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It’s shaping up to be quite an exciting week for MTG players: On August 18, the official previews for Dominaria United will begin for the big September set and mark Magic’s 30th anniversary celebrations. We’ve already seen a few early spoilers and what the set is all about from the monthly announcement stream, but there are still a ton of cards that have yet to be seen by the general public.
Before the beginning of the preview season for each set, MTG’s head designer Mark Rosewater (often shortened to MaRo) gives us a bit of a teaser about what we can expect from the set over on his Tumblr, Blogatog. It usually includes abilities, creature types, and other unusual or noteworthy text that will appear on cards from the set, along with some clues about returning characters and more.
This morning, MaRo published the teaser for Dominaria United:
Before previews for Dominaria United officially begin, I thought it would be fun to do another of my Duelist-style teasers where I give tiny hints of things to come. Note that I’m only giving you partial information.
First up, here are some things you can expect:
- a new evergreen counter
- a popular planeswalker card gets a reprint
- a blue card with “destroy all creatures”
- a five mana value creature that can be a 10/10
- three original Weatherlight crew members are in the set
- an ability word that didn’t start as an ability word returns
- rare cycle of +1/+1 granting lords
- a card that grants poison
- a new artifact with Lotus in the name
- a character players have been requesting get a card for years finally gets one
Next, here are some rules text that will be showing up on cards:
- “As long as enchanted creature is legendary”
- “You may exile an instant or sorcery with mana value X or less from among them.”
- “exile each nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less”
- “Enchantment creatures you control have”
- “if X is 3 or less”
- “For each opponent who doesn’t, that player loses 2 life and you draw a card.”
- “instant or sorcery card with mana value 1 or 2”
- “Pay any amount of mana.”
- “Vehicles you control have crew 1.”
- “where X is the number of legendary creatures you control.”
Finally, here are some creature type lines in the set:
- Creature – Dryad Warrior
- Creature – Phyrexian Horse
- Creature – Elf Archer (in red)
- Creature – Lhurgoyf
- Creature – Human Kor Soldier
- Legendary Creature – Elemental Demon
- Legendary Creature – Frog Beast
- Legendary Creature – Elf Artificer
- Legendary Creature – Viashino Warlock
- Legendary Creature – Phyrexian Merfolk Wizard
August 18th will be an exciting day for Magic fans. Tune in on the official Magic YouTube channel or twitch.tv/Magic at 9AM to watch Wizards Presents where you’ll learn about the exciting releases and announcements both Magic and D&D have in store for fans in 2023, followed by Dominaria’s debut day and preview stream!
MaRo’s teasers are always chock full of information and insight into the set, and it’s definitely worth giving the full list a read. Here are just a few of the things that caught our eye:
A popular planeswalker card gets a reprint
It’s not often we get a planeswalker reprint outside of a Core Set, as they are reserved for exciting new and returning character designs to represent a new expansion, such as the new Jaya, Fiery Negotiator previewed already.
While the term popular could mean that it’s seen competitive play, a fan favorite, or even a bit of both, there are a lot of possibilities to draw from. With Dominaria Remastered leaked already, it might be too soon for Teferi and there were talks of Liliana of the Veil being scrapped for Theros due to her power in Mono Black Devotion. Karn Liberated could be of decent potential here, though if Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is any indication, it could cause a lot of trouble for MTG Arena players!
An ability word that didn’t start as an ability word returns
The top candidate for this ability word is Domain, which could account for the Five-Color Painbow Dominaria United Commander deck featuring Jared Carthalion. MaRo has also teased a five-color indicator for the set, such as “a five mana value creature that can be a 10/10”.
A new evergreen counter
As Wizards are experimenting with Stickers in Unfinity, we’re also seeing the introduction of various counters other than the usual +1/+1 ones in Magic such as the keyword ones in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. Evergreen is a big deal in Magic, as players become adapted to them, such as Scry. There are a few possibilities going with the theme of the set, such as Legendary counters or even Phyrexian (Compleated) counters.
Enchantment creatures you control have
It appears that the Enchantment cards in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty may get some stronger support with this set! It could be a good time to try out our Standard 2023 Enchantment deck to prepare for an archetype that could still be strong after rotation!
There are more interesting tidbits from the creature types such as a possible new form of Mass Polymorph in Blue, a new Lhurgoyf, Phyrexian Horse, and even a Phyrexian Merfolk Wizard!
That’s all we have for you concerning Dominaria United for now. What are some of the tidbits from Mark Rosewater’s teaser that have you the most excited for Dominaria United? Got any predictions? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll keep you up-to-date with the latest news and spoilers concerning Dominaria’s return. We’ll see you on Thursday!
