2018 was a big year for Magic: The Gathering. It was the game's 25th anniversary and Wizards wanted to find cool ways to celebrate the occasion.

While some of these attempts, like the ill-fated Silver Showcase (as a nod to the Silver Anniversary, you see) totally bombed, others were lauded. Dominaria, the year's second expansion, would fall squarely into the latter camp.

This brought players back to Magic's original setting for the first time since 2008's Future Sight and lived up to its ideals as a celebration of the game's long history. Many classic characters, locations, and stories were revisited in what has become known as one of Magic's best expansions of all time.

Today, we'll look back at what made Dominaria such an awesome set.

Dominaria Essential Info

Released April 27, 2018, Dominaria was Magic's 78th expansion and arrived to tremendous fanfare. It was initially planned as a two-set block, but the shift away from that model condensed it into a single release, making room for Core Set 2019 just a few months later.

The story saw the Gatewatch making their way to Dominaria to regroup following their monumental defeat at the hands of Nicol Bolas on Amonkhet. This ultimately leads them to aid the people of Dominaria in defeating the demon lord Belzenlok, the last of Liliana Vess' pactholders.

When Belzenlok is killed, Nicol Bolas takes control of Liliana's contract and bends her to his will for the final showdown the following year in War of the Spark.

The Design Teams

Here's all I could find on Dominaria's design teams. Details on Exploratory and Play Design are unclear.

Vision Design:

• Mark Rosewater (Lead)
• Aaron Forsythe
• Ethan Fleischer
• Ian Duke
• Kelly Diggs
• Gavin Verhey
• Richard Garfield

Set Design:

• Erik Lauer (Co-Lead)
• Dave Humphreys (Co-Lead)
• Alli Medwin
• Andrew Brown
• Doug Beyer
• Ethan Fleicher
• Kelly Diggs
• Ken Nagle
• Peter Lee
• Ryan Spain
• Sam Stoddard

The Products of Dominaria

Dominaria saw a number of interesting products released alongside it. Many will feel familiar no matter how long you've been playing Magic, though a few forgotten relics may still surprise you.

Booster Packs

15-card Booster Packs were the mainstay release of all Magic sets of this era. Each Booster Pack came with a Basic Land, an additional Token or helper card as a "16th card," and the chance at a Premium Foil card in place of a Common.

You could also get Booster Boxes, which contained 36 packs and had an individual MSRP of slightly over $4 each. I was unable to find specific MSRP info for this era, though this was roughly the pricing of the time. Wizards ended up stopping providing MSRP for several years in 2019.

Bundles

In addition to the typical packs and boxes, Dominaria brought back Bundles.

Bundles were a fan favorite. They included a nice storage box, ten Booster Packs, a player's guide, and a spindown life counter. The variety of items and roughly $40-50 price point of the time made them a happy medium for players who wanted some packs but not a full Booster Box.

Planeswalker Decks

There is always a preconstructed product that's ready for a beginner to pluck off the shelf and play. In this era, these were the Planeswalker Decks. Every set would have two, each featuring a different Planeswalker card at the helm as well as a few unique cards.

They came with two Booster Packs to allow for a little customization.

The Planeswalkers in these decks were often notably low power. The decks would later be replaced with items like Commander precons and Jumpstart releases.

Theme Boosters

Theme Boosters were almost exactly what they sound like, just perhaps larger than you're picturing. Each Booster Pack contained 35 cards of a specific color and theme from the set.

Dominaria was the first set to include this product and it was poorly received. Many players struggled to justify the higher price point given that each pack still contained only one Rare or Mythic Rare. After numerous tries to make this product work, they would eventually be reworked into Jumpstart Boosters for their related sets starting with Dominaria United.

Booster Battle Pack

The Booster Battle Pack is a forgotten oddity of Magic's past. Only nine sets used these, with Dominaria being the last one. Battle packs contained two ready-to-play decks and two Booster Packs to help new players experience the game.

These were aimed at newer players, making them yet another beginner-focused product that Jumpstart would later supplant.

