ech

No shade intended. I was just seeing some art from the new MtG Doctor Who cards and for whatever reason decided to look up what the Menoptra looked like originally and the disparity really cracked me up.

Maybe I'm late to the party, but it's cool to see Quintorious here! I assume this confirms the Planeswalker speculation, but who knows. Can't wait for more info!

*Also - Dinobots! Really hoping we get them as cards, or at the very least tokens.

Personally I'm enjoying it! I generally tend to prefer pretty formats with a decent amount of complexity, which WOE doesn't have a ton of, but certainly it has enough to keep things interesting and plays quite smoothly once the patterns are picked up. It's a format where the archetypes flow into each other nicely, which is particularly appreciated, imo.

I know it's only been out a week so far, but what are all y'all's feelings on it? Yay? Nay?

~~Until the reset, daily quests won't complete, but they will reward their gold, so if you get a quest to 1 away (if you go over it won't progress at all!), you can play a spell to "complete" the quest repeatedly.~~

~~PS if you do go the concede route, be nice and let your opp get a spell in too before you do!~~

~~*Worth noting it only works on one quest at a time, so trying to do multiple at once won't work~~

All clients have now forced a reset, fixing the glitch. Hope it went well for you all!

Summary:

• Lots of styles coming out to purchase
• WOT cards will be just like the MUL cards: Available in WOE packs in the new artwork as a style. Only legal in formats where the original card is also legal,except in limited if you happen to open or draft them. (Of note, 6 WOT cards are preemptively banned in Historic: Necropotence, Blood Moon, Land Tax, Spreading Seas, Sneak Attack, and Intruder Alarm)
• Starting with WOE, new art reprints of rares and mythics will also fall under duplicate protection, so you won't open yet another copy of a rare if you have 4 from other sets already. No clarification on how new art is obtained, though.
• New adjustments to the advanced filter in the deckbuilder, most substantially the filter will now indicate which sets are legal for the chosen format.
• New UI and animation for opening multiple packs, with a visual example in the article.
• Alchemy Renewal will trigger with the release of WOE, providing an alternate art Ashiok sleeve, packs, and ICRs in the mastery pass.

Summary:

Themes for the Future

• Innovation for the Future and Honoring the Past
• Creating Something for Everyone
• Commitment to Magic Lore and Story

2023

Coming August 10th - Secret Lair Commander Deck: Angels

Wilds of Eldraine is the first set of the "Omenpath Arc", the start of a 3-year storyline culminating in 2026.

Jurassic World UB coming with next Ixalan set, like Transformers with BRO.

Additional LTR holiday release coming in November

MTG Arena

• Anniversary events upcoming in September
• Better duplicate protection to be introduced in WOE
• New achievement system to be added
• SOI last remastered set "for a while", but full Khans of Tarkir set to be added by the end of the year.

2024

Release schedule

Ravnica Remastered

• Akin to Dominaria Remastered along with retro frames

Murders at Karlov Manor (Q1 standard set)

• Top down murder mystery set based in Ravnica
• Not a "normal" Ravnica set - not focused on guilds
• Focused on solving mysteries
• Comes with Ravnica: Clue Edition, a multiplayer Magic experience

Fallout UB Commander Decks

• Themes set to represent factions from the world
• Coming March 2024

Outlaws of Thunder Junction (Q2 standard set)

• Brand new plane featuring multiple villains from across the multiverse

Modern Horizons III

• Introducing double-face cards to MH in a complex drafting format
• Coming to Arena, available to draft and play at launch.

Arena additions

• Pioneer masters- Draftable set intended to make Arena "Tournament Pioneer" complete
• Integration of local FNM play into Arena (stuff like XP on your account)

Assassin's Creed UB

• Introducing "Beyond Boosters" - a new kind of booster unique to the setting, featuring new cards and reprints

Bloomburrow (Q3 standard set)

• Start of the "Dragon Storm" story arc
• No humanoids. Only anthropomorphized animals (mice, rats, frogs, birds, etc) at their normal sizes - but with magic and weapons

Duskmourn: House of Horror (Q3(?) standard set)

• Top down modern (70s/80s) horror set
• Brand new world set inside one giant mansion

2025

(very loose info on sets in development)

Innistrad Remasterd

Codename Tennis

• "Death Race" set taking place across three different worlds via the Omenpaths
• Two worlds from premiere sets with no "return". Third world seen on cards but never visited in a premiere set

Codename Ultimate

• A return to Tarkir
• A blending of Khans of Tarkir and Dragons of Tarkir

Final Fantasy UB

• Tentpole release like LTR
• Will encompass each main FF release all the way up to FFXVI
• Will be available on Arena

General Arena plans

• Better new player experience
• Improving collectibility and personalization
• Figuring out 3+ players on Arena

Codename Volleyball

• Start of unnamed story arc (codenamed 'Metronome')
• Set in outer space as a top down "Space Opera"

Codename Wrestling

• A return to Lorwyn

2026

(extremely loose concepts. Still in vision design)

Codename Yachting

• Return to Arcavios

Codename Zipline

• "Capstone Event Set" for the previous arcs (like March of the Machine and War of the Spark)

Explanations/etymology also appreciated!

For Joe Shmoe, it means a very average or below average person. It's a derivation of the practice of using "shm-" to dismiss something (eg "Practice shmactice. We're already perfect").

And "John Smith" is meant to be the most average name or person imaginable, so they have the "most common" (citation needed) first and last name as well.