When the first gameplay demo arrived, Cryptic revealed the Geomancer and Mind Mage and then later unveiled the Beastcaller. Now four fifths of the Magic: The Gathering color pie are accounted for and there’s only the black-mana themed planesewalker remaining. Although it will likely be a month or longer before an official announcement arrives, Magic fans know enough about the tropes of each color to make some educated guesses what the final Magic Legends class might be like.
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During our recent interview with the Magic Legends Executive Producer, Cryptic Studios did not confirm a date or window of time when the final class was scheduled to be revealed. That said, with testing moving along quickly, it likely won’t be too far into the fall before the final class is revealed and players can really start making their decisions about which starting class is going to be right for them…
Which classes have already been confirmed?
Let’s start by outlining the exisiting classes and which piece of the MtG color wheel they each represent:
The Geomancer - Red
The Mind Mage - Blue
The Beastcaller - Green
The Sanctifier - White
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What will the black-mana inspired class be?
Over the long history of Magic: The Gathering, each color has come to represent certain themes and motifs. Black mana is one of the most iconic thanks to its terrifying creature types and sometimes punishing mechanics that force players to take damage themselves in order to gain some kind of longterm benefit throughout a game.
Planeswalkers who use black mana draw their power from Swamps and this school of magic is often associated with ruthlessness and amorality. In order to achieve their true power, planeswalkers harnessing black mana spells usually have to take advantage of sacrifice mechanics, life loss, reanimation, and invading their opponent’s minds.
With all of that in mind, there are some very interesting places that Magic Legends could go when it comes to delivering a black-mana inspired planeswalker. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the black planeswalker represented as a Necromancer, Warlock, or some other fantasy archetype that is often associated with demons, zombies, imps, and raising the dead.
Just like the Sanctifier is utilizing the Lifelink mechanic to passively heal by gaining life through their own attacks or their summons, it seems very possible that the black planeswalker will have some way to self inflict damage to either increase mana generation, reduce cooldowns, or perhaps hinder enemies in some way. Self-sacrifice is a crucial theme of black-mana based decks, so it seems very likely that there will be some gameplay mechanic that replicates the experience of doing something like paying 2 life to draw an extra card during a turn or sacrificing one of your summons to deal direct damage to an enemy.
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What will the black-mana class Spark Power be?
There are some very famous black-mana cards that could help inspire a thematic Spark Power that could potentially reset the battlefield, but our money is on some variation of Raise Dead, Animate Undead, or Endless Ranks of the Dead. Bringing zombies onto the battlefield feels like a very safe bet for a black-mana class and what better way to turn the tide of a battle than by overwhelming the battlefield with a massive horde of zombies. Whether the ability might summon tons of 2/2 zombies or a smaller amount of large zombies that are harder for enemies to deal with one-on-one is an interesting question though. The Sanctifier class has an ultimate that already summons a horde of 4/4 angels, so it seems like Cryptic would want to make sure any similar black-mana power doesn’t feel like the same thing, but with zombies swapped in place of the angels.
Magic Legends was originally due out before the end of 2020, but some delays have pushed the game back to a 2021 launch window. The APRG is currently in closed testing, but there are plans to open that up to a wider audience in the near future. Hopefully it won’t be long before the black-mana planeswalker is revealed and added to the test servers, so that some players can start getting a closer look at them. Once the game launches, players will have the opportunity to select one of the starting classes to begin the game with and will then have to unlock the other four by progressing through the game. At this point we’re not sure how many how that unlock process will take, so it would be wise to start planning ahead early and decide which starting class is right for your particular play style. Keep in mind that players are able to build any two-color deck regardless of which class they are playing, but obviously some classes will have better synergy with certain color pairings compared to others.
There is only one remaining launch class left to reveal, so hopefully the team at Cryptic is ready to offer a look at what the Black-mana planeswalker class has to offer in the very near future. Until then, be sure to check back for more Magic Legends news, updates, and features.
Magic Legends plans to release in 2021 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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