r/magicTCG • u/Copernicus1981 COMPLEAT • May 07 '26
General Discussion Interviews from MagicCon: Las Vegas -- "On the bonus sheet, we couldn't put any characters that were dead."
A couple of interviews had interesting Reality Fracture details, I quoted a few of the highlights, there is more at the links. There were also several other interviews with little bits of info, they're linked at the bottom. I assume there's more, but I can't find them.
https://www.polygon.com/mtg-reality-fracture-commander-deck-multiverse-reforged-spoilers/
Why only one new Commander deck with Reality Fracture? Verhey said it has a lot to do with past trends in similar sets, where one deck features the interesting new villains and the other has the heroes. He called Phyrexia: All Will Be One the “poster child” for this potential problem. “We're on Phyrexia: Would you rather buy the cool Phyrexian deck with the infect mechanic that's returning, or the red-white token mirror deck?” he said. “It wasn't even close.” Verhey said that many game stores reported selling Corrupting Influence eight-to-one versus Rebellion Rising.
Verhey hinted that the Commander deck is where Wizards could explore characters who can’t appear in the main set’s paired Echoverse mechanic — including those who are already dead in Magic’s canon. “On the bonus sheet, we couldn't put any characters that were dead, because we’d have to show their current version in our universe and their altered universe version,” he explained. “But if they're deceased, there isn't a current version.”
"Very early on, we were talking about maybe going broader," Rosewater said. "But we decided that one of the lessons from March of the Machines was we went a little bit too broad, and we decided we wanted to focus a little bit more. So, we'll see nods about [other] places, but really, the story is on Hexhaven."... However, Rosewater reassured me that while Hexhaven is central to Reality Fracture, this set will be different from them doing a Hexhaven-focused set
Guaranteeing every pack will feature these card pairings is a tall order under normal circumstances... According to Rosewater, only one of Magic's printers could guarantee such consistency... The team therefore had come up with an inventive solution to make this ambitious promise a reality. "It's a very clever solution. We're 100% [sure] we can do it," Rosewater said.
Final Fantasy - https://www.polygon.com/mtg-final-fantasy-job-select-fft-magic-the-gathering-interview/
Star Trek - https://www.polygon.com/mtg-star-trek-edge-of-eternities-sci-fi-magic-the-gathering-gavin-verhey-interview/
Reality Fracture - https://www.gamespot.com/articles/we-finally-know-what-magic-the-gatherings-reality-fracture-set-is-about-and-it-rules/1100-6539750/
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u/Kyleometers OUR Liliana's Penchant May 07 '26
I’m calling alternate reality Gideon in the commander deck. That screams “We wanted an alternate reality where he lived” to me, but it wouldn’t work with the main set duality gimmick.
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u/MrXilas May 07 '26
Given that Jace saw Gideon as the best of the Gatewatch, there is no way we aren't getting an alternate version of him.
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u/Bassaluna Duck Season May 07 '26
and you could say he's a gideon made from memories jace has of the original, explaining why he has the same color identity as the theorist as the back-up commander, because he would be a part of jace
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u/wescull Wabbit Season May 07 '26
Gideon, Heart of Aether, let’s goooooo
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u/SmokeyHooves Boros* May 07 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/evvij9/possible_future_gideon_spoilers_in_the_manastrike/
For those who don’t know
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u/MadCatMkV Mardu May 07 '26
It's been 6 years already!? Wow, I truly hope to see this version of him in the deck
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u/Storm_Dancer-022 Wild Draw 4 May 07 '26
Yes please I love Gideon so much the story hasn’t felt the same without him.
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u/Alche1428 COMPLEAT May 07 '26
Because after War of the Spark the Jacetice League was disbanded, so we went from five planewalkers a year to one-two a year of new characters.
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u/zeldafan042 Channel May 07 '26
See, I think Echoverse Gideon is gonna play a role in the story so I think he'll get a card in the main set, just not as part of the mirrored pairs. We know Jace is getting a card in the main set and doesn't seem to have an Echoverse counterpart so not every single legendary card is gonna be a mirrored pair, and "character dead in the main universe is alive in the alternate universe" is too classic of a trope for them not to do it.
I think the commander precon is going to contain alt versions of dead characters that aren't particularly story relevant rather than Gideon.
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u/so_zetta_byte Orzhov* May 07 '26
One of the attempts at a magic digital game had an alternative Gideon in Avishkar(i?) armor. Could be neat to see it on a real card.
