When Magic: The Gathering launched in 1993, few could have predicted just what a huge success it would become. Yet here we are, having celebrated MTG’s 30th Anniversary in 2023, with one of the game’s biggest years ever!
That was mostly due to what has been one of its most wide-ranging and feature-laden sets yet, with JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings being brought into MTG for the first time, via MTG’s Universes Beyond branding, which enables non-Magic: The Gathering properties to ‘cross over’ into the game. Other Universes Beyond products, such as the Doctor Who Commander set, were cannily timed; in the case of Who, it was released just before the long running sci fi show celebrated its 60th anniversary!
Of course, publishers Wizards of the Coast released many other, more ‘traditional’ MTG products throughout the year; though many have already been released in 2024, there’s still more to come.
Though there’s nothing as earth-shattering (perhaps Middle-Earth shattering, right?) as the Lord of the Rings set, which managed to spread awareness of MTG far beyond its usual audience, there’s still a lot to get excited about, and sets such as Bloomburrow have taken Magic into new realms, proving extremely popular with fans. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the MTG releases in 2024.
Magic: The Gathering Release Schedule 2024
Though we will cover all 2024 sets, both released and upcoming, this doesn’t include the large number of Secret Lair drops – which are limited edition, highly specialised and very small sets usually comprising around 6 cards – as these are usually announced close to their pre-order windows, then printed to order (though there has been controversy this year over these print runs being limited in spite of demand).
Play Boosters have also shaken up the way that booster packs are used this year, with this single pack type flexible enough to be used in multiple ways.
The release schedule for 2024 is as follows:
- Ravnica Remastered – January 12th, 2024
- Murders at Karlov Manor – February 9th, 2024
- Ravnica: Clue Edition – February 23rd, 2024
- Fallout – March 8th, 2024
- Outlaws of Thunder Junction – April 19th, 2024
- Modern Horizons III – June 14th, 2024
- Assassin’s Creed – July 5th, 2024
- Bloomburrow – August 2nd, 2024
- Duskmourn: House of Horror – September 27th, 2024
- Magic: The Gathering Foundations – November 15th, 2024
So let’s take a look at each release in order – and cover what we do (and don’t) know about the new sets.
1. Ravnica Remastered – January 12th, 2024
Ravnica is a plane in Magic: The Gathering’s vast multiverse – and is one of the most popular and frequently revisited settings in the game. It debuted way back in 2005, in the Ravnica: City of Guilds set – but has appeared several times since then too!
The setting of Ravnica takes players into a city that has ten Guilds; each with their own abilities and/or keywords. Each Guild is also focused around a different pairing of two of Magic’s mana colours; the original, 2005 Ravnica: City of Guilds set was the first set to feature hybrid mana costs and cards, reflecting each Guild’s mana combination.
As has been the case with other Remastered sets, Ravnica Remastered focuses on reprinting numerous, popular cards; in this case, they’re from the original Ravnica block. Which means that it features cards from Ravnica: City of Guilds, as well as cards that were originally printed in Return to Ravnica, and Ravnica Allegiance too.
As seems to be tradition that any time the setting moves to Ravnica, Shock Lands make a return in Ravnica Remastered. Shock Lands are so-called because you can pay Life to have them enter the battlefield untapped; though that doesn’t sound great in principle, as normal Land enters the battlefield untapped anyway, Shock Lands can be used for one of two different types of Mana.
Ravnica Remastered contains the full cycle of Shock Lands, with full art variants of each one included as well. In an exciting move for MTG players who have been around for a very long time (couldn’t be me), retro frame Shock Lands will also be available as part of the Ravnica Remastered set.
Anime inspired cards, having proven to be popular in a few recent sets, also feature in Ravnica Remastered. Finally, along with the anime inspired art variants of familiar cards, further retro frame cards are included as part of the Ravnica Remastered set release.
2. Murders at Karlov Manor – February 9th, 2024
Of course, with Ravnica being so popular, perhaps it’s no surprise that another set based in the same plane has arrived, hot on the heels of Ravnica Remastered.
Given that Ravnica Remastered refamiliarises old players with the setting, or introduces it to those MTG players who may not have been aware of it in the first place, it’s no surprise that the game headed back there so soon.
In stark contrast to Ravnica Remastered’s focus on nostalgic updates and reprints of classic cards, Murders at Karlov Manor is most definitely not a typical release for MTG.
In fact, it’s difficult to think of any MTG set that’s taken the form of the Murders at Karlov Manor set, which challenges players to solve a murder mystery scenario in the titular setting!
New characters and returning, fan favourite personalities search the manor to try and find a killer, which feels like a much smaller scale and personal experience than the massive, multiversal events that have characterised recent Magic sets.
