Unfinity

Unfinity

 

Trivia

 

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Unfinity
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Unfinity logo.jpg}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	An atom / Planets in eccentric orbits
Design	Mark Rosewater (lead) Chris Mooney Annie Sardelis Daniel Holt Donald Smith, Jr George Fan Matt Tabak
Development	Mark Rosewater (lead) Chris Mooney Belle Farmer JC Tao Mark Purvis Noah Millrod Robert Schuster Taymoor Rehman
Art direction	Dawn Murin
Release date	October 7, 2022
Plane	In space
Themes and mechanics	Attractions, Stickers, Tickets, Dice rolling, Outside assistance, Name and Art matters
Keywords/​ability words	Visit, Prize, Open an attraction and multiple others.
Set size	244 + 294 Eternal: 135 Acorn: 109
Expansion code	UNF / UNA
Development codename	Umbrella
Un-sets
Unsanctioned Unfinity N/A
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Alchemy: Dominaria Unfinity Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks

Unfinity is a booster-based card set for Magic: The Gathering. This is the fifth of the Un-sets and is designed to be drafted. It was released on October 7, 2022. The release of the set was originally slated for April 1, 2022, but it was delayed due to ongoing supply chain complications from challenges associated with COVID-19.

Set details

Expansion symbol

Unfinity is a top-down designed humorous set. It mixes retro-style science fiction with space circus, amusement park and carnival tropes. External contractors like Seanbaby and members of long-time Magic content creators LoadingReadyRun contributed to the creative development of the set.

Unfinity features science full-art space-themed lands: both basic lands ("space-ic lands") and the Ravnica shock lands. Each of the 30 legendary creatures has a showcase card treatment done in a retro-pop style (dubbed the "Showcase Cards of Tomorrow"). The set contains 244 regular cards (90 commons, 72 uncommons, 54 rares, 18 mythic rares, 10 basic lands), 48 sticker sheets, and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. The regular cards include the basic lands (5 "planetary" and 5 "orbital"). Alternate card frames have another card number than the original version. The showcase cards of tomorrow are #247 to #274. The borderless planeswalkers are #275-276. The borderless shock lands (box toppers) are numbered #277-286. The galaxy foil treatment is featured on versions of the cards numbered #287–537. The release card is #538. The set is only available in English.

Unfinity is priced similar to premier sets.

The set is the first Un-set to include a mix of eternal-legal cards and acorn cards. Of the 244 cards in the set, 135 cards (60 commons, 43 uncommons, 18 rares, 4 mythic rares, 10 basic lands) were eternal-legal. The change to half the set being eternal happened very late in the process and the set was not designed with the split in mind. R&D went through the existing card list to identify cards that were feasible under black-bordered rules. This, combined with the sticker sheets, resulted in some unique printing challenges. After eighteen months of legality, the impact of _____ Goblin was felt to be to the format's detriment, and as such all sticker and attraction cards were banned from the Eternal formats, for a total of 75 such cards.

Many of the eternal Unfinity cards are featured on Magic Online, but there are no current plans for the cards to be featured on MTG Arena.

Change to black border

Acorn-shaped holofoil stamp

Unlike previous Un-sets, Unfinity is black-bordered. Some of the cards have an acorn-shaped holofoil stamp to replace the significance of silver borders.

Player prejudice against silver borders was a factor in the change to black borders. According to Mark Rosewater, when silver border was originally dubbed "not for tournament play," that meant not for Vintage, Legacy, or Standard, but for every other format, especially the casual ones. Over the years, the silver border slowly shifted to end up meaning "not for any official format, casual or not," which contradicted what it was originally intended to do. Rosewater realized that many cards in the set would be perfectly fine to be played in black border Eternal sets. R&D then looked for another way to express "silver border-ness" that didn't require a silver border and turned to holofoil security stamps. What an acorn security stamp means is exactly what a silver border is used to. This is a card not meant for tournament play and should only be used in casual formats where all the players agree to its inclusion. These have been dubbed "acorn" cards. If a card has an oval security stamp (or no security stamp at lower rarities), it's legal in eternal formats (which include Commander, Legacy, and Vintage). These have been dubbed "eternal" cards. This security stamp technology allows R&D to let the two different types of cards commingle in the same set. On common and uncommons the acorn stamp is printed on the card rather than embossed.

