Magic: The Gathering is gearing up for another game-changing expansion, Zendikar Rising, set in the ever-shifting wilderness of Zendikar. The new expansion has a few tricks up its sleeve, including new cards, art cards, and an entirely new type of booster pack.
Zendikar Rising will be the 85th expansion for Magic: The Gathering. Keeping the game balanced as new cards are added requires Wizards of the Coast to maintain a meticulous balancing act where old cards are obsolesced, or relegated to specific formats, as new cards are added while appeasing players’ desires. Inevitably, things don’t always go according to plan. MTG’s latest banned and restricted list has upset many players, as it prohibited a popular strategy that dominated the current competitive meta.
While many of the details of the new expansion have yet to be revealed, Wizards of the Coast has dropped some information, including a release date: September 25th, 2020. The biggest shakeup to come out of Zendikar is likely the creation of Set Booster Packs. The packs are intended to appeal to players who are uninterested in the game’s Draft and Limited formats.
While the new packs will be a dollar more expensive and feature fewer cards than traditional booster packs, they are designed to feature multiple “excitement points” for players. In success, MTG Set Boosters could fundamentally change card collection for dedicated players.
The setting for the new expansion, the plane of Zendikar, is a massive, transforming forest that served as a prison for Magic: The Gathering’s legendary big bads, the Eldrazi. This latest expansion, however, will be stepping away from the Eldrazi angle and focusing on themes of classic adventuring, as befitting an enormous jungle world. No new planeswalkers are being released as a part of the expansion, but Jace, Nissa, and Nahiri will be returning, and feature on the expansion art.
It will be interesting to see if the new expansion can give the MTG community a shot in the arm, as COVID19 has hit the tabletop gaming hobby extremely hard. In March, MTG’s Ikora: Lair of Behemoths expansion was delayed, and Wizards of the Coast suspended all in-store play for MTG and D&D. The latter is a major blow to the community, as local game stores are a crucial forum for tournaments and informal play.
Players and proprietors should take these prohibitions seriously, however. Aside from the serious health risks and potential to contribute to the pandemic, the owner of a Florida hobby shop, Kitchen Table Games, was arrested for violating the stay at home order in April.
Options abound, however. Planeswalkers looking for a fix may want to turn to Magic Arena, the first digital adaptation that does MTG justice, or Magic Legends, an MMO-ARPG set to launch this Fall.
Zendikar Rising will be available on September 25th, 2020.