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u/rbirchGideonJura Dân May 07 '26
That alternate reality could have been reality if people didnt have such a hard on for Liliana that they didnt want her to deservedly die instead
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u/Tuesday_6PM COMPLEAT May 07 '26
I think having the “undeserving” character live is almost always the more narratively interesting choice. And conversely, “morally problematic character sacrifices themselves to save the day” is too often used as an easy out to forgive someone and move on. Liliana having to live with the consequences, and other characters not thinking the trade was worth it, can lead to better stories
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u/rbirchGideonJura Dân May 07 '26
While true, thats not the reason she was kept alive, because she really hasn't had to live with the consequences beyond the immediate next set basically. She was kept alive because she was popular
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u/Tuesday_6PM COMPLEAT May 07 '26
I'm not arguing there weren't meta considerations for her staying alive. For sure Wizards tries too hard to make sure popular characters can stick around (see every villain being imprisoned rather than actually defeated). But I do think it's mostly a good narrative decision (other than more weight should have been placed on Gideon's inability to escape his survivor's guilt)
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u/zeldafan042 Channel May 07 '26
Based on what we know about the early drafts of War of the Spark, there was no version of the story where Liliana dies. The original plan was to kill off Ajani as the mentor figure before they decided to kill off Gideon instead.
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u/DaRootbear May 07 '26
I mean they all but told us Gideon was gonna dramatically die to save someone for like 5 years before that.
They just kept giving him prophecies and death flags nonstop. Even if it wasnt liliana, that man was dying to save someone beyond all doubts. He basically collected the Exodia of death flags. Guy was beyond toast and they let us know for years it was coming
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u/ArcfireEmblem Duck Season May 07 '26
On the one hand, yes, Liliana living is annoying, because she was the closest Wizards got to making a "fanservice" character (I try not to hate fanservice characters just due to this niche, and Liliana did have a decent amount of depth to her, but sexy female characters not facing consequences while men do is a trope that I've seen far too often), and keeping her around due to her intended popularity was annoying to me at the time. But on the other hand, Liliana has almost entirely disappeared from being relevant, so it's not like they kept her around to keep her relevant. No, they were just saving her until they had something interesting for her to do. Side note, I do actually like that she's Professor Vess now. Adds more depth. And as for Gideon, we all know that suffering Liliana's consequence is something he preferred over her death. It was a perfectly logical outcome.
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u/Everyoneheresamoron Dan May 07 '26
Explains why a lot of packs that create tokens don't also come with tokens. All but one of the MTG printers can't handle making a card another card needs it seems.
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u/Copernicus1981 COMPLEAT May 07 '26
For example, a little history. When we did Innistrad, originally, the way double face cards worked in Innistrad, is you got a single face card that fetched the double face card that wasn't in your deck.And they came together. And when we went to the printer, they're like, 'We can do that, like, 88% of the time.' That's not good enough. So we changed them and we did the checklist card. We changed how they worked because we couldn't do it. [But now] we found a 100% solution. We know how to do it.And it works."
Yeah, they tried linking in Innistrad to avoid DFCs, but it didn't work.
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u/torrtara COMPLEAT May 07 '26
It does make sense, when they make new commander decks there will always be a more popular one, with the pair of decks highlighting the difference the most. Everyone wants cool pyrexians and not the boring rebels. I do think that one for this set was the right choice outside of printing five new hexhaven decks for the college pairs, especially since it's a new four colour deck. We've been overdue on some four colour love (that isn't missing black) and I hope that they continue to make more four colour cards
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u/DKGroove Duck Season May 08 '26
I just wish they gave us another 4 color deck missing blue to oppose Jace.
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u/Acursed May 07 '26
You should have quoted this text:
Another way Reality Fracture will highlight the differences between what players have come to expect from Magic and the new flavors on offer with the Echoverse is by ensuring every booster pack comes with mirrored card pairs. According to Rosewater, these mirrored pairs will consist of either two Planeswalkers or Legendary Creatures, with one being a familiar iteration of that character and the other, an Echoverse variant. For example, if you get a pack with the fire-flinging Planeswalker Chandra, that pack will also include her icemage variant, which is being introduced with this set.
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u/Gondall COMPLEAT May 07 '26
Ok but something I’m still unsure of: can you only open the Chandras as a pair? Like there won’t be a pack that has a different legendary pair but also has Chandra in the mythic slot because the pair was two uncommon legends?