Slightly over half the set and slightly over a quarter of the rares and mythic rares are eternal. The rest are acorn.

Expansion symbol for acorn Unfinity cards on Gatherer

When you search Gatherer for Eternal cards, they have the standard expansion symbol and code (UNF). When you search for Acorn Unfinity cards on Gatherer, they have another expansion symbol and code (UNA).

Attraction deck

Attraction card back

Unfinity introduces attractions. Attractions represent top-down tropes from carnivals, amusement parks, and circuses (e.g. rides, games, and stands). Attractions are kept in a separate deck, much like Contraptions, and they don't have normal Magic card backs. The card backs welcome you to the "Astrotorium" and provide the rules for building an attraction deck.

Attractions are artifacts, but they don't have a mana cost. To get them from your Attraction deck to the battlefield, you'll need to open an attraction. When told to open an Attraction, put the top card of your Attraction deck onto the battlefield face up under your control. Each Attraction has attraction lights numbered 1–6 to the right of text box. Different variants of the same Attraction may have different lights lit up. The number 1 will never be lit up, and the number 6 will always be lit up.

At the beginning of your main phase, you roll a six-sided die. When the lit-up number is rolled, you visit the attraction, and that attraction's visit ability is triggered.

Marketing

Collector booster

Unfinity is available in Draft Boosters, Draft Packs, and - for the first time for an Un-set - Collector Boosters. The set is only available in English.

Draft Boosters contain 14 playing cards, 1 sticker sheet and a marketing card. One of the playing cards is a land and two cards are Attractions.

The Collector Boosters are 100% foil. Twelve out of fifteen of the cards are traditional foil, and three have "galaxy foil" (which looks like stars in space and is somewhat glittery).

There is a land slot in every Draft Booster and two in every Collector Booster (one in each type of foil). That land slot has the planetary basic lands, the orbital basic lands, or the borderless shocklands. This means every Unfinity draft booster has one land in it and every collector booster has two lands in it, one in each foil treatment. In addition, the ten Traditional Foil Shocklands are included as box topper in Draft Booster Displays and Collector Booster.

The List for Unfinity consists of 60 cards of past Un-sets.

Promotional cards

• Launch promo: Water Gun Balloon Game
• Draft Weekend (October 28–30): Richard Garfield, Ph.D.

Tokens

Ticket counter marker

Unfinity features 13 tokens and 1 marker.

1. 2/2 Cat creature with flying, created by Katerina of Myra’s Marvels.
2. 1/1 Clown Robot artifact creature, created by Assembled Ensemble, Circuits Act, Clown Car, Clown Extruder, Clowning Around, Complaints Clerk, and Pietra, Crafter of Clowns.
3. 1/1 Clown Robot artifact creature.
4. 4/4 Octopus creature with "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may fold this token in half." called Contortionist, created by Octo Opus.
5. 1/2 Bird creature with flying called Storm Crow, created by Attempted Murder.
6. 2/2 Zombie Employee creature, created by Night Shift of the Living Dead.
7. 1/1 Balloon creature with flying, created by Balloon Stand, Gift Shop, Memory Test and The Superlatorium.
8. 1/1 Squirrel creature, created by Comet, Stellar Pup, Mistakes Were Made, Squirrel Squatters and Squirrel Stack.
9. Pink 2/2 Teddy Bear creature, created by Dart Throw, Gift Shop and Push Your Luck.
10. Food artifact, created by Concession Stand, Gift Shop and Questionable Cuisine.
11. Food artifact.
12. Treasure artifact, created by Centrifuge, Done for the Day, Exit Through the Grift Shop, Goblin Airbrusher, Ignacio of Myra’s Marvels, Meet and Greet “Sisay”, and Pick-a-Beeble.
13. Treasure artifact,
14. Ticket Bucket-Bot marker.

Storyline

The storyline centers on "Myra the Magnificent's Intergalactic Astrotorium of Fun", a space carnival that travels the galaxy. The whole park is a series of interconnected flying spaceships that can move from planet to planet. The employees of the park are Goblins, Elves, Vampires, and Zombies.

