Magic: The Gathering
Magical Thinking: Dominaria
Welcome back to Magical Thinking, a look back at the cards and art of Magic: the Gathering, set by set, from the beginning, all through the eyes of a casual fan. This week we take a trip back to the past, back where it all began, with April 2018’s Dominaria.
It’s been sixty years since the events of Time Spiral block, and Dominaria is healing quite nicely. Now, here comes Gideon and Lilliana Vess, hot off their defeat on Amonkhet, to come wipe out the last of the demons who have a claim on Lilliana’s soul. I’m sure this will go smoothly and nothing bad will happen. But hey, That’s incidental because Dominaria! Weatherlight! Mirari! Urza! All the great stuff you remember from the old days!
Let’s put on our nostalgia goggles and jump in.
Of course we gotta start with the big man himself. I like that his plus one is you make your opponent pick which card goes into your hand now and which card goes into your hand later.
Yeah! Weatherlight setting sale for adventure. It can’t plane shift anymore, but it’s still a magic flying boat with a new card. Also we get a new keyword: Historic. Which refers to artifacts, legendaries and sagas.
What are sagas? More on those later.
And in the tradition of the old school cards, we got this super simple card. It’s just CHARGE! Nothing complicated, no weird name, just CHARGE! CHAAAARGE!
Hey. Benalia. Remember that? Makes one long for the days of banding. Also, I like the flavor here in that it’s a card that turns you into a knight. Now you can knight anything: squirrels, bears, gods, vampires, eldrazi, the sky’s the limit.
Gideon is my kind of paladin. Have fist, will travel.
Here we go, baby. Sagas are the big new mechanic from this set. They are enchantments which do something different each turn for three turns, then peace out. They aren’t here for a long time, just a good time. And a good time will be had indeed. Best part is that each one connects to the historic events of their plane. Sagas are a four on the ol’ Storm Scale, and we will be seeing them again.
Here’s another name we haven’t heard in a while: Serra. Back to teach us that friendship is indeed magic (Or Magic: the Gathering in this case).
Naughty Phyrexians will be sealed away to atone for their sins.
I hope that prison is more stable than it looks because it looks pretty flimsy.
Gotta give it up for a classic. I hope we see more classic cards return. BRING BACK BANDING.
“It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times…” No, no, that’ll never work.
Your daily reminder that Urza was, in fact, a huge dick.
I wonder if every old school Magic set is gonna get referenced here. I want my Dark themed saga please.
Wow, how’s that for a blast from the past. When’s the last time we saw Homarid? Too long if you ask me. SOMEONE GET ME SOME BUTTER.
…Well that’s not good, is it?
Yeah, this was the point when Magic began to realize that Opt was a really good spell and kept reprinting it at every opportunity.
Okay, I’m covering this card just for the flavor text. YEAH. LETS GO MAKE GREAT BAD DECISIONS.
Meanwhile at the annual introvert convention.
The Cabal makes their return, but they aren’t the morally ambiguous cabal from the Mirari saga. These guys are more straightforward worshipers of Belzenlok (who apparently stole the titles of every villain in Magic history, talk about a huge ham).
And here is the big guy himself. With abilities like that I can see why he’s so full of himself.
Oh my God, this man’s head is filled with delicious everlasting gobstoppers!
Yeah, if you didn’t know, Lilliana’s tragic backstory is she was a healer who tried to bring he brother back from the dead and turned him into a zombie. You think that would turn her off necromancy but I guess you have to be true to yourself.
And here’s zombie bro himself. Also, this set uses kicker too, I forgot to mention. And if you kick, Josu comes in with his entire posse.
Yep, even though old Phyrexia is gone, the shadow of it lingers on. Also, is that a book or an altar? It’s hard to tell from this picture.
Well, so much for Belzenok. Sadly this just ended with Lilliana trading one asshole boss for another one.
Yargle, the memelord of Urborg. Seriously there is an entire secret lair dedicated to this guy. And why not? He’s the best card in Magic. Objectively. No card is better. If you aren’t running at least four copies of this guy in every deck you are a bad Magic player. I await your comments.
Another classic friend joins the fray. Although I admit I do miss the pretty lady fire elemental.
Ah, Keld. Another famous Magic location. Also, let’s include a One With Nothing effect on there as well. Those are always fun. It’s a real feast of famine card. Then again if you are playing red, odds are this will be the last card in your hand when you play it anyway.
This is apparently a very infamous card and the basis for numerous goblin decks. Which is cool because I love me some goblins.
And here we have Chandra’s mentor, Jaya. Its been a while since we saw her, now she’s gone full badass granny. Also loving that emblem.
Lord of the Rings where everything is the same except the ring ends up in the hands of a friendly orc who keeps chucking the One Ring at bad guys.
Another cool reprint. You may remember these guys from Onslaught.
OH, IT’S YAH BOY SQUEE! Apparently the Phyrexians made Squee super immortal so Crovax could torment him forever. Well the joke’s on them because Squee’s outlasted all of them. How immortal is Squee? You can cast him from exile. That goblin isn’t going nowhere. Look at how smug he looks. He knows. He knows he can’t die. You earned it, buddy.
Yeah, this was the other major event from this set. Basically Nissa is tired of all this Gatewatch BS and is retiring. Still, if we are grading on a curve they’re still way ahead of the Nine Titans. They got like three times as much done as them with fewer casualties and a fraction of the power.
At first I thought this meant plots as in the fungi were scheming. Then I realized it meant plots as in plots of land…AND THEN I REALIZED THAT’S WHAT THE MUSHROOMS WANT YOU TO THINK!
It’s a monkey that hits like a truck (That one is for you Transformers fans. Like seriously there are like five of you who just audibly groaned at that).
Another classic. But where are there silly hats with the goggles? Or their chalk white skin? These guys look like actual elves.
Still not sure why there were dinosaurs during Dominaria’s ice age at all, but what do I know? It is a magical land after all.
And now we get to the NPC portion of our set. Including the new Weatherlight crew, captain Jhoria. I won’t be going over the whole new Weatherlight crew, just some highlights.
Oh whats this? A new oath, does mean?
OH IT DO! HE’S BACK, BABY. Terferi is a planeswalker again, and making his post mending debut. I wonder how many fans were howling for this since Mirage.
I’m sure Jhoria had some misgivings about making this guy her first crew mate, but as it turns out he was a real fun guy.
…Yes I already know I’m terrible.
There’s one thing I love that I don’t think we see enough of, and that’s hard working dirty working class angels. Not fallen angels, just angels who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and are of the common soil, the kind of angel you’d go get a beer with.
I mean, it’s a nice wall but it doesn’t seem to be protecting anything. At this point it’s just a big chunk of metal out in the middle of nowhere.
Remember that classic card Howling Mine? Well it’s back, in golem form.
And another classic card back. Haven’t seen Icy M since Mirrodin.
Clash of the Titans intensifies.
Here’s all you need to understand, buddy: Urza. Was. An. ASSHOLE.
And there she is. The old girl has never looked so good.
I think that’s a good place to end it. Next time, we return to a fan favorite plane, and begin the endgame of Bolas’ master plan. Will the Gatewatch reunite and stop him? What will happen to Lilliana? Find out next week with Guilds of Ravnica. And until then, Stay Magical.