Intriguingly, 13 ‘Mystery Files’ puzzles are built into the set, which help to immerse players into its classic whodunnit feel. Adding to this, as of the 2nd of February, Wizards of the Coast revealed a new puzzle each day on their website, with the solutions of these leading players to solve an overarching mystery. Which they did, seeing the mystery solved on the 14th of February. We won’t spoil anything here, however!
The set itself features Story spotlight cards, assisting players in their adventure as they piece clues together within Karlov Manor. Limited, serialised Ravnica City cards are included; these feature guild leaders, borderless land cards, a new Dossier Showcase art treatment and, perhaps most excitingly, even an invisible ink card treatment too.
Murders at Karlov Manor also heralds that aforementioned shake up of booster packs – with Play Boosters due to replace Set and Draft Boosters, in what is the biggest change to Booster Pack options for a long time. We’ve covered all of the details in our new MTG booster pack type article, so head on over there for further information on this massive news!
3. Ravnica: Clue Edition – February 23rd, 2024
Classic board game Clue – or, as it’s known everywhere outside the US, Cluedo – is an experience that many tabletop gamers will be very familiar with. With Murders at Karlov Manor bringing a whodunnit style mystery to MTG, it’s perhaps not surprising that Wizards of the Coast have chosen their moment to introduce Clue-themed cards to Magic: The Gathering!
February release Ravnica: Clue Edition, just like Ravnica Remastered, featured those perennially popular shock lands, albeit with a ‘Clue’ theme. Entirely new cards were also in the set, featuring a character, place or object, along with a whodunnit twist.
Each Ravnica: Clue Edition box provides enough cards and components for four players to take part in a Clue-enhanced variant of MTG. In fact, it’s so closely tied into Clue that you’ll even be seeking the killer, setting and murder weapon to solve the mystery of who dispatched poor Guildmage (usually Professor, in standard, non-MTG Clue!) Boddy.
Victory can be secured either by standard, last man standing rules (as would be the case in multiplayer games of Commander-format MTG) or by solving the aforementioned murder mystery itself. Regardless of life points or the usual rules of Magic, if you manage to guess the murderer, place and weapon, you can win the game.
Each Ravnica: Clue Edition box contains 21 exclusive Ravnica: Clue Edition evidence cards (comprising six suspects, 5 weapons, and 10 rooms), eight guild packs of 20 exclusive cards (each aligned with a certain guild), and one shock land card. Interestingly, all of the new and unique cards in the set are legal in MTG itself, so they do have value beyond the new, Clue-based multiplayer format.
4. Fallout – March 8th, 2024
With a similar product range to the 2023 Doctor Who set – which featured Commander Decks and Collector Boosters themed around the six decades of the show – long-running video game franchise Fallout is due to make its debut in MTG in 2024.
Just like Doctor Who, and (of course) Lord of the Rings, the Universes Beyond-branded Fallout products are certain to bring new fans over to Magic: The Gathering. Once more, MTG’s designers seem to have really immersed themselves in the characters, world, settings and themes of the source material – with the cards and special treatments show a clear knowledge of (and passion for) Fallout’s dense, richly drawn lore.
Being a video gamer and fan of the Fallout franchise myself, I’ve already covered numerous aspects of the new set, in a guide to all currently revealed cards, which also looks at some of the incredibly thematic card treatments too. You can check out our Magic: The Gathering Fallout Cards article for much more insight into the Universes Beyond: Fallout MTG set!
In short, the Fallout set mirrors the Doctor Who product range, in that it features four Commander Decks and Collector Boosters, the latter of which will feature some truly amazing, Fallout-themed card treatments. Among these are Pip Boy Showcase cards and Borderless, Full Art Vault Boy Cards.
That’s not all though; in Collector Boosters, there are special Land cards that have an isometric viewpoint, intended to ape the look of the original PC Fallout games. Another aspect that somewhat mirrors the Doctor Who set release, in that it featured serialized cards for each Doctor, is the inclusion of Serialized Bobblehead cards; these can be found in Collector Boosters.
However, just like those aforementioned serialized Doctors, these will be incredibly rare and will be very sought after by collectors.
There will be just 7 different Vault Boy Bobblehead cards – and there’ll be just 500 copies in existence of each. If you are lucky enough to find one, the card’s number (ie XXX/500) will be printed directly on the card, so it’ll be pretty easy to spot!
Naturally, this isn’t quite on the same level of rarity as The One Ring card from Lord of the Rings, given that only one of those was printed, but these cards are undoubtedly going to be highly sought after collector’s items, that may well sell on the secondary market for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars each!
5. Outlaws of Thunder Junction – April 19th, 2024
Though Fallout takes us beyond Ravnica and into unfamiliar, not to mention very hostile, territory for MTG, the first few releases of the year stick to a safer, perhaps comfortingly nostalgic, setting.
When Outlaws of Thunder Junction arrived in April 2024, however, it took us into an entirely new setting for MTG!
