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| Released | April 27, 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Size | 269 cards | ||
| Development code | Soup | ||
| Expansion code | DOM | ||
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Dominaria is a Magic: The Gathering expansion set. [1] It is not part of a block. In celebration of Magic: The Gathering's 25th anniversary, the story returned to the plane of Dominaria. The expansion was released on April 27, 2018. [2] Martha Wells was the head writer for the expansion. [3]
Dominaria is the plane where much of the past Magic: The Gathering story was set. Thus, for this expansion, the designers wished to reference that history and make it a relevant part of the gameplay. James Whitbrook, for Io9 , highlighted that the Dominaria set brings "players back to the original setting that kicked off Magic’s official storyline in 1998, for the first time players have returned to the plane since 2006's Time Spiral. Although Magic: The Gathering is now set in a shared multiverse of elemental planes—full of the powerful spellcasters known as 'Planeswalkers' who could travel between them—the world of Dominaria itself is one of the most important locations in Magic’s storied lore, and 'home' to many of the characters and creatures found in Magic’s earliest sets, until the storyline started branching out into new worlds in the franchise’s ever-growing multiverse in 2003". [3]
"For years, the Skyship Weatherlight played a focal role in Magic‘s storylines. Invented by the legendary Planeswalker Urza, the Weatherlight was designed to be a ship capable of the impossible– traveling between planes. Crewed by a group of exceptional heroes including Captain Sisay and Gerrard Capashen, the Weatherlight ultimately played a huge role in fighting off the Borg-like Phyrexians as they invaded Dominaria. Seemingly lost to the oceans, the artificer Jhoira recently pulled the remains of the Weatherlight up from the water". [4]
The storyline begins directly after Gatewatch's defeat at the hands of Nicol Bolas in the Hour of Devastation (2017) set. [3] Belzenlok, the Elder Demon, is the primary villain of the Dominaria set. [4] The Planeswalkers Liliana Vess and Gideon Jura "have arrived on Dominaria" and together, "they begin a mission to kill Belzenlok, the final demon holding Liliana’s contract". [3] A long time ago, Vess had made a deal "in an attempt to preserve her youth" by signing away her soul "to four demons. Then, after acquiring an artifact known as the Chain Veil, she became powerful enough to kill her keepers. Three of them are now dead. Belzenlok is the only one who now remains and he’s on her homeworld, Dominaria. However, he’s a much more formidable challenge for the necromancer than any of the demons before him, as he’s taken control over vast swaths of Dominaria through the power of the Cabal". [4]
The Dominaria set also marks the return of a long thought dead character, the task mage Jaya Ballard. [4]
Cameron Kunzelman, for Paste, commented that "Dominaria is a place in the universe of the game, and it’s the place where all of the classic stories took place. [...] In the early 2000s, the Magic became much more about the big universe of planes that the core creators, called planeswalkers, could travel to. Dominaria and its factions, plots, world-destroying characters, and evil villains receded into the background of the game. [...] Coming back to Dominaria has weight. It’s uniting different generations of players and trying to knit up nostalgia for past mechanics and concepts while keeping the game fresh and new. [...] Dominaria has felt very rewarding for me both as a player who enjoys where the game is now and as a player who started all the way back in the early 2000s". [6] On the mechanics of the set, Kunzelamn highlighted the new historic cards and wrote "sagas, by the way, are amazing. [...] The focus on historic cards and events means that many of those cards and concepts are 'pushed' so that they see play. [...] It makes for a volatile format, and the strong dependency of some other cards on these legends means that you might sometimes feel punished for not opening or having them". [6]
Alexander Lu, for Comics Beat , highlighted "in a case of good news and bad news for players, Magic unveiled that the promotional card players will receive if they buy a box of Dominaria booster packs from a participating game store is Firesong and Sunspeaker. [...] It’s also one of the first red and white legendary creatures that is not focused on interacting with combat– something Commander players have been asking for for a long time. But unlike previous buy-a-box promos, Firesong and Sunspeaker are only available through this promotion. You can’t open them in Dominaria boosters. This scarcity has caused a minor uproar among the more fiscally-minded members of Magic‘s community already, with many warning of the precedent that this sets for future expansions". [7]
Beck Holden, for Hipsters of the Coast, highlighted the differing opinions on the Dominaria storyline. Holden wrote, "We wouldn’t be having this debate if Alison Luhrs and Kelly Digges hadn’t given us a Magic Story for Ixalan that was, if you’ll forgive the pun, unrivaled. [...] One of the refrains I’ve seen repeatedly on Vorthos Twitter is that character depth and character development went by the wayside in Dominaria’s story. [...] If [Martha] Wells started to write a serialized story about the ongoing adventures of the Weatherlight’s crew, I would read the hell out of it—the characters have archetypal elements, but they have become a fun and delightful family [...]. There seems to be a general consensus that not everything worked, though, although there is debate about what precisely did and did not work. [...] [Nic] Kelman has gotten a lot of flak for his comments on being willing to bend details in the story [...]. I’m not sure if we’re going to see a Ravnica story that compares favorably with Ixalan—that’s a high bar to clear!—but I still think on the whole this was a reasonably promising start; and that we’re going to get to enjoy stories that, on average, compare favorably with most of the Magic Stories of the last few years". [8]
Magic: The Gathering is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game and had approximately thirty-five million players as of December 2018, and over twenty billion Magic cards were produced in the period from 2008 to 2016, during which time it grew in popularity.
