Apex of Power | Illustration by Svetlin Velinov
Core Sets used to be a traditional part of Magic’s yearly release schedule. They served as mid-summer expansions that broke up the wait period between the spring and fall sets and gave designers a chance to reprint valuable cards and inject key pieces into Standard without having to match the flavor and worldbuilding aspects of mainline sets.
Magic said goodbye to Core Sets in 2015 with Magic Origins, but players felt their absence, and they made a triumphant (?) return with Core Set 2019, which released in 2018. Yeah, I never did understand the naming conventions here. Was it everything players missed about Core Sets while they were gone, and were there any surprises in store?
Let’s dig into Core Set 2019 (M19) and find out!
Core Set 2019 Basic Information
Set Details
Ajani's Last Stand | Illustration by Slawomir Maniak
| Set Symbol |  |
| Set Code | M19 |
| Hashtag | N/A |
| Number of Cards | 280 |
| Rarities | 111 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 16 mythics, 20 basic lands |
| Mechanics | Evergreen mechanics, 1 Double-Faced Transforming Card |
Important Dates
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 13, 2018 |
| Pre-release Weekend | July 7-8, 2018 |
| Available on Draftsim's Draft Simulator | Yes |
| Available on Arena Tutor | Yes |
About the Set: The Story
Core Sets rarely engaged with the overarching lore of Magic, but M19 changed that to some degree. Core Set 2019 and the following years’ Core Sets (M20 and M21) were largely centered around important characters in Magic lore. M19’s focal point was Nicol Bolas, in the midst of the Bolas Arc. This Core Set fleshed out Bolas as a character, as well as tangentially relevant characters.
Even with the character focus, Core Set 2019 is still mainly a mishmash of fantasy tropes. The Bolas through-line is more a feature than the entire focus of the set. The following cards contain relevant story moments involving Nicol Bolas:
Each of the mono-colored planeswalkers in M19 also has a card(s) associated with them, some of which are big story moments while others are more generic:
- Ajani's Last Stand
- One with the Machine
- Liliana's Contract
- Sarkhan's Unsealing and Nexus of Fate
- Vivien's Invocation
Magic’s design philosophy shifted to the “FIRE design” model shortly after M19, which makes it look way more simplistic than the two following Core Sets. Even with the big step up in quality from the following years, Core Sets would only last until Core Set 2021, after which Wizards started using the summer expansion slot for crossover sets like Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.
Core Set 2019 Mechanics
Evergreen Mechanics
Core Set 2019 didn’t feature a headliner mechanic like past Core Sets. Instead, it served as a bare bones Core Set experience with simple designs, standard archetypal strategies, and a host of cards showcasing evergreen mechanics to new players. The 10 2-color archetypes for Limited were:
- Azorius Artifacts
- Dimir Control (loose)
- Izzet Spells
- Simic Ramp (loose)
- Orzhov Lifegain
- Boros Aggro/Go-Wide
- Selesnya Auras
- Rakdos Sacrifice
- Gruul 4-Power Matters
- Golgari Graveyard Stuff (loose)
Double-Faced Card
Yes, singular card. It’s rare to see a set with only one double-faced card, but they made an exception for Nicol Bolas, the Ravager / Nicol Bolas, the Arisen. It followed the designs of the “flip-walkers” from Magic Origins, though its transform condition was simply paying a bunch of mana.
Typal Lords
One pitfall of Core Set 2019 was the inclusion of multiple undersupported typal lords at rare that advertised false decks in the Limited environment. You could pull off some niche interactions, like Death Baron + Skeleton Archer, but for the most part these lords were Constructed plants that felt like traps in the Limited format. These included:
- Valiant Knight (This one was actually great in Limited)
- Supreme Phantom
- Death Baron
- Goblin Trashmaster
- Elvish Clancaller
- Lathliss, Dragon Queen (another Limited bomb)
Core Set 2019 Card Gallery
White
Blue
Black
Red
Green
Multicolored
Colorless
Land
Planeswalker Deck Exclusives
Notable Cards
Stitcher’s Supplier
Stitcher's Supplier is one of the best self-mill pieces ever printed. Six cards for one mana is an incredible rate for graveyard decks, even if there are some hoops involved with half of those cards.
