War of the Spark

War of the Spark

 

Event

 

Card comparisons

 

Mythic Edition

 

Planeswalker decks

 

Trivia

 

War of the Spark
[[File:{{#setmainimage:WAR logo.png}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	Bolas's horns over the planeswalker symbol
Design	Mark Rosewater (lead) Peter Lee Dave Humpherys James Wyatt Jackie Lee Ken Nagle
Development	Dave Humpherys (lead) Ian Duke Andrew Brown Ken Nagle Jules Robins Yoni Skolnik Gavin Verhey
Art direction	Dawn Murin Taylor Ingvarsson
Release date	May 3, 2019
Plane	Ravnica Meditation Plane
Themes and mechanics	Planeswalkers, colored artifacts, hybrid mana, Vehicles
Keywords/​ability words	Amass, Proliferate, Affinity for artifacts, Crew
Set size	264 cards (101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares, 15 basic lands) +10 Planeswalker deck exclusives +1 Buy-a-Box promo
Expansion code	WAR
Development codename	Milk
Core Set 2020 Standard
Guilds of Ravnica Ravnica Allegiance War of the Spark
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
War of the Spark Mythic Edition War of the Spark Modern Horizons

War of the Spark is the 81st Magic expansion. It was released on May 3, 2019. Officially, it is not part of a block. However, it is part of a series of three consecutive sets on the same world, unofficially referred to as the Guilds of Ravnica block. It covers the event of the same name.

Set details

War of the Spark contains 264 cards (15 basic lands, 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares), and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all these cards. Ten additional cards are found in the set's planeswalker decks (2 mythic planeswalkers, 2 rares, 2 uncommons, 2 commons, and 2 common Guildgates). These are numbered #265/264 to #274/264. A unique Buy-a-Box promotional card numbered #275/264 is also considered to be part of the set. While all previous sets on Ravnica focused on the ten Ravnican guilds, this set focuses on the culmination of the Bolas Arc simply using the world as a backdrop. Mark Rosewater calls it an "event set", meaning it is built around an event rather than the plane. As a special feature, the set features a total of 36 planeswalkers cards (39 including the Buy-a-Box promo + 2 in the planeswalker decks. Each booster pack contains a planeswalker card, and all planeswalkers are new cards (no reprints).

The set is accompanied by the first major paper Magic novel after an eight-year break.

Storyline

War of the Spark key art

“

Be there when it ends.

”

The storyline and set revolves around the fight between the Gatewatch and Nicol Bolas. The fight turns into an all-out planeswalker war. Dozens of powerful planeswalkers, from many disparate realities, unite against the elder dragon, who has claimed dominion over Ravnica and is perilously close to completing the Elderspell that harvests sparks and will grant him "ultimate power" and godhood. As they fight alongside the Gatewatch—led by Chandra Nalaar, Jace Beleren, and Gideon Jura—against Bolas and his relentless army of Eternals, nothing less than the fate of the multiverse is at stake. Little do the Gatewatch suspect that Bolas has not only accounted for their interference, but he is practically relying on it.

The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in War of the Spark are:

• Act 1: Ignite the Beacon, No Escape, Emergence Zone, Dreadhorde Invasion, Ravnica at War and God-Pharaoh's Statue
• Act 2: Pledge of Unity, Rally of Wings, Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi, Topple the Statue, Enter the God-Eternals, Spark Harvest, The Elderspell, and Deliver Unto Evil
• Act 3: Storm the Citadel, Divine Arrow, Unlikely Aid (WAR), Tyrant's Scorn, Command the Dreadhorde, Price of Betrayal, Gideon's Sacrifice, Heartwarming Redemption, Niv-Mizzet Reborn, Despark, Prison Realm, Oath of Kaya, and Planewide Celebration

Magic Story

In addition to the novel and its sequel (both by Greg Weisman) and the prequel by Django Wexler, part of the story appeared in six Magic Story chapters written by Greg Weisman. Like the books, these were published after the set had been released.

