War of the Spark

War of the Spark is the 81st Magic expansion. It was released on May 3, 2019. Officially, it is not part of a block. However, it is part of a series of three consecutive sets on the same world, unofficially referred to as the Guilds of Ravnica block. It covers the event of the same name.

Set details
War of the Spark contains 264 cards (15 basic lands, 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares), and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all these cards. Ten additional cards are found in the set's planeswalker decks (2 mythic planeswalkers, 2 rares, 2 uncommons, 2 commons, and 2 common Guildgates). These are numbered #265/264 to #274/264. A unique Buy-a-Box promotional card numbered #275/264 is also considered to be part of the set. While all previous sets on Ravnica focused on the ten Ravnican guilds, this set focuses on the culmination of the Bolas Arc simply using the world as a backdrop. Mark Rosewater calls it an "event set", meaning it is built around an event rather than the plane. As a special feature, the set features a total of 36 planeswalkers cards (39 including the Buy-a-Box promo + 2 in the planeswalker decks. Each booster pack contains a planeswalker card, and all planeswalkers are new cards (no reprints).

The set is accompanied by the first major paper Magic novel after an eight-year break.

Storyline
Be there when it ends.

The storyline and set revolves around the fight between the Gatewatch and Nicol Bolas. The fight turns into an all-out planeswalker war. Dozens of powerful planeswalkers, from many disparate realities, unite against the elder dragon, who has claimed dominion over Ravnica and is perilously close to completing the Elderspell that harvests sparks and will grant him "ultimate power" and godhood. As they fight alongside the Gatewatch—led by Chandra Nalaar, Jace Beleren, and Gideon Jura—against Bolas and his relentless army of Eternals, nothing less than the fate of the multiverse is at stake. Little do the Gatewatch suspect that Bolas has not only accounted for their interference, but he is practically relying on it.

The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in War of the Spark are:
 * Act 1: Ignite the Beacon, No Escape, Emergence Zone, Dreadhorde Invasion, Ravnica at War and God-Pharaoh's Statue
 * Act 2: Pledge of Unity, Rally of Wings, Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi</c>, Topple the Statue</c>, Enter the God-Eternals</c>, Spark Harvest</c>, The Elderspell</c>, and Deliver Unto Evil</c>
 * Act 3: Storm the Citadel</c>, Divine Arrow</c>, Unlikely Aid</c>, Tyrant's Scorn</c>, Command the Dreadhorde</c>, Price of Betrayal</c>, Gideon's Sacrifice</c>, Heartwarming Redemption</c>, Niv-Mizzet Reborn</c>, Despark</c>, <c>Prison Realm</c>, <c>Oath of Kaya</c>, and <c>Planewide Celebration</c>

Magic Story
In addition to the novel and its sequel (both by Greg Weisman) and the prequel by Django Wexler, part of the story appeared in six Magic Story chapters written by Greg Weisman. Like the books, these were published after the set had been released.

Basic land panorama
The following basic lands form a panorama in that order: (#261),  (#252),  (#258),  (#254), and  (#264).

Marketing
War of the Spark is sold in regular 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card and another one being a planeswalker), single color theme boosters, two planeswalker decks, and the War of the Spark bundle. The planeswalker theme of the set was revealed in a teaser that featured the art of the 36 planeswalker cards with an added stained-glass effect. The boosters feature art from Liliana and Gideon (both from the set's key art), and from <c>Teferi, Time Raveler</c>.

Each paper booster pack contains a planeswalker. This doesn't apply to 8-card "Arena packs" on MTGA.

Preview season told a story in "scenes". All cards previewed on a single day had a connection to a story point, an event, or a key location in roughly chronological order.

Events

 * War of the Spark came online on MTG Arena on April 25, two days before prerelease.
 * Prerelease took place on April 27–28, 2019, the same weekend as London MagicFest and the second Mythic Championship of the year. In fact, the MagicFest at a late date was revealed to be a "Prerelease grand prix".
 * The Magic League was omitted from War of the Spark and all seasons for the foreseeable future, according to WPN because it demanded a lot of resources from stores and Tournament Organizers (TOs) and did little to drive play.
 * Magic Weekend is an experimental one-off format, with special rules curated by Magic’s design studio.

Promotional cards

 * Magic Open House: full-art
 * Prerelease: a foil stamped card that can be any rare or mythic, and a foil stamped planeswalker
 * Draft Weekend Launch promo: alternate art
 * Buy-a-Box:
 * FNM promos:, and
 * Planeswalker Weekend: alternate art and full-art

Japanese alternate art
All 36 planeswalker have a 50% chance that the regular artwork of the planeswalker card will be replaced by an anime-style alternate art card in Japanese-language War of the Spark boosters only. The Japanese boosters were made available to retailers around the world.

