Dominaria United Set Review

Magic: The Gathering’s 30th anniversary has finally begun with a return trip to Magic’s home world in Dominaria United. From the swamps or Urborg to the forests of Yavimaya, Dominaria is the most Magic-y Magic setting to have ever Magicked, but something’s gone horribly wrong since we were last here.

The Phyrexians have somehow made their way back to Dominaria, and have planted sleeper agents everywhere. Husbands, wives, children, lords, soldiers, and even Planeswalkers could be hidden, metal monstrosities, and Magic’s never going to be the same.

As with every new set, Dominaria United is introducing a handful of new mechanics to play with. The first is enlist, which allows you to tap a non-attacking creature to add its power to an attacking one’s. That’s right, banding is back, and it’s been simplified more than ever. While enlist on its own can be incredibly powerful – you don’t need to swing in with your big, beefy creatures to do massive damage, now – the real bonus comes from creatures like Keldon Flamesage, which have further triggers based on their current power.

The second new mechanic is read ahead, a new addition to the ever-popular and returning Saga enchantments. Sagas are great, but sometimes you just want to skip to the good bit instead of trying to keep it protected for three whole turns. Any Saga with read ahead allows you to do just that, with new Sagas like The Phasing of Zhalfir and The World Spell having massive payoffs that you can jump to straight away.

Stun counters are solving an issue Magic has had for years: how do you keep permanents tapped for more than one turn, without just making the effect permanent? Permanents with stun counters can’t untap, and will remove the counter when they try to do so instead. We only see a little bit of it in Dominaria United, but it’ll fit really nicely with all the counter shenanigans Streets of New Capenna was pulling!

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Dominaria set without some love given to what came before, and some mechanics are also making long-awaited returns to the game. For anyone who loves playing lots of colours and wants to go big, domain effects scale the more land types you have under your control. A particularly great use of this is on Sphinx of Clear Skies, which is practically a Fact or Fiction every turn once you’ve got all five land types covered.

Finally, we’ve got one of Magic’s most-loved mechanics returning, with kicker. Kicker’s huge variety of effects make paying the small extra cost worthwhile, and Dominaria United is introducing spells you can kick twice by paying different costs each time to really drive home the multicolour theme of the set. For instance, Vodalian Mindsinger can take control of up to a six-power creature as long as you can pay the full kicker cost of two generic and two red!

New mechanics are great, but there’s a lot of choice cards here regardless of what they do. We have to pay respects to everyone’s favourite cat man, as Ajani Goldmane is now a Phyrexian spy with Ajani, Sleeper Agent. Joining Neon Dynasty’s Tamiyo, Ajani is using the Compleated mechanic to let him be cheaper to cast at the cost of loyalty, but his ultimate ability can end a game incredibly quickly by putting poison counters on your opponent.

Also keep an eye out for Liliana of the Veil, one of the most powerful Liliana cards ever produced. Like other legendries in the set, Liliana is receiving a gorgeous stained-glass art treatment that gives her the reverence and presence Dominaria’s greatest Necromancer truly deserves.

Dominaria is all about the legends, which is why Dominaria United is featuring not one, but two different ways to get your hands on legendary cards. The box toppers in booster boxes for this set are known as ‘Legends Retold’, and reintroduces old names from Magic in brand new and exclusive cards for Commander, Vintage, and Legacy. Characters like Ayesha Tanaka, Hazezon, Jedit Ojanen, Ramirez DePietro, and Stangg are all up for grabs here, making them some of the most exciting cards in the whole of Dominaria United.

That being said, Collector’s Boosters are getting something really, really special. In just three percent of packs, you have the chance to find a real, genuine card from 1994’s Legends set. Not a reprint, a real card taken from a rediscovered trove of Legends and put into Collector’s Boosters for Dominaria United. Considering a lot of the cards in this set are now on the illusive Reserved List and will never see a real reprint, it could be your only way to get your hands on cards like Falling Star, Chains of Mephistopheles, and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale.

It isn’t just in the set itself that Dominaria United is so exciting. With this set, we’re getting a brand-new type of booster pack with Jumpstart Boosters. Like the Jumpstart set of 2020 (and Jumpstart 2022 later this year), take two of these packs and shuffle them together for an unpredictable, fun, but easy-to-manage limited format! Why faff with drafting when you could Jumpstart instead? The really cool bit is this is designed to be compatible with future releases, so you could keep a few Dominaria United Jumpstart Boosters and mix them up with The Brothers’ War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, and March of the Machine Jumpstarts for the ultimate Phyrexian invasion limited format.

Commander players are well-served too, with two new Commander precons. Jared Carthalion leads the five-colour-matters Painbow deck, full of WUBRG goodness and powerful exclusive cards to play with. Meanwhile, Dihada, Binder of Wills heads up the Legends’ Legacy deck, which cares about playing legendary permanents. This deck is going to be a treasure trove for Commander brewers, as it has so many legendary creatures you could pull out of the deck and build around if you wanted.

All in all, Dominaria United is gearing up to be one heck of a set. Make sure you preorder your packs and singles ahead of the launch on September 9!