For a long time, almost every Magic set took place on the plane of Dominaria. From the original Serra Angels up through the Phyrexian War, Urza, and friends, it was all Dominaria all the time.

This all changed when Mirrodin was released, moving us to the more familiar plane-hopping we do now as we explore new worlds. However, with so much of Magic's history and lore centered on Dominaria characters, it's always a very exciting thing when we get to go back. And with the seemingly random Phyrexian Praetors like Jin-Gitaxias and Vorinclex showing up about once per set, it's clear we're building toward a huge Phyrexian conflict.

On a personal level, this may be one of the most important Magic releases of my 20+ years playing the game. Why? The reasons are twofold.

First off, the formats for the upcoming 2022 World Championship are Dominaria United Draft, post-rotation Standard, and Explorer. Not only will I be drafting this set on the big stage in Las Vegas in late October, but we will also be seeing the big fall rotation in Standard which means a major upheaval as many sets leave and Dominaria United takes center stage.

The second is that the fall set is always the most important Magic release of the year, which makes it an extra important time for content as well. I've been growing and expanding my content a lot over the last year, so having it all together and hitting the big new release is going to be a very important one.

To build on this excitement, Wizards of the Coast had their early preview stream yesterday! As such, today we're going to take a look at the five cards that were previewed as we get an idea of what the themes of the set are going to be.

Let's go!

If you know your Magic history, Evolved Sleeper should excite you. From a story perspective, it all but confirms another Phyrexian invasion, and from a game piece perspective it evokes the mighty Figure of Destiny as a phenomenal 1-drop that scales well as the game goes on.

Something like Savannah Lions just doesn't hit like it used to back in the day, as you need you cards to do more as the game goes on so they don't get outclassed. Evolved Sleeper does exactly that, providing side upgrades whenever you have mana to spare, and even drawing you a card at the last level for some value.

What interesting though is how well Evolved Sleeper plays with one-mana Black discard spells and Fatal Push, meaning you can play it on turn one and then fire one of those off and level to attack for two on turn two. This could end up being a major factor in Pioneer as well as Standard.

It's also a phenomenal looking Cube card! There's a lot to love about Evolved Sleeper.

Llanowar Loamspeaker is one of the more interesting mana creatures we've seen in a long time. Very often mana creatures come in two varieties, either their sole purpose is to make mana and do little else (think Birds of Paradise or Sylvan Caryatid), or they've got some combat-capable stats but are more expensive (think Llanowar Visionary).

Llanowar Loamspeaker doesn't really seek to get into combat itself, although it can block okay in a pinch, but it does provide the ability to turn your lands into temporary threats that can deal chip shot damage or attack planeswalkers out of nowhere. Finding a use for your extra lands is a nice bonus, made especially nice by the fact that a 1/3 mana creature that taps for any color is pretty reasonable by itself if you're looking for that sort of effect; making attackers is just a bonus.

Llanowar Loamspeaker is going to probably see a good amount of play.

Jaya returns!

Our first planeswalker spoiled is a pretty big one, as four ability planeswalkers tend to be pretty good, with the other four-mana ones being Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Chandra, Torch of Defiance.

For her +1 ability Jaya makes a 1/1 Prowess token, which is certainly better than a normal 1/1 and perhaps on par with a 2/2, but still not extremely exciting. It does however defend her for the turn and hopefully allow you to untap with a five loyalty planeswalker in play.

The -1 is where the money is, giving you both card selection and draw Chandra-style. The fact that Jaya can help find a land or a spell when you need it is huge and mitigates a lot of the downside of the impulse-draw effect.

Her -2 is odd in that it can be removal, but will only really work if you are already in an advantageous position of both having a safe planeswalker as well as a number of successful attackers. At that point, do you really need more help? However, because it is technically the 4th ability of the planeswalker it's mostly a situational bonus.

And lastly her ultimate will probably almost never come up given how powerful her -1 is, but it is a nice way to finish the game if you have a number of burn spells in your deck.

Jaya is a lot to take in but also does a lot for a fairly durable four-mana planeswalker. She doesn't seem to have the raw power to drive an entire deck like Jace or Chandra do, but there is definite potential here as a good utility walker for an aggressive for midrange deck.

Temporal Firestorm is a very interesting one.

On the surface, it's just another Burn Down the House or Hour of Devastation variant; a somewhat overcosted but potentially effective sweeper variant in Red. However, the kicker ability is where things get really interesting. The ability to pay extra mana to save your own creature or planeswalker from the effect is a wonderful option to have on top of your already playable sweeper. This upgrades Temporal Firestorm from sweeper to "midrange mirror breaker" which is a great place to be in Standard.

Make no mistake, the primary purpose of Temporal Firestorm will be sweeping the board for five mana, but if it is ever cast for seven or nine mana it will likely be backbreaking.

Our last card is the simplest but perhaps the most interesting.

Okay maybe Impetuous Sunchaser isn't that exciting from a raw power perspective, but at about every other point on the curve Shivan Devastator is a very reasonable threat.

You wouldn't play just Skyknight Legionnaire or Akoum Firebird straight up in Constructed, but the flexibility of being able to play Shivan Devastator at any point on the curve may win out. Both aggressive and midrange decks are always looking for good mana sinks, and haste should not be underestimated as a keyword.

Much More To Come

As this was basically the teaser, there's still a whole bunch more to come, but this gives us a very good idea of what the set is going to be about both thematically and mechanically.

Kicker is one of the most beloved mechanics in the game, and with tons of legends and Phyrexians calling back to Magic's history this should be a really fun one.

Can't wait to see more!