Title	Author	Release Date	Setting	Featuring
War of the Spark: Ravnica—Old Friends and New	Greg Weisman	2019-05-08	Ravnica	Rat, Hekara, Teyo, Barrez, Nicol Bolas, the Gatewatch (Liliana, Chandra, Teferi, Jace, Gideon and Ajani), Ral, Kaya, Lavinia, Jaya, Karn
War of the Spark: Ravnica—The Path to Opulent	Greg Weisman	2019-05-15	Ravnica	Rat, Teyo, Kaya, Ral, Jaya, Gideon, Krumnen, Gan Shokta, Domri, Akamal Cray, Govan Radley, Sheeza, Jahdeera, Bombop, Vorel, Maree, Kiora, Samut, Eknet, Temmet, Neit, Haqikah, Kawit, Huatli, Saheeli, Kasmina, Oketra, Kefnet, Bontu, Rhonas, Jace
War of the Spark: Ravnica—Rallying the Reluctant	Greg Weisman	2019-05-22	Ravnica	Rat, Jace, Kaya, Teyo, Blaise, Teysa Karlov, Armin Morov, Slavomir Zoltan, Maladola, Bilagru, Domri (mentioned), Ral, Maree, Aurelia, Niv-Mizzet (mentioned), Gideon, Isperia, Yanggu, Mowu, Dack, Saheeli, Nixilis, Davriel, Angrath, Huatli, Samut, Vorel, Vivien, Lavinia, Ajani
War of the Spark: Ravnica—Desperate Operatives	Greg Weisman	2019-05-29	Ravnica	Rat, Kaya, Teyo, Nissa, Rhonas, Boruvo, Emmara Tandris, Trostani, Gan Shokta, Borborygmos, Ari Shokta, Ral, Storrev, Azdomas, Izoni, Varolz, Cevraya, Mazirek (mentioned), Vraska, Ajani, Khazi, Yanling, Yanggu, Mowu, Huatli
War of the Spark: Ravnica—Operation Desperation	Greg Weisman	2019-06-05	Ravnica	Rat, Teyo, Kaya, Ral, Vraska, Whipsaw, Exava, Rakdos, Tomik Vrona, Hekara, Varryvort, Nissa, Lavinia, Borborygmos, Gan Shokta, Ari Shokta, Emmara Tandris, Boruvo, Vannifar, Vorel, Aurelia, Lazav, Kefnet, Niv-Mizzet
War of the Spark: Ravnica—Ashes	Greg Weisman	2019-06-12	Ravnica	Rat, the Gatewatch, Nissa, Tomik Vrona, Lavinia, Ral, Isperia, Dack, Saheeli, Kaya, Hekara, Vraska, Nicol Bolas, Borborygmos, Vorel, Karn, Jaya, Boruvo, Ari Shokta, Gan Shokta, Sorin, Nahiri, Teyo, Arlinn, Bilagru, Feather, Maladola, Rakdos, Oketra, Bontu, Niv-Mizzet, Angrath, Yanling, Yanggu, Mowu, Samut, Aurelia, Exava, Lazav

Basic land panorama

The following basic lands form a panorama in that order: Mountain (#261), Plains (#252), Swamp (#258), Island (#254), and Forest (#264).

Marketing

War of the Spark "movie-style" poster

War of the Spark is sold in regular 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card and another one being a planeswalker), single color theme boosters, two planeswalker decks, and the War of the Spark bundle. The planeswalker theme of the set was revealed in a teaser that featured the art of the 36 planeswalker cards with an added stained-glass effect. The boosters feature art from Liliana and Gideon (both from the set's key art), and from Teferi, Time Raveler.

Each paper booster pack contains a planeswalker. This doesn't apply to 8-card "Arena packs" on MTGA.

Preview season told a story in "scenes". All cards previewed on a single day had a connection to a story point, an event, or a key location in roughly chronological order.