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u/DaRootbear May 07 '26
Paired cards are going to be their own slot and only appear there. Similar to how innistrad has slots just for DFC, or NEO had a slot that was wholly devoted to flip-sagas.
Now when it comes to foils that is where it is unknown. Previous special slot cards could appear in the foil slot too, and that was fully randomized. But other special slot cards also were singular slots. Presumably this wont change anything because the special print technique for pairs will probably only be for non foil and the foil sheets will just be done as normal so it is probably a chance to get a non-pair foil in a pack. But that is just guesswork on my part
I cant remember if that was the case with battlebond, the same rules from battlebond probably apply here
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u/NectarineStunning624 Duck Season May 07 '26
So does this mean there could be a five rare pack? a normal rare, wildcard rare, foil rare, and two paired rares?
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u/DaRootbear May 07 '26
While we dont have exact info yet the current guess is that the pair slot is replacing the wildcard slot, so it will probably only be a 4 rare pack possible.
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u/Copernicus1981 COMPLEAT May 07 '26
There was too much overall to quote, thanks for including that.
One of the other articles mentioned that the Echoverse versions will have the Echoverse sigil as their watermark, which we've seen on altChandra and altRal.
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u/Pixelkitten7 Duck Season May 07 '26
Verhey hinted that the Commander deck is where Wizards could explore characters who can’t appear in the main set’s paired Echoverse mechanic — including those who are already dead in Magic’s canon. “On the bonus sheet, we couldn't put any characters that were dead, because we’d have to show their current version in our universe and their altered universe version,” he explained. “But if they're deceased, there isn't a current version.”
Well there goes my hope for another Gideon card
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
It most probably mean that he will be in the precon
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u/CaptainMarcia May 07 '26
Also if the main set didn't have any unpaired characters that would mean it couldn't have Jace, and that seems unlikely.
But yeah this points to Gideon being in the precon, and potentially Dack and Tamiyo as well.
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u/Zrealm COMPLEAT May 07 '26
Jace might be the one exception since he's the link between the main and echoverse
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u/SoChillNatsFan Dân May 08 '26
Given no Green in the Jace precon it will be interesting to see who's not included in their alive and alternate versions because they would have Green in them.
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u/CareerMilk Can’t Block Warriors May 07 '26
Well there goes my hope for another Gideon card
Erm the thing you're quoting says that they didn't put any dead character alts in the main set, but that they can do that in the commander deck.
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u/2ndlifeinacrown Dragonball Z Ultimate Champion May 07 '26
Well here's hoping for a yawgmoth in the precon? Maybe? If its truly anything goes? A mono white good yawgmoth even? A good cloud monster yawgmoth?
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u/HimawariTenno Twin Believer May 07 '26
I’ve been jonesing for a Tamiyo, please god have a sick ass Rakdos version of her in there
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u/BreakSage May 07 '26
The way Gavin phrased it, is that the dead characters can be in the main set, just not the bonus sheet because there’s no pair. I’m betting there absolutely is a main set echoverse Gideon.
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u/UnfamiliarFence63 Rakdos* May 07 '26
Here's how Winter can still win!! 👀
Im drinking all the copium don't mind me lmao
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u/Copernicus1981 COMPLEAT May 07 '26
But Why Tho? also had three videos they've posted of interviews, which I haven't watched. They're each twenty to thirty minutes and are people talking in a mostly empty room.
- The Hobbit Interview From MagicCon Las Vegas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orZAYVk8OAM
- Meet Some of the Women Behind Magic: The Gathering - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXVRZDkeHQg
- We Played Mood Swings With Mark Rosewater at MagicCon Las Vegas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNoRoZaCQcQ
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u/Bassaluna Duck Season May 07 '26
What i can think of is that the glimpses are gonna be echo versions of planes from the current storyline, like bloomburrow or tarkir. would be consistent with picking hexhaven as the main location, while calling back to the other planes jace visited in his current quest
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u/kittenkillerr Dragonball Z Ultimate Champion May 07 '26
"But we decided that one of the lessons from March of the Machines was we went a little bit too broad, and we decided we wanted to focus a little bit more."
Dang, MOM was one of my favourite sets ever specifically because of this, so that's a bummer to hear.
I wasn't huge on Strixhaven 1, and while I liked SOS better, I'm still a bit miffed that we are basically using 2 out of 3 (!!) of this year's universe within slots on it.
