Warded Realms

## Summary

Warded Realms was a story set released following \_\_\_, and followed by \_\_\_.

The set takes place on the new plane of Estritara.

## Lore

The plane of Estritara has been cut off from the rest of the multiverse for generations, not having a planeswalker visitor in over a century. The reasons are unknown, and not many planeswalkers have had the chance to attempt to study it, but from the Blind Eternities Ugin has theorized that, a long time ago, before the mending, a planeswalker had put up some sort of protective barrier, seeking to safeguard the planes from the likes of the Eldrazi, Phyrexians, or perhaps even his brother Nicol Bolas. Littering the plane are cults who worship bastardized ideals of planeswalkers who, at one point long ago, had visited the plane.

The plane is largely run by a single, widespanning and authoritarian religious government who partake in regular "ritual sacrifice". In truth, the hidden hands and top leadership of the church are acutely aware of the multiverse at large, and these rituals exist only as a convenient way for them to dispose of any who they suspect of harboring a planeswalker spark, out of fear they would somehow tarnish the barrier protecting the plane. To aid this effort, the church developed an artifact called the \_\_\_, which can detect a potential planeswalker spark, though with a high degree of false positives.

The story follows a group of young planeswalkers who have discovered their potential for a spark using the \_\_\_. Seeing their potential for a spark, they form a secret group that intentionally puts themselves in dangerous situations under semi-controlled circumstances to try to force their sparks to ignite. After stumbling upon the truth of the church, they come to a conclusion: They need to be captured for sacrifice, and have an attempt made on their lives to take their spark in order to ignite it.

Meanwhile, the planeswalker Kasmina has somehow found her way onto the plane, on some type of Order business, likely to do with the long-standing protection from planeswalkers, but her intentions are as enigmatic as ever.

## Themes/Mechanics

One of the major themes of the set is sagas, specifically those emulating the abilities of currently existing planeswalkers. While more temporary than their planeswalker counterparts, these sagas represent the bastardizations of the plane's ideas of a planeswalker, with stories being twisted as the years pass.

The heavy amount of "ritual sacrifice" on the plane takes a very literal form of a heavy sacrifice theme, including new cycles of altars, creatures that give bonuses when they die via sacrifice, and ones that give further bonuses when sacrificed to a specific cause. There also exists a cycle of creatures who only transform when they die to sacrifice.

The very literal seperation from the rest of the multiverse comes forth with the return of the Cleave mechanic, while the plane being locked down, and the authoritarian state of it come across with the return of Fortifications.

Being a plane that quite literally shuts down planeswalkers and sparks igniting, the set contains a fair degree of anti-transform card and anti-planeswalker hate.

Finally, flipwalkers made a return, creatures that could transform into planeswalkers, though this time with the twist of being significantly more difficult to flip than previous ones.

## Popular Cards and Decks

Lockdown became a very popular sideboard piece for its ability to shut down anything from werewolves to powerful flipwalkers.

Krond, the Shadowless and Vela, the Lightless, though technically part of the duel decks and not the set proper, were both notable powerful pieces both as commanders, and as favorites in reanimator decks.

## Associated Products

Being a story set, Warded Realms was sold in booster packs and boxes of the Collector, Draft, Gambler and Set varieties.

A set of two commander duel decks, Duel Decks: Krond vs Vela was released alongside the set, as well as two 60-card decks in Duel Decks: Kasmina vs The Wanderer.

## Promo Cards

An series of four alternate art versions of The Elderspell, representing the four main planeswalkers of the set, were given to local game stores to distribute as they saw fit.

## Associated Events

Being a standard-legal set, the release of Warded Realms came with the Warded Realms Grand Tour.

## Critical Reception

The set did receive some criticism from vorthos players, who criticized it for doubling down on the idea that only planeswalkers matter in the lore, and further reducing the stakes of conflict on each individual plane. However, in that same light it was praised for the use of new planeswalkers and potential planeswalkers at the core of the story.