Magic: The Gathering is in a strange spot at the moment, as 2025 was possibly the best year ever for the IP in terms of sales, but player happiness and/or satisfaction didn't necessarily increase at the same rate, if at all. In fact, there were various controversies regarding Magic: The Gathering, such as the Final Fantasy set's power level of cards like Vivi Ornitier, the release schedule of 2025 being made of 50% Universes Beyond, the reception of Spider-Man, and finally the reveal of next year's sets. There were outliers and good things, though, and Edge of Eternities was one of them. The next most hyped set is Lorwyn Eclipsed, coming in January 2026, but it's already plagued by an unfortunate issue created by UB.
On paper, Edge of Eternities and Lorwyn Eclipsed couldn't be more different from one another, with the former being a sci-fantasy set with spaceships and space stations, and the latter being a purely high fantasy world with magical creatures, critters of the woods, and elemental forces. However, they share a unique bond in the fact that both these sets feature a cycle of so-called MTG Shock Lands that are not only valuable but very strong in terms of gameplay, too. These are:
-
Edge of Eternities Shock Lands
- Breeding Pool (Green and Blue)
- Godless Shrine (White and Black)
- Sacred Foundry (Red and White)
- Stomping Ground (Red and Green)
- Watery Grave (Blue and Black)
-
Lorwyn Eclipsed Shock Lands
- Blood Crypt (Black and Red)
- Hallowed Fountain (White and Blue)
- Overgrown Tomb (Black and Green)
- Steam Vents (Blue and Red)
- Temple Garden (Green and White)
Now, these land cycles were most likely designed to come out shortly after one another in order to make them legal in the Standard sandbox for a few years and rotate out simultaneously. This is no longer the case, though, and MTG's Universes Beyond is to blame.
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Say Goodbye to a Full Set of MTG Shock Lands in Standard
In November of last year, Wizards of the Coast revealed the Foundations set for MTG alongside Standard-legal Universes Beyond sets and a change to the game's Standard rotation to come in the future. As it stands, MTG sets rotate out of Standard with the new Fall set each year, but as of 2027, this will no longer be the case. Since Lorwyn Eclipsed was pushed out of 2025 and to January 2026 to make room for an UB set, either Spider-Man or Avatar, the new rule coming into effect in 2027 will make sets rotate when the first calendar-year expansion is released, instead.
2028 Will Be The End of an Era For MTG's Edge of Eternities and Lorwyn Eclipsed
What this means is that Edge of Eternities will rotate out of Standard in 2028, whereas Lorwyn Eclipsed will be gone in 2029, effectively making the Shock Land cycles legal in Standard for different periods of time. While WotC can reprint Shock Lands in the first 2028 set to still make them viable alongside those of Lorwyn Eclipsed for another year, the problem will present itself again in 2029 when the Allied Shock Lands from Lorwyn Eclipsed rotate out. This is a major flaw that can't simply go away or be ignored entirely, and it wouldn't have happened without MTG's plethora of new Standard-legal UB sets.
MTG's 2025 and 2026 Release Schedule is Already Controversial
Not only that, but even if one doesn't want to account for the rotation problem, the fact that Magic: The Gathering's Lorwyn Eclipsed set was delayed to next year also means that players have to wait a total of five months and three weeks since the release of Edge of Eternities to get a full set of Allied and Enemy Shock Lands in Standard. By comparison, considering that Lorwyn was first supposed to come out in Q4 2025, it would have been released either in September, like Spider-Man (so a month and a half after EoE), or in November, like Avatar (so three months and a half).
This may not seem like much, but considering the current state of the Standard meta in MTG, there is a non-zero chance that having access to a full set of Shock Lands earlier may have changed the meta decks going into the new November 10 ban window.
Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
- August 5, 1993
- Publisher
- Wizards of the Coast
- Designer
- Richard Garfield
- Player Count
- 2+
- Age Recommendation
- 13+