MTG Chandra Will Be the Only Planeswalker in Core Set 2020 With 3 Cards

by Cody Perez in Magic: The Gathering Arena | Jun, 12th 2019

Wizards of the Coast has revealed that, once again, it is trying something new with the Planeswalkers in the upcoming MTG Core Set 2020. The big change is that MTG Chandra will be the only Planeswalker in the set to have three different rarity cards for her.

Essentially, what this means is that, while other Planeswalkers like Jace and the rest of the crew will have one rarity card, MTG Chandra will have three different rarity cards. This is for a number of different reasons, starting with the fact that she is the featured Planeswalker for the set, so it makes sense.

MTG Core Set 2020 Chandra Details

The upcoming new core set will feature Chandra as the face of the set and the entire set will chronicle her journey as Gatewatch’s finest Pyromancer Planeswalker. Whereas the rest of the Planeswalkers will only have Mythic Rare cards, it will be easier to find some of Chandra’s cards.

Mythic Rare is the most rare rarity in the game, making it difficult to find those cards due to their low chances of discovery. However, it will be a lot easier for players to find Chandra’s cards because her three cards will have varying rarities that will be more accessible to find in packs and the like online and in physical packs.

MTG Chandra will have the traditional Mythic Rare card that is the cream of the crop for her as well as equally difficult to find, but that’s not all. In addition to that card, she will also have an uncommon card and a rare one, making these much easier to find inside card packs in the new core set.

This shows Wizards of the Coast continuing to bend the rules of what we know about Magic: The Gathering. Previously, for literally decades, it would only release new sets containing Planeswalkers in the rare and Mythic Rare varieties. You wouldn’t see common or even uncommon for that matter.

It all changed, though, with the release of the War of the Sparks set recently. This most recent set to release introduced a lot of uncommon and rare Planeswalkers in addition to the regular Mythic Rare ones. This changed up the meta significantly, but Wizards of the Coast is dialing it back some for Core Set 2020.

Instead of having the normal rare and Mythic Rare cards, all Planeswalkers will have only Mythic Rare cards with the exception of Chandra. But what does this mean for the meta of the game? It does make sure that there is more balance in terms of Planeswalkers but it also puts tremendous focus on her.

For those who don’t know, MTG Chandra the Pyromancer is, as her class implies, a red color Planeswalker. This means that she is best used in red color decks. Unfortunately, dual color and mono red decks are the most popular decks in the game currently.

Considering that red is already the most used color out of the five colors, it seems odd that Wizards of the Coast would put so much emphasis on that color with the upcoming new set. These new Planeswalkers cards will only make the mono red Aggro and Grixis Control decks more popular and powerful than ever before.

This is a serious issue that we hope Wizards of the Coast has already considered solutions to. They likely have seeing as they’ve been successfully balancing Magic for decades now, but there is still the chance that it slipped through the cracks. We could still see red continue to dominate even more than ever before.

Hopefully, we see some new creature and other cards be thrown into the mix with this new core set that will beef up the other colors and decks in the meta game. This is important to do, as it’s already a pain to counter the mono red Aggro and other red decks at this time, especially for Espers and the like.

Magic Core Set 2020 Release Date

We won’t have to wait too much longer, though, to find out for ourselves as the Magic Core Set 2020 will be releasing in just one month on its official release date of July 12, 2019. However, there will be pre-releases for the new cards a week earlier on July 5.

As for the digital versions of the game, players can look forward to the new core set even earlier than the physical cards on July 2 in Arena and Magic Online.