The Best Magic: The Gathering set releases in 2023

Magic: the Gathering 2023 – A Year in Review

With so many Magic: The Gathering set releases this year, we got thinking: what is the best Magic: The Gathering set of 2023? It’s been a big year of MTG, with incredible releases that have something for everyone – the culmination of a major storyline years in the making, the first ‘micro set’ with epilogue boosters, a remastered set spanning 27 sets from arguably players’ favourite plane, and the first full Universes Beyond set with: The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth.

And what a story we’ve witnessed! The Phyrexians invaded the multiverse, and, while thankfully the baddies were thwarted, it’s still having major repercussions. Omenpaths have opened across the multiverse, allowing regular people to stride into other planes, while a mass ‘desparking’ has turned almost all Planeswalkers into humble creatures, reflected in the fact we can expect just one Planeswalker card per set for the foreseeable future.

We’ve seen much-needed reprints, new format-defining staples and the deepest ever dive into non-Magic IPs. So with all is in mind, what is the best Magic: The Gathering set of 2023?

Top 3 Magic: The Gathering Set Releases in 2023

3. Dominaria Remastered

Dominaria Remastered is the latest ‘remastered’ set, following the release of Time Spiral Remastered in 2021, and several digital-only remastered sets before that. ‘Remastered’ sets are re-releases, featuring the most iconic cards from the named set or block. What’s different about Dominaria Remastered is that it features the best cards from sets that took place on the iconic plane of Dominaria – some 27 in total, going back as far as Alpha, all the way to Dominaria. Available in Draft and Collector boosters, the set features alternate art, borderless treatments, and the classic ‘retro’ frame versions.

Among the nostalgic cards included are powerhouses like Force of Will, Sneak Attack, Sylvan Library, and the Mirage tutor cycle including Vampiric Tutor. Lovers of Nostalgia will appreciate opening iconic cards like Birds of Paradise, Maze of Ith, Shivan Dragon, Royal Assassin and Wrath of God, all in either the retro or new frame. And there’s plenty for new and Commander players too with key characters to the plane’s history, Urza, Lord Artificer and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, also included. A fantastic set to draft or simply crack, combining icons past and present.

2. March of the Machine

March of the Machine is my pick for Standard-legal set of the year, for several reasons. Firstly, the story; March of the Machine was the culmination of years of Magic story, showing the results of the Phyrexian Invasion across almost all known planes of the multiverse, which began all the way back in Kaldheim. We even got to see snapshots of planes we’ve not visited in years, from Mercadia to Lorwyn, Shandalar to Vryn. The main villains – the Praetors – showed up once more as DFCs, flipping into game-breaking sagas. Seeing Phyrexian versions of beloved legends, such as Polukranos Reborn // Polukranos, Engine of Ruin and Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness was as cool as it was heart-breaking.

t also introduced a brand-new card type in Battle, which, so far, appears to be a success, especially with the likes of Invasion of Zendikar becoming a standard staple. Also included were the Multiverse Legends, a separate set of 65 iconic legendary creature reprints printed in the ‘booster fun’ frame relating to their home plane. With at least one of these legends appearing in boosters, it added an interesting new angle to limited (including the build-around companions), making it hugely repayable and one of the limited sets of the year. Surely these ‘bonus sheets’ must be a feature of all sets going forward?

I’m including here too March of the Machine: The Aftermath – Magic’s first ‘micro set’ of just 50 cards that enabled Wizards to spread out the big story reveals, from character deaths to the vast loss of Planeswalker sparks.

1. Universes Beyond – The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth

The best Magic: The Gathering set of 2023? The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth. Dripping with Tolkien flavour, the set was a delight from top to bottom, and will go down in history as the first Universe Beyond to have an entire set dedicated to it. Each character was nailed in their design, with multiple versions to show their journey through the epic tale. My favourite? The nine different arts of the Nazgul, something all LOTR lovers will want in their collections. The basic lands were stunning, but also featured full art ‘map’ versions depicting the legendary locations of the story (it’s just a shame they weren’t designed to fit all together!).

And speaking of fitting-together, the ‘scene cards’ – full art versions of cards that fit together to show an iconic scene from the story – were a stroke of genius, really bringing the key moments to life. And who could forget the best marketing campaign in all of Magic’s history – the one-of-one The One Ring, which sold for a cool two million dollars, bought by Magic celebrity Post Malone, as well as special serialised versions of Sol Ring as the Rings of Power.

 The Ring Tempts You was the headline mechanic – something the community was mixed on from a flavour perspective (should the Ring be all upside?), but proved to be very fun to play with. Amass (for Orcs) and Food (for Hobbits) both made a return, working well and helping to synergise across other sets for Commander players.

While not Standard-legal, the set has no doubt had an impact on constructed formats, leaving a mark on Modern and Legacy. There were also 30 ‘Realms and Relics’ box toppers, featuring in each booster display box and in Collector Boosters, featuring classic Magic cards but with Lord of the Rings flavour.

Cards that defined the year

Kicking off the year, Phyrexia: All Will Be One brought us Atraxa, Grand Unifier – instantly becoming the go-to reanimation target across formats and a staple in Standard, where more recently it’s featured in the Ramp deck. Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is a Commander favourite (and considered ban-worthy when it was revealed), and is even seeing play in Constructed too, from Standard to Modern.

