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There are a lot of different scales inMagic: The Gathering. Scales are unofficial rankings created by Magic’s head designer Mark Rosewater to determine how likely something is to return in a Magic set.
Perhaps the best-known scale is the Storm scale, which ranks mechanics. However, the Rabiah scale is also an important one to follow if you want a clue of where Magic might be headed to in the future.
How Does The Rabiah Scale Work?
The Rabiah Scale refers to howunlikelyit is for a plane to be the primary location in amajor, premiere set(a Standard-legal one). It is named after the plane of Rabiah from the set Arabian Nights, which is unlikely to return since it utilizes a property that Wizards of the Coast doesn’t own.
It is ranked from one to ten, with the most popular settings gettinglower Rabiah scoresthan higher ones.
TheRabiah Scale is handled by Mark Rosewater. He assigns a number based on a variety of factors, such as if theset performed well or if there’s a story to be told on a plane. The most popular and historied planes such asDominariaare at the bottom, with planes that are either destroyed or borderline unusable being at the top.
The Rabiah Scale generally refers to a plane appearing in a Standard-legal set as these are the sets with plots attached to them. More minor planes often appear in supplemental products such as Modern Horizons where canon is much less important.
TheRabiah Scale is not actually official, it is simply the opinion of how Mark Rosewater feels about the likelihood of the plane returning. Ultimately,it is up to the entire R&D team to determine if they are going to revisit a plane or not. Even if it’s only Mark Rosewater’s opinion, the Rabiah Scale is fairly accurate to the feelings of the team.
There is no official location for the Rabiah Scale and is insteadupdated throughMark Rosewater’s blog Blogatogwhen asked about the Rabiah Scale and a plane’s place on it.A high rating on the Rabiah Scale does not mean a plane will never be revisited, and high-ranking planes have returned in the past (such as Kamigawa).
The Rabiah Scale
Themost likely planes to return are ranked closer to one, andtheleast likely to returnare closer to ten. No matter the ranking, any plane has a chance of returning (both in a Standard set and supplementary product), but they will only tie into the Magic story (generally) if it is a Standard set with a proper story taking place on the plane.
Also keep in mind that Rabiah scoresdo not take Rosewater’s inside knowledge into account. Sets that have had returns already in development, like Arcavios, Tarkir, and Lorwyn, have all received high Rabiah scale ratings in the past.
5
3
10
2
6
1
4
7
9
8
Zhalfir
Tolvada was originally said to be destroyed in 2020 which is why it was given a 10, but appears on Invasion of Tolvada released in 2023, meaning the Phyrexians invaded it after Nicol Bolas' meddling that caused its destruction. Tolvada’s position on the Rabiah Scale has yet to change despite this.
