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[5] | ||||
Development codename | Parachute[1] | ||||
Un-sets | |||||
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Magic: The Gathering Chronology | |||||
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Unsanctioned is a silver-bordered box set, marketed as a ready-to-play "Un-set" experience was released on February 28, 2020.[note 1] The set combines reprints from previous Un-sets with sixteen new Un-cards.[6][7] It has a “wrestling match kind of flavor.”[8][9]
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.[10] The new cards (3 in each deck, and 1 appearing in all decks) were designed very much with Commander and Cube in mind.[11]
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.[12][13] You get two cycles of full-art basic land, one foil, one nonfoil.[14] There are also five regular basics, with each hiding a squirrel in its art.[15] All the reprints, save Blast from the Past and Old Fogey, feature new card frames, but some have nods to their old frame adjustments.[16]
Unsanctioned became available worldwide in English.
Contents
- 5 30-card decks
- 2 six-sided dice
- 10 double-sided tokens
- 10 full-art basic lands with new art (5 regular, 5 premium)
- 1 reusable box
Themes and mechanics
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”, which Rosewater has said is a tease of the mechanic in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.[17]
Acorn counters, introduced on Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher, have their own symbol 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
- New un-creature types are:
- Art (Abstract Iguanart)
- Chameleon (Surgeon General Commander)
- Die (Pippa, Duchess of Dice) (token-only)
- Grandchild (Infernius Spawnington III, Esq.)
- Returning un-creature types are:
- A new Planeswalker type is:
- Creature type update
- Chicken (Chicken à la King) is obsoleted, and replaced by Bird.[7]
Cycles
Unsanctioned introduces a single new cycle.
Cycle name | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Commanders | Syr Cadian, Knight Owl () | Alexander Clamilton () | Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher () | Stet, Draconic Proofreader () | Pippa, Duchess of Dice () |
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 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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
Unsanctioned features five new tokens and one new marker:[18]
- 1/1 Beeble creature, created by B.O.B. (Bevy of Beebles).
- 1/1 Goblin creature, created by Blast from the Past.
- 1/1 Squirrel creature, created by Squirrel Farm.
- Gold 4/4 Dragon creature with flying, created by Sword of Dungeons & Dragons.
- Pink 5/5 Giant Teddy Bear creature, created by Water Gun Balloon Game.
- Acorn Stash marker for Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher.
Trivia
- Abstract Iguanart jabs at abstract art and is a throwback to Unhinged's "Artist matters" theme.[1]
- Alexander Clamilton spoofs Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States.[1]
- Booster Tutor uses the Arena League promo art.
- Infernius Spawnington III, Esq. is the grandson of the Infernal Spawn of Evil and the son of the Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil.[9]
- The cards in the art of Johnny, Combo Player have been changed to reflect the cards named in the flavor text.
- Look at Me, I'm R&D got an update on its edited text.
- Pippa, Duchess of Dice directs players to use actual dice as creature tokens.[9]
- Stet (Stet, Draconic Proofreader) is an editing term for "let it stand".[17]
- Surgeon General Commander is designed as a WUBRG Commander and references the old EDH designation (General).[17]
- By the name change, the card name loses its connotation to the office of Surgeon General.
- Noticeably it is the second Wombat ever printed.
- The name and mechanics of Syr Cadian, Knight Owl are a play on the Circadian rhythm, the natural process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours.[17]
- Timmy, Power Gamer is the only card to feature completely new artwork.
- Topsy-Turvy is the only rarity shift, which got downshifted from rare to uncommon since there was no space to fit a security holofoil stamp in.[19]
- Underdome is a joke on Thunderdome.[20]
References
- ↑ a b c d e Mark Rosewater (February 10, 2020). "Un-Boxing, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (March, 2020). "Unsanctioned Credits". Magicthegathering.com.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 13, 2019). "Are the new card from Unsanctioned flavored from Bablovia, somewhere else, or nowhere specific?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Printed on the card frame.
- ↑ [4]
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (October 10, 2019). "Announcing Unsanctioned". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (February 25, 2020). "Unsanctioned FAQ". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Weekly MTG (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube (October 11, 2019).
- ↑ a b c Mark Rosewater (February 17, 2020). "Un-Boxing, Part 2". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ WPN (October 10, 2019). "Unsanctioned". Wizards Play Network.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 18, 2019). "It has become a tradition that Un-set must have beautiful basic lands". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Cyriaque Lamar (January 28, 2020). "A First Look At Unsanctioned, Magic: The Gathering's New Set". Cracked.com.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 29, 2020). "Is there going to be a way to get the Unsanctioned lands not foil?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ All the non full-art lands from unsanctioned have squirrels hidden in them. Reddit (January 28, 2020).
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ a b c d Mark Rosewater (February 24, 2020). "Unboxing, Part 3". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Blake Rasmussen (January 29, 2020). "The Tokens of Unsanctioned". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 29, 2020). "It seems like Topsy-Turvy was downshifted to uncommon, but I just can't figure out why?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 29, 2020). "Is there a joke on Underdome?". Blogatog. Tumblr.