The thirtieth anniversary of Magic: The Gathering is upon us. So let’s check out what releases are, ahem, on the cards for the rest of the year – as we look at the MTG 2023 Release Schedule!
With its first set released way back in 1993, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year.
With that momentous occasion being quite the cause for celebration, plenty of reprints and classic cards are going to be making an appearance over the course of 2023.
MTG is arguably as strong as its ever been – it is certainly as accessible and widely known, not to mention widely played, these days by an awful lot of fans, in many different formats.
With publisher Wizards of the Coast really ramping up their releases in 2023 – after a few years that have already seen them significantly increase their publishing schedule for MTG – it’s a solid year for fans new, old and lapsed.
We’ve already seen a wealth of new sets added in 2023, but there’s much more to come.
Though releases such as Secret Lair cards drop without warning, we have a lot of information on what’s still to come throughout the year.
So – without further ado, let’s take a look at the MTG 2023 Release Schedule!
1. Dominaria Remastered (January 13th, 2023)
Though MTG launched with a fairly loose setting in 1993 – one that seemed to change depending on the needs of each set that released, with little in the way of story or official lore, Dominaria emerged back in 1997 as the setting for the very first official storyline in MTG.
Dominaria Remastered, as you can probably guess, whisks players back the familiar, popular and very nostalgic setting – and was a fitting set for the first release during MTG’s 30th anniversary year.
Though it initially featured in a 1997 release, Wizards of the Coast have revisited Dominaria before; the straightforwardly-named Dominaria set in 2018 – released to coincide with Magic’s 25th anniversary – was another that tapped into the nostalgia for the setting among long term MTG players.
More recently, Dominaria United was used as a way to kick off a massive storyline – the effects of which will ripple – in fact, have already rippled – throughout 2023.
Is it just an easy way to bring a nostalgic fix to players?
Perhaps, but the setting of Dominaria itself has a lore-appropriate excuse for Wizards of the Coast to continue revisiting it.
With the plane Dominaria being the nexus point that connects all other planes of the Magic: The Gathering multiverse, no doubt Dominaria Remastered isn’t the last time we’ll head back there.
So within the Dominaria Remastered set, you’ll find reprints of cards from 27 different Dominaria-related sets – which is pretty incredible!
Some may well feature on the rare Magic the Gathering cards list on our sister site, Retro Dodo, too!
2. Phyrexia: All Will Be One (February 10th, 2023)
The Phyrexians are a long term threat to the Magic: The Gathering multiverse – and in 2023 their plans have already seen several heroes fall to their Borg-like hordes of biomechanical beings.
The Phyrexian subject matter lends itself well to disturbing, HR Giger-esque body horror imagery – which these cards take full advantage of.
The Phyrexia: All Will Be One set has caused a little bit of controversy, with a few card variants featuring only Phyrexian language, rendering them collectable but unplayable unless you have the card’s non-Phyrexian version too.
Still, this is a great set to continue one of Magic’s most epic storylines in recent memory!
3. Shadows Over Innistrad Remastered (March 21st 2023)
The original Shadows Over Innistrad sets were released in 2016 – and this digital release will bring the horror-themed cards into MTG Arena for the first time.
The horror-based, titular plane of Innistrad is of course the setting here, with the Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon sets teleporting from tabletop to screen in this Remastered release.
Both double faced cards and creatures using allied pair of colours feature quite heavily in these Innistrad sets.
It’s not just these two sets being brough into the digital realm, however – purchasing Shadows Over Innistrad Remastered packs will also give you the chance to find Shadows of the Past cards, which are horror and supernatural themed cards from a variety of different sets.
Check out the MTG Arena codes list on our sister site, Retro Dodo, if you want to give your digital card collection a boost!
4. March of the Machine (April 21st, 2023)
The Phyrexian storyline – which actually kicked off in 2022 with Dominaria United – reaches its epic conclusion with March of the Machine.
