Wizards Surprises Magic Players with Mini-Announcement Day

Love was in the air yesterday at Wizards of the Coast. In a surprise turn of events, the company behind Magic: The Gathering pulled back the veil on a number of new products for the coming year, calling it a "Valentine's Day Mini-Announcement." We were certainly smitten. Here's what they covered:

Magic: The Gathering Portal

Billed as an "all-in-one companion app," Magic: The Gathering Portal will allow players to construct their own tournaments, access a card search database, track life totals, create custom MTG news feeds, contact other players, and learn more about the game through supplemental educational materials. The app will be free for iOS and Android, and will release sometime this year.

Signature Spellbook Series

Deemed a "spiritual successor to the From the Vault series," the Signature Spellbook series is a nine card mini set based around planeswalkers and their (you guessed it) signature spells. The series kicks off with blue mage Jace Beleren, and will release on June 15, 2018 with an MSRP of $19.99. (Author's note: Is Memory Lapse too on the nose for this product?)

Battlebond

Perhaps the most exciting product announced, Battlebond is unlike anything we've seen in Magic before. It's a draft set designed for Two-Headed Giant! The set features 254 cards, 85 of them brand new. Battlebond introduces the new plane of Kylem, where "two-on-two combat is the pinnacle of sport." Kylem is themed around competition, specifically sports and e-sports. The set's been marked for release on June 8th of this year.

Commander Anthology Volume II

Perhaps borrowing from Guardians of the Galaxy's naming conventions, this set is a follow up to last year's debut Commander Anthology. It's a reprint edition of popular Commander decks from the past, all collected in a box set with premium foil versions of key cards and commanders. This set drops June 8th (which is, funnily enough, the same day as Battlebond).

Commander 2018

The newest Commander entry launches on August 10th, almost exactly one year after last year's edition. Though few details about the product have been released thus far, one phrase in particular caught our attention: "Call on powerful planeswalkers." Does this mean a return to planeswalker commanders, a la Commander 2014? As with all these announcements, we'll just have to wait and see.

Global Series Planeswalker Decks

Certainly an unexpected product here. These decks are part of a new "Global Series" and are headlined by new planeswalkers Jiang Yanggu and Mu Yanling. Wizards writes, "These two 60-card decks were originally designed by a team of Chinese artists, writers, and folklorists to explore a new branch of Magic lore rooted in Chinese aesthetics and mythology." Could this be a hint at a future set based on Chinese mythology? Okay, we'll be patient. This set releases on June 22.

That's all we have for now. Ladies and gentlemen, start your speculation!

Kyle Massa is a writer and avid Magic player living in upstate New York with his fiancée and their two cats. When he's not writing, you'll find him down at the East Greenbush Flipside store jamming booster drafts. For more of Kyle's work, visit www.kyleamassa.com or follow him on Twitter @mindofkyleam.