Magic: The Gathering's space opera set includes a monster so big it eats planets
The Edge of Eternities expansion is based on space opera, which I am told means it's like normal science-fiction, except that it ain't over till the fat space monster eats a planet.
OK, what it really means is we should expect something between Buck Rogers and Star Wars, with varied alien species, faster-than-light travel at the press of a button, space whales, and entire worlds that each have a single biome. That last aspect makes an easy transition to Magic: The Gathering. This whole planet is covered in swamps? Cool, that's a black-mana land card now.
And yes, Edge of Eternities does have a fat space monster that eats a planet. Famished Worldsire is a green-mana leviathan that uses the devour mechanic, first seen in the Shards of Alara set back in 2008. Specifically it devours land cards, and every one it chomps gives it three +1/+1 counters and lets you look at a card from your deck. If any of those cards turn out to be more lands, you get to play them immediately, hopefully replacing some of the ones you sacrificed to get that big leviathan onto the battlefield in the first place.
It's a risky play, but so was the Death Star. Actually, given how things turn out whenever someone builds a Death Star, maybe that's a bad comparison. There's got to be an example of a space opera where somebody employs a planet-destroying superweapon and everything turns out fine for them, right?
While Magic's gone sci-fi before, doing cyberpunk in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, post-apocalyptic in Fallout, dark science-fantasy in Warhammer 40,000, and a broad parody of the genre in Unfinity, nailing down space opera as the specific theme for Edge of Eternities makes it more interesting than if they were just doing space because they'd already done the Wild West. I would've liked a Spelljammer set, but I'm one of like five people who enjoyed Spelljammer so I can see why they went with something bespoke here.
Edge of Eternities will be available digitally in Arena on July 29, and in paper form from August 1.