feel like, and only releasing lottery rares when they "have something amazing." So probably still every other set to prop up box sales. The Fall set was titled Guilds of Ravnica, in which we returned to [[Ravnica | Ravnica]]. Following up on this was Ravnica Allegiance and the final set of the block, War of the Spark will launch in the Spring. Note that War of the Spark has been described as being "about Ravnica, but not about the guilds." According to recent news, it is going to be a very Planeswalker heavy set, with 36 different Planeswalkers in the set, some of which are getting their first Planeswalker cards here! In addition, every single pack of War of the Spark comes with a Planeswalker card, similar to Dominaria, which had a Legendary in every pack. This is great news if you're a fan of the Superfriends deck archetype, but worrying for everyone else. Based on the results of Mark Rosewater's twitter poll, you shouldn't be too surprised to see non-evergreen, non-deciduous carry over from one world to the next (although based on the comments to that poll, they might use such freedom sparingly) [https://twitter.com/maro254/status/973550597331824641]. But because WotC works so far in the future, we probably won't see them do that for a while.
	 
Read the announcement here: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/metamorphosis-2-0-2017-06-12

With the end of the "Masters" series of products, WoTC has introduced a new supplemental set, called Modern Horizons, releasing in the Summer. Like the name implies, the set is made for the Modern Format, completely skipping Standard rotation and featuring mostly completely brand new cards, with no reprints from the current Modern format. The cards that aren't new are upshifted from Legacy. If you are a Modern player, you have reasons to be excited and worried, as the lack of reprints means that rare and powerful cards like [[Liliana Vess|Liliana of the Veil]] will continue to grow in price as the supply continues to dwindle. However, with brand new cards coming out, you might not need Liliana of the Veil anymore, depending on how much they power up the set. Either way, investors and players alike look onward to what spoiler season brings us.

===Post-War Schedule===	 
Having wrapped up the biggest meta-plot in recent Magic history, WoTC decided to ease off the pedal a bit. There's currently no overarching metaplot, and the following sets are dedicated to returning characters and generally just playing tourist, like the old days. One plane per set until the metaplot kicks up again. Following Core Set 2020, Magic released Throne of [[Eldraine]], a fairy tale-inspired set that saw the return of [[Garruk Wildspeaker]]. It also introduced Oko, the shapeshifting Korean pop-star Planeswalker that [[butthurt|tore Standard, Pioneer, Historic and Modern a new one]] and is currently contained in Vintage and Legacy.

After ''Throne'' is ''Theros: Beyond Death''. If you couldn't guess from the subtitle, it is heavily implied that [[Elspeth Tirel]] is coming back, and was confirmed through marketing material and card leaks. Following that is a new plane simply named Ikoria: The Lair of Behemoths. We don't know much about it, but Ikoria was hinted to have been inspired by Japanese kaiju films and features "the craziest mechanic ever seen in Magic" in the form of custom monster building. After Core Set 2021 (nicknamed the Teferi set, much like how 2020 was the [[Chandra]] set) is Zendikar Rising, mostly because the last time we went it was basically just a glorified advertisement for the [[Gatewatch]].

And now we have information on what will be coming in 2021: Five sets (names not final)

''Kaldheim'': The long-teased Viking set/plane.

''Strixhaven: School of Mages'': Set in a multiuniversally-famous [[Harry Potter|magic university, with five colleges vying for prominence.]]

''Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms'': Yes, you read that right. Yes, it IS Standard-legal and not a silver-boarder joke/what-if set. And, yes, WotC MAY be jumping the Shark Typhoon on this one. Turns out the Ravnica and Theros setting books were only a prelude to the inverse of Magic visiting Faerûn. How the hell they're going to get these two settings to mesh together is currently unknown.

''Innistrad: Werewolves'' & ''Innistrad: Vampires'': Return to Return to Innistrad using a similar framework to ''Guilds'' and ''Allegiances'' with each faction getting a set to itself. Like ''Zendikar Rising'', it'll all be our first real glimpse at a [[Ravenloft|post-Eldrazi Innistrad]].

===The Hypothetical Future?===	 
''Note: This section is pretty much just glorified fan conjecture based on observations.''
Every month or so, WoTC puts out a survey on their various social media channels to field the area on opinions on Magic. Usually, the survey has some generic questions about what is important to you as a Magic player. This is often paired with questions about the performance of the most recent set. This is normally not noticeable and usually has little impact due to how vague the questions tend to be. However, the November survey was the most oddly specific survey fielded by WoTC to date. Nicknamed the "Hypothetical Futures" survey, it asked players about a wide variety of questions regarding what may come in the future. Many of the questions asked players about their favorite Planes (Kamigawa was on the list), what makes that Plane your favorite, favorite Planeswalkers, speculative mechanics, favorite Anime/Manga, things like that. One of the most interesting questions asked a bevy of smaller questions about "How appropriate are the following elements for Magic?" which was almost completely filled with Sci-Fi tropes. AI, robots, drones, hacking, lasers, artificial limbs, megacorps, spaceships and more! This hints at a possible future set that is less fantasy and more sci-fi, a la [[Android: Netrunner]] (which WoTC owns). Obviously this is just speculation, and we won't have confirmation if they ever act on it until they do.

'''Update''' A couple of months ago, there was [https://imgur.com/gallery/ubTItUv| another survey] which was directly pointed at [[Kamigawa]], showing several Planeswalkers and their descriptions from the plane. If you take a look through the album, you notice that it paints a much, much different version of Kamigawa; neon lights, crime syndicates, and laser-katanas. They not-so-subtly also added a question asking what the name of a hypothetical set based in a far-future version of Kamigawa should be, ranging from "Neo-Kamigawa" to "Destiny of Kamigawa." Two days from the time of writing, WoTC registered several new domain names through their usual channels in preparation. From this, we know the name of the future Kamigawa set: '''[[Shadowrun|Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty]].'''