Magic: The Gathering reveals 2021 roadmap and recommits to Arena mobile
Deal.
Wizards of the Coast has revealed a Magic: The Gathering roadmap detailing releases through to the end of 2021.
It also recommitted to a mobile release of 'really rather good actually' online game Magic: The Gathering Arena. The plan is apparently to release it this year, a spokesperson told me, but when this year and on which mobile ecosystem they couldn't say.
As for the road ahead, the most imminent release will be new set Zendikar Rising, which arrives 17th September in Arena and 25th September for tabletop. It's based on the Zendikar set of old but has new cards in it.
Among it's more interesting ideas (some old, some new) are double-sided cards. These typically have land on one side and a spell on the other, but can only do the thing they're showing at the time. Zendikar also gives you the ability to form kinds of adventuring parties with the creatures you have in play, meaning you can group clerics, wizards, warriors and rogues together for various performance bonuses, which sounds cool. Another returning mechanic is Kicker, where you can pay extra mana for a card to do something extra. There's a rundown of all of this in a Zendikar recap and preview on the Magic site.
The new sets arriving in 2021, meanwhile, are:
- Kaldheim, a viking-themed set, in winter (early) 2021
- Strixhaven, an elite mage university with multiple houses, in spring 2021
- Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, which is Dungeons & Dragons coming to Magic, in summer 2021
- And a double-whammy Innistrad Werewolves and Vampires (hooray) release in autumn 2021
In addition, Time Spiral Remastered will arrive in the first-half of 2021, and Modern Horizons 2 in the second-half.
