Wizards of the Coast has given us a glimpse into Magic: The Gathering’s distant future, with art teasers for three MTG sets that are coming out, not next year, but in two years’ time! As well as sharing the full 2024 MTG release schedule, Wizards revealed concept art for three 2025 sets and flavor details from sets as far ahead as Summer 2026.
These MTG sets don’t have names yet, but we do have the codenames: Tennis, Ultimate, Volleyball, Wrestling, and Yachting. Let’s quickly take a look at what the distant future of Magic has to offer.
First up, Tennis is all about driving – according to MTG lead designer Mark Rosewater it’s a “death race” across three places, two of which have featured in premier sets, while the third has appeared on a card but never been the focus of a set before. This interplanar racing is made possible by the “Omenpaths”, the focus of the new MTG narrative.
Ultimate will return to the extremely popular plane of Tarkir. Rosewater calls Ultimate “the best of both worlds” – that is, it will have the human focus of Khans of Tarkir, and the dragon focus of Dragons of Tarkir.
Volleyball is the last image to appear in the crystal ball – or should we say, viewscreen? Rosewater describes it as a “top-down Space opera” set, featuring multiple high-tech alien races. The locations on the right of the image are particularly interesting here, they all look a bit swirly and weird, with rings around them, making us wonder how they connect to the Omenpaths.
Wrestling will be the final set of 2025, and will return to the much beloved plane of Lorwyn, a realm inspired by the gnarlier, older face of European folklore. The first set of 2026, Yachting, will return to Arkavios, home of wizarding school Strixhaven.
Rosewater also gave us the codename for the final set in the “three year story” – “Ziplining”. Like War of the Spark and March of the Machine, Ziplining will be the capstone set for the Omenpaths narrative, but beyond that the MTG lead designers lips were sealed.
There’s so much Magic: The Gathering news this week – don’t miss this look at the Fallout MTG crossover, or the full 2024 MTG release schedule. And check out our guide to all the MTG Arena codes, while you’re here.