Outlaws of Thunder Junction has a Steampunk/Weird West aesthetic that looks incredibly appealing and unique; there really has never been anything like this in MTG before. Villains from across the multiverse, perhaps featuring some familiar faces, pop up to cause havoc for players, and there’s more on offer in this unusual set.
Wizards of the Coast have gone all out with the Western theme, with Showcase card variants, two examples of which are shown above, feeling highly in keeping with the setting. The Thoughtseize Showcase variant above is styled like a classic, Old West newspaper, whereas the Tinybones, The Pickpocket card looks exactly like a Wanted poster!
Many more cards of this type are included in the set; though it didn’t set the world on fire upon release, Outlaws of Thunder Junction definitely deserves praise for taking MTG into hitherto unexplored, new frontiers.
6. Modern Horizons III – June 14th, 2024
It may surprise you to find out that the best selling MTG set of all time is Modern Horizons II.Though it’s not far off being surpassed by Lord of the Rings, which, given that set’s phenomenal popularity, is definitely not a surprise.
Back to Modern Horizons, however, due for release in the second quarter of 2024, Modern Horizons III is a direct sequel to the most popular non-Universes Beyond MTG set. What made Modern Horizons II (and, of course, its predecessor) such massive hits were that they featured a wide selection of extremely powerful cards from previous sets, many of which had risen significantly in value. Alongside these, the sets also featured new (and also pretty powerful) cards that were designed to be played in the ‘Modern’ MTG format that’s part of the title.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of Modern as a format, it essentially allows players to use cards in their decks which go back much further, in terms of their age, than cards allowed in other formats, such as Pioneer or Standard. Access to format-legal cards that have been long out of print (and expensive!) is the key to understanding why the Modern Horizons sets are so popular.
Modern Horizons III features the debut of double-faced cards in a Modern Horizons set, with the new double-faced Ajani Planeswalker card shown above as an example.
Though double-faced cards have been around for a long time, they can still be confusing for new or lapsed MTG players – so we’ve prepared a handy guide on how to use double faced cards in Magic: The Gathering for you.
There’s also Fetch Lands and Serialized Borderless Concept Eldrazi cards too, with the latter in particular sure to be highly sought after and very expensive.
Serialized cards are extremely limited in number and each are stamped with the specific number of that card; for example, only 250 copies of the above card will be released, with each having its XXX/250 number on the card. Though the above example card shows the XXX instead of a number, naturally that won’t be on the final printed cards!
As I’m sure you’ll agree, even without the serialized element, these borderless art cards are absolutely stunning and will look even more so in person, with their textured foil treatment and stamp.
7. Assassin’s Creed – July 5th, 2024
Having spawned a huge range of video games, comics, a live action movie (starring Michael Fassbender, no less) and much more besides, it’s fair to say that Assassin’s Creed is one of the biggest media franchises in the world.
So the fact that MTG have tapped into the property for another Universes Beyond set – marking the second video game crossover in 2024 after Fallout – is perhaps unsurprising!
Arriving with Assassin’s Creed was a new type of booster pack, named the ‘Beyond Booster’. What does that mean, exactly? What will we find in a Beyond Booster?
These special booster packs will be smaller than you may expect, with just seven cards in each Beyond Booster. This is due to the fact that Assassin’s Creed will be a smaller set than we’re used to; there’s not enough factions to make Commander Decks viable and, due to the reduced number of cards in the set, standard boosters weren’t a good fit either.
So, though Beyond Boosters contain just seven cards, they do have 1 to 4 cards at the Rare or Mythic Rare level, at least 1 foil card, and at least 1 full, borderless art card. It does feel as if these are a way for Assassin’s Creed fans, who may not have played or even been interested in MTG before, to get their hands on fancy, rare cards, without having spending larger amounts on Collector Boosters, which are, of course, much pricier. You can check out our guide to MTG booster pack types here.
It is, however, doubtful that we’ll see Beyond Boosters return, unless there’s another Assassin’s Creed set. Epilogue Boosters, which were similarly structured, weren’t well received by players and collectors of MTG cards, and Beyond Boosters feel pretty similar in terms of the number of cards included and their price.
Though Assassin’s Creed doesn’t have Commander Decks, along with Beyond Booster packs there are also Collector Boosters, booster Bundle boxes and even a Starter Kit, which does contain exclusive cards.
Perhaps the most exciting card variants can only be found in Collector Boosters, however, with serialized cards featuring real historical figures, printed in the native language of the card’s subject!
Two examples of these are shown above, with the Leonardo da Vinci and Cleopatra serialized card variants. There are many more to find, however, so if you’re a fan, grab some of these cards while you still can!
8. Bloomburrow – August 2nd, 2024
Did you think that the Steampunk Western of Outlaws of Thunder Junction would be the only new plane we’d get to visit in non-Universes Beyond MTG this year? Think again, because Bloomburrow is here to take us even further away from Ravnica!
