The crash following Magic’s best-selling ever set (Final Fantasy sold US$200 million revenue in one day) was simply inevitable. Time moves along, and another release had to follow up. That unfortunate honor belongs to Edge of Eternities, which happens to be another first in Magic. It is the one and only release that ostensibly takes place in outer space, which was once a completely foreign concept.

But with players wallets empty and hurt from that massive Final Fantasy adventure, and the web-slinging Spiderman crossover following up, is there any left in the tank for the one in space? Let’s look at some of the north stars that are paving the pay for Edge of Eternities.

Shock Lands Reprint

Flying a little under the radar, not many players were aware that Shock Lands make a return in Edge of Eternities. The last reprint in the parody-set Unfinity was not as accessible because many players didn’t want to fork out hundreds of dollars for a bunch of cards that were not playable in any format.

The reprints for 5 of the Shock Lands – Breeding Pool, Sacred Foundry, Watery Grave, Godless Shrine and Stomping Ground – is a welcome treat because these lands always hold value, even if you see a dip at the start of each release. They can be found in the main set as well, so that increases the expected value of opening regular Play Booster packs. Sticking with the multiple-variants trend, borderless and alternate art can be found in the Collector Booster packs, and they do not disappoint.

Warp: Reality-Bending New Mechanic

Every set introduces a new mechanic, and Edge of Eternities is no different. Station is one (we’ll come to that below), and the other is Warp. The space-suited term lets a player cast a spell for its Warp cost (often cheaper than its normal casting cost), enjoying its Enter or dying triggers, before being exiled. While you might think that’s the end of it, an exiled card with Warp can actually be cast on a later turn by paying its regular cost.

You read it right: there’s zero downside to Warp, and 9 out of 10 times a player will be using Warp whenever they feel its advantageous since there’s no consequence to think of. When the card is in Warp-exile, there’s also no way an opponent can remove it, unlike if the Warp card had landed into the Graveyard. Mechanically, it is actually very similar to the Adventure mechanic, where a card can be cast early for one effect, or later for another, depending on the situation.

Adventure turned out to be incredibly well received by players, and now it makes constant reappearances in new sets. We could see the same with Warp, and it all started here with Edge of Eternities.

Spacecraft as Commanders

As teased above, one of the new introductions in Edge of Eternities is Spacecraft, a variation of the Vehicle and Mount card types. Instead of needing to Crew or Mount them to turn Artifacts into Artifact Creatures, you can Station other creatures within it, counting towards the total requirement. Once that requirement is reached, it permanently becomes a Creature.

Wizards of the Coast has always known Vehicles and Mounts have never been the most popular mechanics (and far from being powerful), so to shake things up they’ve announced that all Legendary Spacecraft and Vehicles are now eligible as Commanders.

What does this mean in the short term? Not much, since this ruling doesn’t affect all the competitive formats that are constantly in motion. Over time, we’ll likely see more players experimenting with Legendary Spacecraft and Vehicles in the Command Zone as it serves as a refreshing take on what’s possible. That percentage is still going to be relatively small since there are just too many good options from the Legendary Creature pool, especially with more being released in every set.

End Step

On a whole, Edge of Eternities is a little ‘edged-out’ in power level compared to Final Fantasy, and honestly it also doesn’t compete on flavor when you put it alongside a pop culture powerhouse that’s been around for over 30 years. That said, Edge of Eternities has plenty of good things going for it, and far from being a hard skip. Compared to Aetherdrift (which fell completely flat), the space-faring theme is growing on players and some cards will see use for a long time.