During the Preview Panel at MagicCon Amsterdam, Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) gave us an even deeper dive into Reality Fracture, 2026’s last in-universe expansion. Coined as Magic’s equivalent to a What If? story akin to the Marvel comics, it features longtime Magic protagonist Jace Beleren as he takes on a more villainous role. He’s created the Echoverse, a recreation of Magic’s multiverse but built in his image. Reeling from the catastrophic events during March of the Machine, Jace has lost countless friends and worlds are in disarray, with some even merging. Jace, now dubbed the Theorist, is doing everything in his power to save what little is left by rewriting history, but it will likely have dire consequences.
During the panel, WOTC showed off over 15 new cards, explained more about the Echoverse, and discussed the design of color-shifted versions of some of Magic’s most iconic characters, the original five Planeswalkers. Contrasting ideologies is one of the main themes of the set, and that’s evident in not only the card art, but design and mechanics, as well as in the expansions primary location, Hexhaven. This is the Echoverse’s mirror of Strixhaven, and like the “real” magic college, comes with five schools of learning. This time, however, they’re designed around the “allied” color pairs, or colors on the Magic color pie that work well together.
Reality Fracture’s Setting
Hexhaven is the mirror of Strixhaven, so the two-color pairs are the remaining five combinations. They’re similar to their Strixhaven counterparts in terms of ideologies, but their color-shifted nature means they’re just different enough. The new colleges are:
- Fatehold – Blue and White
- Theorix – Blue and Black
- Stingerquill – Black and Red
- Konstrari – Red and Green
- Vigorbloom – Green and White
The prepared mechanic first introduced in Lorwyn Eclipsed makes its return here. The five cards above show off each of the new cards with the ability, as well as giving a tease for what we can expect to see in those colors when the full set drops.
Echoverse Versions of Classic Characters
The original five Planeswalkers, referred to as the Lorwyn Five, make their return narratively. It’s their first time in a set together in years, and they each come with a color shifted version of themselves. The Echoverse versions of their cards are designed to be the inverse of how they’ve been depicted over the years. Chandra, for example, has always been a chaotic fire mage, usually slotting into aggressive strategies. In the Echoverse, she’s an ice mage and has been shifted to blue mana.
And Liliana Vess, traditionally a black mana-aligned necromancer, is now a white mana cleric.
But the Lorwyn Five aren’t the only cards getting color-shifted and reimagined Echoverse versions. We can expect new takes on more exsting characters, like Tinybones, as well as new mana-aligned references to other cards like Dark Confidant.
What About Booster Packs?
Reality Fracture will still maintain the 15-card Play booster pack size. But with multiple versions of characters and cards being printed, the team confirmed that one pack will have both versions. So if you pull a Chandra, Torch of Defiance, that same pack will also have Chandra, Chill of Compliance. This is a helpful way to build your collection if that’s your goal, but it’ll also have a big impact on Limited formats like Draft and Sealed.
Reality Fracture releases in stores October 2.