Bloomburrow is a setting that features anthropomorphic animals and, apparently, no human characters at all; that’s because, when humans Planeswalk to Bloomburrow, they morph into the animal creatures you see in the set’s illustrations. It’s a cosy and whimsical setting, though just from the image above you can tell that it looks far from safe!
It’s an incredibly beautiful set that’s already proven to be massively popular; for a few examples of the gorgeous cards in Bloomburrow you can see a spectacular extended art variant of Mabel, Heir to Cragflame with a real storybook aesthetic above, as well as a stunning Land card on the right.
9. Duskmourn: House of Horror – September 27th, 2024
Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast
Did you grow up reading Stephen King and James Herbert books at an inappropriate age, like me? If so, Duskmourn: House of Horror looks like it’ll be right up your dimly lit, creature-infested alley.
Duskmourn: House of Horror continues the Dragonstorm Arc that began in Bloomburrow, but couldn’t be any more of a contrast with the cosy, anthropomorphic style of the prior set. Unusually for the more fantasy and sci-fi inspired settings of MTG’s planes, Duskmourn: House of Horror seems to be heavily inspired by modern, urban horror, along the lines of the aforementioned Stephen King or, for you younger players, Stranger Things.
It’s set on a world (the eponymous Duskmourn) which consists entirely of a giant, creature infested haunted house. Ruled by the demon Valgavoth, it’s a genuinely unusual setting for Magic: The Gathering, and is sure to bring curious, horror-obsessed fans to the game.
Of course, no MTG set would be complete with its own unique card styles, and Duskmourn is no different in that regard. The two examples in the image above show the Double Exposure card variants, which ape the look of classic horror photos, along with special foil treatments.
Duskmourn also sees the debut of Japan Showcase cards; these will be by renowned Japanese artists, and the cards will only be found in Collector Boosters. Interestingly, 1 in 3 Japan Showcase cards found in English Collector Boosters will be in Japanese, instead of English; though of course all Japan Showcase cards will be Japanese in a Japanese language Collector Booster.
10. Magic: The Gathering Foundations – November 15th, 2024
There’s no denying that Magic: The Gathering can be extremely off putting for new players, with untold thousands of combinations of cards and decks, even when reduced to what is currently ‘legal’ for tournaments and Standard play formats. Individual cards can be very complicated in nature, and this can be exacerbated by the effects of different card abilities, or just the timing of card effects.
With so many new players drawn to MTG over the last few years, as well as numerous other, mechanically more straightforward games such as Disney Lorcana and Star Wars Unlimited successfully carving out their own slices of the CCG market, Wizards of the Coast have looked to bring an easier jumping on point to new players, and that’s arriving in the form of Magic: The Gathering Foundations.
Though Starter Decks, tutorial style packs and other products intended to make learning the game easier have, generally, always existed in one form or another, Foundations marks the first time that such a large scale set, with fully Standard legal cards, has been created expressly for that purpose. It’s also notable that Foundations is a set that’s guaranteed to have cards which will be legal in more competitive Standard play until 2029, so once players have learned to play and continue to level up their skills, they can still use their favourite cards from the set as they progress.
Around 50% of the set will be reprints from MTG’s three decade history, which means that half of the set will be new cards, intentionally designed to fit with the rest of the set and to be easy to play with too. Given that the set encompasses a wide variety of sets from MTG’s past, characters, settings and artifacts will be from different planes and points in time of the deep lore of the game’s storylines.
Though it’s the case that new players will be targeted, there’ll still be Collector Boosters for fans who want to get their hands on special cards, but these, as always, will be variants of cards available in the ‘core’ set.
Perhaps the most exciting new product, however, is the Magic: The Gathering Foundations Beginner Box, pictured above, which provides at least two players with more than enough cards to learn and continue to play MTG.
There are two pre-shuffled, 20 card decks included (Cats and Vampires) that can be used to play a pre-scripted tutorial game, and then players can move on to using other cards in the box to continue playing standard games of MTG, once they know the basics. Including Cats and Vampires, there are 10 packs of cards in the box; similar to how Jumpstart Booster packs work, players just need to take two of these packs, shuffle them together to form a 40 card deck and begin playing.
Also included are playmats, life counters (20 sided dice) and rules reference cards; the Beginner Box really will provide the best way to get into MTG that there’s been for a very long time, and it contains an awful lot of replayability too. Of course, cards in the set can also be used when moving beyond the Beginner Box and into the wider world of buying boosters or other decks!
With Foundations laying the groundwork for future generations of fans to discover and learn MTG, it’s certain to be an exciting few years ahead. Though that’s all of the main sets for 2024, be sure to join us when we look to the future and check out what’s on the cards (pun not intended!) for 2025 and beyond!
