An Ethereal Space Opera — Previewing ‘Magic: The Gathering – Edge Of Eternities’
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
Science fiction and science fantasy are two different things. Both have a very cool place in the pop culture landscape. Science fiction typically digs into possibilities based on scientific principles and technological advancements. Science fantasy combines elements of science fiction and fantasy, often incorporating magic or supernatural elements that are explained through the lens of “space nonsense.”
You know what? Check this out…
This new Magic: The Gathering set, titled Edge Of Eternities, looks like a ton of Science Fiction/Fantasy fun! Let’s get into it.
Edge of Eternities is the first “space opera” style set from Magic: The Gathering. From the most common to the rarest cards in this collection, each offering feels very ethereal and dreamy in style. It really transports you to the stars in a way that feels meaningful and not like the decks just got some twinkles and planets tossed in to sell a concept.
There is a slew of alternate art cards, including these absolutely delightful Special Guests cards. There are ten of these, and they are influenced by classic science-fantasy novel covers. There are going to be non-foil versions you can find in play boosters and traditional foil in collector boosters. I’m over the moon for this treatment. Those old weird dime store novels are super memorable, and the cover art really sells the strangeness of it all.
In addition to the Special Guests alternative art cards, there are Stellar Sights cards that showcase iconic and non-basic lands that, in my humble opinion, bang out of control! I love full art cards, but there is something that evokes my middle school knock-off Trapper Keeper with these cards. There is something so freaking cool about space Magic: The Gathering cards of this caliber that really speak to me in a big, nostalgic way.
Another amazing addition to this set is the Borderless Viewport Lands give you a view of landscapes in the Edge of Eternities set. The viewport treatment is very cool to me because they have a scale to them that showcases the massive side of some of these ships and strange structures, and part of the wonder of a space-opera setting is the massive worldships and craftworld-like structures that are baffling in their grandeur.
What is fantastic about this set, and the thing that sits in at the heart of this set’s storyline, is a supermassive black hole (not the band that did the song from the Twilight movie, you know what I’m talking about, don’t even pretend you don’t) is Sothera. Sothera is a supermassive black hole whose sheer size warps the system around it, both literally and figuratively. Sothera has been captured in card form on the textless version of Sothera, the Supervoid, with a brand-new singularity foil that you have to see to totally understand. The black hole bit actually feels somehow deeper than the rest of the card, and it really sells the weird space-bending nature of the card.
There are versions of Sothera, the Supervoid, only in Edge of Eternities Collector Boosters. This version of the card is extremely rare, appearing in a low number of Collector Boosters of any language and will always be printed in English.
As far as Magic: The Gathering sets go, I am super stoked for this one because space angels, blackholes, star ships, planet lands, bug aliens, elemental cosmic creatures, and more just make for a radical set full of endless possibilities for play!
Until next time, you can check out more about this set at the link!
