2022 has been a busy year for magic already, packed with eight major releases by today, plus some smaller Commander sets, Secret Lairs, and assorted digital releases. The year is far from over, however, with four more major releases planned in the coming months. The full MTG 2022 release schedule is as follows:
- Innistrad: Double Feature – January 28
- Commander Collection: Black – January 28
- Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty – February 18
- Challenger decks – April 1
- Streets of New Capenna – April 29
- Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate – June 10
- Double Masters 2022 – July 8
- Dominaria United – September 9
- Unfinity – October 7
- Universes Beyond Warhammer 40k – October 7
- The Brothers War – November 18
- Jumpstart 2022 – December 2
The first few major releases have come and gone, so we will not worry about highlighting them here. Instead, let’s go over the remaining releases that we can look forward to as soon as today, September 9th, with the release of Dominaria United.
Dominaria United
We return to the original setting of the majority of Magic, which for many players feels like coming home. The set is packed with famous figures that we know and love, callbacks to legends that we’ve been playing with for years, and the daunting resurgence of evil Phyrexian forces– giving us a nostalgic villain on top of it all. We can expect great and terrible things from a plot involving these planar invaders, and this set promises to kick-off a multi-part plot involving the phyrexian forces.
Unfinity
After the grim seriousness of Dominaria United, everyone can relax in October with Unfinity. Unfinity is yet another “Un” set, a set that’s packed with jokey cards, designed to be drafted, and is highly interactive overall. In a stark difference from previous Un sets, Unfinity is going to have lots of black-bordered cards that will be entirely legal in eternal formats, like Commander and Vintage. Some of these legal cards will be packed with that same wacky flavor, even including some that will take advantage of reusable stickers. Perhaps understandably, this choice has been somewhat divisive, but the most weird or rules-manipulative cards will still be stamped with an Acorn to denote that they’re only legal for casual play (which will work the same as silver bordered cards).
Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40k
The Universes Beyond will feature four Commander decks that highlight some of the factions of 40k. These include the Tyranids, the Imperium, Chaos, and Necron. In addition, several Secret Lairs will also drop from this universe, including Age of Sigmar, Orks, and Blood Bowl. Seeing magic expanding out into other properties is always interesting, but if someone had to pick an IP that can readily fit into the aesthetics of Magic then Warhammer is an easy enough selection. As the first major Universes Beyond release, assuming everyone is giving Dungeons & Dragons a pass as a Wizards property, this will show us what we can expect from the extend magic universe.
The Brothers’ War
In November, we’re going back in time, but staying on Dominaria. We get to see one of the original conflicts that drove the Magic: The Gathering plot, when the brothers Urza and Mishra fought one another across the plane. While we don’t know what we can expect from this set yet, we know one thing is true when it comes to Urza and Mishra: they’re both artificers. Thus, we can only imagine that artifacts are going tom atter once again, potentially calling back to the kinds of “artifcats-matter” synergies that players picture with Mirrodin and friends.
Jumpstart 2022
Just in time for the winter holidays, Jumpstart is a great form of limited magic, where you draft two whole, themed boosters and smash them together. Jumpstart 2022 will replicate this process with new, flavorful packs. The majority of the packs are still a mystery, but we know that Eldrazi, Cats, and Goblins are all going to make a showing in these 20-card packs. While touted largely as a stellar “beginner” product, even veterans of the game can find the fun packed into Jumpstart, with some surprising nuance in synergies that can be found between the different packs. If you want a fun way to play some well-balanced magic, Jumpstart is practically the ideal.
