Magic: The Gathering, the premier collectible trading card game designed and produced by Wizards of the Coast, has always been crafty with their innovations in marketing. From their first gimmicks (including "planeshifting" a render of Wrath of God into the original render for Damnation when releasing the first information for Planar Chaos, to the "Hidden Treasures" of Zendikar, and beyond) to the use of prerelease draw-ins as a major selling point for new sets, Wizards knows the assignment. Furthermore, their newest upcoming set, Dominaria United, sounds like it'll be great. Perhaps a little too great, to be frank. Is this set a cover for something more insidious? Let's explore this!

We have reason to believe that Dominaria United might not actually exist, but be a front for a different set. Before the readers get all "well, Josh, they have to be releasing Dominaria United! The shop sites all have packaging info!", Let me introduce you to a set called Mirrodin Pure.

See, during the Mirrodin Besieged prerelease events, players were told to choose a side to back, between the Mirrans and the Phyrexians. This was a ploy to keep the illusion that Mirrodin Pure was a possibility. However, Wizards of the Coast had already decided to print New Phyrexia as the third set in the Scars of Mirrodin block. So, despite having mock-ups of packaging, Mirrodin Pure never actually existed.

Which brings us to Dominaria United. There have been shots going around of the renders for the set's packaging. However, one member of the Magic Twitter community found this render a bit fishy:

As it were, we can't confirm or deny this suspicion as a valid argument… yet. As we know, Wizards of the Coast occasionally makes mistakes with their game. It's not a huge deal most of the time, but this is true. And it could not be a mistake, too. The marketing team has definitively put the modern logo for the game on the front flap of the set booster box, but put the older logo on the side. This could purely be for nostalgia. After all, that's what the game began with, and it's even still on the cards' rear faces (for the most part).

But what also makes us raise an eyebrow is the premise of the set. Dominaria has never been much for unity. The only time we can think of where there's been a real united front was when the Phyrexians invaded (the Invasion block). The temporal crisis (of the Time Spiral block) certainly can't count as unity because that was mostly in their stance on the time rifts, all disdaining, but mostly powerless to deal with them. There's not been another unifying threat unto the plane besides that, to be frank. So, even if Karn, Ajani, or even Liliana are in the set, and even if they're trying to unify Dominaria, that doesn't seem apt to be the premise for a set like this.

In the end, though, it's a remarkable snafu if it is a mistake, and it still raises eyebrows. We will find out later today during a Weekly MTG stream at 2:30 Pacific Time (5:30 Eastern Time), probably. In the meantime, what do you think about the verity of Dominaria United? Is this an actual Magic: The Gathering set, or is it a cover for something more insidious? Let us know in the comments below!

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