One of the most explosives sets in Magic: The Gathering’s history is just around the corner and spoilers have begun to pop up. Teased a month ago via a trailer, War of the Spark sees every living, known Planeswalker being forcibly transported to Ravnica. There are a total of 36 Planeswalkers in this set – 37 if you include the Buy-a-Box promotion. Because of this, War of the Spark is quite unique and will certainly shake up quite a few formats.
Here’s everything we know about Magic: The Gathering’s War of the Spark set.
War of the Spark Release Date
For all those wanting to do battle with Nicol Bolas, War of the Spark officially releases on May 3. If you want to try this new set as soon as possible, it will be available April 25 on MTG Arena. For physical players, the War of the Spark pre-release is set to begin on April 27 and will run until April 28.
War of the Spark Trailer
Like other Magic: The Gathering sets, War of the Spark has its own trailer. However, unlike other sets, this video is completely animated and focuses less on cards getting introduced. In the video above we see Nicol Bolas’ attack on Ravnica and Liliana assuming control of the undead army that the dragon created on Amonkhet.
We get to see Liliana defy Nicol Bolas after witnessing the death of two children. This clearly reminds Liliana of her own past, causing the necromancer to turn on the dragon. We also get a brief glimpse of Gideon getting mobbed by zombies and the Planeswalker Dack Fayden being murdered. It’s unclear if Liliana dies in this set, but given she is contracted to work for Nicol Bolas, we doubt it will end well.
War of the Spark Mechanics
There are a lot of mechanics in War of Spark, as quite a few Planeswalker are tied to specific abilities. However, when it comes to sweeping mechanics throughout the entirety of the set, so far we only know of two. Additionally, War of Spark introduces Uncommon and Rare Planeswalkers which posses static traitss and only a couple of Loyalty abilities.
Below is a breakdown of each mechanic in the War of the Spark set:
Proliferate
Perhaps one of the most notorious mechanics in Magic: The Gathering, Proliferate allows players to give any number of permanents or players an additional counter. This means if a creature has two +1/+1 counters on it and you cast a special with Proliferate, it will gain an additional counter. Given this set has 37 Planeswalkers in it, the Proliferate mechanic will allow players to keep increasing their Loyalty Counters. Expect to see this ability a lot in both limited and constructed formats.
Amass
A new mechanic introduced in War of the Spark, Amass has the ability to take over entire games. When you Amass you’ll add +1/+1 counters to an Army you control. If you don’t a creature with the subtype Army, then you can create a 0/0 Zombie Army creature token first. This allows you to make a creature and let it grow as you cast more spells with this ability.
War of the Spark Spotlight Cards
Like other sets, War of the Spark features various Spotlight cards that are designed to tell the story. Typically broken up across five cards, War of the Spark changes thing up by introducing different acts. This is designed to help flesh out War of the Spark’s plot, which is going to be critical since this is a massive lore moment for Magic: The Gathering. Given there’s a chance that a lot of Planeswalkers could die, having more than five cards detailing the story is vital.
Below we have listed every Spotlight card and their corresponding acts.
War of the Spark Act 1 Spotlight Cards
Emergence Zone
Ravnica at War
No Escape
Ignite the Beacon
Dread Horde