After the glory that was the Final Fantasy set, I was itching for an in-universe set for Magic. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the Final Fantasy set; I absolutely loved it, but the places Magic can go with its story are so much fun. Well, fortunately, the latest set, Edge of Eternities, takes us to a magic place in space, and I am all in.
What even is there at the Edge of Eternities?
Heaps. This story was one to enjoy. It’s a brand-new story packed with heaps of new characters. It’s based around a star that is collapsing into a supernova. There is an intergalactic crew that is trying to get people away from the impending danger, but it can’t be that simple, right? Nope, there are two big cults. One of them believes that stars collapsing is natural and that is the way to get to the next plane of existence. As such, they have built tools to help make the stars collapse faster. The others believe in the sanctity of life and have technology to stop stars from collapsing.
The story itself is bouncing between the perspectives of many people, and it’s a fantastic example of world building, as the plane itself is one of the most interesting bits. It may be sci-fi, but they have done a great job of making it feel like Magic: The Gathering too. There are also two people looking for a cat. Seriously, give it a read or a listen. The audiobook has been given a professional flavour that the story deserved!
The art
The art is an interesting one. There are some truly stunning cards, and pretty consistently the art looks excellent. One issue I have is with all the sci-fi styles of art; it does become a little the same. Each piece of art on its own is stunning, but when the cards are bunched together, it does become a little bit homogenised. It’s not the art itself, but all of the dark backgrounds and dark hues hold back some of the stunningly designed artwork.
Having said that, some of the alt art cards are beyond stunning. Beyond the Quiet may well be one of the most beautiful Magic cards ever made. There are heaps of alternate art cards, and these are consistently awesome. The Shocklands have their normal version, a version that looks like it’s through the front windscreen of a ship on a planet, and then a normal full art card. They all look dope.
Some of the anime-style cards are back too, with the possibility of cracking one in a collector booster. Again, smashed it out of the park. One I have an issue with is a land card from the series but has Tezzeret in the middle of it in the cool anime style. The art is super dope, but there is something about it that breaks my brain – that it’s a land card with that art.
Despite some minor critiques, I still love the art in the set and love cracking packs and seeing new cards.
What’s new in the set?
Old cards… well, new versions of old cards. OK, this is getting to be a hard joke to run with; the set has an awesome bonus sheet that has some wicked lands. These vary from the obscenely expensive Ancient Tomb to utility lands that let you do things to some creature lands like Shambling Vent. These are super cool additions, as they mix some limited games up but also make them more accessible for people playing formats where these are legal. They also look stupidly cool. The special guests also offer some dope comic book-looking art variants of cards.
The biggest actually new thing is the station mechanic. This involves the new spacecraft cards, where they generally come in with an effect, but then you station them for more mechanics or to turn them into a creature. You station by tapping creatures, and their power stacks up on the station until it gets to the number needed. It’s kind of like crewing vehicles, except the station numbers stay on the station.
Void is another fun mechanic where a permanent leaves the battlefield in the turn, then it gets a boost. For example, Tragic Trajectory only gives a creature -2/-2, but if a permanent went to the bin, then it’s a -10/-10 which is strong. This adds a fun aristocrat spin where you may sacrifice something to make your cards have more impact.
Then there is Warp. You can cast a creature for its Warp cost which is cheaper, but then you have to exile the creature at the end of the turn but can then cast it for its full cost later. This can be a great way to take advantage of strong enters-the-battlefield or leaves-the-battlefield effects but also helps with stationing spacecraft.
Another massive focus of the set is the lands. There are obviously the shocklands which are in the main set, but then there are a series of planet lands, which are mono-coloured lands that also have a station mechanic on them. Then there is the bonus sheet, which has a bunch of iconic old lands, from creature lands to fricking Ancient Tomb.
Constructed, Draft, and Sealed
The impact of this set on Constructed is massive. The ability to now use vehicles as commanders isn’t a massive change to Commander in that there aren’t a heap of old vehicles that would make commanders. Edge of Eternities has some cool spacecraft for commanders though, and that’s cool. The planet lands are also perfect for the commander format and could be awesomely strong.
Standard has some slick new additions, like the introduction of some of the shocklands. With a lot of dual lands leaving the format, some colour pairs like Rakdos are going to struggle a bit more. The groups that got shocklands are way stronger now with their abilities to turn on verge lands. There are a bunch of other cool cards for the format, and my angel Standard deck definitely got some love from this set.
When it comes to limited formats like draft and sealed, it’s definitely a weird one. Final Fantasy let you play a long game with late payoffs, and it liked archetypes. For this set you need to be focussing your energy on the value of the cards, like the stats and effects. Spaceships can be a bit of a trap, as you can tap out trying to station them, leaving you exposed. I found they worked best when I used them for their non-stationed effects and then only bothered stationing them when I needed them to. So far it has been a whole lot of fun in limited, but I am intrigued to see how it goes after a few more weeks. The land bonus sheet throws some random spanners in the works as well, as they can vary from good to insanely powerful.
Commander Decks
Edge of Eternities returns us to a time of two precons. Some of the sets have justifications for way more, like the five clans of Thakir or four awesome Final Fantasy-themed decks, but it is nice choosing between two.
I have been playing with the World Shaper deck, and straight away I will say, it’s a lot of fun. This deck is Jund (Black, Red, and Green) and is based around lands. The main commander is a spacecraft, which you can station to be a big creature. More importantly, it lets you sacrifice lands to draw cards and play an extra land this turn. The alternate commander lets you play lands from your graveyard and benefits from you sacrificing permanents. I got both of them on the field one time, and my god, the two synergize like nobody’s business. It’s a fun deck to play that can pop off, but with both alternate commanders having similar plans, it means it doesn’t have any dead cards designed for the other commander. It’s got a ramp, it’s got a landfall, it’s got sacrificing – it’s a damn good deck.
Counter Intelligence is a Jeskai deck that is all about proliferation. Having not played with it, I can’t speak too much more to it, but it does look fun.
As always, the decks come with a crappy cardboard deckbox and a fun little collector booster sample pack with two cards, which I always treat as a fun bonus. Given the awesomeness that is the art in Collector Boosters for this set, it’s a great bonus. Then there are the two alt commanders, both in beautiful full-art foil treatments. They look fantastic.
When you compare the analysis financially, some previous decks are higher in single card value, but as far as precons go, well, at least World Shaper goes, it’s a super fun one to play out of the box. And that’s what I want the most from these. Best of all, both offer a Spacecraft alt commander, which is a fun tie-in with the set it’s based on.
Should you play Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities?
Edge of Eternities is a super fun set. From the single cards to the bonus sheet to actually playing with them. The story is way better than I expected, and the alternate art on the cards is absolutely stunning. If you haven’t been to the edge of eternities yet, I highly recommend visiting.
It's fun, it's chaotic, and it has a great story. Can we ask for more?
