Multiverse Set Review: CoRE SET 2021
a BLAST FROM THE PAST
June 29, 2020 - By Nicholas Fair
Welcome back to MtG-Multiverse’s set reviews! With the Commander release this year being entirely Ikoria focused, it’s been a little bit since I’ve had a chance to run through a set full of little Vorthos mysteries and had a chance to track down every little artistic and verbal detail I could to catalog the set. Thankfully, Core Set M21 spoilers kept me excited from beginning-to-end, and I’m really pleased to share this review with the community.
I’ve received some great email feedback and comments over on Reddit for my last two reviews, but I’m always hungry for more! Please feel free to send me your feedback at mtgmultiverse.feedback@gmail.com if you have any thoughts or ideas about this review. Last time I ended up changing a few plane assignments thanks to really insightful points from the community, and I hope that you all keep me in check again this time!
As with every set review, I’ll start off by diving into individual card evaluations and my reasons behind them on a one-by-one basis, then take a peek at cool cards that don’t seem to have a home (yet). Then I’ll talk about some of the really cool artistic trends and any little fun facts about M21, and then top if all off with a tally of the new additions to each plane that I’ll add to MtG-Multiverse. Enjoy!
Cards from Known Planes
The Puzzle of Basri Ket
If you’ve read my other set reviews, you’ll know that I often use different clues on cards, such as flavour text and proper names of known characters, to figure out where a card is set. Often times a card is simply generic when it’s associated with a named planeswalker, as planeswalkers go all over the multiverse, and I’ll let it be homeless.
But this core set has done something interesting, in that it introduces a planeswalker without much of a home plane left. Although the art for Basri himself is on Amonkhet, none of his associated cards are, and we’re left wondering where he’s spread the wisdom of Oketra to. The art is mostly generic enough to take place on many different planes, or worlds we haven’t visited at all, and I’m very curious to learn more about the sand paladin to see if I can find homes for any of his associates. Adherent of Hope kind of looks like she’s on Tarkir, near Jeskai lands, but the outfit looks like nothing that plane has ever seen. Basri’s Lieutenant might be leading a legion of Benalia’s best behind them, but they don’t have any obvious visual cues. Sigiled Contender sounds like they might be from Alara, but looks like they’re in some kind of eastern-inspired fighting ring. The plot thickens! If you have any ideas, please let me know- I’m very interested in what you all think!
The Home Plane Cycle
As an additional piece of exciting lore, there are special lands seeded in M21 packs that depict the five home planes of the five featured planeswalkers in the set. Each has a unique frame referencing that Planeswalker’s native element, and they look awesome. Basri Ket has a plains from Amonkhet, Teferi has an island from Dominaria, Liliana has a swamp from Dominaria, Chandra has a mountain from Kaladesh, and Garruk has a forest from an unknown plane- because we still don’t know where he’s from! Sadly I’m not sure we can glean too many more details from the art; it seems like a fairly normal super-forest.
Cards from Unknown Worlds
Core sets, due to their nature, often cover a multitude of planes that we’ve never seen. As I like to mention in my reviews, requesting that an artist reference a world guide and adhere to specific designs & settings is time consuming. This is not only because the artist has to take the time reference the ‘correct’ design, but because the art team has to review it and ensure that the art matches their world guide correctly. Because a card can just be from a plane we’ve never seen, a lot of “slush art” and art from new artists finds its way into core sets, and we get new and exciting things like GOOSE SOLDIERS!
Final Plane Count
Core Set 21 is an absolutely fantastic set from a flavour perspective. Getting to re-visit Dominaria from Teferi’s point of view has given us some brand-new legends, as well as fun takes on old ones, and let us catch up with Dominaria a few years after our last visit. In terms of content, M21 has had more entires to new planes than M20 by a fair margin (almost 25%), and M20 beat out M19 by a good stretch as well. If Wizards keeps up at this rate, there won’t be any planar orphans left, and I’ll have to write a write-up for every card. Maybe it’ll be easier to do a podcast?
In Summary
Surprising no-one, Dominaria led the count of plane cards, with a special lead due to the inclusion of 2/5 of the planeswalkers calling Dominaria home and the new land arts from their home planes. Fan favorites Ravnica and Innistrad came in with a large number as well, and the recently-visited Theros and Ixalan had a fair showing. Compared to M20, where the leader was Zendikar with 10 cards, the runners-up of M21 have 10 each, and the leader Dominaria has twenty-seven. M21 is a fantastic set for new cards and new visits to favorite planes. I hope WotC keeps this up for the next core set!