Heroes of Dominaria

While not involving Magic cards, Heroes of Dominaria was a board game that was related to the set. Despite the clear tie-in, it was released in August 2018 - four months after Dominaria itself.

According to BoardGameGeek - a reputable board game database - reception appears to be middling, with a 6.6 user score at the time of writing. Later, Magic board games would lean more into the card game element, like Ravnica: Clue Edition and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtle Team-Up products.

A Legend in Every Booster

Dominaria introduced a fancy innovation: every Booster Pack now contained a Legendary Creature card. Players could open one of the 42 different Legendary Creatures in either the Uncommon or Rare/Mythic Rare slot.

These would include characters who were descendants of older characters or - provided they lived long enough - those original characters themselves. Some longtime characters even had the chance to make a first-time card appearance, like Jodah, Archmage Eternal.

This element would be played up through the Historic mechanic of the set.

The Mechanics of Dominaria

While the Legendary Creatures in every Booster Pack would be a bit of a gimmick for the set, it would also play into the some of the mechanics.

That theme carried through in Dominaria, which leaned heavily into Legendary and Historic Sorcery cards. In addition to this, we got a new Enchantment subtype and saw the return of a classic mechanic.

Historic

The first of these mechanics new: Historic. Historic was Magic's first batching term and referred to having an Artifact, a Saga, or a Legendary permanent on your battlefield.

Historic would be used in a variety of ways, ranging from caring whether you had a Historic card on the battlefield or made use of them otherwise. This might include tutoring them out of your deck, returning them from your graveyard, or playing them from your hand.

The success of this would lead to other batching terms that would be developed later on, such as Party, Modified, and Outlaws.

Sagas

Sagas made their first appearance in Dominaria and, at the time, there were a total of 14. The inspiration for these cards came from Richard Garfield's original idea for Planeswalkers when they were designing them for Future Sight (later Lorwyn).

Planeswalkers originally went through a loop but when it was determined the chain could be disrupted to make nothing happen, it felt like a major flavor miss. With Sagas, though, this concept could be used to tell stories.

Each of the 14 Sagas in the set tells the tale of a historical moment from throughout Dominaria's history. Both the mechanics and art of these cards highlighted elements of what occurred during these moments.

Sometimes these are more overt, while others are more abstract. For example, in Triumph of Gerrard, the spear he holds depicts the White mana being channelled from the Null Moon into the Weatherlight to ignite the Legacy Weapon.

Sagas would prove massively popular and have gone on to become a staple part of the game.

Legendary Sorceries

In addition to the Legendary Creatures throughout, Dominaria played further into the concept with a cycle of Legendary Sorcery spells. These cards required you to have a Legendary Creature or Planeswalker on the battlefield in order to cast them.

There were six in total for this cycle, with one in each color plus an additional Multicolored option with Primevals' Glorious Rebirth. Each one also showed a major historical moment that had occurred in Dominaria's past. These include the following:

1. Urza's Ruinous Blast depicts Urza's ignition of the Golgothian Sylex at the end of The Brothers' War.
2. Karn's Temporal Sundering depicts Karn going back in time and messing up the time streams, causing the destruction of the first Tolarian Academy in the process.
3. Yawgmoth's Vile Offering depicts Gerrard Capashen beheading Urza as part of a deal with Yawgmoth to revive his deceased love, Hanna. Hanna is then revealed to be Yawgmoth in disguise, whom Gerrard attacks in a rage.
4. Jaya's Immolating Inferno depicts Jaya igniting her spark - literally - by burning the spirits of Mairsil and Lim-Dul with the aid of Jodah.
5. Kamahl's Druidic Vow depicts the Pardic barbarian Kamahl giving up the power of the Mirari sword and becoming a druid instead.
6. Primevals' Glorious Rebirth depicts the five Legendary Dragons from Invasion being resurrected and achieving godhood among other Dragons.

Kicker

Kicker is one of the most famous mechanics in all of Magic, having debuted in Invasion back in 2000. It allows you to pay an additional cost as you cast a spell to get an extra effect.

Besides the Invasion block, Kicker returned in the Time Spiral and Zendikar blocks and would eventually come back in multiple releases after Dominaria.