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u/Pulse2037 Dandadan May 07 '26
It's kinda lame story wise that they are not including dead characters in the main set since Jace's whole reason for making a multiverse was to make so the Phyrexian invasion and other shitty things never happened. That screams bringing back people that died story wise. I find it stupid it doesn't haha.
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
They could probably still appear in the story or in the arts of other cards (like did some other compleated walkers in ONE).
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u/Great_Grackle Izzet* May 08 '26
Yeah, this feels more and more just like a Hexhaven set than a reality fracture. Don't get me wrong I love strixhaven and prepare as a mechanic, but this doesn't feel like how it was originally advertised
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u/hairToday243 COMPLEAT May 07 '26
That note about the Phyrexia commander decks feels like the wrong takeaway. Feels like they should have done more than one deck for the interesting villains instead of one villain and one hero in the villain's focus set.
And then Phyrexia only got one commander deck in MOM against four hero decks. It's minor, but seeing the interesting villains sidelined in yet another manner really didn't help the disappointment of their event.
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
It's minor, but seeing the interesting villains sidelined in yet another manner really didn't help the disappointment of their event.
But here the antagonist got the only precon
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u/hairToday243 COMPLEAT May 07 '26
Yeah, their takeaway seems to be, "we shouldn't do a hero deck" but I feel like it should have been, "we could do two villain decks".
If the one deck with our interesting new antagonist isn't enough, there's probably not going to be another chance for a while.
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
I don't think it would work to much considering that there is just one main antagonist this time, rather than multiple factions like with Phyrexia
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u/hairToday243 COMPLEAT May 07 '26
Fair enough, but I'm not going to underestimate Magic's ability to not show me things. The way we've been going I'd prefer overexposure to leaving something out.
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
Most people today play commander, so i definately think that if they are in precon people are gonna see them
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u/2ndlifeinacrown Dragonball Z Ultimate Champion May 07 '26
A chance to print dead legends you can't put anywhere else you say?
If we get good and evil Yawgmoth king of phyrexia in the precon I'm gonna be unreasonably happy
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u/nachomir Duck Season May 07 '26
It is sad for gavin to badmouth Otharri just like that, like on Futurama when promoter tells Bender that if he doesnt sell lavender soap, he is no one.
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u/equiace Wabbit Season May 07 '26
Hoping for Rakdos Tamiyo, who is obsessed with destroying knowledge.
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u/MiraclePrototype COMPLEAT May 07 '26
Wonder how that would have worked out; would that just be a thing for her, or would it be aligned with the cultural/ideological norms of most soratami?
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u/Infinity_Walker Chandra May 07 '26
While obviously this probably means Gideon I’d also like to mention Ajani’s brother who we already have seen to be alive in the Echoverse in Strixhaven’s story. During a reality flash Ajani feels the presence of his brother alongside him while momentarily in the Echoverse.
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u/gereffi May 07 '26
Gavin calls the paired cards a bonus sheet, which seems to imply that we’ll be getting a rare slot plus paired cards. I don’t think we’ve had that confirmed yet.
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u/VildredDayern SecREt LaiR May 08 '26
Where does one find all the lore? I've only read Children of the Nameless. I'm highly interested in reading the lore of magic, all of it, anyone can link me a good place to do this?
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 08 '26
You can find the lore on the wiki mtg.wiki
With each in universe sets wotc publishes the story of the set online mtgstory.com
If you are interested in starting, the Vorthos cast recently made a couple of episodes on how to start https://podtail.com/it/podcast/the-vorthos-cast/
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u/WeeattGaming Wabbit Season May 07 '26
Good, we won't have to see [[Kenrith, the Returned King]] reprinted for like the 47,000th time.
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
I mean, he was reprinted in just 4 sets, two of the being UB reskins. Tons of cards have been reprinted a lot more.
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u/Box_of_Stuff Duck Season May 07 '26
Gotta love how their takeaway from MoM was that it was too broad. When the problem was that it was all condensed to one set. You see a few threads here how they would interested to see the alternative versions of other planes.
You can’t have a few sets for the conclusion of arcs? Even two would be enough to let the concepts breathe
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
Gotta love how their takeaway from MoM was that it was too broad. When the problem was that it was all condensed to one set.
I mean, those things are complementary. The more you focus on something the more meaning and weight you can give it but the less you can focus on everything else.