Themes and mechanics

Sticker sheet

Attraction with attraction lights

The set features a circus, amusement park, carnival, and game show tropes. For science fiction, the set has robots, aliens, spaceships, and technology. Magic itself is the main motif for the Astrotorium, allowing for many references to the game itself.

The set is full of cards caring about names, art, and wordplay. Multiple cards care about Hats. A hat is defined as a garment worn on the head that's not part of another garment. Anything that cares about the text or other features of a card uses the actual card you're playing with to determine that information.

Die-rolling is a returning mechanic, as well as Outside assistance. Partner appears on one cycle of cards. Other returning un-features are dexterity cards and a card with a subgame.

Unfinity introduces stickers for names, art, abilities and stats, allowing players to create new cards. There are 48 sticker sheets. You can only put a sticker on the cards you own. The glue is like a "Post-it" note glue so it won’t damage the card and is reusable.

Tickets are a new resource counter. To use ability- and power/toughness stickers you need to pay a ticket cost.

There are two new mechanics related to Attractions:

• Visit — at the beginning of your first main phase on each of your turns, you roll to visit your Attractions by rolling a six-sided die. If the result is lit up on an Attraction you control, you visit that Attraction, causing that Attraction's visit ability to trigger. Some Visit abilities create minigames that provide prizes.
• Open an attraction — when told to open an Attraction, put the top card of your Attraction deck onto the battlefield face up under your control.

One-off mechanics

Unfinity also has several one-off mechanics.

• Alpha strike — grants a creature first strike if it's alphabetically ahead of the creature(s) it's fighting in combat.
• Alliterative — a card name is alliterative when two or more capitalized words in its name begin with the same letter.
• Best in show — Copies spells and then targets that same creature
• Gear up — roll two six-sided dice. For each Magic-branded Item you’re wearing, roll an additional six-sided die. Choose two of those results.
• Gobble — take a bite of food or sacrifice a food token.
• Jump — flipping a card over other cards to gain a bonus.
• Jump in a log — Creatures in a log together can’t be blocked unless they’re all blocked. If a spell or ability you control targets one of them, it targets all of them.
• Just a second — As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't move cards on the battlefield. Previously seen in Unstable.
• Parade! — organize your creatures into an ordered list. They gain an increasing bonus.
• Rangeling — grants a card all land types.
• Sticker kicker — you may pay an additional as you cast a creature spell. If you do, you get [ticket], then you may put a sticker on it.
• Space sculptor — divides the battlefield into separate sectors.

Returning nonevergreen/nondeciduous mechanics

Mechanic	Card(s)	Sticker #	Card legality
Adventure	Omniclown Colossus		Acorn
Affinity	Omniclown Colossus		Acorn
Afflict		23	Eternal
Battle cry		29	Eternal
Bolster		13	Eternal
Bushido		9	Eternal
Exalted		4	Eternal
Hellbent		43	Eternal
Heroic		42	Eternal
Horsemanship	Merry-Go-Round		Eternal
Infect		8	Eternal
Landfall		48	Eternal
Magecraft		26	Eternal
Metalcraft		40	Eternal
Mentor		17	Eternal
Morbid		31	Eternal
Monstrosity		20	Eternal
Outlast		21	Eternal
Partner	Myra's Marvels cycle		Acorn
Persist		3	Eternal
Proliferate		7	Eternal
Provoke		37	Eternal
Shadow		4	Eternal
Skulk		29	Eternal
Threshold		44	Eternal
Undying		18	Eternal

Card types

Creature types

• New acorn card types are: Porcupine and Sketch
• New eternal card types are: Alien, Balloon, Child , Clown, Employee, Gamer, Guest, Performer.
  • Robot is simultaneously featured as a new eternal type in Unfinity and in Warhammer 40K.

Other types

• Attraction is a new artifact type.
• Comet is a new planeswalker type.

Counter types

The set introduces Hack counters, Midway counters, Pause counters, and Ticket counters. It also saw the return of Luck counters and Page counters.

Draft archetypes

The main draft archetypes are the ten two-color pairs.