The mechanic is so versatile that most mechanics are jokingly referred to as "just being Kicker."

Dominaria Limited Archetypes

Dominaria is well known for its rich Limited format. Many, myself included, would happily include it among the best of all-time.

The set boasted ten awesome archetypes for players to explore and take advantage of. However, the beauty of the set was that you could do things like play in three or more colors or mix and match archetypes to better suit your needs.

Let's have a look at the ten core archetypes.

Blue-Red Wizards

Blue-Red (or Izzet) Wizards provided players with a powerful synergy-based strategy. Many Wizard cards in the set would give you benefits for controlling another Wizard already, which made cards like Academy Journeymage devastating threats if you built your deck right.

Past this synergy, your decks will often lean into a spellslinger strategy, as is standard for your typical Izzet deck.

White-Black Legends Matter

The White-Black "Legends Matter" archetype is named after its signpost uncommon, Arvad, the Cursed, who anchors the strategy. However, there wasn't that much more synergy for other Legends in this color combination.

What it did have, though, was the best suite of removal in the format, with standouts like Eviscerate, Cast Down, and Blessed Light available to you.

Knights also show up as a subtheme in this color pair, particularly when supported by rares like History of Benalia or Aryel, Knight of Windgrace.

Black-Red Sacrifice Aggro

Black-Red's focus is very much an Aggro one, generating plenty of heavy-hitting Creatures to swing in with. Many cards boast effects that encourage you to sacrifice your Creatures in return for some kind of value as well.

Using cards like Garna, the Bloodflame, Demonic Vigor, and Whisper, Blood Liturgist you can easily get these Creatures back for more.

Red-Green Kicker Ramp

Typically, Red-Green is also super aggressive. Here, though, the goal is to take a much more ramp-focused approach using cards like Llanowar Elves, Elfhame Druid, and Grow from the Ashes to generate lots of mana. Using that mana, you can cast big spells as well as pay for Kicker costs to fuel Hallar, the Firefletcher.

Taking this approach allows you to do crazy things like Kick cards such as Baloth Gorger and Grunn, the Lonely King. If you can be so lucky as to kick Fight with Fire - a retooling of the classic Urza's Rage - then you almost certainly win whatever game you're playing.

White-Blue Historic Fliers

The White-Blue archetype centered around the key card Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage. You could expect to find lots of Creatures with Flying as well as some pretty big payoffs for your Historic spells, making for a solidly versatile strategy.

My personal favorite way to use this archetype was to find one of the few Hexproof Creatures in the format and suit them up with efficient Auras. Putting a simple Arcane Flight or On Serra's Wings onto a Cold-Water Snapper was a great way to spell lights out for your opponents.

Blue-Black Value

Blue-Black, or Dimir, provides a typical Control-style strategy. The color pair doesn't have the most potent of threats outside of format staples like Academy Drake, but it does provide you with great tools to slow your opponents down.

Cards like Divination and Dark Bargain will draw you lots of cards. You can then use the cards you draw to pick off opposing threats with cards such as Blink of an Eye, Deep Freeze, and Fungal Infection.

If you can get your hands on a Rona, Disciple of Gix, that will no doubt make the plan easier to enact, though even just a handful of decent threats will carry you alongside a deluge of card draw and removal.

Green-White Tokens

Green-White provides yet another classic Limited archetype: go wide with lots of tokens. Tons of cards make a plethora of small token Creatures, such as Sergeant-at-Arms, Spore Swarm, and Yavimaya Sapherd. The bigger the board, the more you fuel cards like Shanna, Sisay's Legacy.

This color pair also has several great options for massive pumps, including the likes of Charge and Wild Onslaught. It's pretty one-note but is a fun archetype to go into if you've never played Dominaria Limited.

It was my personal favorite way to play when I first picked it up before I graduated to other angles of play.

Black-Green Saprolings

Green-White may love making the tokens, but Black-Green takes the most advantage of them. After all, most of the tokens you make with Green are Saprolings, and the Black-Green archetype is all about making good use of them.