 Skrelv, Defector Mite, has seen a huge amount of play, with the infectious Mother of Runes variant providing a huge amount of versatility beyond just poison decks. Still on infect, Mirrex is a powerful land that churns out Phyrexian Mites to help take over a game, and Ossification is one of the most powerful Oblivion Ring effects we’ve seen in a while, so long as you’ve enough basic lands to make it playable.

March of the Machine brought Sunfall – one of the strongest sweepers printed in recent times, exiling rather than destroying and leaving a potentially massive token behind for you. Etali, Primal Conqueror rivalled Atraxa as the reanimator and ramp target of choice – although often they were played together – providing card advantage and a huge monster that was almost impossible to stop. That ramp has been helped by Invasion of Zennidar – probably the most widely played battle and a big upgrade on the classic Explosive Vegetation.

At the other end of the curve, Rona, Herald of Invasion is a super Merfolk Looter, untapping with every legend you play (making it perfect for the Esper Legends deck), with an ability to turn into a huge monster later. Faerie Mastermind, Yuta Takahashi's design for winning Worlds, is another of the set’s powerful legends we’ll see in decklists for years to come.

It’s been a big year for powerful cards that warp formats, all the way back to Legacy. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth brought The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters (and, to a lesser extent, Lorien Revealed), all of which have become staples of the Modern and Legacy. The One Ring is a card drawing powerhouse that fits into any deck and provides a useful ‘fog’ effect to make sure you make it to your game-winning turn, while Bowmasters redefines what creatures are playable and punishes opponents for drawing an excessive number of cards.

Wilds of Eldraine brought us two cross-format all stars. The first, Up the Beanstalk, is an unassuming card draw engine, the likes of which we’ve seen before, but it’s ability to replace itself combined with the with fact many cards in Modern of Legacy cost five (but not really), such as Force of Will and the ‘evoke’ elementals such as Grief, makes it a powerful and hard-to-remove card advantage engine. Agatha’s Soul Cauldron has also seen play in Standard and beyond – a versatile artifact that not only allows you to reuse creatures in your graveyard to pump your team but has huge combo potential. In Standard, it’s combined with Kami of Whispered Hopes and Sleep-Cursed Faerie to give a creature the ability to tap and untap itself to create infinite mana, as well as that of Realm-Scorcher Hellkite to convert this mana into damage straight to your opponent’s face. Virtue of Persistence has also seen significant play, combining and early game removal with late-game inevitability.

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is still to be released at time of writing, but is sure to be strong and, as fans of cascade will know, Chimil, the Inner Sun looks completely busted!

Evaluating Set Collectability and Investment Potential

When considering a set’s collectability and investment potential, a key theme of the year has been card variants. This is perhaps best exemplified by Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, which has six different versions. To the average Magic: The Gathering UK player, this often adds to fun – providing more choice for your favourite cards.

However, to the investor, typically a particular version will overtake the others as the one most players want (that being the Borderless Manga Compleat Foil in the Mother of Machines case, with a price tag of almost £200). The knock-on effect is that these special variants drive down the value of the ‘regular’ versions, meaning Draft boosters might not hold their value quite so well as the Collector versions.

At the same time, Wizards seems to be printing more products than ever before, keeping prices flat, most notably with Dominaria Remastered. This is again great news for players, adding more product to the market and keeping things affordable, but makes investing in sealed product a little less certain than perhaps it once was.

Unless you’re very good at evaluating new cards that are under-priced, it can be hard to make a quick profit – but investing for the long term is possible. Sticking to products that: a) have a more of a limited release, b) that cross over into other IPs (e.g. The Lord of the Rings), or c) sealed products with the most special versions of cards (e.g. Collector Boosters) are all avenues to explore.

With individual cards, it’s important to keep an eye on the metagame, and cross format appeal; value often comes from cards powerful enough to impact Standard and Modern, while having ‘casual appeal’ for Commander too. Just be aware of cards being too good, and therefore carrying the risk of being banned! Finally, serialised cards are a sort of super variant, and akin to the Reserved List. Any card with a limited printing like this, and the sealed product carrying them, are likely to hold value, so long as Wizards doesn’t overdo it going forward. If everything becomes special, then nothing is.

Where Magic: The Gathering is Heading in 2024

A few things we can be sure of moving into 2024: Wizards will continue to release and increasing amount of product, that they’ll bombard us with highly collectible variants (including serialised cards) and the immensely popular (and lucrative) Universes Beyond will continue. For Magic: The Gathering UK players that just want to get their hands on cool cards, this is all great news.

The sets revealed for next year are all looking super sweet. Ravnica Remastered kicks us off in Q1 and will be filled with awesome reprints (e.g. the ‘shock lands’), with cool new art and, as has been revealed, also retro frame treatments. Murders at Karlov Manor follows, a murder mystery set that’s bound to bring something very different to the game.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction (great name, by the way) follows in Q2 and appears to be a villain-focused wild west set – what’s not to love about that?! Modern Horizons III comes after, with the Eldrazi featuring heavily on the marketing material (who knows if these are reprints or new versions, but will be highly desirable either way). Bloomburrow, aka ‘the cute set’, will arrive in Q3, and we know little more than it’s filled with tiny, cute creatures, from squirrels to frogs. Rounding off the year is Duskmorn: House of Horror; a 1970s ‘haunted house’ set, no doubt arriving for Halloween.

As for other products, as a fan of the wastelands, I can’t wait for the Universes Beyond: Fallout Commander decks. Come on Dogmeat, let’s get em’!