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Dominaria

Facts
Placement
Plane
Dominaria
Other
Symbol description
A Benalish shield
Design
Mark Rosewater (lead) ; Aaron Forsythe ; Ethan Fleischer ; Ian Duke ; Kelly Digges ; Gavin Verhey ; Richard Garfield
Development
Erik Lauer (co-lead) ; Dave Humpherys (co-lead ) ; Alli Medwin ; Andrew Brown ; Doug Beyer ; Ethan Fleischer ; Kelly Digges ; Ken Nagle ; Peter Lee ; Ryan Spain ; Sam Stoddard
Themes and mechanics
Historic cards ( Artifacts , Sagas , as well as legendary permanents and sorceries )
Keywords/​ability words
Kicker , Crew
Ixalan
Ixalan Rivals of Ixalan Dominaria
Challenger Decks
Challenger Decks Dominaria Commander Anthology Volume II

Dominaria is the 78th Magic expansion. It was released on April 27, 2018. It is not part of a block.

Set details

Dominaria is the first set to follow the Three-and-One Model, which abolished blocks. Richard Garfield was on the design team, for the first time since the original Innistrad set. It contains 269 cards (20 basic lands, 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares), and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. Ten additional cards are found in the set's planeswalker decks (2 mythic planeswalkers, 2 rares, 2 uncommons, 2 commons, and 2 common dual lands). These are numbered #270/269 to #279/269. A unique Buy-a-Box promotional card numbered #280/269 is also considered to be part of the set. Nostalgia and legendary creatures are major themes. Each booster contains at least one legendary creature, though this does not apply to the 8-card booster packs on MTG Arena. The expansion symbol depicts a Benalish shield. Because of its similarity to the Darksteel symbol, the common version has an inverted color scheme (more white than black). As a gimmick, all the names of sets taking place on Dominaria (including Alpha, Beta, Revised, Unlimited and Origins) or Rath (which was overlaid with Dominaria) are mentioned in card names or flavor text. Five of the basic lands feature a tiny silhouette of the Skyship Weatherlight in their art. Starting with Dominaria, Wizards of the Coast applies a new coating method for cards in English booster packs.

A substantial part of the set was accidentally spoiled six weeks before release, when Wizards of the Coast China published the release notes for Dominaria, instead of those for Masters 25.

The expansion code of Dominaria is DOM in the Information below the text box, but DAR seems to be used by Wizards as well.

Storyline


Dominaria is set on the plane of the same name, for the first time since the Time Spiral block (or Magic Origins if sets involving multiple planes are included). Sixty years after the Mending, this world is healing from its wounds. Returning legendary characters are Teferi, Jhoira, Jaya Ballard, and Karn. Dominaria’s story starts right after the events of Hour of Devastation. Gideon and Liliana have arrived on Dominaria following the Gatewatch’s defeat at the hands of Nicol Bolas. Together, they begin a mission to kill Belzenlok, the final demon holding Liliana’s contract.

The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in Dominaria are: Broken Bond; Final Parting; Settle the Score and In Bolas's Clutches.

Magic Story

Rules changes

  • The "Planeswalker redirection rule" is removed. Instead, each relevant card will tell you on the card specifically whether the card dealing direct damage can target planeswalkers. Some older cards will be errata'd to have “player” changed to “player or planeswalker”. Others will refer to "any target".
  • As of Dominaria, the use of the term "mana pool" has been discontinued in the card text. Abilities that pertain to mana production will simply refer to the mana type being produced.
  • As of Dominaria, Magic uses "they" as the preferred third-person-singular pronoun for a player, replacing "he or she", "him or her" or "his or her.".
  • Abilities that modify how a spell behaves on the stack, such as additional costs, now refer to themselves as "this spell" rather than by using their card name.

Marketing

Dominaria is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card), two planeswalker decks and the Dominaria bundle. The boosters feature artwork from Karn, Scion of Urza, Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle, Jaya Ballard, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, and artwork of Teferi not used by any card (which was also used in the package in Teferi's planeswalker deck). With the release of Dominaria, Wizards of the Coast began testing a new product at 300 Walmart locations across North America called the “Dominaria Theme Booster”. These contain 35 cards (a variable amount of commons and uncommons, and 1 rare or mythic rare) from a given color or theme. The MSRP is $6.99. By limiting this test to a single large account, WotC hoped to perform a controlled test that allowed them to more efficiently and accurately interpret sales results that would help inform future decisions about this kind of product. Color boosters may contain artifacts, as well. As a test, players in New Zealand were able to get MTG Arena codes inside select Dominaria booster packs, providing Closed Beta access as well as in-game items.

Events

Promotional cards

Tokens and emblems

Dominaria features fourteen tokens and two emblems.

