Magic: The Gathering’s Reality Fracture set is a Universes Within set after two Universes Beyond sets in succession, but it’s also a little different in that it showcases iconic Magic characters, spells, and more that have been transformed by Jace Beleren.

The Planeswalker has transformed the universe into how he feels it should be, and that means new versions of well-known cards in a sort of “What If?” scenario.

IGN sat down with Yoni Skolnik, former Magic pro and Principal Game Designer, and Meris Mullaley, Worldbuilding Design Manager, to talk about the set’s influences, what comes in a pack, and the Secret Lair bundle.

Magic’s Designers Talk Reality Fracture Influences

Alternate universes are nothing new in pop culture, but I was curious how much last year’s Marvel’s Spider-Man set influenced Reality Fracture. As you can imagine, the genesis of Reality Fracture comes from a much earlier set.

“Some of the ideas go back to Planar Chaos, a set from 2007 that had a lot of What If elements,” Skolnik revealed.

“That set focused on messing with Magic’s color pie, putting effects in colors where you wouldn’t normally expect them.”

“While we didn’t want to return to that exact formula for a What If set, the concept of What If is very compelling as it lets you pay tribute to Magic’s devoted fan base.”

“Mark Rosewater [Head Designer] was keen to try the concept again, and it ended up fitting perfectly with the conclusion to Jace’s storyline.”

“When developing the Echoed Pairs, most of our learnings came from other Magic IP sets that featured multiple legends,” Mullaley added.

“We chose characters who were (or could plausibly be) active in this current moment of Magic’s timeline. Creatively, we also kept most characters on their home planes rather than showing a multiversal cast of characters arriving on Hexhaven to stop Jace.”

“This helped the story of Reality Fracture keep a narrower focus on the key characters and reduced the amount of “why is this person here” questions.”

“We also see three separate Planeswalker cards for Jace, and we took a similar approach as we did with legends from Edge of Eternities or The Lord of the Rings: Tales from Middle-earth, where we see a character at multiple points along their narrative. Each Jace represents a different point in his journey, reflecting his accumulation of power and readiness to enact his final plan.”

The Jace of the Set

So what about Jace? The blue-hued Planeswalker has been around since Lorwyn in 2007, but has been in the background of events in recent sets.

“In terms of game mechanics, Empower Jace was perfect for making our main character very present even if you only lightly interact with the set,” Skolnik explained.

“For new Magic players who want to go down deeper into the history of Jace, there are a few cards that are specifically stronger with Jace Planeswalker cards, to make the process of going to look back at old cards feel rewarding.”

“Flavorfully, I was very impressed with how the worldbuilding team navigated the character. For new players, we’re drawing on timeless fantasy tropes like ‘Dark Wizard’s Tower’ and ‘Former Ally Turned Foe’ to make the story approachable, while still having plenty of deeper lore references in the art, and a gripping conclusion to Jace’s storyline in the web fiction.”

“It also helps that Jace is such a deeply blue character, which makes understanding his role go hand in hand with understanding blue’s place in the color pie. One of the first things many people learn about Magic is that blue players are evil, so having an archetypally blue villain was a natural fit!”

You hear that, blue players? You’re the bad guys here. Still, sticking with multiple versions of cards, I asked about how the Echoed Pairs have been received. For newcomers, Echoed Pairs include normal and Echoverse versions of cards, for example Karn, Argent Defender, and Karn, Gilded Guardian.

“The technology of guaranteeing 1 card from an exciting subset per pack has been very well received since debuting in Dominaria with 1 legend per pack,” Skolnik reveals.

“Going up to 3 legends per pack in Reality Fracture was necessary to guarantee echoed pairs given our printers’ constraints, and it made for very exciting packs that fans are loving.”

“I trust we’ll one day find another place to deploy this technology of 3 cards in a pack that is linked somehow. This experimentation was not directly related to the 2027 pack changes, but together they show the breadth of problems our production teams face while balancing Magic design’s need for constant novelty and reinvention against the reality of what it takes to print all the Magic product for our growing audience!”

Secret Lair Bundle Is Here To Stay

In the time since we spoke with the Wizards of the Coast team, the Reality Fracture Secret Lair Bundle has been delayed. We asked about whether it’ll be sticking around.

“Yes! Secret Lair Bundle will become a staple of Magic Multiverse sets and is expected to appear in those sets going forward.”

“Part of the impetus for launching these bundles was to consolidate Special Bundles into one incredible package that we could repeat set over set. The theming of Reality Fracture and how we explore Jace’s inner sanctum made a lot of thematic sense to use as the jumping-off point for this new product line.”

So, onto the big question then: as someone who can’t believe their luck by packing Craterclaw Colossus and Hexhaven Invigorator, I was curious what the team’s favorite cards from Reality Fracture were.

“I really love both Ajani Planeswalker cards,” Skolnik explained.

“Seeing Ajani Resolute in standard Life Gain decks has been great. A 2-mana Planeswalker is very tricky to balance, but with Planeswalkers such a big part of the set, I really wanted to try and print one here.”

“Ajani Unrelenting has been demolishing in draft, but I’m also excited to see it doing work in Commander decks built around Planeswalkers.”

Mullaley’s pick was spoiler-filled, so look away, lore fans.

“Vindictive Triumph depicts one of my favorite moments in the fiction, where [spoilers] Liliana resurrects her Echoverse doppelgänger as a lich and takes the fight to Jace. I read that moment in an early draft of the story and knew immediately it needed to be a card.”

For more on Magic: The Gathering’s current set, check out Reality Fracture’s most expensive cards, as well as the most powerful precons of all time.