Locking in a character’s name, personality and backstory limits designers’ abilities, and not always for the better - Rosewater names only four advantages against eight challenges in his blog. He describes the marriage of mechanics, concept and artwork as an experiment that necessarily flexes and breathes throughout the process. Rosewater's recent article outlining the challenges and advantages of representing outside universes on MTG cards is fascinating in its illumination of the design process behind the simplest of cards. And even when they do, building a 100-card commander deck around them that plays well and still feels thematically resonant adds yet another layer of difficulty. Longtime head designer Mark Rosewater claims MTG’s five Mana colours doesn’t always map cleanly to characters with deep backstories and sometimes decades of established narrative. That’s a lot of multicoloured cards, already, and the official card image gallery already shows plenty more. Abaddon the Despoiler (Blue, Black and Red) will be the face of The Ruinous Powers, which will contain cards from all the disparate Choas factions, and The Swarmlord (Green, Red and Blue) leads the seemingly endless Tyrannid Swarm. The Blue, White and Black Mana-aligned Inquisitor Grefax leads the forces of the Imperium while the Black-aligned Szarekh, The Silent King haunts the host of the Necron Dynasties deck. The face cards of the two other preconstructed Commander decks were revealed, finally giving us a look at all four leaders. Liv and Wheels try their hand at Kill Team, Warhammer 40,000's smaller skirmish game - and even that is a lot for our intrepid generals. but next year will see a full set dedicated to The Lord of the Rings.
Most of these releases have taken the form of specially themed Secret Lairs - Fortnite, Arcane, The Walking Dead, etc. This set will be the first of a more robust crossover in MTG’s Universes Beyond, the imprint where characters and worlds from outside of the trading card game’s expansive universe will live without much up the narrative waters, so to speak. The last will further expand Warhammer 40,000’s grim, ornate military sci-fi world through a selection of premium cards. Publisher Wizards of the Coast announced September 12th that two other Games Workshop properties, the high fantasy Age of Sigmar and the goofy, violent sports offshoot Blood Bowl will also appear on two of the three planned Secret Lairs. Warhammer 40,000’s cardboard invasion draws near, and designers of both studios have provided details about the upcoming Magic: The Gathering crossover expansion set, which will take the form of four themed commander decks and three separate Secret Lair premium releases.
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