• : Names/"Name Sticker Matter" Evasion
• : Precision Die-Rolling Control
• : High-Roll Build-Up
• : Mass Die-Rolling Midrange
• : “Ability Stickers Matter” Go Tall
• : “Hats Matter” Recursion
• : “Art Stickers Matter” Tempo
• : Attraction Attrition
• : Clown Robots Aggro
• : “Power/Toughness Stickers Matter” Ramp

Cycles

Cycle name
Myra's Marvels	Katerina of Myra's Marvels (Name)	Fluros of Myra's Marvels (Power/Toughness; Loyalty)	Nocturno of Myra's Marvels (Rules Text)	Ignacio of Myra's Marvels (Art)	Hardy of Myra's Marvels (Flavor Text)
	Five rare Legendary creatures with partner that cost 2MM. They make the owner choose a certain characteristic when they enter the battlefield, and they provide a bonus whenever the owner casts a spell with the chosen characteristic.
Fill in the blank uncommons	Knight in ______ Armor	Make a _____ Splash	Last Voyage of the _____	_____ Balls of Fire	Fight the _____ Fight
	Five uncommon permanents with _____ in their name, which can be filled with a name sticker when they enter the battlefield and that can get stronger with more name stickers. There is a sixth card printed at uncommon, _____ _____ Rocketship.
Uncommon attraction openers	Complaints Clerk	Monitor Monitor	Discourtesy Clerk	Goblin Blastronauts	Squirrel Squatters
	Five uncommon creatures that open an attraction when they enter the battlefield and have an additional effect benefitting from attractions or rolling dice.
Fill in the blank creatures	______ Bird Gets the Worm	Wizards of the _____	Wolf in _____ Clothing	_____ Goblin	_____-o-saurus
	Five common creatures with _____ in their name, which can be filled with a name sticker when they enter the battlefield and give an effect depending on the number of unique vowels in that sticker.
"I spy" commons	Now You See Me . . . (Mirrors)	Super-Duper Lost (Doors)	Questionable Cuisine (Trash)	Amped Up (Electrical sockets)	Mistakes Were Made (Fire extinguishers)
	Five common spells which scale according to the number of a certain object you can see from your seat.
Common attraction openers	Ride Guide	Seasoned Buttoneer	Deadbeat Attendant	Rad Rascal	Petting Zookeeper
	Five common creatures that open an attraction when they enter the battlefield.
Common Sticker-ers	Aerialephant (Flying)	Glitterflitter (Flying)	Carnival Carnivore (Deathtouch)	Minotaur de Force (Haste)	Chicken Troupe (Ward)
	Five common creatures that each give you a ticket and allows you to place a sticker on a nonland permanent when they enter the battlefield. They also each have an evergreen keyword ability.
Stickered payoffs	Sanguine Sipper (Lifelink)	Croakid Amphibonaut (Flying)	Scared Stiff (Menace)	Big Winner (Trample)	Grabby Tabby (Vigilance)
	Five common creatures that gain an evergreen keyword ability while you control a stickered permanent.

Cycle name
Rare dual-colored legendary creatures	Claire D’Loon, Joy Sculptor	Truss, Chief Engineer	Magar of the Magic Strings	Meet and Greet “Sisay”	Lila, Hospitality Hostess	Grand Marshal Macie	Myra the Magnificent	The Most Dangerous Gamer	Captain Rex Nebula	It Came from Planet Glurg
	Ten rare- and mythic-rare dual-colored legendary creatures.
Gold signposts	Angelic Harold	Dee Kay, Finder of the Lost	Monoxa, Midway Manager	The Space Family Goblinson	Tusk and Whiskers	“Brims” Barone, Midway Mobster	Roxi, Publicist to the Stars	Spinnerette, Arachnobat	Pietra, Crafter of Clowns	Ambassador Blorpityblorpboop
	Ten uncommon dual-colored spells, each a signpost for a draft archetype.
Shock lands (box toppers)	Hallowed Fountain	Watery Grave	Blood Crypt	Stomping Ground	Temple Garden	Godless Shrine	Steam Vents	Overgrown Tomb	Sacred Foundry	Breeding Pool
	Each of these rare nonbasic dual lands has two basic land types and enters the battlefield tapped unless its controller pays 2 life.

