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MtG Card Sets With The Best Narratives

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Magic: The Gathering is a card game first and foremost. Its creative decisions are driven by what will push the game to new heights and what will break new mechanical ground. However, the game has had a running story for years, grounding the cards and characters in an ongoing narrative.

Most Magic: The Gathering sets have a narrative component, especially Standard format sets. However, not all of these storylines are equal. Some outings have disappointed fans with how their story has played out, while others are celebrated to this day for their plot, characters, and themes.

RELATED: 10 Magic: The Gathering Sets That Did Everything Right

10 Ixalan

The Ixalan set and its follow-up, Rivals of Ixalan, provide a break in a heavily serialized story arc. After multiple sets focusing on the Gatewatch Planeswalker team one after the other, it takes a step back. Ixalan follows Jace Beleren without his teammates as he battles with amnesia on a Planeswalker prison world.

Everything about Ixalan‘s storyline works. Its setting is the right mixture of pulpy and well-thought-out, combining entertaining concepts like pirates, dinosaurs, and vampires with deeper issues. The growing relationship between Jace and his former enemy Vraska is genuinely compelling. Even side characters like Huatli and Angrath have proven memorable.

9 Mirrodin Besieged

Mirrodin Besieged sets up some of Magic: The Gathering‘s most infamous villains in an unforgettable high-stakes storyline. Years after Yawgmoth’s defeat, his Phyrexian Oil lingers on the artifact plane of Mirrodin and begins to corrupt its inhabitants. Mirrodin comes under attack as the New Phyrexians convert its inhabitants, looking to spread agony and progress in equal measure.

Mirrodin Besieged works so well because of its active player involvement. At the time, the set asked players to choose a side between Mirrans and Phyrexians, with possibilities floated for a follow-up set focusing on either side. It ends with a shock victory for the villains in the New Phyrexia set, with Mirrodin’s native life all but extinguished.

RELATED: 10 Best Villains In Magic: The Gathering Lore

8 Shadows Over Innistrad

Innistrad has long been a fan-favorite Magic: The Gathering plane for its open admiration of all things gothic horror. Shadows Over Innistrad retains this theme while opening its aesthetic to more cosmic horror. Avacyn is Innistrad’s greatest protector. However, she suddenly begins butchering the plane’s humans for unexplained crimes, responding to whispers from the moon.

Shadows Over Innistrad plays a range of horror tropes to the hilt. It explores social and physical corruption, the conventional horror of being powerless against an unstoppable force, and the personal horror of Avacyn losing her purpose and sense of self. It also manages to tug on the heartstrings, particularly in Sorin Markov’s agonizing showdown with his creation and daughter figure.

7 Strixhaven

Strixhaven is another set that takes a step back from the ongoing storyline to focus on more personal matters. Its self-contained storyline is a welcome reprieve from the bleak threat of New Phyrexia’s plot against the Multiverse. Even though it’s a derivative setting and plot that leans too hard on magic school mainstays like Harry Potter, it’s an entertaining diversion in its own right.

However, Strixhaven‘s best storytelling comes from its focus on Liliana Vess, one of Magic: The Gathering‘s most popular antiheroes. Strixhaven tackles themes of redemption and grief as Liliana comes to terms with both her own terrible actions and Gideon Jura’s untimely death.

6 The Brothers’ War

The Brothers’ War manages an impressive act of continuing the New Phyrexian storyline without forefronting it. It also shines invaluable light on one of the most significant events in Magic: The Gathering‘s backstory. Teferi travels back to the titular Brothers’ War, a conflict where Magic‘s first protagonist Urza fought his brother in a world-spanning campaign between artificers.

The Brothers’ War has something for most Magic: The Gathering fans. Long-time enthusiasts get to learn more about an iconic event not seen since Antiquities. More modern fans get forward progress in the Phyrexian storyline. The set’s fiction is itself very well-written, selling the feel and the terror of the Brothers’ War while barely showing Urza or Mishra throughout, preserving their larger-than-life role.

RELATED: 10 Best Time Travel Mechanics In Magic: The Gathering History

5 Khans Of Tarkir

Khans of Tarkir introduces a world players have wanted more of since its debut. Tarkir is a plane dominated by the legacy of its now-extinct dragons. Its rule is split between five clans, each of whom exemplifies one of a dragon’s iconic traits. Most of Khans of Tarkir explores this world in full, looking at the positive and negative aspects of its draconic heritage.

Many Magic: The Gathering fans agree that this iteration of Tarkir is one of the game’s most fascinating planes. Its plot and characters are also well-liked. Sarkhan Vol’s dissatisfaction with his plane and enduring fascination with dragons make him a strangely compelling protagonist. Most fans are just disappointed that this story leads into the less-liked version seen in Dragons of Tarkir.

4 Invasion

Gerrard Capashen holding Urza's friend in front of Yawgmoth in Magic: the Gathering

Invasion begins the climactic storyline of one of Magic: The Gathering‘s longest story arcs. It signals the start of Yawgmoth’s assault on Dominaria and the heroes’ desperate attempts to fight him off. The set focuses primarily on the five-color coalition, an alliance of Dominaria’s greatest heroes preparing to resist Yawgmoth’s Phyrexians.

Invasion is one of the last chapters in the years-long Weatherlight Saga focusing on Urza, Gerard Capashen, and many other iconic Magic: The Gathering heroes. It starts things off on a high-stakes note to represent Yawgmoth’s grand plan. Even though Invasion is setup for the climactic sets afterward, it manages to be near-perfect setup.

3 Amonkhet

Most Magic: The Gathering players agree that Amonkhet‘s story is a highlight in the Nicol Bolas storyline. The Gatewatch pursue Bolas to the plane of Amonkhet, expecting to find a world like any other. Instead, they find a luxurious post-apocalyptic society that revolves around glorious death and venerates Nicol Bolas as its God-Pharaoh.

Amonkhet‘s storyline lacks the pulpy action and high-octane storytelling of most sets. Instead, it’s a slow build of dread as the Gatewatch and the audience learn more about Nicol Bolas’ intentions for the plane. Things come to a horrifying head just as the story gives way to Hour of Devastation and its apocalyptic events.

RELATED: Murders at Karlov Manor: Can Magic: The Gathering Pull Off Murder Mystery Intrigue?

2 Theros

Theros has one of the more recognizable settings of any Magic: The Gathering set. Its world is a dead ringer for Ancient Greece, drawing on both history and mythology to create a world where heroes and gods rub shoulders. Theros follows a hero from another world, Elspeth Tirel, as she attempts to find a new home and purpose as the champion of Heliod, the Sun God.

Theros genuinely feels like a modernized Greek myth as Elspeth learns more about the plane and Xenagos hatches his plan to become a god. It helps cement Elspeth as one of Magic: The Gathering‘s most tragic heroes while giving her a ray of hope that she may have found somewhere she belongs.

1 Eldritch Moon

Eldritch Moon is the follow-up to Shadows Over Innistrad. In many fans’ eyes, it confirms that the Shadows Over Innistrad block has one of Magic: The Gathering‘s best stories ever. With Avacyn defeated, the Eldrazi Titan Emrakul is free to descend to Innistrad herself and wreak havoc. She warps flesh and minds as she transforms Innistrad’s inhabitants into worse monsters than they’ve ever been.

Eldritch Moon combines high-octane horror with creeping dread, stunning revelations with grim confirmations, and inhuman horror with very human emotion. Moments like Nahiri’s revenge on Sorin, Liliana’s alliance with the Gatewatch, and Emrakul’s self-inflicted sealing have all gone down in Magic: The Gathering history.



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