These cards will also be available in WPN promo packs during the Core Set 2020 play season, appearing in roughly 1:4 of packs. The alternate-art planeswalkers have only been printed in Japanese, but will appear in promo packs around the world.

Tokens and emblems
The sixteenth card in the boosters is a token creature card or an emblem, with advertisements on the back side. There are a total of nineteen tokens and emblems:
 * 1)  2/2 Spirit creature for <c>Ugin, the Ineffable</c>
 * 2)  4/4 Angel creature with flying and vigilance for <c>Finale of Glory</c> and <c>Parhelion II</c>
 * 3)  2/2 Soldier creature with vigilance for <c>Finale of Glory</c>
 * 4)  0/3 Wall creature with defender for <c>Teyo, the Shieldmage</c>
 * 5)  2/2 Wizard creature for <c>Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor</c>
 * 6)  1/1 Assassin creature with deathtouch and "Whenever this creature deals damage to a planeswalker, destroy that planeswalker" for <c>Vraska, Swarm's Eminence</c>
 * 7)  2/2 Zombie creature for <c>Liliana, Dreadhorde General</c>
 * 8)  0/0 Zombie Army creature (1 of 3) for each spell with amass
 * 9)  0/0 Zombie Army creature (2 of 3)
 * 10)  0/0 Zombie Army creature (3 of 3)
 * 11)  4/4 Zombie Warrior creature with vigilance for <c>God-Eternal Oketra</c>
 * 12)  1/1 Devil creature with "When this creature dies, it deals 1 damage to any target" for <c>Tibalt, Rakish Instigator</c>
 * 13)  4/4 Dragon creature with flying for <c>Sarkhan the Masterless</c>
 * 14)  1/1 Goblin creature for <c>Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin</c>
 * 15)  2/2 Wolf creature for <c>Arlinn, Voice of the Pack</c>
 * 16)  2/2 Citizen creature that is all colors for <c>Planewide Celebration</c>
 * 17)  3/3  legendary Wolf creature named <c>Voja, Friend to Elves</c> for <c>Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves</c>
 * 18)  1/1 Servo artifact creature for <c>Saheeli, Sublime Artificer</c>

Mythic Edition
War of the Spark Mythic Edition is a special draft-sized booster box. It contains eight masterpieces.

Themes and mechanics
The main theme of the set is planeswalkers and cards that interact with them. Apart from the usual mythic rare planeswalkers, the set also features rare and uncommon planeswalkers. All of the thirty-six planeswalkers in the main set have a static or triggered ability. The 20 uncommon ones have an additional minus loyalty ability (no plus abilities). The 13 rares have additional plus and minus loyalty abilities. The 4 mythic rares have three additional abilities. The four mythic rare planeswalkers are the two main protagonists of the story (Liliana and Gideon), the main antagonist (Bolas), and a secondary antagonist (Tezzeret). Some two-color planeswalkers show up as monocolor planeswalkers in their base color. Every planeswalker has a least one signature card that represents a spell they would cast. They're all named with the possessive, except for Jiang Yanggu, whose signature spell is his companion <c>Mowu, Loyal Companion</c>.

The keyword action Proliferate from the Scars of Mirrodin block sees a return. When a player proliferates, he or she chooses any number of players and/or permanents with a counter on them, then puts another of those counters on these players or permanents. However, a rules change has been implemented. Formerly, you had to choose a type of counter already present and added one counter of that type, now you are adding one counter of each type already present.

A new mechanic is Amass. "Amass N" means put N +1/+1 counters on an Army creature you control. If you don't control one, create a 0/0 black Zombie Army creature token first. It appears in because it is flavorfully connected to Bolas's army.

Crew returns, on the first-ever colored Vehicles.

Affinity for artifacts, last seen in the Mirrodin block, appears as a one-off on <c>Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge</c>. It reduces the mana cost of a spell by the number of artifacts that player controls.

There is a small tribal theme for zombies. Some notable creature cards give bonuses to zombie tokens, depicted as members of the Dreadhorde.(<c>Eternal Skylord</c>, <c>Vizier of the Scorpion</c>, <c>Dreadhorde Twins</c> and <c>Gleaming Overseer</c>).

War of the Spark features the following limited archetypes:
 * Stall and evasion (<c>Dovin's Veto</c>, <c>Elite Guardmage</c>)
 * Building up amass (<c>Gleaming Overseer</c>, <c>Tyrant's Scorn</c>)
 * Sacrifice amass (<c>Angrath's Rampage</c>, <c>Mayhem Devil</c>)
 * Power brutes (<c>Domri's Ambush</c>, <c>Rubblebelt Rioters</c>)
 * Go wide proliferate (<c>Huatli's Raptor</c>, <c>Pledge of Unity</c>)
 * Small utility creatures (<c>Cruel Celebrant</c>, <c>Despark</c>)
 * Spells-matter amass (<c>Invade the City</c>, <c>Ral's Outburst</c>)
 * Multicolor ramp (<c>Deathsprout</c>, <c>Leyline Prowler</c>)
 * Aggro tricks (<c>Heartwarming Redemption</c>, <c>Tenth District Legionnaire</c>)
 * Go tall +1/+1 counters (<c>Merfolk Skydiver</c>, <c>Neoform</c>)

Card types
War of the Spark introduces the Army creature type. The Army functions together much like how R&D makes single creature cards that are flavored as a group of beings.