  1. {W} 2/2 Knight creature with vigilance, for Aryel, Knight of Windgrace, Call the Cavalry and History of Benalia.
  2. {W} 2/2 Knight creature with vigilance (alternate art)
  3. {W} 1/1 Soldier creature, for Sergeant-at-Arms and Memorial to Glory
  4. {B} 0/1 Cleric creature, for Rite of Belzenlok
  5. {B} 2/2 Zombie Knight creature with menace, for Josu Vess, Lich Knight
  6. {B} */* Nightmare Horror creature, for Chainer's Torment.
  7. {B} 6/6 Demon creature with flying, trample, and "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice another creature, if you don't, this creature deals 6 damage to you." for Rite of Belzenlok
  8. {R} 3/1 Elemental creature with trample and haste, for Valduk, Keeper of the Flame.
  9. {R} 1/1 Goblin creature, for Siege-Gang Commander.
  10. {R} 4/4 Legendary Dragon creature with flying named Karox Bladewing, for Verix Bladewing.
  11. {G} 1/1 Saproling creature, for Deathbloom Thallid, Fungal Infection, Fungal Plots, Saproling Migration, Spore Swarm, Verdant Force, Slimefoot, the Stowaway and Yavimaya Sapherd.
  12. {G} 1/1 Saproling creature (alternate art)
  13. {G} 1/1 Saproling creature (alternate art)
  14. {C} 0/0 Construct artifact creature with "This creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control," for Karn, Scion of Urza.
  15. Emblem for Jaya Ballard
  16. Emblem for Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Verix Bladewing features a new template for creating tokens with names. "Create Karox Bladewing, a legendary 4/4 red Dragon creature token with flying" is functionally identical to the text "create a legendary 4/4 red Dragon creature token with flying named Karox Bladewing."

Themes and mechanics

History is the major theme for Dominaria, examplified by a significant number of legendary creatures and other legendary permanents. There is also a tribal theme for the Wizards, with several cards costing less when you control a Wizard. A minor Knight tribal theme was taken from the never completed second Dominaria set, codenamed Salad.

The set debuts legendary sorcery cards that capture extraordinary moments from main characters' pasts. These powerful spells can only be cast while you control a legendary creature or planeswalker.

The set sees the return of kicker, a keyword ability that allows the player to pay an extra cost for a bonus effect. Kicker was first featured in the Invasion block and last seen in the Zendikar block. Crew is used for the Weatherlight Vehicle.

Dominaria introduces "Hexproof from [quality]" as a variant of the hexproof ability. "Hexproof from black" means "This permanent can't be the target of black spells your opponents' control or abilities of black sources your opponents' control." It also introduces "equip [quality] creature" as a variant on equip. For example, "equip legendary creature" means "this equip activated ability can only target a legendary creature."

Double is a keyword action formally introduced for Grunn, the Lonely King.

Dominaria features the following limited archetypes:

Card types

The set introduces a new enchantment subtype: Saga. Each Saga tells the story of a key event from the past as it unfolds during each of the player's turns. As the Saga enters the battlefield and after the player's draw step, that player adds a lore counter, which triggers the appropriate chapter ability. Once all abilities have been triggered (for Sagas introduced in Dominaria, each has exactly three), the Saga is then sacrificed. Saga cards have a special vertically-aligned frame treatment. The rules text with the three chapter abilities is on the left side, and the art is on the right side.

Historic is a new game term that refers to a card that has the legendary supertype, the artifact card type, or the Saga enchantment type. Some abilities trigger "whenever you cast a historic spell."

Jaya is the newest planeswalker subtype. Returning creature types, typical for Dominaria, are Homarids, Kavu, Thrulls and sapient Apes.

Card frame

Counter types

Cycles

Dominaria has nine cycles:

Pairs

Dominaria has six mirrored pairs.

Reprinted cards

Rare to uncommon

Uncommon to common

Functional reprints

Card comparisons

Preconstructed decks

Dominaria features two planeswalker decks:

Notable cards

  • Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is a blue-red creature that cares about artifacts, fulfilling a popular request by Commander players.
  • Lich's Mastery is an alternate-loss card.
  • Weatherlight is one of the few cards having the same name as an expansion. Now a vehicle, each individual crew member can crew it on their own, except for its stowaway, who can do this with a Saproling token.
  • Mox Amber was nearly the first Mox printed that was able to pass through Standard without significant impact, after Mox Opal, Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond all proved too powerful. Alas, Kethis, the Hidden Hand arriving in Magic 2020 meant that it had a brief seasonal stint as the linchpin of a powerful combo deck that later caused Kethis to be banned in Pioneer as a precaution.
  • Goblin Chainwhirler is an efficient red creature with a mass 1-toughness removal ETB effect. It became a staple for Standard, its triple Red mana cost being so restraining and iconic that the premier deck of the format was known as Chainwhirler Red.
  • Teferi, Hero of Dominaria is a 5-costed blue-white planeswalker with 4 starting loyalty that has every quintessential planeswalker requirement - unconditional card advantage, targeted removal, and a game-ending ultimate - with the cherry on top that the positive loyalty ability untaps two lands, resulting in a net three-mana planeswalker. It proved to be so powerful that it was an automatic staple for control decks during its standard lifespan and continues to see play in UW decks in formats up to Modern. It was often used as the finisher of choice in combination with Approach of the Second Sun from Amonkhet and later in Nexus of Fate decks.

Callbacks

Many cards reference past cards and places from past blocks set on Dominaria.

References