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MAGIC: THE GATHERING 2027 First Look: NAUCTIS: THE SUNKEN REALM

by Jess Harshbarger
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It’s that time of year! MagicCon 2026 is off to a roaring start in Atlanta, and we already have so much news on our hands, especially about 2027’s first Magic: The Gathering set, Nauctis: The Sunken Realm. We’re going to the undersea plane of Nauctis, as the title suggests, and there’s a wide range of creatures and mechanics waiting for us there. This set, as you can imagine, plays a lot with Descend and Exhaust. And big monsters are back on the menu, which, as a stomp player in my heart, delights me utterly. Magic: The Gathering revealed six cards from Nauctis: The Sunken Realm, so let’s do a round-up!

A city sits in the background, floating under the ocean. In the foreground is lots of seaweed and other aquatic plants. The text reads Nauctis: The Sunken Realm
Wizards of the Coast/Matt Caron

A Deep Dive Into the First Cards Revealed from Magic: The Gathering 2027’s Set: Nauctis: The Sunken Realm

The first six cards revealed from Nauctis: The Sunken Realm are Abyssal Lotus, Calmwater Mentor, Goramou the Coral-Taken, Crucible of Worlds, Shimmering Citadel, and Tecton, Malignant Ruin. Here are our main takeaways from each of these new 2027 Magic cards.

A borderless artifact card called Abyssal Lotus. The card text reads: This artifact enters tapped. Then the tap ability is, Tap: Exile this artifact. Add three mana of any one color. Activate only if there are eight or more permanent cards in your graveyard. It's a grey zero drop artifact. The card art shows a deep-sea flower-like creature shooting what appears to be lightning outside of itself. It is surrounded by coral and seaweed. New nauctis: the sunken realm card.

Wizards of the Coast, Iris Compiet
A borderless seal monk creature card. It's called Calmwater Mentor, and it's a four drop, two white mana, two colorless. It's card text reads: When this creature enters you may search your library for up to two creature cards with power 2 or less, hand, then shuffle. The card art features a bipedal seal-monk, armed with a katana. He's underwater surrounded by seaweed and coral.
Wizards of the Coast, Cory Godbey
A three drop Gruul Legendary shark creature card (worth one colorless, one red, one green). The card is called Goramou the Coral-Taken and pictures a shark covered almost entirely in coral. The card text reads: When Goramou enters, create a Blood token. Whenever you discard one or more land cards, you may exile one of them from your graveyard. IF you do, put that card onto the battlefield tapped at the beginning of the next. New nauctis: the sunken realm card.
Wizards of the Coast, Chuck Grieb

That Abyssal Lotus looks like a real SOB of a card, even if its usefulness is a little more subjective than its other Lotus counterparts. The card art, especially for the borderless versions of these cards, are all positively beautiful. Calmwater Mentor has big Bloomburrow vibes, and I love him for it. As a ‘mentor’ card, it makes sense thematically that he brings with him two other creature cards with power two or less. Also, just look at how gosh-darn cute he is. On the opposite end of the cute spectrum, we have new Nauctis card: Goramou, the Coral Taken. That is to say: he UGLY. But he’s also extremely cool, and looks like he could feature in a nasty little land discard deck, something reminiscent of Edge of Eternities‘ World Shaper pre-con.

A three drop colorless artifact card called Crucible of Worlds. The card is borderless with the card art showing a luminous city of naturally occuring things within a near-gelatinous bubble. It is surrounded by grreen bubbles and a faint, suffusing life. The card text reads, You may play lands from your graveyard. and the flavor text says, Kiora says our world is a bubbble suspended in sojme dark and unforgetting ocean. Are there other bubbles? Do their people struggle and laugh like we do? - Alya Corolean
Wizards of the Coast/Chris Seaman
An Azorius land card called Shimmering Citadel, giving both blue and white mana. If the card is Exhausted, pay 3 colorless mana, one white, and one blue, then tap. You draw two cards and gain 1 life. Put a depletion counter on this land. The card art is of a beautiful, faintly glowing underwater city, reminiscent of Atlantis. New nauctis: the sunken realm card.
Wizards of the Coast/Tosu Solano
An eight drop black Legendary Creature Elemental Kraken card called Tecton, Malignant Ruin. The card text reads Fathomless descent - This spell costs 1 less to cast for each permanent card in your graveyard. Whenever you sacrifice another permanent, draw a card. The card has the keywords Menace and Deathtouch. The flavor text reads ...but in the darkest depths another power hungers back. Pictured is an enormous black kraken mostly comprised of mouths and tentacles. It appears to be almost bleeding lava.
Wizards of the Coast/Loic Canavaggia

The Crucible of Worlds reprint for Nauctis: The Sunken Realm might be my favorite visually so far. I also love the flavor text at the bottom, especially “Do their people struggle and laugh like we do?” This set seems to be going for a ‘ocean as a metaphor for space’ kind of thing, and I’m really into it, high off of the Star Trek set as I am. Crucible of Worlds, like Goramou, would be another crucial part of a land sacrifice deck. Shimmering Citadel is the most outright ‘this is Atlantis’ looking card, and I love the soft light of it. And that Exhaust ability is very handy! Finally, we have Tecton Magnificent Ruin, and BOY, he looks messed up! I’m here for it, though. Few things satisfy like a giant squid that’s mostly mouths and tentacles. He’ll also be a good friend for any land sacrifice gimmick, I suspect.

What a great debut for Nauctis: The Sunken Realm and a great kick-off to MagicCon 2026. We can’t wait to see more of what awaits Magic: The Gathering in 2027.