Favorite plane and why?
Lore forum
Posted on March 3, 2025, 12:31 a.m. by TypicalTimmy
We have a lot of new members of this site, a lot of fresh faces to the MTG community as a whole and many new planes to explore.
What's your favorite plane and why?
Mine is Tarkir. Truthfully it's mostly because of the vibrant expression of all five colors, the colossal dragons, the beautiful Chinese inspired artwork, the vivid imagination of the lore with its temporal nature and the revelation that the plane would actually die off without the Khan / Dragon wars, etc.
I find the plane as a whole so rich and compelling, and it gave way to two of my favorite Planeswalkers; Sarkhan and Narset (Angrath is still #1).
It gave us the completion of the fetch lands, it gave us the complementary wedge cycle to finish off the shards from Alara, it gave us powerful spells and creatures and it was the last (If I recall) of the three set blocks;
- Khans of Tarkir
- Fate Reforged
- Dragons of Tarkir
I am absolutely pumped for Tarkir: Dragonstorm, but this isn't a thread to discuss that set. It is instead the basis to discuss our own individual beloved worlds.
Edit: I think it was fetch lands, not shock lands.
So please, what is your favorite plane and why? :)
Sliverguy420 says... #3
the shock lands had already been completed in ravnica, which coincidentally is my own favorite plane. shocklands were part of the reason why, especially when used with Farseek which was also printed in that set. Gruul will always be my favorite guild.
March 3, 2025 1:41 a.m.
Rincewind23 says... #4
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor is definitely my faa as favourite plane. I love the concept of a plane stuck in an eternal cycle of two distinct worlds. The elves not just being straight up goodie goodies is such a cool idea, it makes them so distinct from other elves from across the multiverse. Sadly Lorwyn released many years before my spark ignited, but I am still super hyped for the return (as long as we don’t go back to find them all racing on motorbikes). My other favourites include Ravnica and Zendikar
March 3, 2025 2:48 a.m.
Rincewind23 says... #5
EDIT: I also like Tarkir, but this is the first set based their to release since I started playing MTG in 2020.
March 3, 2025 1:17 p.m.
Amonkhet hands down. Tarkir tied with Innistrad for second.
When my spark first ignited it took me to the Dark Ascension of Innistrad. I met Sorin and fell in love but my truest love was yet to be discovered.
I love the Elderdragon twins. The plots and stories between them were so good. Over a thousand years ago Ugin and Azor plotted to stop Bolas by trapping him on Ixalan using Azor's spark to power a device called The Immortal Sun. Ugin and Bolas got into a fight on Tarkir leaving the fate of the plane in the balance.(If he dies, the dragon tempests stop and no more dragons spawn, Khans take over the plane, but if not the tempests continue and the Dragons dominate) It was at this time Bolas gleemed those plans, and spent ages planning how to use that to his benefit.
How long he had Amonkhet under his thrall is unknown but the rhetoric he established and the way of the trials was fascinating. Each of which was not malevolent on the surface but the truth behind them was amazingly evil. He produced the coolest army to ever march into the Multiverse. Lazotep even outclassed Phyrexia freeing those bound in the magical mineral from the call of Norn. The curse of Wandering predated Bolas' arrival and is one of the most interesting characteristics any plane has. The gods there intrigue the hell out of me. Who were they before Bolas? How did Oketra know the name 'Kitheon'? Do all the gods know all the gods? Do they have chats about their planes and people? Are gods truly that omnipotent? These questions and more about this plane's past are what keeps me here.
I wish mtg stories were about the plane still, and less about people. Now that i have lost my spark I find myself less interested in hopping from world to world and just want to stop and learn about the one I currently inhabit.
March 3, 2025 2:32 p.m.
Alara. I really dug into the game with that block, and it's been my favorite ever since. It's mechanically and thematically unique, and I consider it a huge shame that it hasn't been revisited in 15+ years.
