Wizards of the Coast just announced Magic: The Gathering Darkhold Destiny, its latest Marvel set in a New York Comic Con panel. This is the third Marvel collaboration for the card game, but where the first two were about presenting super heroes as they already exist in Marvel canon, Wizards of the Coast was able to cook up its own storyline for Darkhold Destiny.
The set revolves around the likes of Doctor Strange, Thor and Ghost Rider, all trying to work against Hela and Dormammu invading the multiverse. It’s a much better thematic fit for Magic: The Gathering, and the early cards have introduced new mechanics like Vengeance, which is like the Adventure mechanic introduced in Throne of Eldraine, but evil.
Even though there was a lot of information in this panel, the set doesn’t come out until April 8th next year, so there are still plenty of details that WotC is holding close to its chest. And, keep in mind that there are still two more Universes Beyond sets coming next year that we don’t know anything about.
Magic The Gathing x Marvel @ NYCC Live Blog
All times are in EST
8:35 pm: And that’s the show. Darkhold Destiny, looks like a cool set, but there’s still a lot that Wizards didn’t reveal. But it’s a decent start!
8:33 pm: WotC announced a special promo or Doctor Doom, King of Latveria for Avengers Doomsday. you’ll be able to grab it if you go see the movie at a Regal Cinemas on opening weekend “as long as supplies last”. It’s the face of the Dr. Doom commander deck, and it’s done in the style of the MCU, so I expect it’ll go fast.
8:31 pm: One more thing. There will be three Secret Lair drops inspired by Dr. Doom, just in time for the new Avengers movie. They’re not revealing which cards are in the drop yet, but there is Dr. Doom art, and they told the crowd “you’ll have to guess which reprint this is”. I guess we’ll wait.
8:26 pm: There are new Secret Lair, a countdown kit, a giant box with 30 cards. This thing is about to cost a lot of money. Most people will get it in nonfoil, but there will be a random chance that you’ll get it in traditional foil, and an even more rare chance to get it in surge foil. I guess the Secret Lair booster packs didn’t work, but we’re at least getting to gamble on whether or not they’re foil. The Secret Lair launches November 2nd.
8:22 pm: There will be two bundles, a regular bundle and an ‘Arcanum’ bundle. Both of these will have their own mechanically unique promo card. Hopefully that card doesn’t get too expensive! There are also two scene boxes, also filled with mechanically unique cards.
8:19 pm: For the product suite, we have Booster Packs, Collector Boosters, Prerelease Pack and Draft Night (which also has a Collector Booster). There will also be four commander decks, Strange Academy (WUB), Gods of Asgard (RGW), Midnight Sons (WB) and Lords of Hel (BR). There will also be Collectors Editions for each deck that’ll be completely decked out in surge foils.
8:16 pm: The basic lands take after the Adventures From the Forgotten Realms lands, with flavor text that tell the story. Unlike that D&D set, though, each Basic Land type has two variants, one before Hela and Dormammu’s invasion and one after. They look awesome.
8:13 pm: One more card, Temple of Khonshu. It’s a common black/white land and it enters tapped unless you control a Dimension. Dimension is some kind of new card type, and Wizards is not revealing it yet. I hope they’re better than Battles.
8:10 pm: They brought Arcane back, which was a card subtype that hasn’t really existed since the Kamigawa block in the 2000s. We got a black modal spell, and a red one “Rise From the Nether” that creates 3/1 creature tokens. Bring back Splice Onto Arcane.
8:08 pm: Hela’s card looks awesome, it introduces a new keyword, Vengeance, which is basically just an Adventure that you cast when the card is in the graveyard. So, if Hela is your commander, you can send her to the graveyard when she dies, then put her in the command zone when you cast from the graveyard, and make a little loop.
8:05 pm: They introduced Magik as a dual faced card. WotC didn’t add all the X-Men, but Magik fits the vibe of the set, and she looks awesome. She’ll be able to transform into Darkchild, and you’ll be able to pay 4 life to give her indestructible. So, she’ll be pretty hard to kill.
8:03 pm: But even with all the art, there has to be cards. The centerpiece is The Darkhold, a legendary artifact for three mana, and you can tap it, put sin counters on it and draw a card for each sin counter. It’s like an evil version of The One Ring.
8:01 pm: The set will be themed around three different types of magic. Arcane for Doctor Strange & Co, Divine for gods like Thor and Dark Magic for villains like Hela and Dormammu. But there are some heroes might be using Dark Magic.
7:57 pm: Once they got the greenlight, WotC had to invent a lot, apparently. The first two sets were about superheroes, but with Darkhold Destiny, the company was much more interested in focusing on villains. So, we’ve got Hela has a foil to Thor, and the Dread Dormammu as the foil to Doctor Strange. Hela x Dormammu is quite a cool team-up, I’m not going to lie.
7:53 pm: The main heroes of the set are Doctor Strange and Thor, which perfectly fit the theme of the set. And it’s not Thor as the Avenger, it’s Thor as a god. It sounds like the story really came together after Magic designers pitched their idea for a darker Marvel world.
7:52 pm: There will be new crossover comics, coming out via Infinity Comics. The first issue will be out in February, with another coming closer to the April release. That should introduce people to the world that Marvel and WotC have been building together.
7:50 pm: Now they’re showing off some of the art, and it looks just like something out of Innistrad. Ok, well maybe not exactly Innistrad, but very similar vibes.
7:49 pm: Marvel and Wizards have been working on this set together for years. Marvel Super Heroes and Spider-Man it was focused on just getting everyone’s favorite characters in the game, but Darkhold Destiny is focused more on world-building. The World was the focus, and then WotC added characters that would fit later.
7:47 pm: Darkhold Destiny is out April 8, will be the second set next year, after Nauctis. Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Blade will all be here, along with traditional MTG creature types like elves, dragons, angels and vampires.
7:43 pm: They’re starting things off by playing the teaser Wizards released earlier today. They created a whole new Marvel narrative that’s unique to Magic: the Gathering. As soon as the teaser was over, the room exploded in cheers.
7:40 pm: Mark Rosewater & Co have taken the stage, and Rosewater is wearing a blue Marvel shirt. And they’ve also dragged a replica of the Darkhold onto the stage. Here we go!
7:27 pm: Now, with Darkhold Destiny, that makes for the third Marvel set. The first two have each had one of the Infinity Stones, so it’s extremely likely that the third will be in this one. I wonder which one it’ll be!
7:17 pm: Got to the panel, and it looks like they opened the doors early! The room is absolutely packed, and people seem excited to see more of Darkhold Destiny. We’ve got about 30 mintues to go before the show kicks off.
6:15 pm: I’m about to head over to the panel, but it looks like Wizards of the Coast has already announced the new set on YouTube. It’s Darkhold Destiny, and it looks like a completely original take on Marvel. None of the cards or mechanics have been announced, but this fits Magic’s world much better than Spider-Man or Marvel Superheroes did.
Jackie Thomas is the Senior Tech Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. She’s been covering gaming hardware for more than a decade for IGN, TechRadar, Gizmodo, PC Gamer and more. You can follow her @Jackiecobra