With all the buzz surrounding Magic: The Gathering, fans of the series have had their ears to the ground for new information every day. So when the Magic: The Gathering YouTube channel aired its weekly announcement stream on October 10th, players were excited to hear about every scrap of news being made available along with the reveal of the new Unsanctioned box set as well as an upcoming expansion to the standard game.
The latest stream covered the release date of the upcoming expansion, as well as acknowledging the news of the week for MTG, including an updated release date for the next Banned and Restricted announcement that will isolate the game breakers that need banning for the sake of tournament balance. However, some of the more exciting news comes in the form of the release dates for Theros: Beyond Death and Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.
Theros: Beyond Death will be the first newcomer of 2020, releasing on January 24th, with a pre-release from the 17th through the 19th. Three months later, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths will have an identical release window, with the official release deploying on April 24th, and a pre-release from the 17th through the 19th. These two expansions will be the 83rd and 84th expansions to MTG, bringing new characters and a new feature in Ikoria that emphasizes building monsters. The January release will be the first expansion since Throne of Eldraine released earlier this month on October 4th.
Between these two newest expansions will also come a brand new un-set, a set of silver bordered cards for casual play that feature mechanics that generally defy the standard conventions of MTG. Titled Unsanctioned, it brings back old cards, some of which have become exceedingly rare and highly valuable, and introduces new cards in a box set that is set to release on February 29th. This new set doesn't have much information available yet, but from the way the stream approached the reveal, it is the culmination of a large undertaking that looks to be a new introduction for un-sets in general the same way that the Game Night box set is meant to be a casual way to introduce MTG to new players.
The MTG weekly announcement stream is a massive source of information for the goings on in the MTG card game, and while the regular hosts don't work on MTG Arena, updates are posted on the channel when they are made available. Anyone who's looking to follow MTG more closely, or who is looking to introduce themselves to the game, the MTG channel is a great resource for staying informed on everything from new releases to the top strategies and current metas.
Magic: The Gathering Throne of Eldraine is available now.