The set also introduces the Davriel, Kasmina, and Teyo planeswalker types. The Wanderer lacks a planeswalker type.

Cycles
War of the Spark has eleven cycles.

Pairs
War of the Spark has (at least) two mirrored pairs.

Reprinted cards

 * , first printed in Magic 2011, last seen in Challenger Decks 2019 (where it already had the  War of the Spark expansion symbol).
 * , first printed in Magic 2013, last seen in Modern Masters 2017.
 * , first printed in Kaladesh.
 * , first printed in Khans of Tarkir.
 * , first printed in Odyssey, last seen in Ixalan.
 * , first printed in Guilds of Ravnica, last seen in Ravnica Allegiance.
 * , first printed in Alpha, last seen in Battlebond.
 * , first printed in Ixalan.
 * , first printed in Dominaria.
 * , first printed in Magic 2012, last seen in Duel Decks: Sorin vs. Tibalt.
 * , first printed in Gatecrash, last seen in Core Set 2019.
 * Two Guildgates, first printed in Gatecrash, last seen in Ravnica Allegiance.
 * (Planeswalker deck only)
 * (Planeswalker deck only)

Functional reprints

 * is a functional reprint of <c>Mental Agony</c>.
 * is a functional reprint of <c>Gideon's Reproach</c>.
 * is a functional reprint of <c>Shining Aerosaur</c> and <c>Skyswirl Harrier</c>, save for creature types.
 * is a functional reprint of <c>Falkenrath Reaver</c>, <c>Defiant Khenra</c>, and <c>Swab Goblin</c>, save for creature types.
 * is a functional reprint of <c>Dutiful Servants</c>, save for creature types.
 * is a functional reprint of <c>Daggerback Basilisk</c>, save for creature types.
 * is a functional reprint of <c>Coral Commando</c>, save for creature types.
 * is a functional reprint of <c>Blighted Bat</c>, save for creature types.
 * is a functional reprint of <c>Foresee</c>.

Banned and Restricted cards

 * <c>Karn, the Great Creator</c> had a one-sided <c>Null Rod</c> passive ability that generally only gained power with larger formats. While the interaction with <c>Mycosynth Lattice</c> and its banning in Modern was undoubtedly Karn's fault, it was not generally damaging for formats up to Legacy. Vintage, however, is defined by its fast mana, most of it being artifact based. Karn hence was restricted in August 2019.
 * <c>Narset, Parter of Veils</c> had a draw-restricting passive most famously seen on <c>Leovold, Emissary of Trest</c>, already a powerful card in Eternal formats. While it was frustrating in most formats, most decks had sufficient methods to remove Narset at a reasonable exchange. In Vintage, however, the bulk of the format required some form of additional card draw to operate, and with fast mana Narset hamstrung enough decks that it needed to be restricted in November 2019.
 * <c>Teferi, Time Raveler</c>, unlike the other two, had play problems as a whole. The passive ability prevents an opponent from casting spells on its controller's turn. However, the wording only allows functional sorcery spells, stopping combat tricks, spells like <c>Finale of Promise</c>, and protective spells like <c>Lazotep Plating</c>, cutting out synergy decks powered by such cards like <c>Feather, the Redeemed</c> and <c>Arclight Phoenix</c>. Its -3 ability rendered most non-planeswalker permanents that cost 3 or greater ineffectual, while the ability to cast a sorcery with flash punished aggressive decks greatest, given that <c>Shatter the Sky</c> was in the format. All in all, Teferi pushed decks away from the middle of the curve into extreme aggressive or heavy ramp (consequently knocking out control), with its only saving grace keeping Flash decks and Temur Reclamation decks from overwhelming the format. Six weeks prior to rotation, Teferi was banned alongside <c>Wilderness Reclamation</c> as a sign that Wizards acknowledged how frustrating the two cards were. Teferi was later banned in both Historic (October 2020) and Pioneer (February 2021).
 * <c>Dreadhorde Arcanist</c>, like Karn and Narset, had varying impacts depending on the strength of cheap spells. It has the ability to "flash back" spells with cost less than its power, which at one power tends to be a reasonable threshold, and the 3 toughness makes it not particularly sturdy. That said, the breadth of options in Legacy makes it an engine in a format where one mana spells have high impact. It was banned in February 2021.

Preconstructed decks
War of the Spark features two planeswalker decks: