'Magic: The Gathering' Releases Teaser for War of the Spark Expansion

Magic: The Gathering has officially announced their next expansion.

Earlier today, Wizards of the Coast announced "War for the Spark," a new expansion set in Ravnica. The new set will serve as the culmination of a three year storyline about the fight between the Gatewatch and the dragon planeswalker Nicol Bolas.

Bolas has lurked around Magic: The Gathering for years, an elder dragon with the ability to wield blue, black, and red spells. The dragon has bounced from Dominaria, Amonkhet, and Ixalan, searching for a way to reclaim power lost to him during the Mending, another major event in Magic: The Gathering lore. His schemes are opposed by the Gatewatch, a group of planeswalkers dedicated to stopping major threats. As Bolas is now dangerously close to recovering his lost power, Gatewatch plans to engage Bolas at Ravnica...an attack that might already be factored into the dragon's plans.

The trailer shows a large tower filled with stained glass windows of popular Planeswalkers like Gideon Jura, Jace Beleran, and Liliana Vess. Inside the tower is a floating chandelier with candles. An ominous wind blows over the candelabra, snuffing out all the candles a little at the time. In the end, we see smoke rising up to form a silhouette of Nicol Bolas's horns.

As part of the new release, Wizards of the Coast is also publishing a new novel called Ravnica, which chronicles Bolas's actions on Ravnica along with the dozens of Planeswalkers who arrive at Ravnica to stop him. There will also be a tie-in boardgame called Ravnica: Inquisition that will involve hunting down agents of Nicol Bolas in a social deduction style game.

The new set will be released this spring in stores and as a new content package for the digital card game Magic: The Gathering Arena. Prerelease begins on April 27th.