MAGIC: THE GATHERING ANNOUNCES MAGIC ORIGINS

New Set to Release on July 17

Marks Pivotal Moment in Magic’s History and Lore

February 9, 2015 – RENTON, WA – Wizards of the Coast announced today Magic Origins, a new Magic: The Gathering set releasing this July. This pivotal new set reveals the origin stories of five of Magic‘s most beloved Planeswalker characters.

In the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse, some mages are born with a rare gift, simply known as “the spark.” When such mages face a great ordeal, their spark’s potential is unleashed, elevating them to become Planeswalkers and travel between the planes of the Multiverse. Magic Origins will reveal for the first time these pivotal moments for five Planeswalkers: Gideon Jura, Jace Beleren, Liliana Vess, Chandra Nalaar, and Nissa Revane.

“Magic Origins is a different kind of core set than we’ve ever done before, one with ambitious story goals and deep creative impact,” says Doug Beyer, Magic‘s senior creative designer. “All core sets in recent years have had Planeswalker cards, but Magic Origins doesn’t just contain five Planeswalkers-it’s also about those Planeswalker characters. It’s about certain points in time in those Planeswalkers’ lives-the events that led them to become Planeswalkers-and is meant to set up a lot of our plans for Magic‘s future story. We’ll see these characters’ home worlds, learn about the joys and crises of their early lives, and discover how they became the Multiverse-traveling Planeswalkers we know today.”

This Planeswalker spark also exists in Magic‘s 20 million players and fans worldwide. For many fans, playing Magic has become a pivotal point in their own lives, as they forge life-long friendships in a welcoming and supportive community united by the fun of playing the world’s best strategy game. With face-to-face play events and social gatherings in more than 7,000 hobby game stores around the world, Magic invites you to ignite your own spark and join the ranks of the most passionate fans in gaming.

Magic Origins will release worldwide on July 17, 2015. Please visit MagicTheGathering.com for the latest news and updates and follow Magic on Facebook and Twitter.

About Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering is the world’s best strategy game with more than 20 million players and fans worldwide. In this innovate card game, players build personalized decks using cards they collected through booster packs and trading with friends. Magic offers a robust gaming experience for its community of passionate fans through face-to-face play events and social gatherings in more than 7,000 hobby game stores around the world, complemented by its Duels of the Planeswalkers and Magic Online digital games. For more information, visit Magicthegathering.com.

About Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS), is the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer. Wizards’ players and fans are members of a global community bound together by their love of both digital gaming and in-person play. The company brings to market a range of gaming experiences under powerful brand names such as MAGIC: THE GATHERING and DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Wizards is also a publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information about our world renowned brands, visit the Wizards of the Coast Web site at www.wizards.com.