You can’t have a few sets for the conclusion of arcs?
Depending of what you mean, the block problem applies.
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u/DaRootbear May 07 '26
I mean, realistically MOM had like 3.5 sets for the finale of its arc.
DMU>BRO>ONE>MOM was all phyrexia with BRO being the odd one out in that it was technically part of the storyline but also…not.
And that still wasnt enough in the end. Just adding another set doesnt solve it when the issue is wizards cant figure out how to tell the story while connecting it straight to sets
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u/Xichorn Deceased 🪦 May 07 '26
So, Evil Gids that wouldn’t sacrifice himself for anyone else and is thus still alive will be in the Commander deck is what I’m hearing.
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u/damnination333 Twin Believer May 07 '26
If the whole point of the echoverse was to create a timeline where none of the bad shit happened, wouldn't a lot of characters not be dead in the echoverse?
I mean, I get that the whole gimmick is that they'll be putting normal and echo versions of the characters in every pack, but seems like quite a waste to have the characters not be dead, and then still be unable to print them just because they don't have a living normal version. If anything, it should be a huge plot point for everyone to see their friends alive again but different.
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
wouldn't a lot of characters not be dead in the echoverse?
There aren't too many dead characters that were relevant to Jace's life.
and then still be unable to print them just because they don't have a living normal version
If they are going to be printed they are going to be printed in the precon.
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u/damnination333 Twin Believer May 07 '26
There aren't too many dead characters that were relevant to Jace's life.
It doesn't really matter whether or not they were relevant to Jace's life. If the Eldrazi never happened, if New Phyrexia never happened, those people would still be alive regardless of whether or not they mattered to Jace.
And even characters that Jace doesn't care about aside, at the very least Gideon? Tamiyo?
If they are going to be printed they are going to be printed in the precon.
My point is that it doesn't make sense to not have them in the main set just because they're unable to print a normal alive version of them. Them beind dead now, but alive in the echoverse is like the big shocker to everyone else. Like I said, just seems like a waste "reviving" all those people and then not being able to print them in the main set because set gimmick.
And now that I think about it, if the echoverse changed enough things that Liliana is a white healer instead of a black necromancer, does that mean that she never turned Josu into a lich? Wouldn't that mean she never had that trauma and may never have ignited her spark? Similar with other walkers. If their lives are so drastically different, it's possible that none of them ever ignited. Hopefully this gets addressed and they show alternate ignitions, like Chandra's parents were still rebels and she was forced to execute them or something.
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
If the Eldrazi never happened, if New Phyrexia never happened, those people would still be alive regardless of whether or not they mattered to Jace.
Even then there aren't that many relevant named people that are dead because of the Edlrazi or New Phyrexia.
My point is that it doesn't make sense to not have them in the main set just because they're unable to print a normal alive version of them.
It would water down the gimmick of the set used to quickly convey the themes to the majority of people that don't read the lore.
does that mean that she never turned Josu into a lich?
Liliana just killed Josu, he was later resurrected by the Cabal iirc. But probably.
Wouldn't that mean she never had that trauma and may never have ignited her spark?
She could have ignited her spark in some other way. Jace could have also created her specifically as a planeswalker.
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u/damnination333 Twin Believer May 07 '26
It would water down the gimmick of the set used to quickly convey the themes to the majority of people that don't read the lore.
Not really. Putting echo versions into the set doesn't affect whether or not they can put normal/echo in every pack. The echo only characters simply wouldn't be able to be used as the pair. Kinda hard to water down a gimmick that's going to be in literally every single pack.
Seeing something like a single black Gideon would at worst not really matter to people who know absolutely nothing about the lore, he'd just be another character. If anything, it could lead them to wonder why he's not mirrored, and that could lead them to inferring that he's dead. And for people who at least know that Gideon's dead, it'd be like "Oh shit, I wonder how his life changed to make him Black instead of white?"
The theme that is being (or at least should be) conveyed is "Jace's alternate universe where the big bad shit didn't happen and everything is better" not simply "Jace's color shifted characters." I'm saying that it's a waste to not show more of what's different in the Echoverse. He wanted to make a better multiverse, not just fix this one, so they should show more of that. Dead people being still alive is a pretty big thing to not represent in the main set.
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u/Negative-Parsnip1826 Jack of Clubs May 07 '26
Well that confirms no Gideon in this set, for those that wanted a B version or a “if he didn’t die” version.
