I'll Face Myself: Reality Fracture Spoilers from MagicCon Amsterdam

After barely a month of playtime with the hit Marvel Super Heroes cards, MagicCon Amsterdam has bestowed upon us some brand-new, official, and world-bending Reality Fracture spoilers. These reveals point forward to the highly-anticipated end of the Echoverse Arc, itself the final third of the three-year Metronome story progression. But enough about boring things like storytelling and worldbuilding design — we're all here for digital cardboard, so let's discuss.

The mechanical theme of Reality Fracture is something that has popped up quite a bit in popular media as of late: the Multiverse. Of course, the concept of Magic's Multiverse is about as old as planeswalkers, given the world-hopping nature of its multi-planar setting, so this should feel like broken ground at this point. Cards in this set will feel familiar with an exciting twist or variation to spice things up. Let's have a look.

The Lorwyn Five

Back before Magic Origins went and gave these characters, well, character, the Lorwyn Five first appeared suddenly in the Magic story and in card form in October of 2007. Ajani Goldmane, Jace Beleren, Liliana Vess, Chandra Nalaar, and Garruk Wildspeaker: the sheer influence these cards and characters had on the direction of the lore, worldbuilding, mechanical identity, and the primordial soup of what makes Magic unique is unfathomable. Interestingly, they were originally meant to appear in the Time Spiral block, a factoid Mark Rosewater himself dropped during a talk at Amsterdam. Despite that, it's taken just over the duration of one entire adolescence for all five of them to show up in one place again. Let's look at their calamitous reunion:

Lifegain decks have long been the bane of many an aggro player (in 60-card formats, anyway), and Ajani's Pridemate is the bane of many Magic Arena players — if you know, you know. Ajani Resolute, or as I like to call him, Ajani's Pridewalker, is about as bland of a payoff for lifegain decks as it can get, though the ridiculous ease at which these decks can compound triggers is nothing to scoff at.

Ajani Unrelenting, on the other hand, is a little more special. Though he bears a steep six mana casting cost, this planeswalker is a workhorse in red-inclusive go-wide decks; it builds itself a defense with token generation, acts as an anthem and haste enabler, is Slate of Ancestry on a stick, and can even soft-wrath the board with the -3 loyalty ability. At six mana, you're likely to have more impactful plays in a deck that needs this kind of ability to draw effectively, but it's one of the few ways mono-red has available to get card-positive hand refill.

Next up is the old classic Chandra, Torch of Defiance, though admittedly it took until just now for me to realize that she's the only character here that didn't get a new card for this iconic entry of the Magic story. I find this a little ironic given how Chandra's been shafted by WotC in the past, but that doesn't take away from the power and reliability of Torch of Defiance.

The frigid Chandra, Chill of Compliance is the most one-to-one 180° turn from the original design. The first +1 ability is only the second most convoluted ability that draws a card in this set so far, while the second is a solid mana source in a color that is sometimes hard-up for flexible ramp in the early game. Any loyalty ability that has a cost of -X is usually a really nice option for flexibility, and Chill-dra's is no different, locking down one creature with X stun counters. What stands out the most is arguably her "ult" ability, considering that drawing cards is usually better than Torch of Defiance's mirrored emblem that deals flat damage. Her abilities are versatile enough that she'll likely appear in any blue-heavy deck that leans hard on noncreature spells.

From a lore perspective, this matchup is my guilty pleasure. I actually really enjoy how the brains behind the Magic story handled the Multiverse treatment of a spark-less Liliana on both sides of the universal divide. Liliana the Repentant is the first card here I think is just straight-up good. Easy mill outlets for creature-based decks are almost always in high demand, and the tech, variations, and "secret menu" picks for role-players like this give players a ton of flexibility and customizability in how they build their decks. In this instance, the mill outlet not only works with planeswalkers, but she even has her own one-time reanimator ability stapled on too.

And on the other side of the universal divide, well, who could have guessed? Liliana the Faultless requires little explanation. A Soul Sister-esque effect that also has instant-speed hexproof protection combines two very strong abilities into a single one-drop creature in a color that has rapidly risen to prominence in the Commander format as of late.

Poor Garruk has been through the wringer over the past decade or so, between being enslaved by a twink or bearing a curse from a very impractical piece of headwear. Garruk, Curse Breaker is a triumphant entry showing the cured-and-improved hunter, and in great form. Static effects on planeswalkers can be very powerful, and an unlimited draw ability is easily on the shortlist of the best ones. Even ignoring that effect, this is a powerful planeswalker; it can squeeze extra mana out of your lands (especially effective with mana doublers), protect itself with a blocker that also draws a card, or has an Overrun with the interesting side benefit of applying to your opponents' creatures when they attack each other instead of you.

