Multiverse Set Review: CoRE SET 2020
an Elemental FlashBack
SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 - By Nicholas Fair
After the first set review for Commander 2019, I received some amazing feedback from the Magic community. Among the great tips for a better review and some fantastic fans catching a few of my mistakes, I had dozens of requests to go back and do set reviews for ones already released. Although I don’t know if I’ll ever make my way back all the way through the entire Magic catalog again, I’m happy to give it a shot! Core sets are a great place to find new planar flavour, and M20 was no exception. Wizards’ new approach to Core Sets seems to be very aggressive with new cards and new art, so this is going to be a much larger review than my Commander 2019 one- hopefully you all enjoy!
As this is only my second Multiverse Set Review, the format is still in flux, so please feel free to send me your feedback at mtgmultiverse.feedback@gmail.com. Just like last time, I’ll start off by diving into individual card evaluations and my reasons behind them, then take a peek at cool cards that don’t seem to have a home (yet). Finally I’ll then tally up the total new additions by plane that will get added to the MtG Multiverse page at large.
Cards from Known Planes
INNISTRAD
There’s more to Innistrad’s white cards than giant hats and angelic gifts, but those make for good starting places when evaluating. It’s worthy of note that this Bishop has a modified Avacyn’s Collar adorning her clothing: more of a Heron-esque variant of the classic Avacyn Symbol. This implies Sigarda has taken Avacyn’s place as the defender of humanity.
THEROS
When this art previewed, I could have sworn we were going to get a reprint of Chained to the Rocks, one of the biggest flavour home-runs of the Theros block. Even a card that evokes the same myth, if not the mechanic, is a card that lands squarely on the plane of gods and monsters.
TARKIR
One of the less obvious mechanics from the Tarkir block was the aura subtheme in Jeskai/Ojutai. As non-creature spells, they triggered prowess, and slight voltron themes gave the draft format something to do besides play dragons all day. This art evokes enough of an eastern vibe with ornamentation that matches Dragons-timeline monks that I can say it fits on Tarkir. The mechanical tie-in makes it a near certainty.
DOMINARIA
Although Ajani isn’t from Dominaria, he’s been there before. This card is named well, though: it’s a griffin with a gold mane, and doesn’t mean it has to be tied to Ajani and Alara. The spotted griffin look has been used quite a bit in Magic’s past, but mainly during the Mirage Block, where they were used to evoke the African inspiration found on Jamuraa, a location on Dominaria. Given that fairly iconic look, I’d expect this griffin to soar high above Teferi’s homeland.
INNISTRAD
The ghost of a gallows warden? Surprisingly there’s only one plane we’ve visited that uses the hangman’s noose, and it’s one that’s absolutely chock full of wispy undead with unfinished business. Looking even further, the background gothic architecture seals the deal.
IXALAN
This art premiered in the Ixalan art book (which is fantastic, for the record) so it was never a question where the dino rider was from, but rather where the art would show up. In a core set starter edition makes for a perfect home.
LORWYN
Lorwyn moreso than the mirror Shadowmoor has a lot of levity in the artwork. Home to oafish giants that dress themselves in house roofs, picket fences, and whatever else is nearby, the card art depiction of a Giant here is perfect for the plane- his forearm armor made of shields and his tunic made of patchwork clothing. Behind him is a clear “hobbit hole” looking den that is a perfect fit for the plane’s Kithkin.
THEROS
The leonin of Theros have a nomadic look and are very lion-esque in comparison to some of the cat-folk on Dominaria or Alara, a nod to their agnostic ways on a plane of visible gods. This one has a magical effect surrounding it that’s similar to other Therosian lenonin, and his flavour text could be a nod to the starlight realm of Nyx.
DOMINARIA
With the most recent visit to New Benalia in the Dominaria set, we got to see the re-imagined city take on an ‘enchanted stained glass’ motif. This captain’s spear is a perfect fit, and the background citadel is a great little artistic note to place us on Dominaria.
THEROS
The plane of Theros has a literal world of gods above in its night sky called Nyx. The plane also has a heavy Greek theme and a love of enchantments. It’d be hard to make this card more Therosian without putting the plane’s name front and center.
INNISTRAD
Although not the only plane where people watch the city walls under a full moon while dressed in vaguely medieval and germanic clothes and lots of leather shoulder pads, Innistrad has a lot of them. With no other obvious nods, this fits right at home as a watchkeep on the borders of the gothic horror world we all know and love.
