MagicCon Amsterdam took over the weekend with the biggest Magic reveal in months, and it’s the story leading our roundup. But the rest of the TCG world didn’t slow down either — Flesh and Blood, Riftbound, Gundam, and Star Wars: Unlimited all had major news of their own. Here’s what actually matters.
Reality Fracture Rewrites the Lorwyn Five
The MagicCon Amsterdam preview panel gave us our first real look at Reality Fracture, the October 2 capstone set closing out the Metronome Arc that began with Wilds of Eldraine. The setting is the Echoverse — an unfinished mirror Multiverse dreamed up by Jace Beleren — and the headline mechanic is doubling down on the original Lorwyn Five, each getting both a Multiverse version and a warped Echoverse twin.
Ajani, Chandra, Garruk, and Jace all keep their planeswalker card type, just refracted: Ajani Resolute’s lifegain-and-Pridemates plan sits opposite a colder Ajani Unrelenting, while Chandra, Torch of Defiance gets mirrored by the control-oriented Chandra, Chill of Compliance. Garruk, Curse Breaker leans into big-creature synergy with untap-and-draw value.
The real swerve is Liliana. She’s the only member of the Lorwyn Five who loses the planeswalker type entirely, reimagined as two separate legendary creatures instead. Liliana the Repentant is a black graveyard-value engine that mills two cards whenever another creature or planeswalker enters, with a reanimation ability stapled on. Liliana the Faultless flips the concept into white, gaining life off the same trigger and offering a hexproof-granting activated ability. It’s a genuinely bold design choice for one of Magic’s most iconic characters, and it signals Wizards is willing to break its own templates for a big story moment rather than force a walker slot that doesn’t fit the narrative.
Beyond Reality Fracture, Wizards used the panel to lock in 2027’s entire in-universe slate: Nauctus, The Sunken Realm launches February as Magic’s first true undersea plane (merfolk, homarids, otters, the works), followed by Kamigawa: Titanbreach, which sends Ikoria’s giant monsters crashing into Kamigawa. A new Mystery Booster Commander Edition was also confirmed for later this year, built specifically around Commander draft with 20-card packs.
Flesh and Blood: A New Set and a Dual-Face Hero
Pro Tour Las Vegas ran its keynote this week and previewed Usurp the Shadow Throne, the next main set. Levia returns alongside a brand-new Shadow Necromancer, Malice, but the showpiece is Viserai, the Forsaken — Flesh and Blood’s first dual-face hero, who transforms into Viserai, Usurper once you generate three or more Runechants in a turn. Soul of Existence also debuts as the game’s first-ever purple pitch card. On the competitive side, the Silver Age and Classic Constructed banned list shift that hit July 6 banned Remembrance, a card that’s shaped deckbuilding across nearly every era of the game — expect the format to look noticeably different at your next event.
Quick Hits Across the Rest of the Board
Riftbound is gearing up for its fourth expansion, Vendetta, landing July 31 with Ambessa, Mel, and Akali as new champions — the first Riftbound release to launch in English and Simplified Chinese simultaneously. New Standard bans and a dedicated Constructed 2v2 ban list also went into effect this month. Gundam Card Game dropped a banned list of its own on July 10, pulling GD01-020 Anksha to slow down the dominant Blue/Purple archetype, effective July 24 — the same day Booster Pack Vol. 5, Freedom Ascension, releases. And Star Wars: Unlimited‘s eighth set, Ashes of the Empire, released July 17 with the game’s heaviest Shield-token package yet, just ahead of the Galactic Championship in Las Vegas this coming weekend.
Lots to digest before next week, especially if Reality Fracture previews keep rolling out of Amsterdam. What’s your take on Liliana losing her planeswalker card? Come tell us on socials, or catch the rest of this week’s roundups at manariotgames.com.