Cards like Sporecrown Thallid and Wild Onslaught will take your board and make them huge. Alternatively, use cards like Sporecrown Thallid and Slimefoot, the Stowaway to sacrifice them and generate even more value to decimate your opponents.

They're great fodder for things like Vicious Offering too, ensuring you have plenty of ways to make use of your little guys.

Green-Blue Good Stuff

Green-Blue, or Simic, show up and does what it's best at in this set: generating tons of good-stuff value. This is possible thanks to the powerhouse that is Tatyova, Benthic Druid. Using her, you can gain tons of life and draw an endless stream of cards.

In this era, Simic was generally viewed as one of the weaker color combinations in Dominaria Limited. However, when used as a supporting pair in multicolored decks, it could still offer strong synergies. That flexibility is part of what made Dominaria Limited so memorable.

Red-White Auras and Equipment

I mentioned the plan of suiting up Hexproof Creatures earlier. While that's the most effective way to use your Equipment and Auras, there's another route you could take.

In fact, it's the core of the Red-White strategy, using cards like Champion of the Flame and Valduk, Keeper of the Flame to provide massive payoffs the more you can suit them up.

This color combination has no shortage of sweet Auras and Equipment. Cards like On Serra's Wings, Dub, Jousting Lance, and even Short Sword provide each of these threats with a whole armory of options to choose from.

If you can get the right payoffs, particularly alongside Valduk, you can completely steamroll your opponents.

Major Cards

Let's take a look now at a small handful of the most impactful cards from this set and why they were so significant for the time.

It's worth noting that Dominaria was a huge set with tons of major cards in it. It was hard to narrow my list down this far so do not take it personally if you favorites aren't represented here.

History of Benalia

History of Benalia was one of the few initial Saga cards to see serious play in Standard tournaments.

While some Sagas were fringe players or lived in sideboards, this card proved to be a centerpiece for Mono-White Aggro decks of the time. Not only did it make multiple tokens, but it also pumped them up for a big swing.

If you played two copies two turns in a row, this could allow you to take multiple big swings with even more tokens. What made it all the better were the number of other great Knights around at the time.

Dauntless Bodyguard, Benalish Marshal, and Knight of Grace all saw play in Mono-White Aggro. Getting to play all of these in tandem with one another made History of Benalia a major threat players had to contend with or lose.

Lyra Dawnbringer

Lyra Dawnbringer - an in-game descendant of Reya Dawnbringer - was one of the chase Mythic Rares of the set, as it would provide a massive threat that demanded an answer.

As a result, Lyra would become a mainstay of Standard, showing up in a wide range of decks including Aggro, Midrange, and even Control as a finisher.

While most of her notoriety has come from her time in Standard, there's one other area she is perfect for: Commander. Many players love to build Angel decks and Lyra provides a perfect centerpiece for these decks. Even if you don't play her in your Command Zone, she's excellent in the 99 as well.

This popularity and historical play would lead to her reprinting in Foundations, leading to her seeing some fringe play once more in Standard.

Goblin Chainwhirler

Goblin Chainwhirler would prove itself a major threat against Creatures with 1 toughness throughout its entire career in Standard. This would end up exacerbated by the fact that Red-based Aggro decks were among the top tier decks of the time.

As a result, many players will remember Goblin Chainwhirler as one of the most-feared cards of this era. Even now, you sometimes see it show up in the rare Pioneer deck, be it in Mono-Red Aggro or Goblins.

Sometimes just being a good, efficient threat with a solid board wipe is enough to do the trick.

Llanowar Elves

For a number of years, Standard had been without a 1 mana value mana dork like Llanowar Elves, Birds of Paradise, or Elvish Mystic. These cards were seen as too warping for Ramp decks in the meta, so they were removed with Magic Origins in 2015.

When Llanowar Elves was first revealed in an accidental leak, it made players distrustful. Surely Wizards wouldn't be bringing back this powerful Creature once again, right? As it turned out, they did reprint it in Dominaria to help lean into the fun throwback element of the set.

Other cards would often keep Llanowar Elves in check throughout this Standard period. After it rotated, however, we would not see it again until Foundations in 2024.