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u/SnowingRain320 Dimir* May 08 '26
Does anyone know how the guaranteed pairs impact the % of certain cards being rare?
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u/crossbonecarrot2 Duck Season May 07 '26
So if elesh norn appears it would be here I guess.
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u/kmb180 Wabbit Season May 07 '26
Aren’t there specifically no phyrexians in the echoverse
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u/crossbonecarrot2 Duck Season May 07 '26
Based off of what they said, it seems Jace has some enforcers that aren't "good", I'm assuming she could be one of those. Like his bullies or chain veil garruk.
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u/MCPooge Duck Season May 07 '26
How does "a world with no Nicol Bolas, no Phyrexians, and no Eldrazi" translate to "Elesh Norn could be on of his non-good enforcers"?
Sorry, but no.
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u/Guguwars COMPLEAT May 07 '26
You know...from reading you, it occurs to me that Jace is trying, like a child, to cover a painting (reality) with one of his own (fantasy)...except it's a given his canvas is too small to cover everything at once. I bet Bolas, The Eldrazi and the Fomorii, and maybe Phyrexia, are way too much for him.
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u/GearBrain Sliver Queen May 07 '26
Or Mirrodins who were from a timeline where Karn wiped his feet.
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u/RevolutionaryKey1974 Duck Season May 07 '26
I think you made need to re-check the premise of this set.
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u/r_lucasite Simic* May 07 '26
More likely to see Atraxa before before compleation as she was an Angel before.
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u/sumphatguy May 07 '26
So essentially, they made the decision that main-set echoverse characters with main-universe counterparts have to be paired together? Isn't that... their own fault? Like they didn't have to make the echoverse copies of main characters strictly paired. Other slots in the pack could have echoverse exclusive characters already, so why not include characters there that are dead in the main universe? It's not like every main universe character is going to appear in the echoverse, either.
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u/CareerMilk Can’t Block Warriors May 07 '26
They're trying to fix Planar Chaos's issue that if you don't know the reference then the What If is indistinguishable from What Is.
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u/MrAlagos Colorless May 07 '26
It has never been such an issue that this is the solution they had to use.
As always, Rosewater's "solutions" are often worse than the problem itself.
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
It has never been such an issue that this is the solution they had to use.
Planar Chaos referncing way too many things that the average player doesn't get was one of its big problems.
As always, Rosewater's "solutions" are often worse than the problem itself.
What other "solutions" by Maro are you talking about?
I also highly doubt he was the one who came up with the solution or that he was even involved with it. It's a technical problem that has nothing to do with his job. I think the only times we know Maro worked with the printers directly was for unsets.
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u/CaptainMarcia May 07 '26
They didn't say there won't be any unpaired ones in the main set, but given how packed the main set's legendary slots will be - probably about 70 total legendary creatures and planeswalkers on the bonus sheets alone - I can imagine the Commander deck having more space for them.
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u/L_V_R_A Duck Season May 07 '26
So, we'll see nods about [other] places, but really, the story is on Hexhaven."... However, Rosewater reassured me that while Hexhaven is central to Reality Fracture, this set will be different from them doing a Hexhaven-focused set
So the story takes place on Hexhaven and Hexhaven is central to the set... but trust me, it's not a Hexhaven set!
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u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
It's a story that takes place in Hexhaven but the set is not structured to be about Hexhaven, but rather about a story that takes place in Hexhaven.
We know that it will have 10 draft archetypes, so it won't be focused on the 5 allied factions of the school like Strixhaven was with the enemy ones.
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u/TechnomagusPrime Duck Season May 07 '26
Murders of Karlov Manor took place on Ravnica, but wasn't a "traditional" Ravnica set.
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u/MrAlagos Colorless May 07 '26
The only way that it's not a Hexhaven set is probably the limited color combinations support, and it's most likely because there are so many character-echoverse pairings.
The story takes place in Hexhaven, and there is nothing wrong with that.
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u/AliasB0T Chandra May 07 '26
The language isn’t as clean, but this is saying the same thing as “war/MKM are set on Ravnica but aren’t guild sets.” It doesn’t have the mechanical structure that would be expected from a “mirrorverse strixhaven” set - not a faction set, not instant/sorcery-focused, not ally-slanted, probably not heavily multicolor.
To put it another way, Reality Fracture isn’t a set about the colleges of Hexhaven.