Nexus of Fate
This is a biggie that needs some extra context. See, when Dominaria released, Wizards started creating Standard-legal, mechanically unique box-toppers that came with the purchase of booster boxes. These cards would not be present in the main set boosters and could only be obtained by purchasing a box (usually around $100). They started off with Firesong and Sunspeaker, a fun Commander-oriented card that had no chance of harming any Constructed formats. Then came Core Set 2019 with Nexus of Fate as the promo and boy did that cause problems.
Nexus became a Tier-1 Standard card alongside the likes of Wilderness Reclamation and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, and is currently banned in Pioneer, Historic and Brawl. Not only was the card an issue on power level, but the acquisition requirement—purchasing a booster box—created a scarcity issue. It couldn’t be opened in boosters, and even to this day it hasn’t seen a significant booster-reprint.
Even worse, the card was only available in foil at a time when MTG foils were rampantly subject to curling and bending issues. This culminated in judges often issuing proxies of the card at major tournaments, since the curling copies of Nexus were distinguishable from other cards in the same deck. There’s coverage of 2018’s Grand Prix Orlando where you can see basic Mountains being used as proxies for Nexus on coverage. That’s not a good look for players or viewers watching live streams of the event.
The Mare Cycle
M19 included an uncommon 5-card cycle (plus an artifact) of horse creatures that each interacted with an enemy color favorably. These were powerful Limited cards, with a few of them seeing minor Constructed play. The “Mare” cycle included:
Metamorphic Alteration
Quick shoutout to Metamorphic Alteration for its stint in Constructed alongside Archfiend of the Dross. Enchanting an opponent’s creature while you controlled Archfiend would “gift” your opponent an Archfiend with no counters, killing them on their next upkeep.
Sai, Master Thopterist
Sai, Master Thopterist fleshed out the artifact deck in M19 Limited, but also plays extremely well in Commander and some Cubes that support artifact decks.
Supreme Phantom
Despite being a complete whiff in Limited (M19 has zero spirit creatures at common), Supreme Phantom has justified itself as a key part of the spirit decks in Pioneer, which were Tier-1 for quite some time.
Fraying Omnipotence
I’m only mentioning Fraying Omnipotence because it had the potential to end Two-Headed Giant pre-release matches in a draw, much to the dismay of tournament judges everywhere.
Liliana’s Contract
We’d already seen Liliana’s demonic dealings manifested on Magic Origins’ Demonic Pact, but Liliana's Contract upped the ante with a demon-typal alternate win-con, rather than an alternate way to lose.
Constructed Sideboard Rares
Another reason M19’s Limited environment felt rather stale was the plague of rare sideboard cards. Not only were they Limited duds, they never made a mark on any Constructed formats. Among them were Amulet of Safekeeping, Mistcaller, Isolate, Infernal Reckoning, Detection Tower, Runic Armasaur, and Suncleanser.
Alpine Moon gets a pass here since it sees competitive sideboard play in Modern and other Eternal formats, though it too was a complete 0/10 brick in Limited.
Dragon Support Cards
With the focal point on Nicol Bolas, M19 featured several dragon support pieces. Not enough to put together an entire Limited or Constructed deck on their own, but certainly enough to influence the archetype in Commander. These included Lathliss, Dragon Queen, Sarkhan, Fireblood, Spit Flame and Dragon's Hoard.
Pelakka Wurm
Notable because it was upshifted to rare, Pelakka Wurm’s presence in this set caught some player backlash, given that it had been printed at uncommon three times prior.
The Elder Dragons
In addition to Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, the other original Elder Dragons made their second debut here, to varying levels of excitement and playability. The other four were:
- Arcades, the Strategist: The most powerful of the bunch, responsible for spawning an entire Bant Defenders archetype in Commander.
- Chromium, the Mutable
- Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner
- Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire
Value Reprints
M19 did a fine (just fine) job of hitting a few valuable reprints, though these were also mostly complete blanks in Limited. A few notable ones include Omniscience, Scapeshift, and Crucible of Worlds.
Colossal Dreadmaw
We show our respects to Colossal Dreadmaw in this house.
