Magic as we know it is about to change

The Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block in itself has changed the world of Magic for the established players. But it seems Magic has yet to have been completely changed.

Shards of Alara, the new expansion set, is going to bring in more than just a new plane we’re going to explore, but and entire train of changes with it. These changes aren’t necessarily bad though: some of them are actually awesome.

Why?

The reason for this is the fact that the TCG industry has started to bloom a while ago, which means Magic is no longer the only competitor as it was back in 1993. The main focus the creators have in mind is Assuming the Aquisition. What this means is that they want two things: to keep current players engaged and to have new players enthusiastic about the game.

All this and more is discussed in Mark Rosewater’s "The Year of Living Changerously" article, a bit more summarized on the announcement "Changes as of Shards of Alara", and even more summarized in my lines to come.

What?

Well, the first change we’ve already noticed is the Fat Pack. Personally, I loved the separators and two boxes that came with Lorwyn and Morningtide, and I really miss them. On the other hand, I love the idea of more boosters in there, even though there’s only one Fat Pack box and no separators. Another thing I’m going to miss soon are the novels coming with every Fat Pack, but there’s something in stock to replace that.

As of the expansion set codenamed “Rock”(Shards of Alara) there’s a new level or rare: Mystic Rare. There are only going to be 15 Mythic Rare cards in the Shards of Alara, and they’re going to be carefully chosen, as Mark explains. This way Magic will have a truly collectible level of Rare that everyone’s going to want.

Booster contents will also change: 1 Rare, 3 Uncommons, 10 Commons and 1 Basic Land and 1 tip card or token. 1 in 8 boosters will also have a Mythic Rare card instead of the Rare card. The reason for the Basic land is also nicely explained by Mark in his article.

The Theme Decks will change too: they’re going to be replaced by Intro Packs. Intro Packs will be smaller decks plus a booster. Marks says: “We wanted to show the new player the potential of what his or her deck could become. To do this, we felt strongly that we needed to get a booster pack into their hands. Only by ripping open a booster of random cards did we feel we could give new players the best taste of what Magic is truly about.” And right he is: I always feel warm and fuzzy inside whenever I’m about to open a new booster pack. Especially when it’s prerelease time!

The Magic publishing is also redesigned: every 6 months, starting this winter, there will be a book about a planeswalker; this autumn we’ll have “The Planeswalker’s Guide to the Shards of Alara”, a flavor book of the entire upcoming set; in the spring the block’s novel will be issued. The release dates for the novels also differ. Instead of being release along with the set, the guide will be release in September. And instead of a novel for every set, the Fat Packs will contain only an excerpt of the most recent Magic publication.

And if all that isn’t enought, the pre/release dates have been changed. The prerelease is now only a weekend before the actual release and the events (are said to) take place in even more place than before.

“Wow!”, huh?

Well, it’s not wow enough until you meet Sarkhan Vol, whom you’ll be getting to know this fall.

Frankly, I can’t wait for September to get my hands on that guide, can’t wait for October for the prerelease and… I just can’t wait for anything anymore. These teasers really tease me, now!