DOMINARIA
I initially thought that, like most core set legends, that Atemsis was a planar orphan. The glowy-eye motif that defines her is fairly unknown, sans a commander card, and nothing else about her is obviously iconic. However, as she’s quoted in the flavour text of an obviously Dominarian ‘Captivating Gyre’ (below) that means she’s from Dominaria, too.
IXALAN
Although visually fairly different than the other merfolk of Ixalan, Brineborn Cutthroat feels like it’s obviously from the plane because of the excellent narrative in the card itself. River Heralds are notably a heavily green merfolk tribe and specifically live in inland rivers across the continent of Ixalan. They’re freshwater merfolk, and such appear like tropical fish: very colorful and vibrant. Merfolk in Ixalan’s oceans would then, naturally, appear much more like saltwater fish, lacking in the flourishes of their tropical cousins. Given that he’s a merfolk pirate and he makes a reference to Spyglasses, this feels like a great call for Ixalan and gives us a glimpse at the variety the plane can offer us. I, for one, love the idea of saltwater and freshwater merfolk coming in contrast in a new set.
MOUNTAINS AND SEAS
With M20’s focus on a non-Jace blue walker in the form of Mu Yanling, it makes sense the cards that reward you for running her are from her home plane. Celestial Messenger, for example, is a beautiful starlight crane, something unique to the birds we’ve seen and yet somehow familiar- perfect for a core set and perfect for a plane like the Plane of Mountains and Seas.
THEROS
The Tritons, as they’re known on Theros, are a very vibrant bunch, taking their colors from the Sea God Thassa. They often are as much visually red as they are blue, and although you could mistake this one for a Zendikari merfolk at first glance, their counterparts on Zendikar often much less vibrant.
MOUNTAINS AND SEAS
As a rule of thumb, if Mu Yanling and dancing Koi fish are involved on a card, it’s almost certainly from her home plane.
MOUNTAINS AND SEAS
The thing I said about Koi fish? Applies doubly so here. This card is very, very similar visually to a number of cards that we know take place on this plane.
DOMINARIA
This was a bit of a tricky card to place thanks to the history of Dominaria and Rabiah. Although the Djinni in the art appear very much like those in Arabian Nights, they’re 1:1 for the Tempest Djinn of Dominaria. Fun fact: this is because those pesky blue spirits are actually transplants from Rabiah from before the Mending, when natural portals existed between the two worlds and led to a lot of cross-pollination between them.
RAVNICA
With the Dimir Guild finally coming out of the shadows as couriers and librarians, it seems only fitting they’d have some defensive spells oriented around books. Although the art is a bit generic, the cityscape vibe and “back alley magic use” feels like the blue half of Ravnica enough to fit.
DOMINARIA
Dominaria’s last visit cemented it as the “world about history”, and in that vein it had a lot of archeologists to uncover said history. The use of magic on the otherwise fairly generic ruins means this card works well for Dominaria’s history motif.
IXALAN
Although we hadn’t seen any kind of ghostly undead in Ixalan before now, the tribal vibe of the set allowed for a more narrow creature base than we’d see in a normal set. Given that this is a pirate with a quote from the Ixlana pirate lord Beckett Brass, it means this is from Ixalan, and that Ixalan has ghosts, retroactively making Departed Deckhand fit even better! Cool.
ZENDIKAR
This card is a home-run. Why? It’s a direct reference to a known, written bit of lore, featuring a legendary creature. Having trouble? It’s General Tazri, complete with angel halo around her neck, suffering from the unmaking effects of Kozilek, the Great Distortion. The entire story, ‘The Blight We Were Born For’, can be read over at Wizards’ main page.
MOUNTAINS AND SEAS
With Yangling’s home plane being full of beautiful peacocks and other birds, it would make sense her familiars would herald from there in droves. This isn’t a “surefire” spot as it’s been seen that summons by planeswalkers can be from anywhere, but it’s a safe bet to make. The only other peacock we’ve seen is from Fiora, which this is certainly not.
ZENDIKAR
Bala Ged is a place located in Zendikar, and one of the areas that fell entirely to the Eldrazi during the Battle for Zendikar. Reduced to wastes, it is now home to the unique elemental Yarok (a new M20 legend who I discuss below). Yarok comes with a few elemental friends, who are naturally just at home on Zendikar as he is. This card is an extra great one, though, because it matches the art for Tidal Force very well, another Zendikar-aligned non-standard card.