Steel Leaf Champion

Among the powerful threats that Llanowar Elves enabled was Steel Leaf Champion. This mighty Creature boasted an extreme statline for the time and that was exacerbated by the addition of Llanowar Elves.

The line of going turn one Llanowar Elves into Steel Leaf provided an extremely viable Aggro strategy at the time dubbed Steel Leaf Stompy. Thanks to the amount of power this would provide, it would also enable other cards like Rhonas the Indomitable and Ghalta, Primal Hunger.

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

While Lyra Dawnbringer would help ensure that you could close out games with Midrange and Control decks, the real powerhouse behind them was Teferi, Hero of Dominaria.

Teferi was a monstrous force, providing a card advantage engine that would simultaneously allow you to hold up interaction. The goal would be to tick him up to his Emblem and slowly remove all your opponents' permanents while you locked them out of the game.

The power of decks like these made Teferi, Hero of Dominaria widely considered to be one of the most powerful Planeswalker cards of all time.

With the later printing of Teferi, Time Raveler in 2019's War of the Spark, players quickly grew sick of the character as his cards would often leave a sour taste in their mouths.

Helm of the Host

Helm of the Host is the one card on this list that is notable for becoming an instant standout in Commander. Casual players everywhere love Clone effects and getting to copy Creatures turn after turn was an effect just about everyone wanted.

Combine this with the fact that it copied Legendary Creatures as Non-Legendary Creatures and you've got a recipe for a smash hit. Another key point: it combos with Godo, Bandit Warlord for a one-turn kill.

All of this made Helm of the Host one of the chase Rares of the set, despite not having a Constructed resume and not being a Mythic Rare.

Stores couldn't keep copies in stock and its popularity has only risen with time, resulting in it finally being upshifted with its reprint as part of The Brothers' War Retro Artifacts bonus sheet in 2022.

Mox Amber

When Mox Amber first previewed, it struck many as a card that didn't have much play potential. You could perhaps do something silly like make some quick mana off of an Isamaru, Hound of Konda if you really tried, but the consensus was that this likely wouldn't do much.

As Dominaria prepared to exit Standard, players slowly started to find new ways to take advantage of the card's power. This would be especially true thanks to the new format of the time, Pioneer.

Eventually Mox Amber would enable a variety of Combo decks like the various Grinding Station decks that have appeared in Modern over the past few years.

The slow discovery of the card's power, much like Mox Opal before it, has led to players always remaining cautious not to underestimate it whenever a new Mox is revealed.

Precons

Dominaria saw the continuation of the preconstructed Planeswalker Decks of the era.

These decks were introductory level products for new players to give them a taste of what the game had to offer. Each deck was built around a beginner-friendly level Planeswalker card and contained two Booster Packs of the set they came from.

Dominaria had two of these Planeswalker decks, with one themed around Teferi and the other themed around Chandra.

The Teferi Planeswalker Deck

The Teferi Planeswalker deck was helmed by the Teferi, Timebender card and used a simple Creature-based approach with Artifacts.

Teferi Planeswalker Deck | DOM Standard | Wizards of the Coast

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Daring Archaeologist
• 1 Serra Angel
• 1 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
• 1 Azhid, Djinn of the Lamp
• 2 Jhoira's Familiar
• 2 Juggernaut
• 2 Niambi, Faithful Healer
• 2 Relic Runner
• 2 Sparring Construct
• 3 Aesthir Glider
• 3 Knight of New Benalia
• 3 Teferi's Sentinel

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Teferi, Timebender

• Instants (5)
• 2 Befuddle
• 3 Gideon's Reproach

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Divination
• 4 Temporal Machinations

• Lands (26)
• 11 Island
• 11 Plains
• 4 Meandering River

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A handful of spells would help keep your opponents at bay in the Control style Teferi is known for, though in a more forgiving approach that newer players can enjoy without as much frustration.

This deck included a few more exclusives past the face card. These were...