Garruk, Veiled Butcher shows a version of Garruk given over to The Chain Veil completely, and surely enjoys inflicting suffering. Each of the abilities on this card is punishing, with a weakening effect on one creature, mass edict, and a discard ability. Most importantly, though, is the Leyline of the Void-esque static effect to hose death triggers; there aren't always enough of those effects to go around, so having it as a static bonus to an active planeswalker on your board is always good.

Last, but certainly not least, Magic's wonder-boy extraordinaire and the only one of the Lorwyn Five not to receive a partner — on account of being the progenitor of the Echoverse itself — Jace Beleren returns to the land of the living with The Theorist, Jace Beleren. Of the various planeswalkers that have been built with Commander in mind, this one may be towards the top of the food chain. Drawing three extra cards per turn cycle is already a pretty big benefit, and coming with a blocker or a three-for-none bounce effect is fantastic utility. The only ability I'm not particularly sold on is the -6, but as far as planeswalker ults go, I appreciate it a lot more than most because it actually provides you an ability with an immediate threat factor. The real "ultimate" is keeping Jace in play for multiple turn cycles in a row, getting an Ancestral Recall each run around the table.

The Callback Kids

A few years ago, because of the struggles mono-white and some white-inclusive color combos had in the Commander format, it was a bit of a community in-joke that mono-white wasn't allowed to draw cards — unless there was a complicated or difficult condition to meet. Enlightened Confidant has taken that prerequisite, manifested it into reality, and then bludgeoned it to death. This has to be the single worst text box that says "draw a card" without saying "draw a card" I've ever seen in my entire life. Compare this to the simple elegance of Dark Confidant - reveal card, lose life, put in hand. This is obviously a step backwards for card clarity and mechanical understanding, but I can't help but find it funny. It's just so goofy.

As if artifact decks didn't have enough toys to play with, Reality Fracture brings Craterclaw Colossus to the table. Stapled to this artifact creature is an ability that has been sorely lacking in the artifact archetype: an enters trigger on a card that can be reanimated, copied, cloned, or abused! In case you can't read the sarcasm in my writing: this is a cool card, but abusing big fat fatties in artifact decks is like breathing. It's more or less the whole point. At least it's a cool reimagining of Craterhoof Behemoth.

Another mono-red reflection of an iconic Magic staple, Stingcaster Mage is about as one-to-one with Snapcaster Mage as it can get, except for the fact that it has haste instead of flash.

Though not quite a strict reference, Bloodline Recollector is the same as Emeritus of Ideation in the way that really matters: having a serialized print treatment having a one-mana-draw-three-cards spell stapled to it. I should point out that this creature might actually be broken in half; its condition for becoming prepared triggers at every end step, not just your own, and checks for creatures dying on any board, not just yours or your opponents' exclusively. That being said, getting that Ancestral Craving off every single turn is almost guaranteed to be impossible to pull off — at least, not without winning the game before you even need that many cards. The amount of creatures and guaranteed death triggers needed to hit that threshold would likely put you in a position to close the game out anyway. Still, I think a solid two casts per rotation is feasible and still nets you six cards per round, and that's plenty of velocity for a two-mana creature and a small investment of two mana per turn.

I have no clue what the adorable little Mr. Bones is doing here in the Echoverse, yet Tinybones, Pocket Nuisance is in this set all the same. This card — and the corresponding Titanbones, Towering Heart — are just one more demonstration of the Reality Fracture paired printing concept. As for the cards themselves, they're interesting cases to be made for Pauper EDH, though I'm not familiar enough with the format enough to know how powerful they'd be. Titanbones is a decent candidate; green has gotten plenty of random lifegain synergies and payoffs in recent years. Maybe it'll be independent enough to stand on its own soon.

Hexhaven Students

The mechanics for each of the five Hexhaven schools are hinted at through these signpost uncommons with prepared spells; most of them are pretty unremarkable, though I think Stingerquill Voxmancer deserves a second glance; it's a simple card, but repeatable life loss/direct damage on a sorcery spell that gets reloaded for free could have some interesting applications in black-red decks. Maybe Rakdos Spellslinger will be relevant soon — we'll have to wait and see.

Multiverse of Madness

What has you excited for Reality Fracture? Personally, I can't wait to see more callback cards. I really enjoy the history of Magic over the years — popular cards, neat lore, or stories of famous players — so this one is especially appealing to me. Tell us what you're excited about in the comments or hop in our community server to chat about it!

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