ZENDIKAR
This card is a great example of my policy of giving cards a home if I can. Dread Presence is a Nightmare with no particular visual design that’s blatantly obvious, especially an environment that only matches a 7th edition swamp. But it has the (unnamed) landfall ability, and feels visually like it could be found on Zendikar. Without any other direction given, it finds its way over there until we discover similarities on other planes. I’ll be keeping an eye on it moving forward, though.
DOMINARIA
A great throwback worthy of the Dominaria set, this card references The Ebon Hand, something from back in the set Fallen Empires. Although the legion on Sarpadia never had any vampires in the past, it would make sense that in the thousands of years since they’d have changed up their ranks a little bit.
IXALAN
Although the original Ixalan had no zombies, the world showed us it was capable of zombification and necromancy. With the name and design of the Regisaur matching the other Ixalan Regisaurs, it’s no difficulty placing it at home on Ixalan. Though if it’s actually on the continent of Ixalan or one of the others we’ve yet to see is up for debate.
INNISTRAD
This is so Innistradi I feel like it would be a waste to write anything else about it. I discussed on the last set review for C19 about how seeing Innistrad vampires’ issues with refined society and feral predatory urges was a great thematic vein they occupy, and Savage Gorger is no exception. Plus, y’know, gothic towers in the background.
FIORA
The always brilliant Seb McKinnon has made a purely ‘abstract’ art piece for this card referencing a classical playing card, so it really doesn’t “take place” anywhere at all. However, bearing a quote from the Fiora-aligned Kethis means it follows him to that plane for sorting.
MURAGANDA
I haven’t expected a card from Muraganda in… ever, really, but Sorcerer of the Fang surprised me. There is little known about the primordial plane, but Sorcerers of the Fang (and Druids of the Fang) have been noted on the plane, and seeing a plane full of giant animals fostering giant-snake worship feels right at home.
TARKIR
When Sorin visited Tarkir back in the Khans of Tarkir storyline, we see him turn a Mardu warrior into a vampire to act as his guide. This is a neat little flavour call-back for what could otherwise have been a very bland card.
INNISTRAD
Gothic horror vampire. ‘Nuff said.
ZENDIKAR
Similar to his Wavecrasher above, Yarok has other elemental friends found in his colors (blue, black, and green). This entry shows how the fens of Zendikar have become wrought with horrors instead of elementals, and have me interested in our eventual return.
REGATHA
When Chandra first began her training, she was an acolyte at Keral Keep. Although I normally omit planeswalkers from these reviews (as, per their nature, they transcend planar boundaries), the two “baby Chandras” in M20 are both historic call-backs to specific places and times, so I’m opting to include them.
RAVNICA
Although I’m not alone in thinking this Chandra looks younger than her previous iteration, it’s an older one, and officially on Ravnica according to Wizards’.
REGATHA
Keral Keep, the very red-aligned home to Chandra, Jaya Ballard, and a number of other fire mages, would obviously showcase the killing of a hellion (a mono-red creature type) via lava. What more to red IS there?
THEROS
One of the fun visual cues that we didn’t see much of on Theros initially, but saw in the Gideon flashback during Magic Origins was the magic of hieromancy. What amounts to law and justice magic, it often times shows up as white-yellow magical bars and chains: what our friend here is decidedly breaking out of. Given that Gideon was partially taught this sort of magic by a prison warden, this is a pretty cool callback to the plane and the story found there.
SHANDALAR
Shandalar has very few visual cues to go off of, but one thing that is has is vibrance. The colors of Shandalar have been very saturated, historically, a nod to the amount of mana that rushes across that plane. Fields of flowers and the like are common, and the rich greens and purples at the base of this card very much feel at home there. The humanoid looking elf isn’t found on most of the planes we know besides Shandalar, except perhaps Zendikar and parts of Dominaria, and she lacks the tattooing of the Joraga.
THEROS
During our first pass at Theros, the plane was introduced as a place of gods and monsters. The first big-bad was a legendary hydra, the first community event involved killing a hydra deck, and the plane did more for hydra as a creature type than the rest of Magic combined. Theros is also home to a surplus of legendary creatures and the mechanic heroic, which involves targeting your own creatures with spells to trigger an ability. Although Gargos could possibly be on a number of planes, it would mechanically and thematically fit to put him amidst the pages of the Theriad, so I’ve placed him on Theros. Knowing another visit to Theros is coming up makes him a very cool call-forward.
