Last updated on October 2, 2025
Ultimate Green Goblin (Ruzic, Booed but Victorious) | Illustration by Caio Cacau
Spider-Man‘s Pick-Two format is the least popular draft format on MTG Arena, by a huge margin, in the last couple of years.
And perhaps ever.
The numbers speak for themselves. Through the Omenpaths (the digital version of Spider-Man, but with new art and card names due to IP limitations) went live on MTG Arena exactly one week ago. As Jake Browne posted on X a few days, OM1 had the worst first two days comparing with other recent Standard sets, cratering by a jaw-dropping 65% since Final Fantasy:
Source: Jake Browne's post on X
And we saw the exact same trend during the weekend. When looking at the first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of each set, and comparing the number of Premier Draft games logged by 17Lands users, Through the Omenpaths barely reached 44,200 players, down from 160,400 players for Final Fantasy, and 156,900 games for Edge of Eternities – a 70% drop% in this case.
Data from: 17Lands
Data from: 17Lands
Bad Apples To Oranges
Eriette of the Charmed Apple | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve
It could be argued that, technically speaking, we're comparing apples to oranges here: All previous MTG sets launched with the Premier Draft and Traditional Draft formats, while Through the Omenpaths only offers the new Pick-Two Draft variants…
… but that's exactly the point: WotC didn't offer the usual Premier and Traditional variants in this case, so players were forced to choose between playing Pick-Two, or not play.
And it's clear what they're choosing.
To make matters worse, digital Magic players are replicating the lukewarm reception that Spider-Man has gotten on tabletop, as seen in MTG Arena's very mild spike in player count for this newest set:
Source: SteamDB – MTG Arena player count on Steam
As Hall of Famer Luis Scott-Vargas noted, Spider-Man seems by and large to be a big flop…
… and looks like Pick Two draft is one of the worst aspects of an already bad Magic set.
What's Wrong With Through the Omenpaths Pick Two Draft?
The Battle of Bywater – Illustration by Tomas Duchek
The short version is “probably everything.”
As of right now, one of the most upvoted threads on the /lrcast subreddit (a sub for the Limited Resource podcast, and sort of the de facto Draft subreddit) is titled “Anyone else thinking of skipping Spider-Man?“, with the overwhelming majority of replies saying “yes.”
“FNM Pick-Two Draft is the Worst MTG Experience I've Ever Had” is another of the top threads this week.
“Cannot imagine a worse draft format” is close behind.
It's impossible to find even one positive thread. And complaints come from every angle: The set, the format, the entry price, and the shorter runs.
“It takes a special kind of individual to take a spider-man franchise and have it be the literal worst draft format of all time,” fumes u/Dahsira. “Pick 2 is absolutely dumb and not worth playing at all. I draft each set basically non-stop until the next set comes out. Some are better than others but its draft. and draft is amazing. Pick 2 is so unbelievably stupid I did my one draft and will never draft this set again.”
“The pick 2 draft format and reward structure (although revised compared to the original amounts) for the draft are probably big contributing factors,” notes u/Yazars in the thread discussing Jake Browne's findings.
“I'm less annoyed about pick 2 than about the much shorter drafts,” complains u/Takseen. “The max number of games you can play is 5 (3 wins 2 losses or 4 wins 1 loss) vs 9 games for a normal draft. And even with 4 wins you barely come out ahead on gems.”
A small set.
That had to be reskinned.
With a simplified (some would say dumbed down…) draft format.
With a much worse gold conversion rate on Arena, and shorter runs…
… the best thing about Through the Omenpaths‘ Pick Two being so bad may be that Wizards of the Coast was forced to bring back Final Fantasy drafts in a hurry:
7 Comments
Dumb, how about we try pick two with a set that isn’t complete trash then judge it.
Considering the set was literally made to support and debut Pick-Two Drafting, it seems like THE set to judge it. If it doesn’t work well for the set tailored to the format, that doesn’t inspire faith for using it in other formats.
A fair point, but I’m a bit confused. Wasn’t Commander Legends a “pick-2” draft set? What makes the spidey/TOP drafting different from the two commander sets? (is it just the number of cards in the pack?)
That’s backwards, pick 2 was invented to support the tiny card base of Spider Man
That’s likely the truth, but not the narrative that’s been said.
That said, Pick-Two existed before this set released. It was a regular event at MagicCons (called Lightning Drafts) and was just given a new name and tied to this set.
I can explain my activity:
They put Final Fantasy up as the Premiere Draft instead of Omenpath and Premiere Draft is what I had tokens for.
Easy enough~
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