Where in the world is Magic 2010?
June 30th 2009 01:25
“You came home to get a break from worlds in flux. No plane is safe from change, however, and things are not exactly as you remember them.”
-- Tom LaPille, The Magic is Back
Anyone who says “On the way to stores in time for the release” is permabanned. Seriously, I can do that. Jokes aside, you may have been looking at the complete list of M10 previews. Take another look at them now. Is this the same game we’ve been playing for the last two years? Did you notice that in all but about two of the images on that page, it’s nighttime? Did you notice that M10’s world seems to have non-unique, “foot soldier” vampires like you might see in Underworld or Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Did you notice that the Master of the Wild Hunt is an actual factual Viking sorcerer?
In the past, the “setting” for the core set was Dominaria, the largest plane in the Magic multiverse, with a couple of outliers from some of the more exciting offworld places like Mercadia or Rath. But there was nothing like this in previous core sets. There wasn’t even anything like this in the numerous blocks set in Dominaria, such as Ice Age, Invasion, and Time Spiral.
Actually, I think it’s that very fact which explains the whole new world of M10. The convention of core sets may be Dominaria, but the convention for new cards of types and styles we’ve never seen before is a new world. In M10, they met, and evidently the new card convention won. In addition to the obvious appeal of novelty, it also forestalls stupid questions about where Kalonia can be when we already know the name of every country in Dominaria.
Interestingly, Tom LaPille’s article refers to M10 as “your home plane,” which presumably is different for many, if not every, planeswalker. The set still has a sense of history, but it has also been designed to fit into every player’s individual experience with and conception of Magic. Maybe you can’t go home again. But you can find an even cooler place, and say it’s your home.
-- Tom LaPille, The Magic is Back
Anyone who says “On the way to stores in time for the release” is permabanned. Seriously, I can do that. Jokes aside, you may have been looking at the complete list of M10 previews. Take another look at them now. Is this the same game we’ve been playing for the last two years? Did you notice that in all but about two of the images on that page, it’s nighttime? Did you notice that M10’s world seems to have non-unique, “foot soldier” vampires like you might see in Underworld or Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Did you notice that the Master of the Wild Hunt is an actual factual Viking sorcerer?
In the past, the “setting” for the core set was Dominaria, the largest plane in the Magic multiverse, with a couple of outliers from some of the more exciting offworld places like Mercadia or Rath. But there was nothing like this in previous core sets. There wasn’t even anything like this in the numerous blocks set in Dominaria, such as Ice Age, Invasion, and Time Spiral.
The sky was often dark in Time Spiral cards, but back then it was because of nuclear winter.
Actually, I think it’s that very fact which explains the whole new world of M10. The convention of core sets may be Dominaria, but the convention for new cards of types and styles we’ve never seen before is a new world. In M10, they met, and evidently the new card convention won. In addition to the obvious appeal of novelty, it also forestalls stupid questions about where Kalonia can be when we already know the name of every country in Dominaria.
Interestingly, Tom LaPille’s article refers to M10 as “your home plane,” which presumably is different for many, if not every, planeswalker. The set still has a sense of history, but it has also been designed to fit into every player’s individual experience with and conception of Magic. Maybe you can’t go home again. But you can find an even cooler place, and say it’s your home.
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