Over the last few years, Magic: The Gathering has seen a dramatic tone shift. The world’s premier trading card game has been putting less focus on its own original story and mythology in favour of real-world crossovers with other intellectual properties—an initiative dubbed Universes Beyond.
From a creative standpoint, it’s a fascinating exercise that speaks to the scope of MTG‘s game design and flavour. The same approach that has allowed the game to tell the stories of its own legends and worlds through game mechanics can, somehow, extend to vastly different characters and settings. From a fan’s standpoint, however, it can feel like one beloved game is being invaded by any number of other franchises.
Universes Beyond has achieved some very cool things so far. However, the proportion of regular sets to cross-branded sets is shifting considerably, and causing some concerns for MTG players at all levels.
As a longtime MTG player, I’m of two minds when it comes to Universes Beyond. Of the player psychological profiles Wizards of the Coast identified, I would fall under the “Vorthos“—I’ve always been drawn to the game’s story and characters, I miss the days when each set or block would have a companion novel to flesh out the events, and I would often rather build a casual deck that has a strong theme or revolves around a certain character than chase the latest board-melting meta strategies. I’m drawn to the elements that give the game flavour, the elements of a card “that serve the function, or primary function, of conveying information about what the card represents thematically.”
Viewing the game from this perspective, I appreciate a lot of what Universes Beyond represents… while at the same time, as a consumer, I have just as many concerns. So, in light of another slate of crossovers announced this weekend at MagicCon Atlanta, it’s worth re-examining these pros and cons of the initiative, and pondering where the game will go from here.
Wish Fulfillment Via Planeswalking
From its inception, the story or flavour of Magic: The Gathering has always been a duel between mages. Players are Planeswalkers, mages who can pass through the fabric of reality to realms beyond their own. Wizards of the Coast has created a vast tapestry of these different realms, from its original “main setting” of Dominaria to the Japan-inspired Kamigawa, from the sprawling city-plane of Ravnica to Bloomburrow, where every being becomes an anthropomorphic animal.
For the uninitiated, the cards you play in MTG represent the spells you cast against your opponent. Creature cards are minions you summon forth to do battle on your behalf (not unlike a Pokémon battle, honestly). Instants and sorcery cards like Fireball or Lightning Helix represent you hurling the raw elemental force of magic at your opponent or their creatures. When you play a planeswalker card like Jace, The Mind Sculptor, you’re calling a fellow ‘walker from the series’ roster to back you up temporarily.
The cynical take on Universes Beyond is that it chases the Fortnite approach of amalgamating pop culture into a melting pot that would make even Ready Player One blush.
So, now that Universes Beyond is bringing icons from other IPs into MTG, it’s like you’re summoning them to fight on your behalf in an interplanar duel… which makes sense from a flavour standpoint. If you—the human who lives on Earth—suddenly unlocked the ability to call forth someone with the power of your imagination, would you muster up some imaginary beast from another plane of existence, or would you call a Time Lord or zombie slayer from your favourite TV show?
If I could go back in time and tell my 10- or 12-year-old self that one game would allow me to not only summon Squall from Final Fantasy VIII but also make him go Super Sonic, and give him Gandalf’s mighty sword Glamdring and the power and responsbility of Spider-Man, even my hyperactive adolescent imagination might’ve exploded. In a way, these crossovers are more natural than they seem.
The problem, however, lies in saturation.
Too Far Beyond
At first, Universes Beyond seemed like a funny little diversion relegated to limited-run Secret Drop products, something that most players don’t have the energy or need to dip into unless there’s a theme that excites them. Then came the Warhammer 40, 000-themed Commander decks. Then it was elevated to a proper, full set with The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, based on Tolkien’s Legendarium. This was an unconventional move but one that still suited the settings of the game, at least, as a work of high fantasy.
Flash forward to 2025, and Magic: The Gathering—Final Fantasy, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Avatar: The Last Airbender have taken up several major product release spots for this year. Next year will see even more:
- January 2026: Lorwyn Eclipsed
- (Unannounced Universes Beyond set)
- April 2026: Secrets of Strixhaven
- June 2026: Marvel Super Heroes
- August 2026: The Hobbit
- October 2026: Reality Fracture
- November 2026: Star Trek
Mark Rosewater has claimed 2027 will return to a more even balance, with 3 in-universe MTG sets and 3 Universes Beyond—but even that is still half the game’s releases. We used to see four main sets a year, like most TCGs, with a couple other releases scattered throughout, and they all developed the world of Magic: The Gathering itself.
The cynical take on Universes Beyond is that it chases the Fortnite approach of amalgamating pop culture into a melting pot that would make even Ready Player One blush. Call of Duty and other mega-corporate franchises have already embraced this approach, lining lobbies with players decked out as Beavis or Butthead, and to see it creep deeper into MTG‘s roots—not unlike the invasive Phyrexians—is admittedly a little disheartening, especially when it’s taking up so much real estate.
MTG should be doing more to show these new players, who were enticed by the beautiful art of their favourite franchises, what the game itself is all about.
I was tentative about the Lord of the Rings crossover and ended up loving the unique spin on my favourite books. The Final Fantasy set is perhaps the most fun I’ve had playing and collecting MTG in many years (soaring retail prices aside) because they adapted my favourite video games into my favourite card game with such care and adoration. (I’m not invested in Star Trek or Avatar so those are a break for my wallet that I will gladly take.)
But I also miss the focus on original planes and characters. The Phyrexian Invasion arc which just wrapped up a couple years ago left a great blank slate with which Wizards of the Coast could have ushered in a brave new world of lore and storytelling… and at least half of their oxygen is going to Universes Beyond instead.
Say Go
Obviously Universes Beyond is working for Magic on the business side; Final Fantasy was the game’s bestselling set to date, and we wouldn’t be seeing them ramp up production on more crossovers if they were a liability. And frankly, these are great entry points into the game for newcomers, with the Final Fantasy set also having inspired a new cohort of players to check out events at their Friendly Local Game Store.
However, MTG should be doing more to show these new players, who were enticed by the beautiful art of their favourite franchises, what the game itself is all about. Frankly, beyond the current slate of products, Wizards of the Coast needs to shift gears drastically again and scale down the Universes Beyond ratio.
There is, also, the factor of tone. MTG has always been rooted in fantasy; even when there’s technology, it’s born out of magical artifice. Only recently did the game introduce actual science fiction elements in Edge of Eternities back in August. Admittedly I enjoyed that concept more than I would’ve ever expected, but it comes at the cost of bending the tone. Putting things like spaceships and laser beams in a main, Standard-legal set works… when done sparingly, and the same goes for bringing in real-world franchises.
These experiments have helped shape the game’s identity and mechanics, but stretching the flavour so far in one direction requires a reset afterward, a palate cleanser to return to the core experience. Magic simply isn’t getting that anytime soon, and it will stretch its identity in the process.
And even when Universes Beyond is relegated to smaller Secret Lair drops, there are still limits. Featuring video games like Sonic the Hedgehog or shows like The Walking Dead is one thing, but The Office? The tipping point is the three Secret Lair drops for Furby, crossing over with—of all things—a product made by Hasbro, with zero relevance to any concept related to Magic and barely any cultural cache remaining, puts the truth to all the worst accusations of selling out.
Depending on your perspective, things may or may not be spiraling out of control, but at its heart I do believe Universes Beyond can be a fun and powerful form of expression for MTG—something that invoke all the right notes of nostalgia and imagination. It just needs to be reined back in somewhat, before the game’s original identity is lost forever in the noise of other companies’ creations instead.