Variant cards

34 cards (all being Attractions) in Unfinity are printed with multiple variants. Each variant differs in the position of the attraction lights, with common and uncommon Attractions having enough variants to satisfy the full set of light combinations; the rare ones do not but have been balanced to be number-neutral overall. Any with flavor text will have a unique one per combination, and some also differ in their rules text. However, all versions have the same collector number. The rarity of all the variations of a particular card adds up to the regularly listed rarity.

Card	Rarity	# variants	Differences in
Balloon Stand	Uncommon	4	Flavor text
Bounce Chamber	Uncommon	4	Flavor text
Bumper Cars	Uncommon	6	Flavor text
Centrifuge	Rare	2	Flavor text
Clown Extruder	Common	4	Flavor text
Concession Stand	Uncommon	4	Flavor text
Costume Shop	Common	6	Flavor text
Cover the Spot	Common	4
Dart Throw	Common	4
Drop Tower	Common	6	Flavor text
Foam Weapons Kiosk	Common	4	Flavor text
Fortune Teller	Common	6	Flavor text
Gallery of Legends	Rare	2
Gift Shop	Rare	2
Guess Your Fate	Uncommon	4
Hall of Mirrors	Rare	2	Flavor text
Haunted House	Rare	2	Flavor text
Information Booth	Uncommon	4	Flavor text
Kiddie Coaster	Common	6	Flavor text
Log Flume	Rare	2	Flavor text
Memory Test	Rare	2
Merry-Go-Round	Rare	2	Flavor text
Pick-a-Beeble	Common	6
Push Your Luck	Rare	2
Roller Coaster	Uncommon	4	Flavor text
Scavenger Hunt	Uncommon	6	Rules text
Spinny Ride	Common	6	Flavor text
Squirrel Stack	Uncommon	6
Storybook Ride	Rare	2	Flavor text
The Superlatorium	Uncommon	6	Rules text
Swinging Ship	Rare	2	Flavor text
Trash Bin	Uncommon	4	Flavor text
Trivia Contest	Uncommon	6	Rules text
Tunnel of Love	Rare	2

Notable cards

• _____ Goblin, immature name jokes aside, is notable due to being a ritual on a highly supported creature type. The unique result being competitive forced it to be ported onto Magic Online as "Name Sticker" Goblin, alongside a revamped template using dice rolling and a card limit. The oversight in such a card's competitive viability was among the regrets of Mark Rosewater for Unfinity. R&D later banned all sticker and attraction cards from the format as forcing all players to engage with the mechanics was seen as not worth the frustration.

Misprints

Myra the Magnificent printed with both the acorn and oval security stamps. The card is eternal-legal.

• Two sticker sheets (Happy Dead Squirrel and Unglued Pea-Brained Dinosaur) produce instead of .
• The word "token" was omitted from Animate Object's rules text.
• In part due to the late decision to make some Unfinity cards eternal-legal, a number of cards were printed and shipped with incorrect holofoil stamps. Some cards that were intended to be eternal-legal were printed with the acorn stamp while others that used acorn mechanics were printed with the eternal-legal oval stamp. Under Un-set rules, the status of individual printings cards mattered and the holofoil stamp issue varied on a card-by-card basis, leaving players confused about the status of their cards.

Reception

Unfinity was the best-selling Un-set by a significant margin, and it was getting more play in casual formats than previous Un-sets. However, its response was more polarizing than Unstable:

• The logistical issues of Stickers got in the way of experience of the mechanic.
• Making half the set Eternal-legal was a huge boon to sales, but caused a lot of controversy.
• Players really preferred the silver border.
• The set had too much going on, making it mentally harder to track than was ideal.

The banning of all sticker and attraction cards from Eternal formats led some people to classify Unfinity as a "failed experiment". Although he refuted that, Mark Rosewater admitted that he future of Un-sets was questionable, because they had to compete against better selling products, especially with Universes Beyond products in the mix.

External links

• Mark Rosewater and Jess Dunks (October 7, 2022). "Unfinity Release Notes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Mark Rosewater (October 3, 2022). "The Unfinity Gauntlet, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Mark Rosewater (October 10, 2022). "The Unfinity Gauntlet, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Mark Rosewater (October 17, 2022). "The Unfinity Gauntlet, Part 3". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Mark Rosewater (October 24, 2022). "Odds & Ends: Unfinity". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Mark Rosewater (July 31, 2023). "State of Design 2023". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.