• Meandering River (a reprint)
• Temporal Machinations
• Teferi's Sentinel
• Niambi, Faithful Healer

This deck received some criticism for the inclusion of Niambi, as it suggested the character's only purpose was to get her dad. This would later be rectified in later iterations of Niambi, like Niambi, Esteemed Speaker.

The Chandra Planeswalker Deck

By comparison, the Chandra deck - featuring Chandra, Bold Pyromancer - took the much more typical Aggro approach.

Chandra Planeswalker Deck | DOM Standard | Wizards of the Coast

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Gaea's Protector
• 1 Ghitu Chronicler
• 1 Grunn, the Lonely King
• 1 Krosan Druid
• 1 Marwyn, the Nurturer
• 1 Primordial Wurm
• 2 Baloth Gorger
• 2 Llanowar Elves
• 3 Elfhame Druid
• 3 Fire Elemental
• 3 Karplusan Hound
• 4 Pyromantic Pilgrim

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra, Bold Pyromancer

• Instants (5)
• 1 Pierce the Sky
• 2 Gift of Growth
• 2 Shivan Fire

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Fiery Intervention
• 1 Fight with Fire
• 2 Chandra's Outburst

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 Gilded Lotus

• Lands (26)
• 11 Forest
• 11 Mountain
• 4 Timber Gorge

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All the Creatures were super aggressive and all the spells were more than happy to beat your opponents to death. What new player wouldn't love that?

The unique cards for this deck included...

• Timber Gorge (a reprint)
• Pyromantic Pilgrim
• Karplusan Hound
• Chandra's Outburst

Tournament Decks of the Era

Now let's look at a handful of tournament decks from the Dominaria release period that made strong use of the set's cards.

Hazoret Red

Pro Tour Dominaria was won at the hands of Wyatt Darby on Mono-Red Aggro, better known at the time as Hazoret Red.

As the name would imply, this was an all-in Aggro deck that used low to the ground Creatures to take out opponents fast. As you dump your hand, this then turns on Hazoret the Fervent to go in for the kill.

Hazoret Red | DOM Standard | Wyatt Darby, 1st Place Pro Tour Dominaria

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Ahn-Crop Crasher
• 2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
• 3 Bomat Courier
• 3 Rekindling Phoenix
• 4 Earthshaker Khenra
• 4 Goblin Chainwhirler
• 4 Hazoret the Fervent
• 4 Soul-Scar Mage

• Instants (10)
• 3 Lightning Strike
• 3 Shock
• 4 Abrade

• Lands (24)
• 24 Mountain

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Treasure Map // Treasure Cove
• 2 Aethersphere Harvester
• 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 3 Chandra's Defeat
• 3 Fight with Fire
• 3 Glorybringer

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The deck made use of the powerful new card Goblin Chainwhirler in the main deck, as well as Fight with Fire out of the sideboard. These also made the Rakdos Aggro deck quite potent as well, and the deck was far more favored by comparison, putting five copies in the event's top eight.

Nevertheless, Wyatt was able to clinch victory and took home the trophy in the end.

Esper Control

Control decks had been popping up for some time, mostly as Dimir builds leaning into the likes of The Scarab God and Torrential Gearhulk.

With the printing of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, players began to shift towards adding in some amount of White to the mix. This lead to decks like this Esper Control list that Ernest Lim took to the top eight of Pro Tour Dominaria.

Esper Control | DOM Standard | Ernest Lim, 7th Place Pro Tour Dominaria

• Creatures (6)
• 3 The Scarab God
• 3 Torrential Gearhulk

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

• Instants (25)
• 1 Commit // Memory
• 2 Censor
• 3 Cast Down
• 3 Syncopate
• 4 Disallow
• 4 Fatal Push
• 4 Glimmer of Genius
• 4 Vraska's Contempt

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Arguel's Blood Fast // Temple of Aclazotz

• Lands (26)
• 1 Plains
• 4 Island
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Field of Ruin
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 2 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Aether Hub
• 4 Drowned Catacomb
• 4 Fetid Pools

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Cast Down
• 1 Essence Scatter
• 1 Forsake the Worldly
• 1 Settle the Wreckage
• 3 Duress
• 4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
• 4 Negate

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With time, Control lists would lean much more heavily to the Blue-White side of things to maximize the usefulness of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. This would prove even truer when Nexus of Fate would be printed as the Buy-A-Box promo for Core Set 2019 that summer.

