Unveiling the Cosmic Design Secrets of Magic: The Gathering's Edge of Eternities

Cosmic Cards in Limited

Each "Volleyball" booster pack contains one cosmic card, a new supertype that's twice the size of normal cards. These cards come in various rarities, and steps have been taken to ensure they're usable in Limited games. Journeyers, which fetch cosmic cards, appear more frequently to mitigate pairing issues, and an "escape clause" allows excess journeyers to scry 2.

Alternative Cosmic Executions

Two alternative approaches were considered:

• A Lesson spell/learn mechanic style, allowing journeyers to fetch any cosmic card of a specified color.
• Using checklist cards to represent cosmic cards in zones other than the battlefield.

Warp Mechanic

Warp COST lets you cast spells during your precombat main phase, exiling them at the end of combat. This mechanic, representing hyperspace travel, synergizes with the void mechanic, though its timing was adjusted during Set Design for better interaction.

Lander Tokens

Lander tokens are double-faced artifact tokens that transform into lands, aiding mana-hungry strategies. Primarily green, their creation in other colors is carefully balanced to avoid color pie violations.

Void Mechanic

Inspired by the Zeroist black hole worshippers, void triggers if an artifact or creature was put into a graveyard or exile this turn. It's concentrated in black but appears across colors.

Modified Mechanic

A creature is modified if it has counters, is equipped, or is enchanted. Initially in white, it was removed during set design as it no longer fit the set's direction.

Limited Gameplay

Battlecruiser Magic is emphasized, with higher mana value spells and expensive abilities. The set's structure is simple to balance its complex execution, with two-color Limited archetypes derived from monocolor themes.

Tropes and Allusions

The set references space opera tropes but avoids specific allusions to preserve future design space. Cards are tagged to ensure these concepts aren't lost during iteration.

Subtypes

New subtypes like Spacecraft, Station, and Planet enrich the space opera theme. Spacecraft are artifact creatures, Vehicles, or cosmic artifacts, with rules to avoid adding extraneous creature types.

New Creature Types

Aliens like Kavu and Drix populate the set, avoiding fantasy tropes to maintain a unique sci-fi identity.

Bonus Sheet

A bonus sheet features sci-fi themed lands, selected for appeal and gameplay synergy.