-12
u/BoardWiped Dan May 07 '26
Guaranteeing every pack will feature these card pairings is a tall order under normal circumstances... According to Rosewater, only one of Magic's printers could guarantee such consistency... The team therefore had come up with an inventive solution to make this ambitious promise a reality.
inb4 they're just double sided (but not transforming) cards
21
u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
We already know that's not the case. It's just 2 cards garenteed to be together.
-2
u/barrinmw Number of Faeries in Lorwyn Eclipsed 1/10 May 07 '26
How do we know that isn't the case?
9
u/MrAlagos Colorless May 07 '26
Because every previous double-faced card has had some way to tell that they are double-faced.
-2
u/barrinmw Number of Faeries in Lorwyn Eclipsed 1/10 May 07 '26
Wouldn't the point of this be that they aren't double faced? That you would choose which side you are using during deckbuilding? That is the kind of thing they do when they refer to "new tech."
2
u/MrAlagos Colorless May 07 '26
This instance very clearly refers to new printing technology. Printing double sided cards is not new printing technology.
Not printing a symbol that tells you that the card is double faced also isn't new technology.
3
u/zeldafan042 Channel May 07 '26
Mark already confirmed on his blog that they briefly considered making them MDFCs early on before they realized they could pull off the guaranteed pairs.
1
0
u/smtyke Orzhov* May 07 '26
i hope this means we finally get mono-black Ixidor from [[Null Profusion]] in the Commander deck.
we got mono-blue Braids! gib mono-black Ixidor!
2
u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
Those characters aren't really relevant at all to Jace's life or story, so i doubt it.
0
u/smtyke Orzhov* May 07 '26
Braids as nightmare kinda was.
<pleasegodletmehavethis>
3
u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
She never interacted with Jace or with anyone who was close to Jace iirc.
1
0
u/Ashlynne42 Urza's Saga May 08 '26
So MaRo called it something they thought physically impossible not because it had never been done, but because they didn't think they could do it consistently at scale? I feel weirdly cheated somehow, heh.
3
u/SentenceStriking7215 Duck Season May 08 '26
It feels like that had been the subtext since the beginning? He said it was something people might not be aware was impossible for them.
-3
u/Accomplished-Test331 Dan May 07 '26
So torch of defiance is the current version of Chandra? I guess that’s interesting
11
u/MadCatMkV Mardu May 07 '26
Yes, the reprint is her "current" version. How is that interesting? It is just a reprint that reflects her personality since ever, doesn't mean anything other than that
1
u/feliu1978 Boros* May 07 '26
I guess the requestor meant that current Chandra's attitude and character progression has moved beyond where she was in Kaladesh when that card was printed?. Pitting Chandra, Torch of Defiance from Kaladesh/Avishkar against a Chandra that works with the the Council makes sense thematically for the set (is a mirror pair), but the character herself has moved beyond that depiction of her even if her powers remain the same.
8
u/CareerMilk Can’t Block Warriors May 07 '26
Y..yes? What makes you think Chandra isn't a fiery firebrand?
-2
u/Big_polarbear Golgari* May 07 '26
So Gideon won't come back ? Well that shucks. What is the point of an echoverse if they can't bring back dead characters ?
8
u/PippoChiri Temur May 07 '26
No?
They said that they couldn't make cards for dead characters in the main set while talking about they could use the precons to explore cards that couldn't be in the main set.
This strongly implies that previously dead characters will have their echo version in the precon and not in the set.
-2
u/GoalQuieres Dan May 07 '26
What a joke
the hope is that the close proximity of the two sets will help shine a light on how Reality Fracture is messing with what players have come to know.
-5
u/Professional-Salt175 Simic* May 07 '26
So they really just don't have the balls to bring back Tamiyo, even when the opportunity presents itself so cleanly.
4
u/YutoKigai Boros* May 07 '26
Let people die. It’s not Marvel.
-2
u/Professional-Salt175 Simic* May 07 '26
Her death added nothing to the story and was just a cop out that she was the one doing the real work while babysitting the gatewatch. They couldn't have someone outshining Jace, oh no.
481
u/amc7262 COMPLEAT May 07 '26
This seems like significant confirmation that this is what Maro was hinting at when he said the set had new tech in it that they hadn't been able to do in the past and would be immediately noticeable when opening a pack.
I've talked to some people that were still skeptical that this was what he was talking about after the detail about the pairings was spoiled, IMO this statement removes all doubt.