Events

• War of the Spark came online on MTG Arena on April 25, two days before prerelease.
• Prerelease took place on April 27–28, 2019, the same weekend as London MagicFest and the second Mythic Championship of the year. In fact, the MagicFest at a late date was revealed to be a "Prerelease grand prix".
• The Magic League was omitted from War of the Spark and all seasons for the foreseeable future, according to WPN because it demanded a lot of resources from stores and Tournament Organizers (TOs) and did little to drive play.
• Magic Weekend is an experimental one-off format, with special rules curated by Magic’s design studio.

Promotional cards

• Magic Open House: full-art Liliana's Triumph
• Prerelease: a foil stamped card that can be any rare or mythic, and a foil stamped planeswalker
• Draft Weekend Launch promo: alternate art Bolas's Citadel
• Buy-a-Box: Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
• FNM promos: Augur of Bolas, Paradise Druid and Dovin's Veto
• Planeswalker Weekend: alternate art Karn's Bastion and full-art Time Wipe

Japanese alternate art

Japanese alternate art promo

All 36 planeswalker have a 50% chance that the regular artwork of the planeswalker card will be replaced by an anime-style alternate art card in Japanese-language War of the Spark boosters only. The Japanese boosters were made available to retailers around the world.

These cards were also available in WPN promo packs during the Core Set 2020 play season, appearing in roughly 1:4 of packs. The alternate-art planeswalkers have only been printed in Japanese, but will appear in promo packs around the world.

Tokens and emblems

The sixteenth card in the boosters is a token creature card or an emblem, with advertisements on the back side. There are a total of nineteen tokens and emblems:

1. 2/2 Spirit creature for Ugin, the Ineffable
2. 4/4 Angel creature with flying and vigilance for Finale of Glory and Parhelion II
3. 2/2 Soldier creature with vigilance for Finale of Glory
4. 0/3 Wall creature with defender for Teyo, the Shieldmage
5. 2/2 Wizard creature for Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
6. 1/1 Assassin creature with deathtouch and "Whenever this creature deals damage to a planeswalker, destroy that planeswalker" for Vraska, Swarm's Eminence
7. 2/2 Zombie creature for Liliana, Dreadhorde General
8. 0/0 Zombie Army creature (1 of 3) for each spell with amass
9. 0/0 Zombie Army creature (2 of 3)
10. 0/0 Zombie Army creature (3 of 3)
11. 4/4 Zombie Warrior creature with vigilance for God-Eternal Oketra
12. 1/1 Devil creature with "When this creature dies, it deals 1 damage to any target" for Tibalt, Rakish Instigator
13. 4/4 Dragon creature with flying for Sarkhan the Masterless
14. 1/1 Goblin creature for Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
15. 2/2 Wolf creature for Arlinn, Voice of the Pack
16. 2/2 Citizen creature that is all colors for Planewide Celebration
17. 3/3 legendary Wolf creature named Voja, Friend to Elves for Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
18. 1/1 Servo artifact creature for Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
19. Emblem for Nissa, Who Shakes the World

Mythic Edition

War of the Spark Mythic Edition is a special draft-sized booster box. It contains eight masterpieces.

Themes and mechanics

Commence the Endgame

The main theme of the set is planeswalkers and cards that interact with them. Apart from the usual mythic rare planeswalkers, the set also features rare and uncommon planeswalkers. All of the thirty-six planeswalkers in the main set have a static or triggered ability. The 20 uncommon ones have an additional minus loyalty ability (no plus abilities). The 13 rares have additional plus and minus loyalty abilities. The 4 mythic rares have three additional abilities. The four mythic rare planeswalkers are the two main protagonists of the story (Liliana and Gideon), the main antagonist (Bolas), and a secondary antagonist (Tezzeret). Some two-color planeswalkers show up as monocolor planeswalkers in their base color. Every planeswalker has a least one signature card that represents a spell they would cast. They're all named with the possessive, except for Jiang Yanggu, whose signature spell is his companion Mowu, Loyal Companion.

The keyword action Proliferate from the Scars of Mirrodin block sees a return. When a player proliferates, he or she chooses any number of players and/or permanents with a counter on them, then puts another of those counters on these players or permanents. However, a rules change has been implemented. Formerly, you had to choose a type of counter already present and added one counter of that type, now you are adding one counter of each type already present.