For gameplay, it introduced the Cascade mechanic, spread the idea of colored artifacts, and expanded Planeswalkers from a novelty to a core game piece. Cruel Control, Jund Midrange, and Zoo had their foundations set, with Cruel Ultimatum, Bloodbraid Elf, Maelstrom Pulse, Wild Nacatl, Path to Exile... Most of these have fallen off since then, but they still make me happy. Ad Nauseam, Noble Hierarch, Ethersworn Canonist, and Relic of Progenitus are all still viable in one form or another.
For storytelling, Nicol Bolas is shown to actually be as powerful, manipulative, intelligent, and terrifying as he's continually described to be. Ajani, Tezzeret, and Elspeth, three very important characters, are developed. The story unfortunately leaves off on a major point for the Shards themselves--after they rejoin into New Alara, we only get the lightest taste of what they're like now in Alara Reborn, along with a couple of random snippets (demon cults spreading in regions of former Bant?), and I really want to know how it's developed culturally, geographically, and magically.
And for me personally, I got a Progenitus from a booster that has a place of honor in my collection. "Protection from everything" will never not be awesome.
March 3, 2025 6:37 p.m.
DeinoStinkus says... #9
I really like Zendikar, though I do see how that could potentially be an unpopular pick due to the mixed reactions the plane seems to get, especially with half of its sets being centered around the Eldrazi.
But Zendikar is so engrossing for me because of the elementals. Other planes have elementals, but the elementals of Zendikar stand apart due to their ferocity and personality - Omnath with his explosive, borderline tyrannical rage; Yarok with his sulking, creeping demeanor; and Ashaya with her graceful, blooming presence. The only other plane to have this kind of expressiveness and internal diversity within a singular species would be Kamigawa with the kami, and while I LOVE modern Kamigawa and the kami as a whole, old Kamigawa is just so miserable that it really sinks the average for me well below Zendikar's.
I am a huge fan of Landfall, Allies, and all the Eldrazi mechanics, and while I think Party is a mid mechanic I still enjoy it personally in some cases.
I hope that Zendikar gets some new and interesting stories soon. I'd love a new Yarok card.
March 3, 2025 9:40 p.m.
Crow_Umbra says... #10
After reading DeinoStinkus's comment, I'd have to bump Zendikar up to my 2nd favorite plane of all time. When I was first getting into MtG, my best friend gifted me a bunch of draft chaff which mostly contained stuff from Innistrad, Mirrordin, Zendikar, and Shards of Alara. He really hyped up how fun and exciting Zendikar, an adventure world with Eldritch horrors was at the time it dropped.
The Ally mechanic was one of my first favorites, alongside stuff like Heroic, and Auras in general. At the time my friends and I mostly played 60 card table kitchen jank, so getting extra synergy from stuff like Allies felt busted to a bunch of broke college students.
I do enjoy the creature type batching mechanics like Party & Outlaws as an evolution of the Allies. It feels less parasitic than what Allies are, and ensures that those batches will basically have new creature options with almost any new set that drops.
Crow_Umbra says... #2
Tarkir is definitely up there for my favorite planes. I think it's a toss up between Tarkir and Theros for me, mostly because those were the two newest planes when I first started playing around 2013.
I'll give the edge to Tarkir, mostly because at the time I was bummed out that I missed out on Kamigawa, and Shards of Alara seemed really cool as a three color set, so Tarkir was like a combination of aesthetics and concepts that I missed out on.
One of my key MtG related memories from that time was the day that Tarkir was spoiled by WotC. My best friend and I were still in college. We bought and devoured an entire Costco pizza between the two of us as we watched the Tarkir reveal. Mardu's key art from Mardu Ascendancy stood out to me most from the reveal, and I knew that was the faction that I wanted to play most.
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death was one of my favorite characters from Khan block, and would go on to be one of my first favorite commanders a few years later. Her story is one of my favorites from MtG, so I was glad when she returned in Foundations.
Overall, I'm pretty excited for Dragonstorm on the horizon.
March 3, 2025 1:27 a.m.