Brilliantly inventive ‘Edge of Eternities’ takes ‘Magic: The Gathering’ to the stars

Debuting after the unprecedented success of a “Final Fantasy” crossover and amid Comic-Con reveals of upcoming “Spider-Man” cards, “Magic: The Gathering” is finally returning to a homegrown setting. But it’s going where no mainline, canonical product has gone before: outer spaaaaaaace.

“Edge of Eternities,” out next week, is pure space fantasy: less “Star Trek” and more “Star Wars,” “Mass Effect” and “Buck Rogers.” Special variants cast cards as pulp science fiction covers, others as the vistas of alien planets. Competitive players clamor for these land cards, especially from rare “shocklands” to wilder reprints appearing in the scarcer “Stellar Sights” bonus sheet.

Resplendent with fancy foils and alternate art treatments, Wizards of the Coast has pushed “Eternities” as a collectible product. But is it also fun to play? I tested the set’s draft and sealed formats over a bleary 24-hour early access event this week. While I’m lukewarm on its space opera tropes, the set’s flexible mechanics strike a tuneful harmony.

My initial impressions mirror my thoughts on the last in-universe “Magic” installment. Where the Goblin Rocketeers of “Aetherdrift” resembled the Goblin Explosioneers of “Unstable,” a silver-bordered joke product — “Edge of Eternities” contrasts its more serious space adventure with the looniness of “Unfinity,” another comedy set about an interstellar theme park. Where “Aetherdrift” centered on vehicles, artifacts crewed by creatures, “Edge of Eternities” introduces “Spacecraft,” artifacts that charge up by “Stationing” them with creatures until they’re charged up enough to attack and block on their own.

However, “Edge of Eternities” didn’t exhaust me as “Aetherdrift” ultimately did. Its new setting feels more coherent than the latter’s chaotic grand prix, and its rules feel more fluid. Alongside Station, Warp stands out as an all-star. Resembling the fan-favorite Evoke mechanic, Warp lets you cast cards more cheaply at the cost of exiling them when your turn ends. Most Warp cards enter with useful effects (letting you draw cards or put counters on creatures, for example), and you can later pay the warped card’s full cost to bring them out permanently.

Warp’s flexibility thrums through the set’s other mechanics. Of course, it pairs well with Void (which also activates when nonland permanents leave the battlefield), but you can also use Warped creatures to Station spacecraft and planets, even if they don’t have haste. You can even flicker them with All-Fates Stalker to bring them back for good!

A final innovation knits everything together. Lander tokens sacrifice themselves to ramp basic lands out of your library instantaneously — empowering the returning Landfall mechanic and further enabling Void cards. Landers, naturally, also improve your mana and aid greedy three-color builds. While the set’s designed for two-color archetypes, they’re easy to mix and match. I particularly enjoyed a white-blue-black mill sealed deck, which traumatized my opponents with Space-Time Anomaly, Singularity Rupture and Specimen Freighter.

That’s not to say that decks serve up soupy, undefined game plans. You’ll still want to stick to themes (like artifacts or +1/+1 counters, for example). “Edge of Eternities” designers omitted the usual cycle of common two-color lands and added many double-pipped cards to prevent easy splashing. The limited format also feels slower than usual, allowing you to really maximize Warp and Station cards.

Mechanically elegant as it may be, “Edge of Eternities” debuts at an awkward time, after “Final Fantasy” broke sales records and before the launch of behemoth “Spider-Man” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender” sets. Years ago, I may have dismissed an outer space “Magic: The Gathering” product as too discordant with its high fantasy origins. These days, I’m obliged to celebrate it as a reprieve from increasingly outlandish crossovers. I’ll now happily cruise along with spaceships, space angels, and space dragons. It’s as close to the original flavor as you can get.