Edge of Eternities – Out of this World
It was always going to be tough to follow a Final Fantasy drop – pre-orders numbers unlike anything seen previously ensured that before the set even launched. But Magic: The Gathering doesn’t have the luxury of slowing down or taking a breather, even after a bumper release most fan’s wallets have barely recovered from. Balancing out the influx of external IP, the team at Wizards have put together one of the most lore heavy waves in a long time in Edge of Eternities, a journey into the farthest reaches of space with such scale across the set it boggles the mind. Bugs to black holes, swamps to supernovas, EoE encompasses a lot. New keywords, incredible artwork and the crushing weight of the eternal void may seem daunting, but what’s an adventure without some risk?
Player2 was fortunate enough to receive a package comprising of a World Shaper Commander Deck, and Edge of Eternities bundle, three Collector Boosters and a supplementary six Play Boosters. To see how we fared with the Collector Boosters, be sure to check out the Player2 Instagram account where you can find video of each pack opening. As for the Bundle, I think out of the three I’ve received so far (Tarkir, Final Fantasy) this is actually the most aesthetically pleasing to me personally – the artwork encompasses the entire top of the box, a falling meteor in the distance as a spaceship rockets past while two harried figures stand weapons at the ready. The team at Wizards spoke about wanting to swap out the Fiction in Sci Fi and sub in Fantasy, the composition and colour palette especially working to achieve this goal in spades.
The Bundle comes with the requisite number of Play Boosters and both regular, foil and foil Borderless sets of Land cards, some of the most evocative I’ve seen so far, a testament to the art team Wizards has at their disposal. While an arrangement of stars and nebula convey Swamps and Islands, a ship burning up on re-entry or the commanding view from a molten planet surface stand in for Mountains. If any Land type suffers, its Plains – it must be hard to convey a compelling flat surface in the infinite majesty of space. Even alien surfaces can’t get too exciting lest they not look ‘plain’ enough I suppose. Rounding out the box are a few random pulls and of course the spindown d20, this time a beautiful sparkling sapphire with the ringed planet icon of the Edge set.
The World Shaper Commander Deck is imposing, my first with a new keyword some of my more experienced MTG friends haven’t faced yet in Station, while Warp and Void remain thankfully confined to Boosters for the moment. A Jund deck (Black/Red/Green), World Shaper comes with two pre-designated Commanders; Hearthhull, the Worldseed, a Legendary Artifact-Spacecraft featuring Station alongside Szarel, Genesis Shephard, a Legendary Creature-Insect Druid that is a more standard affair. That said, there are twelve other Legendary Creatures scattered throughout this deck, so lots of wiggle room if desired. Life and Death go hand in hand with Hearthhull’s Station ability, which when powered up triggers when lands are sacrificed to reduce an opponent’s life directly. Combined with cards like Planetary Annihilation (Choose 6 lands, Sacrifice the Rest and deal 6 Damage to Each Creature) in conjunction with Splendid Reclamation (Return all land cards from the graveyard to the battlefield tapped), it’s clear burning and churning through land is the key to victory for this particular deck, with some Token creation and life regain for good measure.
However, this can take a few rounds to execute and as a result can struggle against faster, more aggressive decks. That said, there’s still plenty of punch packed into World Shaper and being land heavy means if sacrificing lands isn’t the way to go in a particular turn, pivoting to spewing out a few creatures can be. As with most recent Commander decks, it’s going to be fun to play if you can get it doing what it’s supposed to and there’s a number of cards that I can see being cannibalised for other builds.
Edge of Eternities is the last non-IP related MTG release for 2025, meaning purists will still have five months or so to make the most of it – not a bad deal given how much effort appears to have gone into this set. Spider-Man fans and Avatar: The Last Airbender tragics (guilty!) will however be kept busy across September and November when their respective waves launch, with Spider-Man especially carrying an array of products, albeit with no pre-con Commander decks planned. Make sure to keep an eye on Player2 for more Magic: The Gathering news and coverage in future!
Magic: The Gathering – Edge of Eternities was reviewed using products kindly supplied by the publisher.
