‘Edge of Eternities’ Will Take ‘Magic: The Gathering’ to the Stars

AcertainStarfranchisemay have boldly declared space the final frontier, but forMagic: The Gathering, it’s only the beginning. After the huge risk (and ultimate success) of itsFinal Fantasysetlast month, the venerable card game is leaping into another big risk, although this time devoid of any flashy crossover: its next set,Edge of Eternities,will markMagic‘s first proper foray into full-on science fiction.

The series has flirted with sci-fi concepts across its fantastical settings for years with factions likethe biomechanical Phyrexiansor the multiversal eldritch horrors of the Eldrazi—and even dipped its toe more specifically into the genre with theWarhammer 40,000andDoctor Whocrossovers, butEdge of Eternities, set to release next month, will seeMagicembrace the stars in ways it never really has before. But even as it goes boldly, the set is doing so with a thoroughlyMagictwist.

Edge of Eternitiesrepresents one ofMagic‘s biggest original storytelling opportunities in recent memory. Rather than playing with a new plane in the multiverse,Edgeis going between and beyond the planar concept that has defined generations ofMagiclore. Naturally, doing so also requires a lot of setup for theMagiccommunity beyond cards and flavor text:Edge of Eternities‘ accompanying fiction will release across 11 story episodes, with five side stories to introduce new worlds, characters, planets, and the toneMagicis taking on as it explores the stars.

But whileEdgeis something entirely new, it is still rooted in the familiar forMagicdiehards. The set takes place in the titular realm: the far edge of the Blind Eternities, the void between planes in the multiverse that has been hinted at for years inMagic‘s storytelling. “The metaphor that we’ve been using internally is if the multiverse is an orange, and that the planes that we are aware of are the seeds, the Edge is the peel,” senior story lead forMagicRoy Graham recently explained to press at a briefing for the new set. As the Edge itself is such an expansive and alien branch ofMagic‘s worldbuilding,Edge of Eternitieswill act as a formal introduction to the realm by keeping itself focused on a singular system within the region, Sothera.

First teased duringEdge‘s recent unveiling at MagicCon Las Vegas, the Sothera system is a solar system where its central star has been collapsed into a massive supervoid by a cult of black hole worshippers known as the Monoists. Although rocked by Sothera’s transformation, the system contains five primary planets, each aligned to one ofMagic‘s mana archetypes. Kavaron represents red mana, Evendo green, Adagia white, Uthros blue, and Susur Secundi, the world closest to Sothera’s new supervoid and the hub of Monoist activity in the system, naturally represents black. Each planet will have representation inEdge‘s card set, playing into some of the new mechanics being introduced.

Across those five worlds, multiple factions new and old will be introduced—from insectoid terraformers to ancient precursor races, to even hints at familiarMagicfactions like the Eldrazi, who’ve long been known to hail from the Blind Eternities. But the set’s main conflict will be spread across three primary groups: Pinnacle, essentiallyMagic‘s stand-in forStar Trek‘s Federation and Starfleet, a pan-species governmental and exploratory body that recently incorporated the Sothera system into its territories; the Monoists, who are seeking to complete Sothera’s transformation into a full supervoid; and their ancient foes in the Celestial Palatinate, a holy empire built around a mathematical equation that has been locked in war with the Monoists for eons, who have sent the Solar Knights of the Sunstar Free Company to Sothera in an attempt to reverse the damage done to its dying star.

But again, not everything inEdgeis brand-new to familiarMagicaudiences. For all the new factions at play, there is at least one Planeswalker making a grand return in the set: Tezzeret, returning after the events of the Phyrexian invasion of the multiverse to make his next move. “[Tezzeret] has travelled the vast distance through the Blind Eternities with the help of his Darksteel body all the way to the edge in order to start anew,” Graham teased. “It’s a realm filled with metal and machines and tools that he can bend to his will.”

All that certainly sounds like a big step into tone and territoryMagichas only really dipped its toes into before. But for the team behindEdge of Eternities, their approach still felt informed by a lot of whatMagicusually does in the realm of fantasy—and they were quick to explain their vision as being still in that realm, just with a science-y twist.

