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Infinite possibilities float around in the multiverse, and Jace Beleren is letting them all run wild in the upcoming Reality Fracture set from Magic: The Gathering. Reality Fracture features a new, well, reality called the Echoverse created by the Planeswalker Jace Beleren, where familiar characters and spells have been completely reimagined. At its core, Reality Fracture is a 'What If…?' set in the same vein of Marvel’s What If…? comics that explored alternate possibilities for its most well known stories and characters. 

At MagicCon Las Vegas 2026, Magic’s head of design, Mark Rosewater, explained that the team had long wanted to do something along the lines of Reality Fracture, but they needed to first clear a hurdle to get the set greenlit.

“But before we began… we had this meeting called a Seeds Meeting, where we all get together and everyone talks through what we think the set is going to be about. And I was really excited and I said, ‘Ooh, What If…? set,’ and my boss, Aaron Forsythe, said, ‘Here’s my problem with a What If…? set. Don’t you have to understand what the What If…? is? Meaning, if I show you a character, only if you know the character is different, do you understand the What If…? quality. I know that longtime fans might recognize it, but I need everybody who plays to recognize it,’” Rosewater said, recalling the words of Aaron Forsythe. 

“And so that was a challenge in exploratory design… So we came up with a pretty crazy idea: I said, ‘What if we show you both of them together? What happens if you open up a booster pack and not only do you see fire Chandra, but you also see ice Chandra?’ And the idea is, you know ice Chandra is weird because you see fire Chandra. Even if you didn’t know fire Chandra, you got to see ice Chandra.” 

Now, with Reality Fracture booster packs providing two different versions of the same character, the What If…? concept for the set was a go. The set will be released on October 2, with prerelease beginning September 25, so don’t feel like you have to brush up on your Magic: The Gathering lore before the fracturing begins this fall. 

Whether you are a Commander player, a regular at your local game shop's FNM event, or simply love collecting Magic: The Gathering cards, you've landed in the right place. From Universes Beyond to the furthest reaches of the Magic Multiverse, we've got you covered here at Popverse. 

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