Magic: The Gathering is coming off a commercially successful year, but it was not one devoid of controversy. From $1,000 proxy booster packs to product overload, Magic was faced with several issues that brought the soaring game back down to Earth from the lofty highs of 2020 and 2021.
It was a transitionary year. The Magic Esports experiment came to an end and a new vision for organized play was implemented. The Secret Lair product line continued to expand what a Magic card could look like with its alternate art releases. Tabletop play returned to local game stores around the globe and Limited became a more prevalent part of the competitive field.
Next year presents more room for growth and change for Wizards of the Coast’s golden goose. With a new organized play system, further Universes Beyond releases, and the end of a major story arc, the game could look a lot different by December 2023. Here are the biggest storylines for Magic going into 2023.
Biggest MTG storylines for 2023
Return of The Gathering
Since the pandemic forced the competition to shift online through the game’s digital platforms Magic Arena and Magic Online, it was only a matter of time before tabletop play would return to the forefront. With the end of the tumultuous Magic Esports era by dissolving the league system, it’s an opportunity for Magic to return to a time when the competitive player base was more engaged.
This will happen with the return of Pro Tours that feed into the 2023 Magic World Championship. These Pro Tours are supported by global regional championships and qualifier tournaments, reminiscent of the old system that was implemented through most of the game’s history prior to the esports push. A return to a tabletop-centric system will allow for eternal formats like Pioneer and Modern to thrive as competitive formats again. Since the formats aren’t available on Magic Arena, they have been largely absent from high-level play outside of the occasional Magic Online showcase event.
Digital play won’t disappear from the landscape. The infrastructure built over the past two years will continue to support competitive play. Through the year it’ll be interesting to see how the two digital-only formats, Historic and Alchemy, factor into the border scene. Standard will also be in an interesting place as once a highly-played tabletop format that now lives largely on Magic Arena with the format’s decline in local game stores over the past several years.
The Health of Standard
Standard is Magic’s main rotating format that should be one of the most popular in the game. It has an accessible card pool made up entirely of sets that are currently in print. The smaller card pool means it should have more focused gameplay and easier-to-learn and pick-up lists. However, the past few years of Standard have been rocky. Both 2020 and 2021 were marred by frequent bans and overpowered cards warping the format and pushing deck prices to the level of eternal formats like Modern and Pioneer.
Since the fall rotation in 2021, Standard has been considerably powered down and it’s generally been for the best. While there has been a fair share of problematic cards, like The Meathook Massacre for most of the year, the format has been healthy. Midrange is finally back as a viable strategy and both control and aggro have a place in the format. Going into 2023, however, Standard still faces a perception issue. The local scenes around the world lean more toward eternal formats rather than Standard. Making an investment into a Standard deck, when in the Arena era the format shifts so rapidly, is a tough ask compared to eternal formats where decks are viable for years. Standard will continue to have a home on Arena, but as local game stores return to having regular events, the format may not factor into the calendar.
Universes Beyond
Since the release of 2018’s The Walking Dead Secret Lair, the Universes Beyond product line has exploded. Since the initial release, Wizards of the Coast has dropped Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks and Secret Lair releases for Stranger Things, Arcane, Fortnite, and Street Fighter.
Reaction to Universes Beyond is mixed among the community. Some releases have garnered widespread praise like the Warhammer decks, which featured flavorful art and well-crafted preconstructed decks that brought support to unique archetypes. The introduction of mechanically unique cards in Secret Lair drops was controversial, but Wizards has begun printing in-universe versions of these cards. Players are able to get their hands on mechanically identical Stranger Things cards from Streets of New Capenna boosters. Another major step in the product line was releasing Universes Beyond cards with a main booster set. Transformers cards were included in The Brothers’ War boosters, further expanding the product line.
2023 is going to be another massive year for Universes Beyond with the release of Dr. Who Commander decks and the first Universes Beyond draftable set that will be legal in Modern The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth. With a full set releasing, it’ll be interesting to see how the set sells and if community reaction will shift, either positively or negatively.
Phyrexian Storyline Ending
Magic will reach the climactic end to the Phyrexian storyline that has been years in the making since Zendikar Rising in late 2020. The conclusion will be made up of three sets: Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machines, and March of the Machines: Aftermath. Wizards has promised that both the story and gameplay will have some sort of major shift coming out of this arc which likely will start to unfold in ONE and then become solidified in March of the Machines. A unique twist comes in the epilogue Aftermath set. It will not be a traditional draftable set, but instead a supplemental booster set that will primarily focus on injecting cards into Constructed formats.
Similar to the last big conclusion from War of the Spark, the cool-down sets that come later in the year are intriguing. Players will see a return to Eldraine and Ixalan. Wizards said these will be smaller-scale stories coming off this large multiverse-spanning adventure. Coming off fall rotation, this will be a good way to reimagine Standard focused on whatever mechanical changes are coming after March of the Machines.