Available Products
Booster Packs
The good ol’ fashion booster pack of yore. Each M19 Booster contains 15 cards, including a rare/mythic and three uncommons, with the rest being commons, tokens, and advertisement cards.
- A return to Magic's past, Core Sets are back!
Booster Box
M19 Booster Boxes (which are noticeably absent from Amazon for whatever reason) include 36 booster packs (Draft Boosters). There isn’t that much value in M19 across the board, so the prices are fairly reasonable compared to their initial release.
Deck Builder’s Toolkit
Deck Builder's Toolkits were beginner-friendly products that included a predetermined collection of cards as well as a semi-randomized group of cards that pulled from a specific subset of cards. They also included four booster packs, in this case Core Set 2019, Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, and Dominaria.
- Core set 2019 (M19, sometimes “core 19”), is the follow-up to the hit expansion, dominaria. Your deck Builder toolkit contains 4 booster packs from recent sets, plus 100 basic land cards and 125 individual cards from recent sets. Altogether, more than 250 cards, Plus deck-building aids. Pick your favorites, put them in your deck and battle!
- Are you a blue mage, outwitting opponents with superior intellect? Or perhaps a red mage, burning everything in sight with elemental Fury? Whatever your style, The deck builder's toolkit gives you what you need. With boosters, land cards, and a selection of individual cards, you can build a deck that's truly your own.
- Each deck Builder toolkit comes with 125 cards chosen by the game's designers, including five rare creature cards. Every deck Builder toolkit contains the all-time classic creature card shivan Dragon and spell cards Lightning Strike, shock, and duress.
- Magic: The Gathering is the first modern collectible card game. Magic has inspired more than 20 million fans over 25 years, from the first Dragons and Angels to today's Planes walkers and Commander decks.
- Wizards of the Coast has been making the world's best strategy games for almost 30 years: Magic: The Gathering (Mtg), Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), many board games under the Avalon Hill umbrella, and more. Explore them all, Discover new favorites, and make new friends along the way.
M19 Bundles
Bundles at this time included 10 booster packs of the corresponding set, a spindown life counter, 80 basics, a fancy box and other periphery items that are useless to anyone except a first-time Magic player.
- Need a birthday present? A gift for the holidays? This is it. The Bundle’s 10 booster packs and accessories make it a great gift for any Magic player.
- Every Magic player needs land cards, and dice can make keeping score much more fun. Each Bundle comes with a 20-sided Spindown life counter, 80 basic land cards, a storage box, and a player’s guide, which contains a visual encyclopedia of every Core Set 2019 card.
- Your Bundle contains 10 booster packs of Core Set 2019 (M19, sometimes “Core 19”), the follow-up to the hit expansion, Dominaria. Each pack contains 15 Magic cards. Pick your favorites, put them in your deck and battle!
- Each pack includes 1 rare or mythic rare card from Core Set 2019. Core Set 2019 includes dragons like Nicol Bolas, the Ravager or Lathliss, Dragon Queen; planeswalkers like Sarkhan, Dragonsoul—even some of the most potent cards printed to date, like Omniscience..
- Magic: The Gathering is the first modern collectible card game. Magic has inspired more than 20 million fans over 25 years, from the first dragons and angels to today’s Planeswalkers and Commander decks.
M19 Planeswalker Decks
“Planeswalker Decks” were the intro decks of choice for this era. They were simple 60-card decks that were intended for new players. Each one included a mechanically unique planeswalker that couldn’t be found elsewhere, as well as a few other exclusives that were rarely playable outside their preconstructed deck.
Wrap Up
Patient Rebuilding | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve
Players were overall happy to see the return of Core Sets, though it wouldn’t be until Core Set 2020 when they felt like they really justified their return to Magic. Core Set 2019 just barely missed out on the shift to the FIRE design philosophy, which left it feeling pretty stale and boring, except to maybe novice Magic players.
There was a welcome shift to a character-driven design, with Nicol Bolas being the perfect candidate for that role, though the set didn’t commit that hard to this new direction. That, coupled with the noticeably large number of Limited duds that were planted for Constructed play, lead to a lackluster Core Set experience. Still, as with any Magic set, there are a few gems hiding in the card file.
How was your M19 experience? Are there any Core Sets in particular that you’re fond of? Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.
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