NEW! Nerd Leagues is now on iOS and Android Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

How Good Are You, Really?

Nerd Leagues gives every player and deck a competitive ELO rating that updates after every game. Climb the rankings.

Get Your Rating

Reality Fracture Spoilers: Every Card Revealed So Far

News Set Review Spoilers
The Theorist, Jace Beleren MTG card art by Ekaterina Burmak — the blue-cloaked planeswalker crackles with arcane energy, surrounded by swirling spectral faces of shrieking blue illusions, from Magic: The Gathering
The Theorist, Jace Beleren · Art by Ekaterina Burmak

MagicCon Amsterdam gave us our first real look at Reality Fracture, and the headline is hard to beat: the Lorwyn 5 — Jace, Ajani, Liliana, Garruk, and Chandra, Magic's original 2007 planeswalkers — are back, and most of them show up twice. One version is the character you know. The other is a warped "Echoverse" mirror created by Jace himself. Daily previews have been trickling out since the end of August, and the full set debut lands September 8.

Every card below is live on our Reality Fracture spoiler page, so you can start brewing in the deck builder right now.

The Theorist, Jace Beleren Is the Set's Big Bad

The Theorist, Jace Beleren

Jace is the only member of the five who didn't get a mirror — because he's the one holding the mirror. The Theorist, Jace Beleren has a static ability that draws you a card on each of your opponents' turns. In a four-player Commander game, that's three extra cards every turn cycle before he activates a single loyalty ability.

His other abilities bounce artifacts and creatures, generate Illusions to protect him, and his -6 draws three cards and then hands out +1/+1 to your creatures for each card in your hand. He's a card advantage engine and a finisher stapled to one card, and early Commander chatter already has him penciled into basically every blue deck. If he reminds you of another blue card the whole table groans at, you're not wrong — read our Rhystic Study breakdown for why this kind of passive draw takes over games.

The Mirrored Planeswalkers: Ajani, Liliana, Garruk & Chandra

Ajani Resolute
Ajani Unrelenting
Garruk, Curse Breaker
Garruk, Veiled Butcher

Ajani comes in two flavors. Ajani Resolute is a two-mana lifegain walker — one of the very few two-mana planeswalkers ever printed — that makes Pridemate-style tokens and can grow into a board-wide anthem. His Echoverse mirror, Ajani Unrelenting, creates 2/2 tokens whenever a loyalty ability is activated, which makes him an obvious superfriends and Doubling Season card.

Liliana lost her spark in the story, so both versions are legendary creatures instead of planeswalkers. Liliana the Faultless is the Echoverse "what if nothing bad ever happened to her" version: she gains you life when your creatures enter (a soul sister effect) and can grant hexproof to protect your threats. The real Liliana the Repentant mills you when creatures enter and carries an Exhaust ability that reanimates a creature or planeswalker — graveyard decks should be paying close attention.

Garruk finally returns. Garruk, Curse Breaker is classic Garruk: a built-in Garruk's Uprising effect, land untapping for ramp, Beast tokens, and a -4 that invites the whole table to hunt one player. Garruk, Veiled Butcher wears the Chain Veil and turns mono-black, trading Beasts-for-free into Beasts-for-sacrifices plus discard and debuffs.

Chandra gives us a straight reprint of Chandra, Torch of Defiance alongside her chilling mirror, Chandra, Chill of Compliance — an ice mage with eerily similar abilities.

The Other Cards Revealed So Far

Craterclaw Colossus
Enlightened Confidant
Stingcaster Mage

Six Daily Previews Since Amsterdam

Starting August 31, Wizards began dropping a card a day ahead of the September 8 debut. Six so far, mostly commons and uncommons, and they say more about how the set will actually play than the mythics did.

Solitary Cell
Generous Revival
Cast Away Doubt
Compel Brutality
  • Solitary Cell is a {R}{W} artifact that exiles an opponent's nonland permanent with mana value 3 or less until it leaves the battlefield, then lets you pay {1} and {T} to discard a legendary card and draw. The removal half is a cheaper Oblivion Ring with a size limit; the draw half is the interesting part for Commander, where a legends-heavy deck can turn dead draws into real ones every turn.
  • Generous Revival costs {2}{W} and returns a creature with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter, then flashes back for {4}{W}. Two reanimations from one card. The mana value cap keeps it honest — this is a value spell for cheap utility creatures, not a cheat-in.
  • Cast Away Doubt is a {2}{B} sorcery: draw two cards, deal 2 damage to each player. Symmetrical on paper. In a four-player pod it's 2 to you and 6 spread across the table, which is a different card entirely.
  • Compel Brutality is a {1}{G} bite spell with a twist: your creature deals damage equal to its power, or your planeswalker deals damage equal to its loyalty. That second mode is new, and with Ajani Unrelenting and both Garruks in the same set, superfriends decks now have a one-mana-plus-one removal spell that scales with how long their walkers have been sitting.
  • Perfected Theory is a {U} instant that sets a creature's base power and toughness to 1/1 or 4/5 until end of turn. Shrink or pump, your choice. Against a Voltron commander mid-swing, the shrink mode is a one-mana Fog with a body attached.
  • Charge the Sanctum is a {2}{R/W} instant: team +2/+0, or one creature gets +2/+0, first strike, and a permanent +1/+1 counter. The hybrid cost means it slots into mono-red or mono-white as easily as Boros. Mostly a Limited card, but the counter sticks.

Two of the six are red-white, which is a small sample but a hint at where one of the set's draft archetypes is headed.


Darksteel Angel: The First Reality Fracture Commander Card

The one card we've seen from the Commander release leaked early at Amsterdam, and it's a monster. Darksteel Angel is a nine-mana 4/4 artifact Angel with flying and indestructible that reads: you can't lose the game and your opponents can't win the game. It also stops -1/-1 counters from landing on your creatures.

That's Platinum Angel with the one weakness patched. Platinum Angel dies to a stiff breeze; Darksteel Angel shrugs off board wipes and burn, forcing opponents to find exile, bounce, or -1/-1 tricks — and the counters clause blocks the last one. Nine mana barely matters when Reanimate and Goblin Welder exist. Expect this to headline reanimator and artifact decks the moment it releases, and check the Reality Fracture Commander page as more of the deck rolls out.

What Comes Next for Reality Fracture Spoilers

Twenty-seven distinct cards are public so far — 49 on the set page once you count alternate treatments — out of a full expansion. The schedule from here is confirmed: the set debut on September 8 opens full preview season, prerelease runs September 25 through October 1, MTG Arena gets the set September 29, and paper arrives October 2 alongside the four-color Jace Commander deck.

We'll keep this post current as previews land. If you're buying ahead of the release, our list of cards to grab before Reality Fracture spikes them covers the planeswalker support that history says moves first. For the release date, products, story, and mechanics, read our full guide: everything we know about Reality Fracture.

Adam started Nerd Leagues with his Commander playgroup. He plays a lot of Gruul, but Dimir mill is where his heart is. Favorite card: [[Duskmantle Guildmage]].


Comments

Join the conversation.

Loading comments…

Keep Reading

How Good Are You, Really?

Nerd Leagues gives every player and deck a competitive ELO rating that updates after every game. Climb the rankings.

Get Your Rating

Add to Deck

Loading your decks...