Jorie McKibbin 
Magic: The Gathering’s new Fallout set has spoilers circulating, giving MTG players an idea of the new mechanics that are coming and what impact this will have on the game.
A side project of the main Magic: The Gathering trading card game, Universes Beyond features a host of crossovers with other intellectual properties. Among them is Universes Beyond: Fallout, a full MTG set focused around the Commander format. Fans who enjoy both the Fallout video games and MTG can look forward to seeing the games’ characters, locales, and mechanics play out in TCG form. These sets have been controversial due to their settings not fitting MTG’s high fantasy motif, but they keep getting made regardless.
Like most Universes Beyond sets, the Fallout set will not be Standard-legal, but it will be legal in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage (the “Eternal Formats”). But unlike many previous Worlds Beyond releases, the Fallout set will be a fully commercially available set not limited to Secret Lair drops. Several powerful and iconic cards have already been revealed, and the set introduces at least one interesting new mechanic in the form of Junk Tokens.
Spoilers for the best Fallout card coming to Magic: The Gathering
The Fallout MTG set features various allies and enemies from the game series, and some of its most iconic will likely be among the best judging from the spoilers. Here are the best of the bunch, though only time will tell whether the cards can pan out in practice.
Alpha Deathclaw
No Fallout player will easily forget their first encounter with the infamous Deathclaw. These mutant lizards are notoriously powerful and can take quite a beating before one-shotting new players that happen upon them.
Fittingly, the spoilers for the card based on Fallout’s most iconic irradiated monster will likely terrify MTG players. It enters play as a beefy 6/6, with the ability to become a 10/10 after the player pays a bit more mana. It also has Menace and Trample, meaning it can only be blocked by two or more creatures and deals bleed damage to the opposing player when blocked by weaker creatures.
Dogmeat, Ever-Loyal
Beloved canine companion Dogmeat is a staple of the game series (and not coincidentally wasn’t a part of the much-hated Fallout 76) and is likely to appear in the upcoming Fallout TV series, so it’s little wonder the MTG set would feature a Legendary Creature card by the same name. Dogmeat, Ever Loyal also serves to show off the new Junk Token mechanic unique to the Fallout set and acts as the Commander for one of the pre-made decks.
Dogmeat, Ever-Loyal focuses on milling and exiling cards only to then return them to active play. This is a risky but powerful strategy, allowing a player to quickly amass a large number of cards in play at the cost of milling their own deck.
Radstorm
Radstorm appears deceptively simple at first glance, being little more than a combination of Keyword abilities. However, these abilities, Storm and Proliferate, are rarely found on the same card, and make for a very powerful combination in competitive play.
Storm allows the player to cast multiple copies of the same spell based on how many spells they’ve cast that turn already. Proliferate allows the player to increase the number of counters on cards that already have them. The net result is that using Radstorm in a counter deck can allow a player to instantly make all of their cards much more powerful at a relatively low cost.
Food Tokens, Energy Counters, and brand-new Junk Tokens define the Fallout set’s mechanics
Alongside the spoilers, it’s known that the Fallout MTG set adds one new Keyword ability and brings back two others from preexisting sets. Food Tokens and Energy Counters make a comeback, allowing the player to sacrifice tokens for instant life gain and utilize Energy for a variety of versatile effects, respectively.
Finally, the all-new and thematically appropriate Junk Counters allow players to effectively play the top card from their deck immediately. More specifically, they count as artifacts that can be sacrificed to exile a card from the top of the player’s library and allow that same card to be played that turn. This makes any card able to generate Junk Tokens quite valuable as a means to accelerate play and get a player’s best cards out more quickly.
Fans can ditch the spoilers and look forward to the Fallout MTG set arriving on March 8, 2024. In the meantime, they can get excited for Murders at Karlov Manor in February.
