Dominaria United is the ninety-third Magic expansion. It was released on September 9, 2022, and kicked off the 30th-anniversary celebration of the game.[3][4][5][6][7]
Public domain name registries connected to this name were filed by a subsidiary registrar in January 2021.[8] A further registration with the gg domain was filed by Wizards of the Coast itself in May 2021.[9]
Dominaria United contains 281 cards (101 commons, 80 uncommons, 60 rares, 20 mythic rares, 20 basic lands), and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. Set, Draft and Collector Boosters contain a legendary card in each booster, showing off a cast of beloved legends and characters that longtime fans will recognize. There are more than 40 legendary creatures across the set. The regular cards include 5 full-art "stained-glass" basic lands by Magali Villeneuve (#277-281).[10] The other cycles of basics depict automaton relics of the Brothers' War, Phyrexian ruins, and legendary artifacts respectively.[11]
Stained Glass showcase treatment.
Alternate card frames have a different card number than the original version. The Standard legal Jumpstart rares are #282-286, "Stained Glass" Legends are #287-327, and "textured foil" Legends are #328-368. Phyrexian cards are #369-371, borderlessplaneswalkers are numbered #372-376, while the borderless pain lands are #377-382. Extended artwork cards are numbered #383-427. The Buy-a-Box card is #428 and the Bundle promo is #429. The dark frame treatment cards from the Universal promo pack are numbered #430-434. The "Concept Praetor" art of Sheoldred, released with Phyrexia: All Will Be One, is #435.[12]
Dominaria United pays homage to the Invasion block in a similar way that the 2018 Dominaria set paid homage to Alpha and other early Magic editions.[13][14]
Storyline
We return once again to Dominaria, meeting some familiar heroes and villains.[15] The story begins following Karn as he looks back on Dominaria's past to prepare for its future. The enemy is already on Dominaria, and it's only a matter of time before conflict breaks out. This kicks off the epic Phyrexian story arc spanning four sets where the fate of Dominaria — and the Multiverse — is set to unravel.[5]
The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in Dominaria United are:
With the release of Dominaria United, 75 cards were rotated into The List, many of which were thematically or mechanically linked to the set. The List-cards can be found in the Set Boosters.
Jumpstart
With this set, Wizards introduces set-related Jumpstart Boosters, replacing the Theme Boosters.[5]Jumpstart packs for Dominaria United feature cards from the set, including a rare or mythic rare, two foil basic lands, and a mechanically unique rare designed for the Jumpstart pack. There are 10 different themes.[17]
In selected collector boosters, an original card from Legends, found in an old warehouse, was included.[19][16][18] These "Lost Legends" appear in 3% of boosters, and not every card from Legends was included. Some cards were missing because of the well-known Legendscollation problems, some because Wizards of the Coast doesn't want to be associated with a certain artist anymore, and some because the depictions or flavor texts are nowadays considered to be culturally offensive. Because original cards are used, their distribution doesn't violate the Reserved List.
Dominaria United has 26 tokens and emblems. Due to the inclusion of Box-Toppers and other cards corresponding to the Dominaria United Commander expansion, there are tokens with the Dominaria United Commander expansion symbol and code included in this list:[23]
The set introduces the Powerstoneartifact type. Powerstone appears on predefined tokens with the ability “: Add . This mana can't be spent to cast a nonartifact spell.” Only seen on one card (and on one Commander card), this is a "throw-forward" to The Brothers' War.[14]
With a heavy Multicolored theme inspired by Invasion block's design and supported by exclusively off-color Kicker costs and Domain, Dominaria United supports a large variety of multicolored decks in Limited - ranging from two colors to five colors - with the default being two colors with a splash.[14] This obligated strong monocolored themes as a base to facilitate the diverse combinatorics of the colors and their respective strategies, which are as follows,
In combination, they form Dominaria United's fundamental limited archetypes in each color pair, which can be expanded upon with more colors and splashes:[14]
Five rare Phyrexian creatures that simulate Phyrexian mana by allowing you to pay 2 life in place of one colored mana whenever you cast a spell. Each gives you an additional benefit whenever you cast a permanent spell of its color.
Ten uncommon dual-colored legendarycreatures that cost 2 mana of one color (as noted) and only 1 of another, each an additional signpost for a draft archetype.
Ten common dual lands that have the corresponding basic land types and enter the battlefield tapped, surprisingly never done before. They allude to the original dual lands from Alpha.