SKALLA
Because we know little to nothing about Skalla, this (and other Skalla includes that aren’t Arkbow summons) are presumptuous includes. However, there’s little prompting us to include Gnarlback Rhino elsewhere, so with a quote from Vivien, to Skalla it goes.
ZENDIKAR
The green part of the three-part cycle for Bala Ged and Yarok, this one is a beautiful forest elemental more reminiscent of a pre-Eldrazi Zendikar than the others.
INNISTRAD
Innistrad often names its wolf and werewolf cards using “-pack”, and is the only plane so far with wolf and werewolf tribal that matches the mechanics of our packleader here. Wolves don’t often have much visual variety, but as a fair match for a lot of Innistradi wolves, I can’t think of a better home for our ambusher here.
SKALLA
And so the ballad of cards with Vivien Reid flavour text being added to Skalla continues…
SKALLA
With Vivien Reid text at the bottom and glowing green evocation magic, this card is at home on Skalla more than anywhere else, as generic as it may be.
DOMINARIA
The forest of ‘Yavimaya’ in the flavour text gives us a home for this great ape, but even without it, it’s a fair bet for Dominaria. As the plane with the only sentient apes we’ve seen with any abundance, he fits right in.
SKALLA
If Vivien can have one plant-rhino in her menagerie, why not two? I’d like to not that it’s weird that this card is an elemental rhino while Gnarlback rhino above isn’t. You could swap the card art and it’d be absolutely fine. Quite the odd choice.
SKALLA
It literally says Vivien’s name in the title. I don’t know what else to say.
ZENDIKAR
This elemental is a bit weird, but easy to find a home for. It animates lands, which is inherently found on a few planes, but by far the most often the world of Zendikar. In addition, it mentions Khalni in the flavour text, which is the known heart of the plane itself, and one of Nissa’s favorite places to hang out before getting ambushed by Ob Nixilis.
RAVNICA
Although this card doesn’t have any obvious nods in one direction or another to where it’s located, we can take a few hints from the mechanics to direct us. Ravnica is the only known plane where wolves are ridden as mounts, most notably by the Selensya Conclave, and so although it’s not a slam-dunk, it’s a reasonable guess until we hit any obviously contradictory evidence.
ZENDIKAR
This is a subtle include, but I think it fits nicely. The sword being used by our elven friend is very similar to those used by the humanoid races of Zendikar: with a large circle above the pommel. In addition, her skin tone, armor, and facial tattoo evoke the Joraga tribe fairly well.
ZENDIKAR
As a plane of angry mana, angrier lands, and plenty of vines, fire, and elementals to go around, Zendikar makes for a great home for our friend here. Whereas the elementals of Ixalan are summoned by jade, the elementals of Ravnica are made of buildings, and the elementals of Lorwyn are abstract concepts, the elementals of Zendikar are very tangible, somewhat grown entities, and very often seen in red and green.
ALARA
A callback to the original Kaalia, our favorite “Big bad flyer” legend is back again! Kaalia is a Bant native from Alara in the lore, although she’s clearly taken on some new colors since the Conflux that brought the shards smashing back together.
FIORA
Kethis is a cool card. Mechanically he’s somewhat unique, but he’s an advisor and implied to be a secret writer of some kind. Laws? Bribes? No-one can say, but it all fits perfectly on the intrigue-and-plotting world of Fiora. In addition, he is a very dark-skinned elf with outward angled-ears, which we’ve seen as part of Fiora’s world building more than any other plane. In addition, his garments fit nicely among the Italian renaissance vibe of the plane, and the crossed-framed window doubly so.
ZENDIKAR
We’ve seen Omnath twice before, and it seems each time he gets printed he gains a color. As the manifestation of Zendikar’s rather angry mana, he’s a great way to showcase the heart of the plane, though it’s unknown if he’s actually the “soul” of Zendikar or not, being an elemental instead of an Avatar.
SHANDALAR
As with many elementals in M20, this little guy could easily have been homeless. However, akin to the placement of Blightwood Tracker above, the vibrancy and color used in this piece resonates with a place that is so flush with life that it shows through everything in the art. The pristine beach is something that could be found on Ixalan among other places, and we have seen reefs (though not animated ones) on Dominaria, but it fits harmlessly enough on Shandalar that I’m not primed to put it anywhere else until we get new information about similar cards, characters, or places.
RAVNICA
This card is Boros to the core without question. Boros color card, Boros Skyknight in the art, Boros armor motifs, Boros token making… what else can you ask for?
