Screen Rant can reveal exclusive Magic: The Gathering Dominaria United previews for the Sengir Connoisseur & Balduvian Atrocity cards in the set.
The next Magic: The Gathering set is Dominaria United, which is set to launch on September 9. This set involves a return to Dominaria, the plane where the earliest MTG sets took place, as part of the upcoming 30th anniversary celebrations of the series. Screen Rant can exclusively reveal two of the cards that will appear in the set: Sengir Connoisseur and Balduvian Atrocity.
The Dominaria United packs can feature Legends cards from '94, as Wizards of the Coast discovered lots of unopened boxes in a an abandoned warehouse, so fans have a chance of pulling a card that's a few decades old in the Collectors Boosters for the set. Dominaria United is returning to the original MTG plane, which means that a lot of the oldest characters will be making an appearance. The Kicker mechanic (originally introduced in the Invasion set) will be one of the returning mechanics in Dominaria United, allowing players to pay an additional mana cost while summoning, in order for cards to have new effects when played.
Related: Magic: The Gathering's Unfinity Set Flips The Game On Its Head It was just announced that MTG's Liliana of the Veil card will be making an appearance in the Dominaria United set, as Wizards of the Coast is gradually unveiling new cards in the run-up to release. Screen Rant can exclusively reveal that Dominaria United will feature two new Black creatures for players to use. Sengir Connoisseur is a vampire that becomes more powerful when a creature dies each turn, and Balduvian Atrocity is a Phyrexian Berserker that can potentially summon an ally from the grave to fight for one more turn.
Sengir Connoisseur is a vampire creature that requires five mana (with two needing to be black mana) in order to be summoned. This is a 3/3 creature with Flying and whenever a creature dies during each turn, Sengir Connoisseur gets +1/1 counter. The downside is that this ability only activates once per turn, so players cannot sacrifice their own monsters for the purpose of beefing up Sengir Connoissuer. For one of MTG's flying vampire monsters, this is more of a slow-build card, which can gradually gain power over the turns, and its Flying ability can let it chip away at opposing players over time.
Balduvian Atrocity is a Phyrexian Berserker creature that requires three mana (with one needing to be black mana) in order to be summoned. This card features the fan-favorite Kicker mechanic, where the player can pay an additional red mana while summoning the creature. Balduvian Atrocity is a 2/3 creature with the Menace ability. If the player paid the Kicker cost when summoning Balduvian Atrocity, the player can summon a creature with a mana value of 3 or less from the graveyard alongside Balduvian Atrocity. The creature summoned from the graveyard has Haste and the player must sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. This means Balduvian Atrocity can summon a cheap additional monster to attack during the turn it's summoned, but it's sacrificed before the next turn. The fact that this card is suited for an MTG Black mana Necromancer-style deck means that Balduvian Atrocity has synergy with Sengir Connoisseur in Magic: The Gathering, as the sacrificed creature will grant the Sengir Connoisseur a +1/+1 counter if nothing else has died during that turn.
Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz. A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.