Wizards of the Coast has begun to reveal Reality Fracture: Alchemy cards, the digital-only Magic: The Gathering format’s final swan song before it is officially consigned to the scrap heap. And the more I see, the more I wish these were ‘real’ card designs, part of the set proper. We could’ve had an Urza-style Jace saga land, and a blue-white Quintorious? You can’t see me, but imagine that I’m shaking my fist at the sky.
To some extent, this is nothing new. Players who don’t partake in Alchemy have always lamented the locking away of cool card designs or character concepts into the Arena-only format. It doesn’t help that it often seems like a regular Magic card was designed first and then the team found a way to ‘Alchemize’ it, giving it an effect that wouldn’t work in paper.
But it’s particularly noticeable this time around. Firstly because this is such a meaningful set, a huge Magic story moment and a love letter to the game’s characters and settings – so the Alchemy cards are cooler than usual. And secondly, because Alchemy is going away so very soon, which means the addition of new cards feels (and this may seem a little harsh) a bit pointless.
The ‘What If?’ style echoverse characters are particularly upsetting to see in this form. I would love to play with an angel Valgavoth, or the color-swapped versions of the Strixhaven students, or a stegosaurus Etali that conjures forth random dinosaurs. But I’m not about to spend my wildcards on a ton of Alchemy cards for the privilege. Though, that said, I probably am going to boot up the format to try that ridiculous randomized planeswalker card.
At the end of the day, we non-Alchemy players should let the digital fans have their fun. We shouldn’t bitch and moan. If Alchemy didn’t exist I imagine these cards would not have found their way into the main set, they probably just wouldn’t have been made. At least Alchemy gives us a way to see these ideas that might otherwise have been bound for the cutting room floor.
What I really long for, I suppose, is a return to blocks, for WotC to spend more than one set exploring an idea – when it merits it. It’s still quite bizarre to me that the one experiment they did with this was for Innistrad, creating one set that focused slightly more on werewolves and one that focused slightly more on vampires (but both sets had plenty of both). That was not a good example of the sort of idea that deserves two sets!
Then again, with UB taking up one-half of the MTG release schedule, a return to blocks would mean spending an entire year in one place, and I’m not sure I’m up for that.
Source: Wargamer
