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Once every few years, Wizards of the Coast creates a special Magic set that deviates from the usual, somewhat serious tone of MTG, and makes light of itself a bit. These joke sets are often called “Un-sets” as their titles have always been stylized with the un- prefix, such as Unhinged and Unglued.
During the Magic Showcase 2021 back in August, Wizards revealed all of the major Magic products that would be coming out in 2022, and the lineup included a new Un-set which would be called Unfinity.
At the time, not many details were revealed about Unfinity other than its theme: a “space carnival” called Myra the Magnificent’s Intergalactic Astrotorium of Fun. In addition, it was revealed that the set would continue the Un-set tradition of including special full-art lands (indeed, it was an Un-set that first introduced full-art lands to Magic), and would also include a reprint of all ten of the shock lands with new art.
On Monday, Magic’s head designer Mark Rosewater published an article over on Wizards’ official website providing us with new details about the set and showing off all of the special art treatments for both the “space-ic” lands and the shock lands, along with a handful of card previews and some other cool art from the set.
Along with the vibrant science-fiction art previews, Rosewater’s article also provided us with some very interesting information about the set, including unprecedented changes to the tournament legality of some of the cards from the set: cards from Un-sets have always been silver-bordered and not legal for serious play, but starting with Unfinity, this will no longer be the case.
Below, we’ll give a summary of all of the most important information we’ve learned about Unfinity, scheduled for release on April 1, 2022. And of course, we’ll also show off the promotional art, card spoilers, and new land treatments.
Eternal Format Legality: Doing Away with the Silver Borders
In what is perhaps the most substantial change that’s ever been made to the Un-sets, Mark Rosewater announced in his article that Unfinity cards will not be silver-bordered. In the past, Wizards used the silver card border to indicate that the joke cards, which often feature silly or high-variance mechanics that would not function within the game’s normal rules, were not legal for tournament play.
Rosewater describes in his post how over time, the fact that the joke sets are banned from competitive Magic has led to their exclusion from even more casual settings – especially the Commander format. With Unfinity, Wizards is looking to broaden the Un-sets’ appeal to Commander and other casual players by making a percentage of the cards from the set legal in the eternal formats (Commander, Legacy, and Vintage).
However, this does not mean that Unfinity won’t include any of the wackiness and weirdness that players have come to expect from Un-sets: some of the cards will still feature mechanics that could not work in the context of a black-bordered card. The difference is that rather than being silver-bordered, the non-legal cards will be designated by an acorn stamp on the bottom of the card’s face:
According to Rosewater, any card designs from the set that do not break the usual rules of Magic have been made Eternal-legal, while the acorn-stamped cards allow them the freedom to continue including fun cards that couldn’t be allowed in black-border Magic.
By introducing this new system, Wizards seems to be looking to maintain the ridiculousness of the Un-sets while increasing their appeal to Commander players specifically – Rosewater also mentioned that Unfinity will include 30 legendary creatures, “the majority of which” will be eternal, and therefore legally sanctioned for Commander.
Acorn and Non-Acorn Card Previews
To help demonstrate the difference between the acorn cards and the eternal cards which will be legal for play, Wizards showed off two cards from each category:
Two “acorn” cards from Unfinity. Notice the silver acorn stamp on the bottom center of the card.
These two cards are mechanically sound for black-bordered Magic, and will be legal in Legacy, Vintage, and Commander.
Rosewater also used The Space Family Goblinson to show off the special “retro-pop” showcase style that will be applied to some cards from the set:
As a final teaser, the article also revealed the Participation Promo that will be given out at the release event, and it’s a reprint from a previous Un-set:
More Un-set Firsts: Collector Boosters, “Galaxy” Foils
Collector boosters, which were first offered with Ravnica Allegiance in 2019, are a premium product that have a higher price point than the typical draft boosters, but feature special extended art and showcase variations of cards, along with an increased number of foil cards.
While collector boosters have been offered with nearly every Magic set since they were introduced, Unfinity will be the first Un-set to offer them. While the full details are yet to come, Rosewater announced that the Unfinity collector boosters will be “100% foil,” and will also include three “galaxy foil” cards. The galaxy foils haven’t been unveiled yet, but in Rosewater’s own words, the foiling will look “like stars in space.”
The “Space-ic” Lands
Now onto the juicy part: the return of the famous Un-set full-art basic lands! In keeping with the sci-fi themes of the set, the Unfinity basic lands feature art of planetscapes, and this time around, there are two full cycles: the planetary space-ic lands and the orbital space-ic lands.
Planetary Cycle:
Orbital Cycle:
The Shock Lands
Magic players and collectors always celebrate the reprinting of a significant dual cycle, and Unfinity will be bringing the shock lands (e.g. Steam Vents, Breeding Pool) with beautiful, space-themed art:
And That About Covers It!
That’s just about all of the information we have so far about Unfinity, which will be releasing on April 1. You can read more of the reasoning behind some of the Un-set changes and Unfinity design choices in Mark Rosewater’s full post.
Unfortunately, we yet don’t know what, if anything, might be coming to MTG Arena from Unfinity. With that being said, two of the basic land cycles from previous Un-sets, Unhinged and Unglued, are already available as cosmetics on the client, and it seems likely that Wizards will want to do some kind of cross-promotion with the novelty product.
In the meantime, we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll eventually get to play with those sweet lands on Arena, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted on any more information on Unfinity as it becomes available.