ZENDIKAR
And we finally come to the elemental everyone has been waiting for! As we prepped with his elemental allies above, Yarok is a Zendikar native and the corrupted elemental of the continent of Bala Ged. With his home having fallen to the Eldrazi and turned into wastes, it’s really cool to see how an elemental would manifest in that blight, both visually and mechanically.
REGATHA
When I first published this as a Regathan card, I got some pushback from the community- and rightfully so. We know so little about the plane, and this is a fairly generic card. That being said, with my stance on including cards when possible, I think Cryptic Caves is a great fit for a plane home to tall mountains full of valleys and stacked, sedimentary rocks. At least until we learn otherwise.
AMONKHET
Do you see the zombies? Look close. Closer. There’s quite a few in the art. The plane of Amonkhet is mostly covered by desert and barren rock, and is home to the curse of wandering, which causes all beings to reanimate as zombies upon their death. This is a great visual match for the zombie-filled Amonkhet desert, and a nice little visit to the otherwise empty space that surrounds the fallen city from our last visit.
DOMINARIA
Dominaria may not be the only plane with lotuses, but it’s the one with the most, historically, and as this card is a “fixed” mechanical call-back to a Dominarian lotus land, it seems right at home on the plane.
Artistic Revisits
Unlike normal sets, core sets usually don’t have a lot of artistic revisits for their cards. New art usually means a new card, as core sets are no longer mass re-printings like they used to be, and reprints aren’t bound by a singular planar setting so there are no constraints on using old art. However, M20 made the fantastic choice to gift us with 5 new pieces of artwork in the form of the Therosian enemy-color temples. The initial pieces were beautiful, but these new ones add a great injection of flavour and beauty into the set and gives these ‘Scry lands’ new life.
Cards from Unknown Worlds
Core sets, more than almost any other kind of release, are the ones home to the most planar orphans. Requesting that an artist reference a world guide and adhere to specific designs for characters and settings is time consuming: not only because the artist has to take the time to not just freewheel art with the “rule of cool”, but because the art team has to review it and ensure that the art matches their world before it’s added to a card. In core sets, there is no one plane being visited, and so these planeless cards show up en masse. The art director can often use certain card slots to give slush art a new home, and hint at new planes to come; such as alluding to Amonkhet and Bolas as far back as M12.
One of the most interesting things that M20 has done is clearly do some world-building for their Elemental ‘kin’ cycle, though without actually referencing a specific plane. They appear closest to the Flamekin of Lorwyn, but in all variety of elements that imply a new world entirely. There’s also our first direct D&D reference in the card ‘Bag of Holding’, and implications of an interesting new world with orcs and thieves with the new ‘Vengeful Warchief’ and ‘Gruesome Scourger’. The new legends, too, leave open a world of possibility: I’m always looking back at old planeless legendary creatures from Commander and waiting to see a connection. Hinting at new worlds is almost as exciting as getting to finally visit them!
Final Plane Count
After Core Set 19, I think it’s fair to say that Wizards has finally decided how they want to handle the previously “pile of reprints” style sets that used to describe Core Sets. Injecting bits of flavour and reminders of past planes, hints of new ones, and expanding the backstory and lore of characters while serving the developmental needs of standard make Core Sets an invaluable playground for Magic moving forward. Cross-plane themes, like Elementals, let them also touch on multiple planes that they want to begin to shape (see Zendikar, for example), while developing and highlighting for other planes. We got a large number of Innistrad and Dominarian cards, which isn’t a surprise, but the amount of Theros and Zendikar cards were shocking up until the announcement that those are the two re-visit planes we’re off to next. Mountains and Seas and Regatha make sense with the inclusion of Chandra and Mu Langling’s planeswalkers, and the nod to Fiora with a new legend is the best kind of fanservice as far as I’m concerned.
In Summary
M20 was a great set to draft and play, but it was also a delight to see spoiled because of all the storylines it touched on. Unlike Magic from years past, where sets let you explore the breadth of a plane all at once, the new take seems to be to give players a keyhole into a world and expand it in supplemental products, which both stops plane fatigue and adds to the excitement every time we see a reveal. Gauntlets of Light, for example, would have slipped beyond notice in a Khans set, but years away from Khans it restores my love for the set, the world, and makes me want to play M20 even more. If this is the angle Wizards is taking on core sets moving forward, similar to the Origins template of plane-hopping, then I’m very optimistic for their next few sets!