Magic's Reality Fracture Revives a 16-Year-Old Commander Card From an Erased Timeline

While the attention of Magic: The Gathering players may currently be fully focused on The Hobbit set, the wheel never stops spinning, and Reality Fracture is already around the corner. This in-universe set is a special one. It will serve as the culmination of the Magic storyline that's been developing through sets over the past couple of years. It's no surprise to anyone that Jace Beleren is messing things up again, but this time on a multiversal scale.

Reality Fracture is also an ambitious set. It proposes to give players a look at alternate realities resulting from Jace's meddling with the multiverse. It's essentially a big "What If?" set, which allowed the designers to do some pretty cool things. Have you ever thought that the Strixhaven campus, rather than being a knockoff of a certain English school for young wizards, should have been a military academy? Jace has got you covered. More interestingly, we are also getting some excellent throwbacks to past sets and bits of Magic history.

In a recent video, Magic principal designer Gavin Verhey showcased a card from Reality Fracture Commander, which he described as "16 years in the making." The card is Darksteel Angel, a buffed-up version of the popular Platinum Angel. On top of the "you can't lose" condition, Darksteel Angel is also indestructible and prevents your creatures from receiving -1/-1 counters. Both these abilities are connected to the surprising lore behind the card.

Fifteen years ago, Magic published the Scars of Mirrodin block (a group of three sets connected by story and themes). The scourge of Phyrexia had returned after being apparently banished at the climax of the Invasion storyline. The monsters were looking for a new home, and they infected the artifact plane of Mirrodin. The block depicted the struggle of the inhabitants of the plane against the invaders, but Wizards of the Coast did something unprecedented. As the third set in the block was supposed to reveal the fate of Mirrodin and the winners of the war, instead of sharing its name, they shared two possible sets, complete with names and art, to not spoil the story. One was New Phyrexia, which ended up being the real set, showing the Phyrexian victory. The other was Mirrodin Pure, where the defenders triumphed against the threat.

Image: Martina Fackova/Wizards of the Coast

Mirrodin Pure had a logo, a tagline, and even some art made for it. One of the pieces was an illustration by artist Chippy, showcasing a new take on the iconic Platinum Angel from the original Mirrodin set. When working on Reality Fracture, Verhey remembered this art piece and decided to "do something with it." So he designed the Darksteel Angel, a glimpse into an alternate reality where the Mirrodin resistance won the war. The creature's abilities are emblematic: Indestructible was a common keyword for artifacts appearing in the Darksteel set (the second of the Mirrodin block), while preventing -1/-1 counters is a nod to stopping the Phyrexian invasion (phyresis, the process by which Phyrexians assimilate other life forms, spreads like a contagion).

Darksteel Angel isn't just a powerful card that will likely find a home in many Commander decks. It's a piece of Magic history where lore and mechanics come together beautifully. With so many sets published every year, Magic fatigue can be a real issue to deal with. However, Reality Fracture is poised to be an exciting one where the long history of the game will be used to tell new, interesting tales. And hopefully, Jace will get his due.