Last updated on April 23, 2024
Disdainful Stroke | Illustration by Maxilla
The advent of the Universes Beyond products—crossover sets between Magic and various properties including The Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, and The Walking Dead have been… contentious. I’ve seen many players expresses excitement while others bemoan what they call the “Fortnite-ification” of Magic, especially as future product releases make it clear these products are here to stay.
As for me, I’ve felt neutrally about them. They strike me like Un-sets: A Magic product that’s not for me, so I don’t bother engaging with them, positively or negatively. Until now. Until we got a Cowboy Bebop crossover. Now I have opinions. And plenty of information for other fans looking to get ahold of these crossover cards.
Let’s check out what the crossover has to offer!
What Are the Cowboy Bebop MTG Cards?
Snakeskin Veil | Illustration by Maxilla
The Cowboy Bebop cards are a collection of five special promo cards. These cards are:
Each promo has a borderless treatment with unique art that marries Magic characters and the distinctive style of Cowboy Bebop’s opening sequence—you know the one where we see Faye dancing, Spike lighting a cigarette, complete with some cards have background text. All packed into a traditional foil.
Now, these aren’t a Secret Lair like other UB collections we’ve seen. These promos can be won by playing in Standard Showdown events at your LGS! These events will occur weekly. You can win each card during a different date range. These dates are:
- August 2 – September 19, 2024 (Ossification)
- September 27 – November 7, 2024 (Disdainful Stroke)
- November 15, 2024 – January 30, 2025 (Go for the Throat)
- February 7 – March 2, 2025 (Lightning Strike)
- April 4 – May 29, 2025 (Snakeskin Veil)
It’s hard to guess what these cards will cost. None of them are chase rares, but Disdainful Stoke, Go for the Throat, and Lightning Strike see a fair amount of play, especially in Standard.
Because these are low-rarity cards that, with the exception of Ossification, have seen abundant reprints, the text on the card won’t be affecting the price much. It’s all in the crossover value, which can be tricky to gauge. These will almost certainly cost more than regular versions of these cards. That said, I doubt they’ll ever exceed more than $5—unless Wizards prints very few copies. Without knowing how deep the print run goes, I can’t do more than speculate.
As for the actual art, speaking as a fan, I didn’t love it at first. I saw that Disdainful Stroke and wanted to know why Spike wasn’t blowing that smoke. Then I thought about it, and I’ve come around. I appreciate the effort that went into blending Magic and Bebop. There would be an immediate dopamine rush to seeing Spike, Faye, Jet, and all the others on cards but I could just slap Spike’s face on a Magic card with a bit of Photoshop and a printer.
These cards are a much more unique product than we would have gotten with an actual Universes Beyond set. Those feel like more than custom proxies (not that there’s anything wrong with those!). These demonstrate that I like Magic and Bebop. Even ignoring the crossover, these stand out as truly unique promos rather than borderless versions of base cards. I’m overall quite pleased, both as a Bebop fan and a Magic player. Now I just need to make room for Disdainful Stroke in my blue decks….
How Many Cowboy Bebop Cards Are There?
There are five total cards:
Where to Buy Cowboy Bebop Cards
Since these cards are promos that will be given out at LGS events nearly a year, you won’t be able to purchase the set in a bundle like a Secret Lair. You’ll have a few options for purchasing them. Due to the nature of these being promos, you will not find them at big box stores like Walmart, Target, and the like.
Local Game Stores
Game stores can’t sell promos when they receive them but that doesn’t mean players won’t trade in their promos if they don’t like them, plus they may have excess. You can also try to get them from your LGS by participating in the Standard Showdowns or trading with victorious players.
TCGplayer
TCGplayer is a fantastic place to grab singles! Because of how the open market functions, cards on TCGplayer are often priced lower than other sites. You might pay more for shipping but it’s hard to go wrong here, especially if you only want one or two cards.
Card Kingdom
I prefer using Card Kingdom when I’m purchasing a lot of cards at once. The shipping fees from TCGplayer can add up quickly; even though cards on CK cost a little more, I’ve found it evens out.
Best Cowboy Bebop Cards Ranked
I’m just running through a quick ranking of these cards! Since they’re all interactive it gives us an easy axis to judge them against. I’m primarily considering how they play in Commander.
#5. Lightning Strike
Lightning Strike is effective in Standard mono-red brews but isn’t a card I’m particularly interested in for Commander. It’s role in Standard and some Pioneer decks make it far from useless, however.
#4. Snakeskin Veil
Plenty of green decks can leverage Snakeskin Veil as a protective spell in the removal-heavy world of Commander where three players might throw removal at your threats. The effect has stiff competition with cards like Tamiyo's Safekeeping and Tyvar's Stand, though many decks can leverage the bonus of a +1/+1 counter.
#3. Disdainful Stroke
Don’t’ get me wrong, Disdainful Stroke is a powerful counterspell. Only hitting cards with a mana value of 4 or higher is restrictive, but means this card always trades up in mana—right where you want your interaction to be. But blue players are spoiled for choice with access to Mana Drain, Counterspell, Arcane Denial, and much more.
#2. Ossification
Ossification comes with a restriction: Because it must enchant basics, it gets weaker the more colors you play. Running it in decks with more than three colors feels dicey. But the reward is one of the most efficient Oblivion Ring variants on the block that deals with threats for a measly 2-mana while interacting with enchantment synergies.
#1. Go for the Throat
Go for the Throat simply has the broadest use out of these interactive spells. Sure, sometimes you’ll play against Urza, Chief Artificer and other commanders that flood the board with artifact creatures but it’s often Murder at a discount, which I’m plenty happy playing.
Are Cowboy Bebop Cards Legal?
Yes! If a card is legal in any given format, you can play any version of that card assuming it’s an official WotC release and isn’t marked. These are official promos. And surely Wizards will have fixed the foil curling problem so these cards won’t mark themselves! Right? Right?!
Are the Cowboy Bebop MTG Cards Foil?
Yes. All five cards will be printed as traditional foils.
Wrap Up
Lightning Strike | Illustration by Maxilla
I look forward to these promos. I appreciate how they went about the crossover to the point I hope we see more collaborations like this in the future. Offering this kind of card as a promotional product for LGSs rather than a Secret Lair feels like real, critical support that will get people out in the community and maybe inspire some extra Standard play. At the very least more of my decks will have Disdainful Stroke and Snakeskin Veil than they do now.
What do you think of these crossover cards? Would you rather have gotten the characters directly, or even unique cards ala The Walking Dead? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord.
See you later space cowboy!
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