War never changes – and now Fallout’s particular brand of retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic war is exploding onto gaming tables via Magic: The Gathering Fallout Cards, with a new Universes Beyond set
The Fallout games have been bringing their unique blend of darkly humorous, sci-fi role playing and action to our screens since 1997.
Starting out as turn-based RPGs, the main series switched to first person, more action oriented role playing with Bethesda’s Fallout 3 back in 2008 – and has remained in the same style, even for MMORPG Fallout 76, ever since.
There have been numerous spin-offs too; the far more action-oriented Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, for example – or the town management style Fallout Shelter.
Each game adds to the rich lore of the Fallout universe – and, with a future history so detailed, it’s no surprise to see it taking over the tabletop with its very own Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond set.
Following in the footsteps of the hugely successful Lord of the Rings set and the recently launched Doctor Who set, Fallout will arrive in March 2024.
What can we expect from these Magic: The Gathering Fallout Cards? What will the sets look like, and what special cards can we get our hands on?
Let’s take a look!
Magic: The Gathering – Fallout Cards List
With the Fallout set launching in March 2024, we don’t have details of all cards in the set just yet.
However, below are the cards that MTG publisher Wizards of the Coast have revealed so far.
What Products Will Be Available For The MTG Fallout Set?
Wizards of the Coast have decided to take a similar approach to this particular Universes Beyond set as they did with their Doctor Who release.
That is to say that – unlike Lord of the Rings, which felt like a major, standard set release – there will be just four pre-constructed Commander Decks and, alongside those, Collector Boosters too.
There’s some drawbacks to this approach, particularly for casual fans who may be lured into trying out MTG for the first time, based on the fact that it’s playing host to a video game franchise they may be familiar with.
That’s because Commander is a format of Magic that’s great for multiplayer games, but not exactly the most accessible way in for new or lapsed players who may be tempted by the Fallout license.
Not only that, but decks are incredibly expensive; they do come with some great accessories and a good selection of cards that’ll be ready to go straight out of the box, but $50 or more per deck is a lot of money for players who may only want to play casually.
Which is also the problem with Collector Boosters. You can check out our guide to Magic: The Gathering Booster Pack types here, but the short version is that Collector Boosters are filled with alt art, foil treated and special variants of cards in any given set.
This makes them very highly priced; often around $22 or more, with Collector Booster boxes selling for an eye-watering cost of around $250 at minimum!
Again, that’s a high price to pay if you’re just looking to dip your toe into MTG via Fallout – $22 or more for just 15 cards is not exactly an impulse purchase price.
What Special Fallout Themed Cards Will Be Available?
In addition to the cards themselves being highly thematic and sticking very closely to Fallout’s deep lore – with cards named V.A.T.S., Overencumbered and Dogmeat, Ever Loyal, for example – there will also be numerous special cards that take advantage of Fallout’s rich history too.
For example, Vault Boy – Fallout’s cheerily retro mascot – will feature on numerous borderless, full art variant cards.
There will also be Showcase Pip Boy cards too, featuring the green screen and fonts that’ll be very familiar to users of the Fallout universe’s wrist mounted PDA!
Special Land cards will feature beautiful artwork of the environments of Fallout – with spectacular full art variants of these being available too. Some will even feature isometric views of the environment they feature – just like the viewpoints featured in classic PC titles, Fallout and Fallout 2 – as you can see in the example above.
Perhaps most excitingly for collectors – there will be serialised bobblehead cards, featuring the classic Vault Boy collectables; these will be numbered and in very limited quantities.
There will be seven serialised bobblehead cards in total – and just 500 copies of each of them will be printed and distributed in Collector Booster packs. You can see the XXX/500 numbering in the above image; this will, of course, be numbered between 1-500 on the final cards.
Finally, unlike the Doctor Who set, some cards won’t be available in the Commander Decks at all; though we don’t yet know how many or exactly what cards this will apply to, we do know that the above card, Ravages of War, is one of them.
What Commander Decks Will Be Available?
There will be four Commander Decks in total, again with Wizards of the Coast showcasing a great understanding of Fallout and its lore.
Scrappy Survivors is a Red, Green and White deck with the aforementioned, beloved canine companion Dogmeat, Ever Loyal as its Commander card.
Mutant Menace is a Black, Green and Blue deck full of the creepy creatures that inhabit the ruined wasteland – and includes The Wise Mothman as its Commander.
Hail, Caesar is the third Commander deck; Red, White and Black are its colours and, unsurprisingly, Caesar, Legion’s Emperor, is the Commander here. With Caesar having been prominently featured in Fallout: New Vegas, it’s great to see that this Universes Beyond set is going beyond the most obvious characters – and even the mainline, numbered Fallout games – for its cards.
Lastly, there’s the Science! deck, which is Blue, White and Red.
The Science! deck focuses on pre-war technology and science-based characters, such as its Commander, Dr. Madison Li, who first appeared in Fallout 3 before coming back in Fallout 4 – and turning up in numerous other Fallout spin-off games too!
What Accessories Will I Need For These MTG Fallout Decks?
Take a look at our recommendations for the best trading card sleeves, the best Commander deck boxes and the best trading card binders.
That’ll give you plenty of pointers as to how best to store and safely sleeve your cards, whether you intend to play with them, collect them or both!
I’m New To Magic: The Gathering – What Else Do I Need To Know?
If you’re not already familiar with Magic: The Gathering, we have numerous articles that will be useful – and you’ll have plenty of time to learn the ropes before Fallout arrives in March.
We’d suggest taking a look at our How To Get Started With Magic: The Gathering guide – but we’d also highly recommend reading our how to play Magic: The Gathering guide too.
Do note, however, that the how to play article teaches the standard format of Magic, whereas the format for the Fallout cards is intended to be the slightly more complicated Commander.
However, learning the basics with our guide will still teach you all kind of useful tips and tricks on using Land, card anatomy and combat, which is arguably the trickiest part of the game to learn.
Also, do check out our MTG Colour Combo Names list, which features the colour combinations used in the Fallout Commander decks!
