Wizards of the Coast introduces a brand new type of map set for Magic: The Gathering called on March 19 Time Spiral Remastered. This is a reprint of selected cards from three related sets that appeared 15 years ago. The reasons why Wizards publish this series are as complex as the game itself, but they are a sign of the future collection card game – and a good indication of the continued health of its community.
Magic constantly evolving. Just pull a month or two out of the stream of new versions, and it’s easy for the latest fads and strategies to overtake you. The momentum of the game comes from the multiple sets of cards that are released each year. They help to shape the overall meta-narrative of the game’s universe, but the most important thing is to sow new mechanical seeds in the game itself.
Each new set of cards that appears is in its own way a subtly different game from the previous one. Put down a box of boosters from the latest set, the Viking theme Kaldheim, and you have a very different story and mechanical experience than when you compose maps of the steampunk-ish Kaladesh. But certain strategies and maps tend to fall outside the favor of the community. At the same time certain sets and even individual cards are forbidden Magic’s different formats of the game.
What you end up with is a fluid and active market – both for the cards themselves and for the strategies around how you can play them – that needs to be refreshed from time to time. Going back to the seed-seed analogy, Wizards have to fertilize that soil every now and then with specific types of maps.
Time Spiral Remastered is a composite set of cards that intends to do so. It is drawn from a single ‘block’ of cards – three sets dating from 2006 with the title Time spiral, Planar chaos, en Future sight. As Wizards’ Mark Rosewater explains, a total of 626 cards were turned down to just 289 cards. But the set also contains an additional 121 “time-shifting” maps from the history of Magic: The Gathering. You will find one in each suit, marked with a special purple icon.
These 410 cards are put together to create a single, satisfying experience when set up (played with fresh cards randomly drawn from new suits) – and to put some nitrogen into the soil of the land. Magic community. Time Spiral Remastered has the potential to fill gaps in popular or emerging strategies in various formats.
What has diehard Magic fans who are so excited is that this will not be the last set of reinvented cards. According to Rosewater, there are at least five other candidates on the drawing board. This is a sign that Wizards of the Coast is willing to slow down and listen to its biggest fans, by adjusting the meta-layer of the game by reprinting older cards and bringing them back into circulation. But Wizards are also interested in having fun, getting players new and old to play with a streamlined set of cards from Magic‘s flowering period.
The first opportunity to play Time Spiral Remastered cards are coming next week, where they will be available at retail. Unfortunately, in-store gaming is still off the table due to the global pandemic. Instead, fans will have to pick up boosters (ideally at their friendly local game store) and bring them home. Wizards then hosts a launch party with SpellTable, a new platform for playing remotely with physical cards.
After the launch weekend, collectors and serious players will want to keep an eye on Wizards’ guidance on which cards Time Spiral Remastered across will be “legal” Magic‘s many forms of the game. Then the next main series with maps is titled Strixhaven, will come out at the end of April.