What better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of MTG, than by wrapping up a storyline featuring a threat to the entire Multiverse, bringing together characters from across the rich history and lore of Magic: The Gathering’s three decade existence?
Though Wizards of the Coast did promise that the events of March of the Machine would change the Multiverse forever – with the allied forces from every plane looking to stop Elesh Norn and her Machine Legion – the storyline has proven to be a little underwhelming.
Despite the disappointment with the story, the March of the Machine set itself has proven to have numerous interesting innovations – including Battle cards and a big focus on double-faced cards and the mashing up of disparate characters to make entirely new Creature cards.
5. March of the Machine: The Aftermath (May 12th, 2023)
Though the March of the Machine main storyline has concluded, the dust is still settling across the many different planes of the Multiverse.
Which brings us to March of the Machine: The Aftermath.
A bridging ‘mini-set’ that ties up loose ends from March of the Machine itself, as well as launching us into further storylines that’ll take us through the rest of the year, March of the Machine: The Aftermath will bring ‘Epilogue Boosters’ to MTG.
These are smaller packs of five cards – each pack containing 1-3 Rare cards and 2-4 Uncommon cards.
The more standard Collector Boosters and Bundle will also be available as part of this interesting and unique experiment – perhaps we’ll see more of this type of post-storyline wrap-up going forwards.
7. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth (June 23rd, 2023)
Last year, MTG took us on some very unexpected journeys with their visits to the universes of Warhammer 40,000 and Transformers – which no doubt brought in new players, as well as tempting lapsed MTG gamers back into the arena.
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth feels like a much bigger deal than either of those already-massive properties, however – and there’s an incredibly special gimmick with this particular set.
The One Ring is a powerful Legendary Artifact card that gives its user great power, at a cost to their own life.
So far, so thematic – but how else is it special?
Well, in keeping with the theme even further, there really is only one copy of The One Ring, at least in its most, ahem, precious variant.
You read that right: in all the cards being printed by Wizards of the Coast, they’ll only be printing a single card for the ‘1 of 1’ version of The One Ring, which could be hidden in a Collector Booster anywhere – either in a pack found in a Collector Booster box, a single pack or in a Gift Bundle.
Though this special version – which is foil-printed, with text written in the Black Speech of Sauron – is a one of a kind, hidden in an English-language booster somewhere in the world, The One Ring is, thankfully, available in other variants too.
All variants of The One Ring are mechanically identical, but not all are available in all packs.
The Main Set Version can be found in any booster or bundle, the Bundle Alt-Art Promo Version will be available as a promotional card in Bundles and Gift Bundles (as well as potentially being found in Collector Boosters) and, finally, the Extended Art Version can be found in some Gift Bundles and Collector Booster packs.
The One Ring – despite its name – isn’t the only ring, of course.
Three more cards – featuring the Rings of Power belonging to the Humans, Elves and Dwarves – may also be found in Collector Boosters, in limited numbers.
18 art cards can also be found, collected and combined to make beautifully painted scenes from the famous Lord of the Rings saga.
This is shaping up to be one of the showcase sets for MTG in 2023 and is very likely to lead to a huge explosion in popularity for the three decade old CCG!
7. Commander Masters (August 4th, 2023)
The Commander format of Magic: The Gathering has seen its popularity grow enormously in the last few years – with Wizards of the Coast providing pre-built Commander decks as part of their releases for most new sets.
The Masters sets are releases which reprint powerful, fan favourite cards from Magic’s rich history – often with their original art as well as alternate, new versions and treatments too.
This August release marks the first time that a Masters set will focus on the Commander format, however.
Within this set, Wizards of the Coast are promising that we’ll see the usual reprints of popular cards – in original and alternate art variants – but there’ll also be new cards alongside those classic ones too!
Naturally – as this is a Commander-focused set – alongside the usual Set Booster, Collector Booster and Draft Booster packs, there’ll be Commander Decks too.
