Magic: The Gathering - 8 Ways To Make Dominaria Remastered Go From Good To Great

It seems ungrateful to ask more of Dominaria Remastered, given that it’s been one of the best-received Magic: The Gathering sets. It’s a product that manages to please almost every type of Magic player at once, combining nostalgic cards with modern draft curation and high-power reprints with lesser-known fan favourites.

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That said, we will do just that, and ask even more of DMR than it already delivers. We’ll be looking at minor polish changes and major additional initiatives, bringing them together to present a list of changes that could take Dominaria Remastered from incredible to immortal.

Updated May 2, 2023: While it's harder to find packs of Dominaria Remastered these days, the set is still one of the highlights of 2023. A near-perfect collection of classic cards, there are only a few ways it could be improved if Wizards took a second crack at the concept.

8 Include Cards From Every Dominaria Set

Dominaria Remastered includes reprints from 27 different Magic expansions set on Dominaria, which encompasses the vast majority of those set on the iconic Plane. There are a few that slipped through the net, however, with five Dominaria expansions not being represented in Remastered.

Two of these are Dominaria United and The Brothers’ War, which is understandable omissions given they launched only a few months before Dominaria Remastered. But the other three are Weatherlight and the first two Portal sets, all of which could have provided valuable contributions to Dominaria Remastered.

From Null Rod to Natural Order, these three expansions feature many standout cards that would’ve helped complete the product, both mechanically and aesthetically.

7 Introduce A New Showcase Style

The Retro Frame style used in Dominaria Remastered is visually appealing and appropriate given the nostalgic theme of the set, but it’s not as unique or special as it could’ve been for a milestone product like this. This is largely due to the Retro Frame also making an appearance in Modern Horizons 2, Time Spiral Remastered, and the set just before Dominaria Remastered, The Brothers' War.

The novelty value has been diluted, and so a new alt-art Showcase style, something unique to Dominaria Remastered, would’ve felt better here. This could’ve gone in many directions, from a weathered scroll look that features a map of Dominaria itself on the card frame to a range of different styles that celebrate the individual regions of the Plane, like Sarpadia and Jamuraa.

Either way, a distinct Showcase style for the set would’ve gone a long way toward expanding its identity and status as a historic landmark product.

6 Add Story Spotlight Versions Of Classic Cards

Beyond its huge range of important and iconic cards, the Plane of Dominaria is also home to a sizable chunk of Magic’s overarching story, including the oft-mentioned Brothers’ War and Phyrexian Invasion arcs. With many cards in the set receiving new artwork, this was an excellent opportunity to give some of them the Story Spotlight treatment, cementing them as key moments in the long-running Saga of Dominaria.

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Cards like Opposition and Legacy Weapon would be ideal choices for this, but other cards could be adapted artistically into representations of major story beats as well. While unconventional for a Master's set, a move like this would help to both educate players on the history of Magic and get them excited about an inevitable return to Dominaria.

5 Officially Tie It In With Magic’s 30th Anniversary

A lot of ink, much of it red, has been spilled over the way in which Magic’s 30th Anniversary was celebrated in 2022. The official flagship product used to do so was largely seen as far too expensive, difficult to get your hands on, and not even legal in organised play.

Even more confusing was the decision to launch Dominaria Remastered, which featured a lot more high-profile cards people could actually play with, right afterwards. This was because Dominaria Remastered seemed to fulfil the intended function of the 30th Anniversary product in a way that the product itself failed to do, bringing the history of the game to the masses in a fun, playable format.

While it shouldn’t necessarily have replaced the 30th Anniversary product, it would’ve done a lot of good for player morale and the aesthetics of Dominaria Remastered itself if the two had been released simultaneously.

4 Release The Set On Magic Arena

A simple request, but one that comes with a lot of caveats and clarifications, is that of releasing Dominaria Remastered on MTG Arena. Naturally, this would be well-received by fans, particularly recent fans, and would give them a new way to experience the rich history of the game, but it would also crack open a cold can of worms when it comes to game balance on Magic’s flagship digital platform.

There are various approaches to take here, from simply running Dominaria Remastered drafts as a self-contained format with no impact on existing Arena legality to splitting cards up with watermarks à la Unfinity, allowing some to join formats like Historic while keeping the truly outrageous cards locked away in draft pods. Either way, figuring this balance out would bring Dominaria Remastered to a huge number of new players.

3 Add History Information Cards As Tokens In Packs

The sets contained within Dominaria Remastered are rich in history, not just of the characters and locations in the game but of the game itself. There are mechanics that have never been seen again, outrageously powerful cards that are now forbidden to reprint, and cards featuring controversial language or imagery that are no longer appropriate for modern audiences.

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While these changes have all been made for good reasons, explaining those reasons on bonus insert cards in each pack would go a long way towards improving the cultural awareness of Magic players as a whole and would provide a lot of useful context for why the cards they’re opening up in draft are so important and well-remembered in the first place.

2 Demaster Some Modern Cards With Classic Art

Perhaps counterintuitive for a Remastered set, demastering some of the more recent cards included in the set, such as Damping Sphere, would help to deepen the nostalgic feel that the expansion is going for. This means enlisting the help of artists from the early days of Magic, such as Mark Tedin and Amy Weber, to reimagine modern cards as if they’d been released back in 1993.

While this is similar in concept to the existing use of Retro Frames in the set, it would take things a step further and truly emulate the feel of older cards. This would help draw players deeper into the experience of Magic at the time, thus cementing Dominaria Remastered as a nostalgic draft format for the ages.

1 Make The Set Print-To-Demand Rather Than Limited Run

A constant conflict between art and business rages within every entertainment product, not just every Magic. With this in mind, the decision to limit the print run of Dominaria Remastered makes perfect sense, creating a powerful sense of short-term demand that will drive players to the product in droves.

However, printing the set to demand and allowing as many players as possible to get their hands on it would be much more in line with the spirit of the product as a celebration of Magic’s rich history. Games like Magic are shaped, in many ways, by their players, and it stands to reason that those players, those steadfast incidental game designers, should be allowed to enjoy the fruits of their labours at a reasonable cost for as long as necessary.

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