MTG Arena’s Fleem Completely Steals Spider-Man’s Spotlight

Last updated on September 12, 2025

Fleem, Goben's Creation | Illustration by Nicholas Gregory

Magic players seem to be obsessed with “the little guy”. People lost it over Skrelv, Defector Mite when Phyrexia: All Will Be One released. Fblthp has been a fan favorite ever since he debuted on Totally Lost in 2013's Gatecrash. And Loot's been turning heads since MTG started forcing everyone to pay attention to him throughout the last couple years. The debate's still open about whether people do or don't like Loot, though.

Now it's Fleem's turn to take centerstage. That's right, well-known, super popular Magic: The Gathering all-star, Fleem, a character that people who aren't plugged into digital Magic might not even know about.

Who the Heck Is Fleem?

If you don't engage with Magic Arena much, you might've missed the whole jumbled Through the Omenpaths reveal earlier this week. That's the name given to Arena's and Magic Online's reskin of the Marvel's Spider-Man set, given that cards using the Spider-Man IP aren't allowed to appear on Magic's digital platforms. Those cards still needed to exist digitally, mainly for Standard players, so the solution was to recreate the entirety of Spider-Man with new art and names for nearly every card. That meant a lot of Spider-Men suddenly became in-universe Magic characters, often depicted as a legendary human and their spider cohort.

They also threw in some down-right goofy retrains, including the instant fan-favorite, Fleem. Fleem, Goben's Creation is the digital recreation of Green Goblin. Exact same card, though arguably ten times cuter. But wait a second… who the heck is Goben?

That's a reskin of Norman Osborn, the front half of Green Goblin. Nothing about the rules text, creature types, or mechanics of this transforming legend has changed. They've just swapped the name and art for the card. A stark downgrade for Spider-Man fans who were looking forward to playing with cards from the Spider-Verse, but a colossal upgrade for the Universes Beyond naysayers who had no interest in playing with Green Goblin. You win this round UB haters, and you've got Fleem to prove it!

Fleem Reactions

Fleem became a bit of an overnight MTG sensation. Maybe it'll be short-lived, maybe Fleem will go on to super-stardom, but it's clear people have embraced the, uh, goblin human villain (presumably Goban's the human villain here?).

Source: X/Twitter

You know you did something right when you got the attention of @Cardboard_Crack, who published a 3-panel comic embracing the positivity surrounding the new character.

Source: X/Twitter

@TolarianCollege responded to a joke post on reddit with: “I love FLEEM with all my heart!” And there are tons of other outcries from the community about how Fleem needs to be protected at all costs, how Fleem should be the new mascot of Magic, etc. Head Designer Mark Rosewater himself weighed in with a response to serpens on Blogatog, who was asking if anyone expected Fleem to be such a hit. “It was unexpected,” writes Rosewater. “Fleem has mad charisma.”

Source: Google

And if you're not convinced by the Twitterverse on this one, just do a quick Google search for Fleem on Reddit and check out how much attention it's getting over there.

Will Fleem Appear in Paper Magic?

Fblthp, the Lost | Illustration by Jesper Ejsing

It's highly unlikely you'll get a Fleem card in paper any time soon, definitely not right away. The actual factual Spider-Man cards exist as-is in paper, and the Through the Omenpaths versions are digital-only recreations. According to Rosewater, there's no plans to make paper equivalents of the Omenpath cards right now, so Fleem is trapped on Arena and MTGO for the time being.

But all is not lost for everyone's new favorite lumpy-headed goblin. Unlike Norman Osborn and Green Goblin, the character affectionately known as Fleem is a Wizards of the Coast property. That means they're free to use it wherever they wish, and given the huge response to the digital card, it wouldn't be surprising to see Fleem show up in a future Magic set. Just be patient and remember: It took Fblthp seven years to finally appear on its own standalone MTG card.

Maybe Fleem makes a cameo of sorts in various card arts, much like Fblthp used to on cards like March of the Multitudes and Statute of Denial. Maybe Fleem even gets its own standalone paper Magic card so people can run it as their commander at Friday Night Magic.

If you want to get super ambitious, Fleem could even show up on a holiday promo of some sort, kind of like how Loot appeared on Eggnogger's ‘Stache.

Also, just because they have no plans to print Fleem and other Through the Omenpaths cards in paper right now doesn't mean they won't do so in the future. They could give it the acorn stamp treatment like they did with the Alchemy cards printed in Mystery Booster 2. Cards like Oracle of the Alpha and Sigardian Evangel were Arena exclusives with digital-only mechanics, but they printed paper versions of these cards in MB2 for collectors and Cubers, except with the acorn stamp to note that they weren't tournament-legal cards. Fleem could get that treatment too, though it wouldn't even need an acorn stamp since Norman Osborn/Green Goblin‘s already legal.

It could be confusing to have two versions of the card floating around in paper, but it's not like that doesn't already happen with other Universes Within versions of cards from Secret Lairs like Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, and Street Fighter. However they manage to do it, it's clear that people have a dream for Fleem, and they're demanding it see a paper printing, if not now, then eventually.