Nauctis: The Sunken Realm Overview and Important Dates

Nauctis the Sunken Realm Illustration

Nauctis: The Sunken Realm was announced as one of the upcoming 2027 MTG sets, and it’s going to be our first visit to an underwater world. According to MTG’s designers, it’s not going to be unbalanced towards blue, so don't expect a just-merfolk set or just-counterspells set.

The official description for the set is:

“Journey beneath the seafoam, where you'll meet the denizens of Nauctis, including merfolk, seals, homarids, and a few daring humans.”

I don’t know about you, but I love underwater life and the mysteries of the abyss, so I’m already excited about this set. Let’s take a look at everything we know about Nauctis: The Sunken Realm, shall we?

Nauctis: The Sunken Realm Basic Information

Nauctis the Sunken Realm art

Set Details

Important Dates

About the Set: The Story

Nauctis: The Sunken City concept art

Nauctis: The Sunken Realm will begin another MTG storyline arc after the current storyline ends during the events of Reality Fracture. We don’t know any particular details about the story yet, except that it involves a war between two advanced merfolk factions and a certain peril coming from the abyssal, dark regions.

Some people online have already begun to speculate on what these perils from the abyss might be, ranging from Eldrazi to Marit Lage, but I guess it’s an unknown, native threat from the plane of Nauctis.

Nauctis Mechanics

The only thing we know for sure about Nauctis mechanics is that, as an underwater set, there won’t be any creatures with flying – it’s the first MTG set not to have flying aside from Portal Three Kingdoms, which had horsemanship instead of flying.

There will, however, be a new evasive mechanic that makes more sense in this underwater world. MTG already has unblockable and shadow, but they explicitly said it’s a new mechanic, so it may be some sort of camouflage, considering the underwater setting. If I were to take a guess, they’ll create some sort of artifact token, like Maps, that you sacrifice to give something evasion.

Some variation of morph or disguise as a possible mechanic would be interesting too. Cards like Brine Elemental and Fathom Seer would make sense, and you can play giant sea monsters in your deck that costs 6+ mana when they have an alternative cost in morph or disguise.

Speculation

We don’t have anything concrete on the set yet, so let’s round out what we know and speculate a bit.

Denizens of Nauctis are confirmed to be, among other species, merfolk, seals, homarids, and a few daring humans. Sharkfolk and squidfolk are also confirmed. We can expect merfolk to be a prominent creature type with some merfolk typal themes (it’s going to be in the same Standard format as Lorwyn Eclipsed and Namor the Sub-Mariner).

I guess we’ll also see the KLOS batching, or kraken, leviathan, octopus, and/or serpent, as a giant sea monsters theme. Whelming Wave, Serpent of Yawning Depths, you get the idea. And it’s a good theme for blue and green ramp. Speaking of which, this is a nice setting for Kiora, so it's possible the merfolk planeswalker will show up.

The main challenge for Nauctis: The Sunken Realm is what Mark Rosewater always says about Innistrad: “It’s a monster set, but we can’t have all monsters be black.” In fact, WotC has already teased this by saying they can’t wait to reveal how the different colors of mana work in this underwater set. In fact, we’ll have a cycle of what appears to be giant mono-colored sea monsters, probably the more splashy mythic rares of the set.

Considering that there are sharks on this plane and that they look a lot like sharks from Aetherdrift, a discard/draw cycling theme would be very coherent, like what we see with Captain Howler, Sea Scourge and Marauding Mako, plus Brallin, Skyshark Rider.

It’s fair to say that people want a Bant () merfolk commander, as we have many blue-white and blue-green merfolk commanders. But why stop there? We could also get Sultai ( or Grixis () commanders as well in this plane.

Nauctis Spoilers

Nothing on our sonar yet, but if we get any pings for Nauctis: The Sunken Realm or any other set, they’ll be available on Draftsim's new spoiler page. Bookmark it for future spoilers!

Notable Cards

Check back once spoilers season starts!

Available Products

We don’t know anything about the product line for Nauctis: The Sunken Realm yet, but it's fair to say that it will have Play Boosters and Collector Boosters. Many MTG sets these days have Commander precons too, so anything between 2-5 precons is fair game.

Since there are two warring factions and the perils from the abyss, we already have three possible themes for precons, and many in-universe sets lately (Aetherdrift, Edge of Eternities, Lorwyn Eclipsed) have two.

Wrap Up

Nauctis: The Sunken City concept art

That’s all we know about Nauctis: The Sunken Realm for now, guys. One of the first characteristics that calls my attention is the novelty of a new MTG setting, and I must say, it’s really high for Nauctis. I can’t wait to see how creative WotC designers get with this unique setting.

Are you hyped for Nauctis? Let me know in the comments section below, or let’s discuss it over in the Draftsim Discord. And for news on the set as launch approaches, our YouTube Channel, The Daily Upkeep, will surely cover it in great detail.

Until next time, safe swimming!