After the deluge of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Streets of New Capenna, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate and Double Masters 2022 earlier in the year, we got a bit of breather from new Magic sets releasing this year. That breather is swiftly coming to an end with Dominaria United on the horizon in September.
Let’s get back into the swing of things and prepare for the new with a look at what we already know, and look at what’s to come.
The story
During the last couple of weeks, we’ve caught up with the story of Dominaria up to this point. Dominaria United picks up with Karn looking back across that history as a new Phyrexian threat has already come to the plane. Sheoldred is looking to conquer Dominaria (as seen on the flavor text for Shivan Devastator), setting up conflict with New Phyrexia on another front.
We already know the next set will be The Brothers’ War — whether that’s simply in the form of a flashback for Karn or involving some Teferi-esque time manipulation has yet to be seen. Given that the only story-spotlight card we’ve seen previewed so far is Temporal Firestorm, I’m personally leaning toward the latter.
We also know the next two sets after The Brothers’ War are a direct continuation of this storyline thread, harkening back to the days of blocks all set on a single plane. One way or another, Dominaria United looks to have a huge impact on the overarching story of Magic going forward.
This set looks to be mostly about moving pieces into place and setting us up for the conflict to come — which means we have to meet the cast of characters we’ll be following for the story.
Legends
Rife with history, Dominaria has a comparatively huge cast of characters to draw from, relative to many other planes we’ve visited. Given this preponderance of named characters, each booster (Draft, Set and Collectible) is guaranteed to have a Legendary card in it, with more than 40 of the 281 cards in the set having the Legendary super type.
Additionally, the box toppers for the set are taking the form of Legends Retold, new versions of 20 creatures from the original Legends set. Of these new versions, we’ve seen three so far: Jasmine Boreal of the Seven; Ramirez DePietro, Pillager and and Tor Wauki the Younger.
Speaking of the Legends set, Dominaria United also contains Lost Legends. Apparently, Wizards found a bunch of Legends Booster Box forgotten in a warehouse somewhere and are taking a selection of those cards to put into approximately 3% of Collector Boosters.
Timeline
- Card Kingdom Preorder starts – Aug.10 (today!)
- Dominaria United Story: Aug. 10–18
- A Look at Dominaria’s History and Worldbuilding: Aug. 16
- Debut Video and Previews Begin with Wizards Presents: Aug. 18
- Dominaria United Card Image Gallery Complete: Aug. 26
- Dominaria United Commander Previews: Aug. 19
- Dominaria United Commander Card Image Gallery Complete: Aug. 22
- MTG Arena and Magic Online Release: Sept. 1
- Prerelease Events (including Dominaria United Jumpstart Boosters): Sept. 2–8
- Worldwide Release: Sept. 9
- Launch Weekend: Sept. 9–11
- Game Day: Sept. 17
- Commander Party Events: Sept. 30–Oct. 2
- Store Championships: Oct. 15–22
Products, promos and more
Dominaria United will feature two Commander Decks; “Painbow,” a five-color deck headed up by Jared Carthalion, and “Legends’ Legacy,” a red-white-black deck with Dihada as the commander. We don’t know much about them beyond that, yet, but they will follow the pattern of featuring two foil cards, several brand-new cards not included in the main set and plenty of reprints to round out the ready-to-play 100-card decks.
Jumpstart Boosters will also be returning in Dominaria United. Each Jumpstart booster features two foil basic lands, two rares (one exclusive to Jumpstart boosters and one from the main set) and 20 total cards. Each color has two themes available, and any two Jumpstart packs can be combined to make a playable 40-card deck.
The stained-glass Showcase treatment is returning as well, first featured on the five basic lands. Information about how to get your hands on these is forthcoming, but rest assured these will be in pretty high demand.
In addition to the Legends Retold box toppers, Llanowar Loamspeaker will also be available in alternate art as a box topper.
For Game Day, all participants (while supplies last) will receive a promo Touch the Spirit Realm. The Top 8 will receive a special Workshop Warchief and the winner will take home an alternate art Shivan Devastator!
Store Championships feature their own promos, with alternate arts for Spell Pierce (for participation while supplies last), Gilded Goose (for Top 8) and Omnath, Locus of Creation (for the winner).
End step
Card Kingdom’s preorder for Dominaria United is live today, so if you want any boosters, bundles or singles from the set, we’ve got you covered. We’ll be updating what’s available as previews get going, so check back for new cards as they get revealed.
Chris is the Associate Media Producer at Card Kingdom. He would like to apologize to his son for not holding onto more cards from when he first started playing, as that likely would have paid for college. He enjoys pretty much all formats of Magic, but usually ends up playing decks that make other people dislike playing those formats with him.