War. War never changes.
But Magic: The Gathering does. Quite often, in fact.
And, on March 8, it will change again as the collectible card game's Fallout set in its Universes Beyond line comes out.
"So, you've got four decks -- four pre-constructed decks. Each of them is sort of tackling the theme that exists in the Fallout games, so there's content from every different Fallout game in each of the four decks," explains Chris Mooney, one of the designers of Universes Beyond: Fallout.
Interview - Fallout: A preview of the upcoming Universes Beyond set for Magic: The Gathering
"So, you've got four decks -- four pre-constructed decks. Each of them is sort of tackling the theme that exists in the Fallout games, so there's content from every different Fallout game in each of the four decks," explains Chris Mooney, one of the designers of Universes Beyond: Fallout.
The decks are Hail Caesar (Red-White-Black ), Scrappy Survivors (Red-Green-White), Science! (Blue-White-Red), and Mutant Menace (Black-Green-Blue). Each deck set includes its specific ready-to-play deck of 100 Magic cards complete with two traditional foil legendary cards and 98 nonfoil cards, a Collector Booster sample pack that contains two traditional foil or nonfoil special treatment cards with one extended-art card of rarity Rare or higher and one alt-art, alt-frame card of rarity Uncommon or higher, a foil-etched display Commander card (a thick cardstock copy of the commander card with foil etched into the card’s border and art), ten double-sided tokens, a deck box), a Life Wheel, a strategy insert, and a reference card.
For those who don't want to pick up the decks, the set will also be available in Collector Booster packs, which is where the set's special treatment and foil cards can be found.
"We have this [Pip] Boy treatment, which is a different frame and font which is showcasing the HUD -- what you look through -- at different enemies," tells Fallout lead designer Annie Sardelis. "We also have borderless Vault Boy cards for things like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet."
Universes Beyond: Fallout will also feature full art lands in two varieties.
"There's two different art styles," says Mooney. "One of them, is a nice panorama that takes you through the journey of one survivor... Then the other one, which is very unique, is we have isometric art lands which harkens back to the original Fallout and Fallout 2 visual style."
As for incorporating Fallout's post-apocalyptic, science fiction setting and themes into Magic: The Gathering, the designers say that things wound up fitting together rather well.
"It all starts with trope at the core of it," explains Sardelis. "It's sort of like a core feeling that you get when playing Magic -- this sense of, like, role-playing or identifying with something. You have the same core feeling when playing Fallout."
Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond: Fallout set releases March 8.
You can check out some of the cards that you'll find in the set in the gallery below.
