Magic: The Gathering‘s next major release, Zendikar Rising, may be primarily focused around expanding Standard when it drops later this month, but that certainly doesn’t mean Wizards of the Coast is leaving fans of other formats out in the cold. As expected, the final third in 2020’s three-part block (Theros: Beyond Death and Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths being the other two) will be arriving alongside a handful of accompanying products, chief among them new Commander decks.
For those not familiar with the format, Commander eschews the usual Magic rules and tasks players with constructing a 100-card deck consisting of only individual cards – no copies. Due to the comparably difficult nature of building such a deck, Wizards regularly releases pre-made versions intended to be playable straight out of the box. These usually contain cards not legal in any other format and always provide a titular commander card, often in foil.
Speaking of which, you can check out Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor and Anowon, the Ruin Theif, included with Land’s Wrath and Sneak Attack respectively, in the gallery below.
Both pre-made decks will be available at local game stores and major retailers at the same time as Zendikar Rising, which, if you haven’t already resigned the date to memory, is September 25th. Magic: The Gathering Arena players can look forward to getting their hands on the set’s hundreds of new cards a week early on the 17th, though the digital version, of course, has its own non-standard format in the form of Historic.
As for Commander, this year marks the release of Legends, the first-ever booster product designed for drafting so-called singleton decks. See here for all the details.