A new mechanic is Amass. "Amass N" means put N +1/+1 counters on an Army creature you control. If you don't control one, create a 0/0 black Zombie Army creature token first. It appears in because it is flavorfully connected to Bolas's army.

Crew returns, on the first-ever colored Vehicles.

Affinity for artifacts, last seen in the Mirrodin block, appears as a one-off on Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge. It reduces the mana cost of a spell by the number of artifacts that player controls.

There is a small tribal theme for zombies. Some notable creature cards give bonuses to zombie tokens, depicted as members of the Dreadhorde.(Eternal Skylord, Vizier of the Scorpion, Dreadhorde Twins and Gleaming Overseer).

War of the Spark features the following limited archetypes:

• : Stall and evasion (Dovin's Veto, Elite Guardmage)
• : Building up amass (Gleaming Overseer, Tyrant's Scorn)
• : Sacrifice amass (Angrath's Rampage, Mayhem Devil)
• : Power brutes (Domri's Ambush, Rubblebelt Rioters)
• : Go wide proliferate (Huatli's Raptor, Pledge of Unity)
• : Small utility creatures (Cruel Celebrant, Despark)
• : Spells-matter amass (Invade the City, Ral's Outburst)
• : Multicolor ramp (Deathsprout, Leyline Prowler)
• : Aggro tricks (Heartwarming Redemption, Tenth District Legionnaire)
• : Go tall +1/+1 counters (Merfolk Skydiver, Neoform)

Card types

War of the Spark introduces the Army creature type. The Army functions together much like how R&D makes single creature cards that are flavored as a group of beings.

The set also introduces the Davriel, Kasmina, and Teyo planeswalker types. The Wanderer lacks a planeswalker type.

Cycles

War of the Spark has eleven cycles.

Monocolored cycles

Cycle name
Uncommon planeswalkers	Teyo, the Shieldmage	Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor	Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage	Jaya, Venerated Firemage	Arlinn, Voice of the Pack
	The Wanderer	Narset, Parter of Veils	Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted	Tibalt, Rakish Instigator	Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter
	Ten monocolored uncommon planeswalkers, two for each color.
The Gatewatch	Gideon Blackblade	Jace, Wielder of Mysteries	Liliana, Dreadhorde General	Chandra, Fire Artisan	Nissa, Who Shakes the World
	Five rare and mythic planeswalkers representing the original Gatewatch members. Each one has an "ultimate" loyalty ability, or one that cannot be activated immediately.
Triumphs	Gideon's Triumph	Jace's Triumph	Liliana's Triumph	Chandra's Triumph	Nissa's Triumph
	Five uncommon spells, each enhanced if you control a planeswalker of the respective type. They each depict a member of the Gatewatch and are a direct reflection of the "Defeats" from Hour of Devastation. Each has art by Kieran Yanner, who also illustrated the Defeats.
Gods	God-Eternal Oketra	God-Eternal Kefnet	God-Eternal Bontu	Ilharg, the Raze-Boar	God-Eternal Rhonas
	Five mythic gods, four invading eternalized gods from Amonkhet and one native to Ravnica.
Finales	Finale of Glory	Finale of Revelation	Finale of Eternity	Finale of Promise	Finale of Devastation
	Five mythic monocolored sorceries, that each get a bonus effect when X ≥ 10. The names reflect the Accounting of Hours from Amonkhet.
Colored artifacts	Parhelion II	Silent Submersible	Bolas's Citadel	Mizzium Tank	Vivien's Arkbow
	Five rare colored artifacts.
Legendary natives	Tomik, Distinguished Advokist	Fblthp, the Lost	Massacre Girl	Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin	Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi
	Five rare monocolor spells that represent important figures in Ravnica: four legendary creatures, and one instant that turns a land into a legendary creature.
Bonds	Bond of Discipline (/)	Bond of Insight (/)	Bond of Revival (/)	Bond of Passion (/)	Bond of Flourishing (/)
	Five uncommon monocolored sorceries, that each represent a pairing of two guilds sharing the card's color, forming shards.

