Unsanctioned

Unsanctioned

 

Half decks

 

Unsanctioned
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	A horseshoe in half of a broken egg shell over two crossed wrenches with acorn shaped holes.
Design	Mark Rosewater (lead) Chris Mooney Ari Nieh
Development	Max McCall (lead) Gavin Verhey Gaby Weidling Chris Mooney
Art direction	Keven Smith Lisa Hanson
Release date	February 28, 2020
Plane	Un-iverse
Themes and mechanics	Acorn counters, dice rolling
Keywords/​ability words	Knightlifelink, Host, Augment
Set size	96 (five 30-card decks)
Expansion code	UND
Development codename	Parachute
Un-sets
Unstable Unsanctioned Unfinity
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Secret Lair Drop Series: Theros Stargazing Unsanctioned Secret Lair Drop Series: International Women's Day

Unsanctioned is a silver-bordered box set, marketed as a ready-to-play "Un-set" experience, and was released on February 28, 2020. The set combines reprints from previous Un-sets with sixteen new Un-cards. It has a “wrestling match kind of flavor.”

Set details

“

Get Ready for the Fight.

”

The set consists of five 30-card, preconstructed mono-colored decks, each designed to synergize with one another in unique and surprising ways. Each player combines two decks into one 60-card deck and faces off against another combined deck for some wacky gameplay that stretches the limits of what Magic cards can do. The new cards (3 in each deck, and 1 appearing in all decks) were designed very much with Commander and Cube in mind.

There are 96 different cards in the set (30 commons, 22 uncommons, 30 rares, 4 mythic rares, 10 basic lands). The set features 19 reprints from Unglued, 24 from Unhinged, 27 from Unstable and 1 was a HASCON promo.

Like the other Un-sets before, Unsanctioned features five full-art basic lands. You get two cycles of full-art basic land, one foil, one nonfoil. There are also five regular basics, with each hiding a squirrel in its art. All the reprints, save Blast from the Past and Old Fogey, feature new card frames, but some have nods to their old frame adjustments.

Unsanctioned became available worldwide in English.

Contents

Unsanctioned box

• 5 30-card decks
• 2 six-sided dice
• 10 double-sided tokens
• 10 full-art basic lands with new art (5 regular, 5 premium)
• 1 reusable box

Themes and mechanics

Unsanctioned six-sided die

Unsanctioned features the return of Host and augment from Unstable on some new cards. Wordy also makes a return.

A new mechanic is Knightlifelink, a variation of lifelink (Damage dealt by Knights you control also causes you to gain that much life.).

Surgeon General Commander mentions the mechanic “mutate”, teasing the mechanic's later release in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths.

Acorn counters, introduced on Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher, have their own symbol and may be used as a resource. They are placed on players rather than on objects. Because of this, they are similar to energy counters.

Boomstacker is a dexterity card.

Card types

• New un-creature types are:
  • Art (Abstract Iguanart)
  • Chameleon (Surgeon General Commander)
  • Die (Pippa, Duchess of Dice) (token-only)
  • Grandchild (Infernius Spawnington III, Esq.)

• Returning un-creature types are:
  • Bureaucrat
  • Child
  • Clamfolk

• A new Planeswalker type is:
  • B.O.B. (B.O.B. (Bevy of Beebles))

• Creature type update
  • Chicken (Chicken à la King) is obsoleted, and replaced by Bird.

Cycles

Unsanctioned introduces a single new cycle.

Cycle name
Commanders	Syr Cadian, Knight Owl ()	Alexander Clamilton ()	Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher ()	Stet, Draconic Proofreader ()	Pippa, Duchess of Dice ()
	Five rare legendary creatures, each with an enemy color activated ability.

Preconstructed decks

Unsanctioned features five preconstructed half-decks.

Half deck name	Colors Included					Commander
White	W					Syr Cadian, Knight Owl
Blue		U				Alexander Clamilton
Black			B			Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher
Red				R		Stet, Draconic Proofreader
Green					G	Pippa, Duchess of Dice

Tokens

Acorn Stash marker

Unsanctioned features five new tokens and one new marker:

1. 1/1 Beeble creature, created by B.O.B. (Bevy of Beebles).
2. 1/1 Goblin creature, created by Blast from the Past.
3. 1/1 Squirrel creature, created by Squirrel Farm.
4. Gold 4/4 Dragon creature with flying, created by Sword of Dungeons & Dragons.
5. Pink 5/5 Giant Teddy Bear creature, created by Water Gun Balloon Game.
6. Acorn Stash marker for Acornelia, Fashionable Filcher.

Trivia

• Abstract Iguanart jabs at abstract art and is a throwback to Unhinged's "Artist matters" theme.
• Alexander Clamilton spoofs Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States.
• Booster Tutor uses the Arena League promo art.
• Infernius Spawnington III, Esq. is the grandson of the Infernal Spawn of Evil and the son of the Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil.
• The cards in the art of Johnny, Combo Player have been changed to reflect the cards named in the flavor text.
• Look at Me, I'm R&D got an update on its edited text.
• Pippa, Duchess of Dice directs players to use actual dice as creature tokens.
• Stet (Stet, Draconic Proofreader) is an editing term for "let it stand".
  • The art shows Stet turning “mice” into “ice” by cutting off the “m”.
• Surgeon General Commander is designed as a WUBRG Commander and references the old EDH designation (General).
  • By the name change, the card name loses its connotation to the office of Surgeon General.
  • Noticeably it is the second Wombat ever printed.
• The name and mechanics of Syr Cadian, Knight Owl are a play on the Circadian rhythm, the natural process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours, and night owl (a person who tends to stay up until late at night).
• Timmy, Power Gamer is the only card to feature completely new artwork.
• Topsy-Turvy is the only rarity shift, which got downshifted from rare to uncommon since there was no space to fit a security holofoil stamp in.
• Underdome is a joke on Thunderdome.