“We really wanted to raise this idea of science fantasy,” executive producer Mike Turian explained. “Any time we go to a new plane, a new place, a new world, we’re always looking to say, ‘hey, how can we connect what’s resonant and awesome about that setting withMagic: The Gathering?’. So forEdge of Eternities, we wanted to go and take a look at what it means to takeMagicto outer space, but, for instance, we have Sothera, which is amagicalblack hole. The word ‘magical’ there really carries a lot of weight in this idea of science fantasy. At the Edge, magic is not beholden to physics. We’ve got flying whales in outer space—a scientist wouldn’t validate the possibility of this actually existing! And yet this really captures that essence, and we thought, the potential of combiningMagicand outer space.”

“[Edgebeing too far a leap forMagic] couldn’t be less the case,” Graham added. “This is an exciting new direction for us; it’s territory we’ve never managed to cover before inMagic. But everything is reflected and redefined, and mirroring the sorts of nuanced storytelling, deep fantasy worldbuilding, and resonant themes thatMagicplayers will always love. It’s being told in this new medium, the art is being interpreted in this out-of-this-world manner, and there are some things we’re doing in the mechanical design and the story and narrative that only really makes sense in the context of a space-fantasy adventure.”

As Graham teased, that mix of the familiar and the new is likewise reflected inEdge of Eternities‘ mechanical approach toMagic. One returning mechanic for Standard players is the return of legal Shock Lands—dual-type lands that enter play tapped and can be untapped for a life cost. But evenEdge‘s new mechanics all echo familiar design philosophies, iterating as much as they add.

One new mechanic that leans on iterative ideas is Station. Almost akin to the Crew mechanic that played amajor role inAetherdrift, cards with Station can gain new abilities and can transform type once a certain amount of charge counters have been placed on them by tapping other creature cards, gaining a charge token totalling that tapped creature’s power level. InEdge, Station will be tied to two new card subtypes: Planets, which have no unique rules themselves but will all have Station, and Spacecraft, a new thematic vehicle type. The addition of spacecraft inEdgewill also mark the first time that any vehicle type, spacecraft included, can be used as a player’s commander in the Commander format, opening up a wide variety of deck-building opportunities.

Another is Warp, meant to represent the idea of faster-than-light travel within the Edge. Cards with Warp can pay an alternative, cheaper mana cost to be played, at the expense of being exiled during the next end step. A warped card can be played from exile, interacting with plenty of other standardMagicmechanics, but it can only be warped once—in exchange, you get powerful benefits for their brief time on the battlefield.

Interacting with Warp, is Void, representing the absence of space. If a card was warped that turn or if a nonland permanent leaves the battlefield, Void can trigger, providing either alternative effects on spells and sorceries, or additional ones on top of their regular effects. The final new mechanic teased to the press was Lander tokens, representing Pinnacle’s mission of planetary exploration. Similar to food or treasure tokens, Landers can be sacrificed to tutor (or search your deck) for basic lands.

It was clear looking over what Wizards of the Coast has planned forEdge of Eternitiesthat there was an intriguing parallel to its work on theFinal Fantasyset. If that set integrated an outside property intoMagicwitha reverence and careto represent the very best of what the “Universes Beyond” concept could be for the game,Edgetakes a similar approach in incorporating a new genre toMagic‘s original storytelling approach. The new worldbuilding is filled with potential for further exploration beyondEdge, drawing plenty of parallels between the new material and whatMagichas already played with in similar spaces. Mechanically too, the set is shaping up to capture core tenets of science fiction and science fantasy that feel celebratory of the genres.

But especially in the wake ofFinal Fantasyand its status as one of the most financially successfulMagicsets ever, it’s hard not to look at whatEdgeis doing—sandwiched as it is between huge Universes Beyond releases, withSpider-Manreleasing in September—even in the space ofMagic‘s own storytelling, and feel like this is laying the groundwork forMagic‘s next big crossover.

“One of the things that’s great when working on these sets is that we get to be inspired by our players’ expectations,” Turian noted, refusing to be drawn to one particular franchise or another that may have inspired much of whatEdgeis doing. “[We’re] understanding how people think about outer space, and what it means to them, and we find great ways to incorporate that into our releases.”

Time will tell if the Edge holds further opportunities for exploration or if something lies even further beyond its universe. Magic:The Gathering – Edge of Eternitieswill hit shelves August 1.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latestMarvel,Star Wars, andStar Trekreleases, what’s next for theDC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future ofDoctor Who.

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