Multicolored cycles

Cycle name
Hybrid planeswalkers	Dovin, Hand of Control	Ashiok, Dream Render	Angrath, Captain of Chaos	Samut, Tyrant Smasher	Huatli, the Sun's Heart	Kaya, Bane of the Dead	Saheeli, Sublime Artificer	Vraska, Swarm's Eminence	Nahiri, Storm of Stone	Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
	Ten uncommon planeswalkers, who each have hybrid mana in their mana costs.
Gold creatures	Elite Guardmage	Gleaming Overseer	Mayhem Devil	Rubblebelt Rioters	Huatli's Raptor	Cruel Celebrant	Invade the City	Leyline Prowler	Tenth District Legionnaire	Merfolk Skydiver
	Ten uncommon gold creature spells (or in one case, a noncreature spell with amass). Each is a signpost for a draft archetype.
Gold noncreatures	Dovin's Veto	Tyrant's Scorn	Angrath's Rampage	Domri's Ambush	Pledge of Unity	Despark	Ral's Outburst	Deathsprout	Heartwarming Redemption	Neoform
	Ten uncommon gold noncreature spells, each of which is a generically powerful spell that encourages drafting in its colors.

Pairs

War of the Spark has (at least) two mirrored pairs.

Mirrored Pairs		Description
Spellgorger Weird ()	Spellkeeper Weird ()	Weirds forming a partnership.
Evolution Sage ()	Flux Channeler ()	Creatures with converted mana cost of 2M that proliferate when a certain card type is played.

Reprinted cards

• Ajani's Pridemate, first printed in Magic 2011, last seen in Challenger Decks 2019 (where it already had the War of the Spark expansion symbol).
• Augur of Bolas, first printed in Magic 2013, last seen in Modern Masters 2017.
• Chandra's Pyrohelix, first printed in Kaladesh.
• Defiant Strike, first printed in Khans of Tarkir.
• Demolish, first printed in Odyssey, last seen in Ixalan.
• Gateway Plaza, first printed in Guilds of Ravnica, last seen in Ravnica Allegiance.
• Giant Growth, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Battlebond.
• New Horizons, first printed in Ixalan.
• Primordial Wurm, first printed in Dominaria.
• Sorin's Thirst, first printed in Magic 2012, last seen in Duel Decks: Sorin vs. Tibalt.
• Totally Lost, first printed in Gatecrash, last seen in Core Set 2019.
• Two Guildgates, first printed in Gatecrash, last seen in Ravnica Allegiance.
  • Orzhov Guildgate (Planeswalker deck only)
  • Simic Guildgate (Planeswalker deck only)

Functional reprints

• Davriel's Shadowfugue is a functional reprint of Mental Agony.
• Divine Arrow is a functional reprint of Gideon's Reproach.
• Enforcer Griffin is a functional reprint of Shining Aerosaur and Skyswirl Harrier, save for creature types.
• Goblin Assailant is a functional reprint of Falkenrath Reaver, Defiant Khenra, and Swab Goblin, save for creature types.
• Ironclad Krovod is a functional reprint of Dutiful Servants, save for creature types.
• Kraul Stinger is a functional reprint of Daggerback Basilisk, save for creature types.
• Naga Eternal is a functional reprint of Coral Commando, save for creature types.
• Shriekdiver is a functional reprint of Blighted Bat, save for creature types.
• Tamiyo's Epiphany is a functional reprint of Foresee.