The Multiverse is the shared fictional universe depicted on Magic: The Gathering cards, novels, comics, and other supplemental products. Though Magic is a strategy game, an intricate storyline underlies the cards released in each expansion. On the cards, elements of this multiverse are shown in the card art and through quotations and descriptions on the bottom of most cards. Novels and anthologies published by HarperPrism and Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), and the comic books published by Armada Comics expand upon the settings and characters hinted at on the cards. WOTC also publishes a weekly story in the Magic Fiction column, previously known as Official Magic Fiction and Uncharted Realms.
Several video games based on the Magic: The Gathering franchise exist for multiple systems. Some have attempted to translate the card game to electronic play nearly exactly; others have taken more liberties and drawn more from the setting than the actual rules of the card game. Benefits of successful video game versions of the card game include convenience, practice, and challenge. However, artificial intelligence for a game such as Magic is an extremely hard problem, and such software usually must be continuously updated to stay current with recently released card sets. Video game versions often expand on artwork, and may include unique cards that rely on randomness, effects which would be difficult or annoying to duplicate in real life.
The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering published seven expansion sets from 1993–1995, and one compilation set. These sets contained new cards that "expanded" on the base sets of Magic with their own mechanical theme and setting; these new cards could be played on their own, or mixed in with decks created from cards in the base sets. With Magic's runaway success, many of the printings of these early sets were too small to satisfy the rapidly growing fanbase. Cards from them became rare, hard to find, and expensive. It was not until Fallen Empires and Homelands that Wizards of the Coast was able to print enough cards to meet demand; additionally, Wizards of the Coast published Chronicles, a reprint set that helped fix many of the scarcity issues with the earliest sets.
Onslaught is a Magic: The Gathering expert-level block. It consists of the expansion sets Onslaught, Legions and Scourge. The block's main theme is creature types, and much of the game play concerns interactions between these "tribes". The story continues the saga of the Mirari from the previous block of expansion sets. Onslaught was the last block printed before the "modern" card face style was introduced.
Mirage was the first official block structure in Magic: The Gathering. This new block structure consisted of three expansion sets and would continue for nearly two decades, finally ending with Khans of Tarkir in 2014. The new block structure also set up the precedent that the first set in the block also became the name for the entire block. Mirage block consisted of three sets: Mirage, Visions and Weatherlight.
Time Spiral is a Magic: The Gathering expert-level block consisting of the expansion sets Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, and Future Sight. It is set on the plane of Dominaria, the first time that that plane had been visited since 8th Edition.
The Rules of Magic: The Gathering were originally developed by the game's creator, Richard Garfield, and accompanied the first version of the game in 1993. The rules of Magic have been changed frequently over the years by the manufacturer, Wizards of the Coast, mostly in minor ways. However, major rules overhauls have also been done a few times.
The Innistrad block is a block of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, consisting of the expansion sets Innistrad, Dark Ascension and Avacyn Restored. Innistrad is a "top-down" designed block based on Gothic horror. The set's mechanics and effects take mainly graveyard themes, with a minor focus on tribal themes. The tagline for the set is "Horror Lurks Within". It has 264 cards.
The Artifacts Cycle is a tetralogy of Magic: The Gathering expansion sets centered on the exploits of Urza Planeswalker. It consists of the expansions Antiquities, Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy and Urza's Destiny. The latter three sets are sometimes referred to as an "Urza block" for tournament purposes, since there have been formats and time periods in which cards from the later three sets were legal but cards from Antiquities were not. However, the books "The Brothers' War", "Planeswalker", "Timestreams", and "Bloodlines" unambiguously confirm that, from a story and thematic point of view, "Artifacts cycle" is correct and it begins with the events depicted in Antiquities.
The Masquerade Cycle, sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "Masques block", is a Magic: The Gathering cycle that is set on the planes of Mercadia, Rath, and plane of Dominaria. It consists of the expansion sets Mercadian Masques, Nemesis, and Prophecy. Mercadian Masques was the first set that is not subject to the Wizards of the Coast Reprint Policy, meaning that none of its cards appear on its Reserved List.
Theros is a set of three expansions to the Magic: The Gathering game, consisting of the sets Theros, Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx. The setting was later used for a Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook, Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020). The lore and aesthetics of the game setting was based on Greek mythology.
Kaladesh is a Magic: The Gathering expansion block consisting of the sets Kaladesh and Aether Revolt. The block debuted with the release of Kaladesh on September 30, 2016. The block is set on the plane of Kaladesh, the original home of planeswalker Chandra Nalaar, and features an emphasis on artifacts, their creators and the magical aether which powers them.
Theros Beyond Death is a Magic: The Gathering expansion set. It is not part of a block. It was released on January 24, 2020. The set's development codename is "Baseball", and its expansion code is THB.
Strixhaven: School of Mages is a Magic: The Gathering expansion set. It is not part of a block. The set was released in April 2021.
Guilds of Ravnica is the 79th Magic: The Gathering expansion; while it is not part of a block, this set is functionally the first part of a Ravnica focused storyline set on the plane of Ravnica. It was released on October 5, 2018.
Zendikar Rising is the 85th Magic: The Gathering expansion and is not part of a block. It is set on the plane of Zendikar. It was released on September 25, 2020. The sets development codename is "Diving", and its expansion code is ZNR.
Ravnica Allegiance is the 80th Magic: The Gathering expansion; while it is not part of a block, this set is functionally the second part of a Ravnica focused storyline set on the plane of Ravnica. It was released on January 25, 2019.
War of the Spark is the 81st Magic: The Gathering expansion; while it is not part of a block, this set is functionally the third part of a Ravnica focused storyline set on the plane of Ravnica. It was released on May 3, 2019. It also became available in MTG Arena on April 25, 2019.
