Fallout-themed cards are coming to Magic: The Gathering

Get a sneak peek at the collaboration

• By
  
  Cass Marshall
  
• on October 19, 2023 2:00 pm

The Fallout franchise was born in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of America’s West Coast, and successive games went to expand out of California and explored regions like Nevada, Appalachia, Washington, and even outer space. Now, a whole host of Fallout characters are headed to the planar multiverse, showing up as part of four new Commander decks for Magic: The Gathering. Announced first in August, Wizards of the Coast on Thursday has unveiled the first details on these new products, which head to retail on March 8, 2024. They’re available for pre-order now.

The Commander decks follow four themes, pairing meta-layer gameplay mechanics with familiar faces and locations in the Fallout franchise. And yes, you can absolutely pet the dog.

• The Scrappy Survivors deck is represented by longtime series companion and very good boy Dogmeat, with cards focused around scavenging for junk to repurpose into allies, weapons, and tools.
• Science! decks with Fallout 3 and Fallout 4’s Dr. Madison Li serving as its Commander, generate energy to power up plasma weapons, mad scientists, and pre-war robots.
• The deck Hail, Caesar is a perfect addition since, as we all know from Fallout’s opening narration, war never changes. The Commander of this deck is Fallout: New Vegas’ Roman-loving warlord, Caesar.
• Finally, Mutant Menace decks are helmed by famous Fallout 76 cryptid Mothman. Mutant Menace decks are full of the various mutated creatures and cryptids that have shown up throughout the franchise and its various iterations across America.

These decks are accompanied by lavish land cards, showing off the various locales of Fallout’s wasteland and post-apocalyptic civilizations. Below, we have a preview of 52 cards players can acquire and field. Expect more to be revealed as we get closer to launch.

While Caesar, Dogmeat, Madison Li, and Mothman take the starring role of Commanders, there are still plenty of other references to the Fallout universe. If you ever delved into the Vault full of Gary clones in Fallout 3, you might be glad to see that they’ve turned up here as well. There are also beasties only found in Fallout 76 or Fallout: New Vegas, like the sinister Scorchbeast Queen featured in one of the Swamp land cards.

The post-nuclear and sci-fi vibes mean that Fallout feels very distinct, even next to other Universes Beyond crossover cards from other series. There are even a few different art styles to add some more variety. Some cards are depicted with simple painterly portraits, and they look like the typical cards you’d find in a Magic: The Gathering pack.

Others choose to lean into Fallout’s unique aesthetic a little more. Some cards are depicted through the lens of a Pip-Boy, the handy wrist-mounted gadget that lets Vault Dwellers check the map or listen to the radio. There are also some cards depicted in the retro edutainment cartoon style of Fallout’s in-universe propaganda, starring the cheerful Vault Boy.

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