Perhaps the most intriguing of the upcoming Commander Decks is Eldrazi Unbound, a 100 card deck that’s completely colourless, in terms of the Mana it needs to function!
8. Wilds of Eldraine (September 8th, 2023)
Another familiar plane, Eldraine is a setting that’s inspired by fairy tales and Arthurian legends.
Eldraine isn’t a setting that’s been around long enough to induce nostalgic feelings amongst the MTG audience, however, having been introduced relatively recently – in the 2019 set Throne of Eldraine.
Information is currently lacking for the Wilds of Eldraine set, but perhaps the return to the storybook world will also see its card subtypes such as Adventure and Food making an appearance again?
What we have seen so far are the gorgeous illustrations on packs, as well as sneak peeks of some card art that truly brings the whimsical, storybook feel of the plane of Eldraine to life.
Wizards of the Coast have also promised that we’ll be venturing into the wider world of Eldraine beyond its castle walls this time – and the Wilds of Eldraine set is also going to be our first glimpse at the post-March of the Machine Multiverse; the effects of the Phyrexian invasion rippling through the setting and its story.
9. Doctor Who Commander Decks (October 3rd, 2023)
After The Lord of the Rings takes over this Summer, we still have the Doctor Who Commander Decks to look forward to in the last quarter of 2023.
Just as with the Wilds of Eldraine set, not a great deal is known about the Doctor Who Commander Decks – but we do know that four different Commander Decks will be released; these are promised to contain cards that’ll cover the rich history of Doctor Who, itself celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2023!
So what are the themes and colours of the four decks? That we do know!
First up is a Green-White-Blue Deck. This colour combo is known as Bant in MTG parlance – you can check out our guide to MTG Colour Combo names here!
This deck, given that it covers the oldest history of the Doctor Who show, with a focus on all of the first eight Doctors, is aptly named Blast From The Past.
Next, we have the brilliantly named Timey Wimey (a reference to the weird ripple effects that time travel can have – from what this humble writer considers to be the best episode of modern era Doctor Who: Blink), a Blue-Red-White (or Jeskai) deck featuring Doctors Nine, Ten and Eleven.
The more recent Doctors Twelve and Thirteen are featured in the Paradox Power deck, which uses Green, Blue and Red (or Temur).
Finally, there’s the very intriguing Masters of Evil Commander Deck, which prominently features the Doctor’s greatest villains.
This deck uses Blue, Black and Red – Grixis – as its colours.
Each deck is set to contain 50 new cards, along with Planechase cards, which make a very apt card type in Doctor Who, given the main character’s tendency to jump from place to place, in time and space.
In a first for a Commander set release, Collector Boosters will also be released – and these will contain cards found in the decks, albeit in special variant forms.
Should you have access to a TARDIS – that’s Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, if you were ever wondering what it stood for – then please do head for the last months of 2023 and bring us back a copy of each deck, so we can update our readers on their contents!
10. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (Q4 2023)
As with the plane of Eldraine, Ixalan isn’t one that’s likely to bring the warm glow of nostalgia to players.
That’s because, though it’s appeared before, the plane of Ixalan first appeared in the ‘Ixalan’ set relatively recently, in 2017.
We’re not saying it’s not a welcome return to Ixalan, however.
Ixalan is a plane that has an Age of Discovery and Piracy-inspired setting, full of mythical creatures such as merfolk, vampires and dinosaurs that have very much not become extinct!
As with Eldraine, the Ixalan set introduced its own card subtype – in this instance, the Treasure Artifact.
There’s little information beyond speculation on what could be included in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, but rest assured that we’ll be featuring the set right here on Card Gamer, as soon as we know what it’ll contain!
If you’re going to be picking up any of these upcoming MTG sets – especially if you happen upon The One Ring – check out our sister site’s recommendations for the best Magic the Gathering sleeves to keep your cards in pristine condition!
