Magic: The Gathering creator Wizards of the Coast appears to have sprung a leak.
While the company has been busy shipping out its latest compilation set, Double Masters, one fan has gotten their hands on what could be a card from 2020’s final Standard expansion, Zendikar Rising. Yesterday, Reddit user Baldesarini shared a photograph on the social media site of an individual holding a rare land. Besides looking genuine, the precision-cut piece of cardboard sports what appears to be Zendikar’s logo, and one that certainly hasn’t shown up on any recent release.
There’s every chance that the prematurely revealed colorless land is a fake, of course, but that seems unlikely here, given its relatively unremarkable nature. Whatever the case, you can check out the so-called Crawling Barrens for yourself below:
It’s never a good idea to judge the overall power level of a set on just one card, but if the above is any indication whatsoever, it certainly looks as if Zendikar Rising could be on a similar sort of power level to Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. Besides introducing the controversial Companion keyword – which quickly became so prevalent that Wizards had no choice but to issue sweeping nerfs – Ikoria contains a wealth of cards that have since become staples in the Standard meta, and fans are already describing Crawling Barrens as something similar.
Some users responding to the leak over on Reddit have even started speculating that Wizards could be planning to bring back land destruction spells in order to keep such powerhouses in check, but we’ll just have to wait and see, either way.
In the meantime, be sure to let us know what you make of this early surprise for Magic: The Gathering‘s upcoming expansion in the usual place below!