Steel Leaf Stompy

Steel Leaf Stompy, or Mono-Green Aggro, was just like the name suggests: an Aggro deck made up entirely of powerful Green threats.

Using Llanowar Elves, you could ramp yourself into big threats quickly. Even if you couldn't generate too much mana, it wouldn't be difficult to get big threats with the likes of Greenbelt Rampager, Merfolk Branchwalker, and Scrapheap Scrounger.

Steel Leaf Stompy | DOM Standard | Bgoose321, 2nd Place MTGO Standard MOCS Event

• Creatures (29)
• 3 Greenbelt Rampager
• 3 Rhonas the Indomitable
• 3 Thrashing Brontodon
• 4 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Merfolk Branchwalker
• 4 Scrapheap Scrounger
• 4 Steel Leaf Champion

• Instants (4)
• 4 Blossoming Defense

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Heart of Kiran

• Lands (24)
• 13 Forest
• 3 Hashep Oasis
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Woodland Cemetery

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Thrashing Brontodon
• 2 Aethersphere Harvester
• 2 Hour of Glory
• 2 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 2 Nissa, Vital Force
• 2 Vraska, Relic Seeker
• 4 Crushing Canopy

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The deck was a pretty firm tier two strategy, yet it still managed to put up some strong results at the time, like with this 2nd place Standard Magic Online Championship Series event win.

The deck would often times use Black-Green dual Lands as well in order to take advantage of some powerful Black spells from the sideboard.

Weird Facts

The Dominaria Release Notes Leak

Shortly before Dominaria released, Masters 25 came out. When it did, Wizards accidentally put out the Release Notes for Dominaria instead of Masters 25 on their Chinese page.

Whoopsie!

Rather than try and hide it, though, Wizards owned up to it. They knew players would soon translate it and figure out all the juicy details. So, Wizards decided to simply put out the official Dominaria Release Notes early, for all languages.

While this did spoil a few things, not all the cards in the set were included in the document, meaning there was still plenty left to be uncovered. At that time, it didn't reveal things like new artwork for reprints such as the shocking inclusion of Llanowar Elves, either.

This change also revealed minor changes in terminology on cards ("He or she" became "they") as well as a horizontal line separating rules text from flavor text.

Expansion References

A fun note about Dominaria is that every expansion that ever took place on Dominaria was referenced somewhere on a number of cards.

Some were very obvious like Jodah, Archmage Eternal referencing Chronicles or using The Antiquities War as an alternate name for The Brothers' War. Others were more subtle, like Rat Colony's flavor text including the words "Invasion" and "Unlimited" in it.

This was done intentionally to play up the theme of history prevalent throughout the set.

Mark Poole's Basic Lands

While Dominaria is packed with lots of little references for long-term fans to pick up on, some went a little more direct.

Classic Magic artist Mark Poole, who had been doing art since Alpha, did the art for five of the basic Lands in this set. Every one of them includes a callback to the cycle of Lands he illustrated in Fallen Empires over two decades prior.

Some of these are fairly obvious, with the arches in the Plains and Island cards being visible sections of the art in the original Fallen Empires versions.

Others include litlde details. Look closely and you'll notice things like an entrance in the side of one of the Mountains and the same holes from Havenwood Battleground in the Forest.

It's just one of many fun connections that Wizards brought to this set and made it appeal to both old and new players alike.

Conclusion

Dominaria is quite a strong contender for the best set of all time - a sentiment often echoed throughout the community.

The set delivered standout cards for Constructed and Commander, along with one of the best Limited formats of all time. It's hard not to love all of that.

Overall, Dominaria lived up to its lofty goal of being a celebration of Magic's 25-year history.

The 30th anniversary also saw the release of Dominaria United, so perhaps it's only a matter of time 'til we return to this classic plane for Magic's 35th year in 2028.

Paige Smith

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