2024 Releases
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Aug. 12, 2023, 2:29 p.m. by Gleeock
Upcoming: 1. Ravnica Remastered
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Murders at Karlov Manor
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Fallout Commander
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Outlaws of Thunder Junction
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Modern Horizons III
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Assassin's Creed
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Bloomburrow
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Duskmourn: House of Horror
I've cooled off on the products in general... but regardless I still get excited for some products here & there.
So what sounds the best here to you? & why does it appeal?
Coward_Token says... #3
Don't really get the point of Duskmourn when Innistrad is right there. Not a fan of modern-leaning elements in general either.
August 12, 2023 2:53 p.m.
I think it is less based in TC. Monsters & Lovecraftian stuff, but yeah, I don't yet see why they couldn't just base it in a Innistrad sub-location
Excited to see what a Western set may do with Bounty tokens & bounties in general. Maybe we could finally see do something way out-there instead of sac-graveyard themes that mono could do anyway
August 12, 2023 3:50 p.m.
I'm more interested than excited.
So far, every Universe Beyond has been somewhere between "I kinda know what this is mostly about" to "I know it exists" so those don't grab me as much they might other people. Still waiting for a franchise I can actually talk about on more than a surface level.
Bloomburrow is my favorite. There's something about Fantasy Animal World that just works for me--Redwall, Root, Wanderhome, all that sort of stuff.
Thunder Junction falls squarely into the "real Earth culture world" that breaks my suspension of belief. It looks like it has a lot of potential as a fun set, but I can't get over the fiction-ness of a plane that's exactly like a place and time on Earth, but with magic. In this case, I have a personal familiarity with some of the source material, too. One detail will go a long way to redeeming it for me: Thunder Junction needs to be or have been a junction. What does it mean for an entire plane to be a junction? If it's not a junction, why is the plane called Thunder Junction?
My current working theory is that Duskmourn is an artificial plane, created for a specific purpose. There's no way a slasher house/mystery mansion just spontaneously appears, and making it an artificial plane offers some story hooks. At minimum, who made it, and why?
Reserving judgement on Karlov Manor until I know more about it. This looks looks like a story-driven set, and the preview doesn't have much.
Honestly, I'm not sure I'm going to get really hyped until the word Alara shows up.
August 12, 2023 3:54 p.m.
Also, the frontier has a way of turning classically unsavory characters into lawmen. Meaning you could flip some classically "bad" planeswalker into a hero on THIS plane
August 12, 2023 3:55 p.m.
Dangerwillrobinson79 says... #7
As a western buff, Thunder Junction has me jacked! I have always hoped for a Steven King-esque Gunslinger/Dark Tower set. This will scratch that itch.
As a Fallout junkie, I’m chomping at the bit. I’m probably going to overdo it on that set. But just this one last time and then that’s it… Ill stop and be satisfied with what I have.
August 12, 2023 4:14 p.m.
Further world building thoughts on Thunder Junction:
Let's call it a junction of omenpaths, since those are what made the set possible, per the GenCon video. That's fine. The interplanar omenpaths are a very new phenomenon, though. How long have villainous planeswalkers been going there to do whatever, and how long have non-planeswalker villains been showing up? What was going on there before the omenpaths opened, and what was it called? What did omenpaths change about the nature of the plane, so that its story couldn't have been told before?
I know that information will be limited for the next year or so, so I'll call this a list of questions that, if they get answered, will help sell me on the setting and the set.
August 12, 2023 7:31 p.m.
I am not a fan of the more modern theming in general. I thought it was pretty incongruent to the general feel of the rest of Magic's world building with Neon Dynasty, but New Capenna was a bit better. It's possible to do it well and I won't judge Thunder Junction until we know more, but in general those kinds of settings push me away from Magic rather than bringing me in closer.
I love me some Fallout, but I won't get a single card from it. Warhammer 40K is at least fantasy, even if it's space fantasy. Fallout is straight-up post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Same reason I won't be touching the Dr. Who set. Just not my jam. Also, while there is a good amount of Fallout lore in the games, it's many, many orders of magnitude less deep or rich when compared to the other franchises that are getting similar levels of product thrown at it. I could see a secret lair like the Stranger Things one for sure, but four whole commander decks with probably 160ish new cards in total? I think they're gonna be scraping the bottom of the barrel with some cards.
August 12, 2023 8:05 p.m.
DrukenReaps says... #10
Fallout Commander has my attention if I'm being honest xD I've been with that IP since it's top down days and if they do it justice, like they mostly did with Warhammer, I'll happily throw my money at it xD
August 12, 2023 8:16 p.m.
Coward_Token says... #11
Okay on the topic of Thunder Junction, a bit of an elephant in the room when it comes to a Wild West setting: The baggage of Colonialism and the genocide of the various indigenous peoples of North America.
South American-inspired Ixalan portrayed the conquistador-equivalents as literal vampires invading stand-ins for the Aztec/Inca (Sun Empire) and Maya (merfolk River Heralds), so I’m cautiously optimistic they’ll address it somehow. Maybe that’s why villains is a big theme, with all settlers being evil interplanar travelers via the omenpaths?
August 12, 2023 9:45 p.m.
Makes me wonder if the indigenous will be race-swapped then. Orcs? Elves?
I'm going to guess anyone coming in & "rattling the cages" in Thunder Junction has a chance to be a hero, westerns are pretty prone to various barons & lawmen going bad & putting a stranglehold on towns.
