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Unsanctioned
 
 

Unsanctioned
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Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description A horseshoe in half of a broken egg shell over two crossed wrenches with acorn shaped holes.
Design Mark Rosewater (lead)
Chris Mooney
Ari Nieh[1]
Development Max McCall (lead)
Gavin Verhey
Gaby Weidling
Chris Mooney[1]
Art direction Keven Smith
Lisa Hanson[2]
Release date February 28, 2020
Plane Various[3]
Themes and mechanics Acorn counters, dice rolling
Keywords/​ability words Knightlifelink, Host, Augment
Set size 96 (five 30-card decks)
Expansion code UND[4]
Development codename Parachute[1]
Un-sets
Unstable Unsanctioned Unfinity
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Secret Lair Drop Series: Theros Stargazing Unsanctioned Secret Lair Drop Series: International Women's Day

Unsanctioned is a silver-bordered box set, marketed as a ready-to-play "Un-set" experience, and was released on February 28, 2020.[note 1] The set combines reprints from previous Un-sets with sixteen new Un-cards.[5][6] It has a “wrestling match kind of flavor.”[7][8]

Set details[ | ]

“  Get Ready for the Fight.  ”

The set consists of five 30-card, preconstructed mono-colored decks, each designed to synergize with one another in unique and surprising ways. Each player combines two decks into one 60-card deck and faces off against another combined deck for some wacky gameplay that stretches the limits of what Magic cards can do.[9] The new cards (3 in each deck, and 1 appearing in all decks) were designed very much with Commander and Cube in mind.[10]

There are 96 different cards in the set (30 commons, 22 uncommons, 30 rares, 4 mythic rares, 10 basic lands). The set features 19 reprints from Unglued, 24 from Unhinged, 27 from Unstable and 1 was a HASCON promo.

Like the other Un-sets before, Unsanctioned features five full-art basic lands.[11][12] You get two cycles of full-art basic land, one foil, one nonfoil.[13] There are also five regular basics, with each hiding a squirrel in its art.[14] All the reprints, save Blast from the Past and Old Fogey, feature new card frames, but some have nods to their old frame adjustments.[15]

Unsanctioned became available worldwide in English.

Contents[ | ]

Unsanctioned box

Unsanctioned box

Themes and mechanics[ | ]

Unsanctioned die

Unsanctioned six-sided die

Unsanctioned features the return of Host and augment from Unstable on some new cards. Wordy also makes a return.

A new mechanic is Knightlifelink, a variation of lifelink (Damage dealt by Knights you control also causes you to gain that much life.).

Surgeon General Commander mentions the mechanic “mutate”, teasing the mechanic's later release in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.[16]

Acorn counters, introduced on Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher, have their own symbol {A} and may be used as a resource. They are placed on players rather than on objects. Because of this, they are similar to energy counters.

Boomstacker is a dexterity card.

Card types[ | ]

Cycles[ | ]

Unsanctioned introduces a single new cycle.

Cycle name {W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
Commanders Syr Cadian, Knight Owl ({B}) Alexander Clamilton ({R}) Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher ({G}) Stet, Draconic Proofreader ({W}) Pippa, Duchess of Dice ({U})
Five rare legendary creatures, each with an enemy color activated ability.

Preconstructed decks[ | ]

Unsanctioned features five preconstructed half-decks.

Half
deck name
Colors Included Commander
{W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
White W Syr Cadian, Knight Owl
Blue U Alexander Clamilton
Black B Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher
Red R Stet, Draconic Proofreader
Green G Pippa, Duchess of Dice

Tokens[ | ]

UND Acorn Stash

Acorn Stash marker

Unsanctioned features five new tokens and one new marker:[17]

  1. {U} 1/1 Beeble creature, created by B.O.B. (Bevy of Beebles).
  2. {R} 1/1 Goblin creature, created by Blast from the Past.
  3. {G} 1/1 Squirrel creature, created by Squirrel Farm.
  4. Gold 4/4 Dragon creature with flying, created by Sword of Dungeons & Dragons.
  5. Pink 5/5 Giant Teddy Bear creature, created by Water Gun Balloon Game.
  6. Acorn Stash marker for Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher.

Trivia[ | ]

References[ | ]

  1. a b c d e Mark Rosewater (February 10, 2020). "Un-Boxing, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  2. Wizards of the Coast (March, 2020). "Unsanctioned Credits". Magicthegathering.com.
  3. Mark Rosewater (October 13, 2019). "Are the new card from Unsanctioned flavored from Bablovia, somewhere else, or nowhere specific?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  4. Information below the text box
  5. Wizards of the Coast (October 10, 2019). "Announcing Unsanctioned". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  6. a b Mark Rosewater (February 25, 2020). "Unsanctioned FAQ". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  7. Weekly MTG (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube (October 11, 2019).
  8. a b c Mark Rosewater (February 17, 2020). "Un-Boxing, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  9. WPN (October 10, 2019). "Unsanctioned". Wizards Play Network.
  10. Mark Rosewater (October 10, 2019). "Will the new cards in Unsanctioned function well in a draft format? My Un-cube needs to know!". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  11. Mark Rosewater (December 18, 2019). "It has become a tradition that Un-set must have beautiful basic lands". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  12. Cyriaque Lamar (January 28, 2020). "A First Look At Unsanctioned, Magic: The Gathering's New Set". Cracked.com.
  13. Mark Rosewater (January 29, 2020). "Is there going to be a way to get the Unsanctioned lands not foil?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  14. All the non full-art lands from unsanctioned have squirrels hidden in them. Reddit (January 28, 2020).
  15. Mark Rosewater (January 28, 2020). "Will the reprints of older Un cards look the same in the old mtg design or will they look like current cards?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  16. a b c d Mark Rosewater (February 24, 2020). "Unboxing, Part 3". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  17. Blake Rasmussen (January 29, 2020). "The Tokens of Unsanctioned". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  18. Mark Rosewater (November 3, 2021). "I really like the design of stet draconic...". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  19. Mark Rosewater (January 29, 2020). "It seems like Topsy-Turvy was downshifted to uncommon, but I just can't figure out why?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  20. Mark Rosewater (January 29, 2020). "Is there a joke on Underdome?". Blogatog. Tumblr.

Notes[ | ]

  1. The announcement originally said that it would be released at Leap Day (February 29), but that was later amended.
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