This Magic: The Gathering War of the Spark trailer shows a storyline years in the making

Bolas’ revenge

Magic: The Gathering is hosting a new expansion soon called War of the Spark, and there’s a pretty flashy new trailer to accompany it. If you don’t follow the storyline, basically that big dragon thing is Nicol Bolas, one of the big bads of Magic: The Gathering.

He’s managed to acquire a ton of key artifacts (most of which have been actual cards in a years-long story that’s been incorporated into the game) that allow him to capture and destroy other Planeswalkers and is finally ready to enact his plan of destruction: think Marvel’s Infinity War narrative. That undead commander in the video is Liliana Vess the necromancer, who has a history with Bolas. War of the Spark is pretty huge in that it’ll host 36 Planeswalkers: which are not only big deal cards in the lore, but also highly impactful on the table.

The expansion will hit Magic officially on April 25 through the PC game Magic: Arena, with the tabletop pre-release to follow that weekend. It’ll arrive physically everywhere on May 3. Core Set 2020 is next in July.

Chris Carter