Notable cards

Banned and restricted cards

• Karn, the Great Creator has a one-sided Null Rod passive ability that generally only gained power with larger formats. Despite his suffocating interaction with Mycosynth Lattice that led to Lattice's banning in Modern, he was not generally damaging for formats up to Legacy. Vintage, however, is defined by its fast mana, most of it being artifact based. Karn hence was restricted in August 2019.
  • After a few years as a format mainstay in Pioneer, it was determined that Mono-Green Devotion's positioning as a big-creature deck with a slow and resilient combo kill meant that many conventional strategies were not feasible, such as midrange, other artifact combo, many types of control, and some form of fliers decks. Karn was banned as its focus point in December 2023. Explorer followed Pioneer's lead.
• Narset, Parter of Veils has a draw-restricting passive most famously seen on Leovold, Emissary of Trest, already a powerful card in Eternal formats. While she was frustrating in most formats, most decks had sufficient methods to remove Narset at a reasonable exchange. In Vintage, however, the bulk of the format required some form of additional card draw to operate, and with fast mana Narset hamstrung enough decks that she needed to be restricted in November 2019.
• Teferi, Time Raveler, unlike the other two, had play problems as a whole. The passive ability prevents an opponent from casting spells on his controller's turn. However, the wording only allows functional sorcery spells, stopping combat tricks, spells like Finale of Promise, and protective spells like Lazotep Plating, cutting out synergy decks powered by such cards like Feather, the Redeemed and Arclight Phoenix. His -3 ability rendered most non-planeswalker permanents that cost 3 or greater ineffectual, while the ability to cast a sorcery with flash punished aggressive decks greatest, given that Shatter the Sky was in Standard. All in all, Teferi pushed decks away from the middle of the curve into extreme aggressive or heavy ramp (consequently knocking out control); its only saving grace was that he kept Flash decks and Temur Wilderness Reclamation decks from overwhelming the format. Six weeks prior to rotation, Teferi was banned alongside Wilderness Reclamation as a sign that Wizards acknowledged how frustrating the two cards were. Teferi was later banned in both Historic (October 2020) and Pioneer (February 2021). With the release of Alchemy for Historic, he was rebalanced and unbanned by changing the passive to "Your opponents can't cast spells on your turn" and increasing the mana cost by .
• Dreadhorde Arcanist, like Karn and Narset, had varying impacts depending on the strength of cheap spells. It has the ability to "flash back" spells with cost less than or equal to its power, which at one power tends to be a reasonable threshold, and the 3 toughness makes it not particularly sturdy. That said, the breadth of options in Legacy makes it an engine in a format where one mana spells have high impact. It was banned in February 2021.

Preconstructed decks

War of the Spark features two planeswalker decks:

Planeswalker deck name	Colors Included					Planeswalker
Gideon	W		B			Gideon, the Oathsworn
Jace		U			G	Jace, Arcane Strategist

Stained-glass gallery

• 

  Ajani Goldmane

• 

  Angrath

• 

  Arlinn Kord

• 

  Ashiok

• 

  Chandra Nalaar

• 

  Davriel Cane

• 

  Domri Rade

• 

  Dovin Baan

• 

  Gideon Jura

• 

  Huatli

• 

  Jace Beleren

• 

  Jaya Ballard

• 

  Jiang Yanggu (and Mowu)

• 

  Karn

• 

  Kasmina

• 

  Kaya

• 

  Kiora

• 

  Liliana Vess

• 

  Nahiri

• 

  Narset

• 

  Nicol Bolas

• 

  Nissa Revane

• 

  Ob Nixilis

• 

  Ral Zarek

• 

  Saheeli Rai

• 

  Samut

• 

  Sarkhan Vol

• 

  Sorin Markov

• 

  Tamiyo

• 

  Teferi

• 

  Teyo Verada

• 

  Tibalt

• 

  Ugin

• 

  Vivien Reid

• 

  Vraska

• 

  The Wanderer

• 

  Ravnica At War

• 

  No Escape

• 

  Storm the Citadel

• 

  Commence the Endgame

• 

  Gideon's Sacrifice

External links

• Magic: The Gathering – War of the Spark Official Teaser (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube (February 15, 2019).
• War of the Spark Official Trailer – Magic: The Gathering (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube (March 31, 2019).
• Mark Rosewater (May 13, 2019). "Odds & Ends: War of the Spark". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Mark Rosewater (August 7, 2023). "Lessons Learned, Part 5". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.