Dangerwillrobinson79 I would LOVE for it to be more (beginning) of The Gunslinger & less steampunky.
As far as real Earth culture, I think there are plenty of mythologies.. more tall tales of the frontier that makes the fantasy pretty easy to bring in. I hope so hard that they have art for some character that looks exactly like Clint Eastwood. They would just basically have free reign on my money if they got license to have Roland Deschain & Co. be characters, which works pretty well since those characters are already interdimensional travelers.
Maybe Pecos Bill could be a tornado-riding Djinn :)
August 12, 2023 10:16 p.m.
DrukenReaps says... #13
Coward_Token I wouldn't exactly count the Aztec or Mayan as the "good guys" given their own histories of enslaving smaller tribes and record of human sacrifice...
Reality is often much much more complicated than simple "good vs evil" can ever paint a picture of. So I'd rather they stay away from purposely painting any single group as the "bad guys" myself.
August 12, 2023 10:23 p.m.
Well the set that I'm both excited for and absolutely dreading the most is Modern Horizons 3...
Otherwise Bloomburrow really has my attention... im a sucker for that kind of theme.
August 13, 2023 12:57 a.m.
Coward_Token says... #15
DrukenReaps: the Sun Empire was portrayed as, well, imperialistic towards its neighbors, and if nothing else the River Heralds had a bad egg in Kumena. Ixalan's storyline wasn't entirely black and white. Taking things back to the real world, let's not pretend that the imperialistic practices of the civilizations those factions is as equally felt today as European colonialism, or that all vilifying depictions of ethnic groups in fiction are created equal. I’ll leave it at that.
August 13, 2023 2:59 a.m.
Coward_Token says... #16
Anyway, the LOTR Secret Lair of Sauron looks really tacky. No need to make J. R. R. Tolkien spin any more in his grave than he's already doing
Oko's back! And... Rakdos? You'd think he'd have something better to do
I like the idea of Bloomburrow, but it feels a bit redundant when it’s going to be released relatively close to sets for Eldraine and Llorwyn
Anyone remember Hostile Hostel Flip?
August 13, 2023 3:07 a.m.
Coward_Token says... #17
Oh and I'm not super keen on Cavers of Ixalan flirting with the Hollow Earth conspiracy theory.
August 13, 2023 3:34 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #18
Ok, so the UB are not my thing this time. I'm not a videogamer at all, so neither Assassin's Creed nor any of the others are up my alley, but I have to admit, I know about Sephiroth and I wanna know how they make him a card.
From the OG IPs, Bloomburrow is the one that really catches me. Many players love the darker planes, but I'm all here for sunnyfluffyhappyworld. If we get some Happy Tree Friends within that, it makes me even happier. Thunder Junction sounds interesting, especially with that "League of Super Villains" aspect. Duskmourn isn't my jam at all. I guess it will be a long year 'til fall '24. At least Eldraine and Ixalan will be there for me.
August 13, 2023 4:08 a.m.
Bloomburrow feels like somewhere Chatterfang, Squirrel General could be from.
August 13, 2023 6:23 a.m.
Coward_Token For the Hollow Earth bit, as long as all of the unsavory elements are thoroughly stripped out, it's not a bad setting. The conspiracy can get very problematic when you start digging into it, but in a vacuum and treated as just a world that happens to not be solid, I think it will work.
For me, this one isn't a full red flag yet. Maybe a yellow flag: Eyes open, proceed with care.
August 13, 2023 12:21 p.m.
Coward_Token says... #21
That's an OK stance to have, and I admit that it's less bad when our actual planet isn't actually involved. I'm still a bit uncomfortable with it being normalized.
Ayone else read Batman: Odyssey? Shit's wild.
August 13, 2023 1 p.m.
I know about 0 about Hollow Earth. But, this would be more likely about old Mayan/pre-Mayan beliefs that caves & cenote were a direct path to the underworld & home to the Gods. I think more like Atzal, Cave of Eternity Flip . Again, I know pretty much nothing about new troubling philosophies & don't care to truly discuss them... At its' face value though, the Ixalan set should be akin to going to Nyx from Theros, nothing more
August 13, 2023 3:38 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #23
I’m still just sidestepping the other-universe still altogether. I already wasn’t a fan of mechs and tommyguns in MtG... none of this is remotely appealing to me.
August 13, 2023 3:50 p.m.
Coward_Token says... #24
Gleeock: That sounds neat and will probably be part of it (the dinosaur skull guy seems likely to be some sort of death god), but a popular part of the hollow earth, especially in fiction, is that there's dinosaurs down there. (sigh)
I haven't seen it, but some of the recent Godzilla movies apparently feature it a lot?
Gleeock says... #2
I like original IP the best. I was most excited for New Capenna on the last release schedule because I love mob-themes & I love putting a color twist or design twist on something that players think has to be a certain way... Just like demons have to be black, shard/wedge-demons?... Yes!
So, with all that; I am incredibly pumped for Outlaws of Thunder Junction! I love Westerns more so much. Respect for the High-plains to mountains frontier. Railroad barrons, natives, burlesque babes with derringers, gambling, duels (hopefully there is a card type where you specifically call another player out) or more useful cards with that weird mechanic where you basically play war with another player. There should be the battle between progress & pretty much everything else. Lets see some power here :)
Duskmourn seems like something I might like as well, being a guy who likes those Vincent Price/House on Haunted Hill types of deals.
August 12, 2023 2:44 p.m.