Everything You Need to Know About Through the Omenpaths on MTG Arena

Herko Kerghans September 12, 2025 MTG Arena, MTG Cards

Last updated on October 11, 2025

Point the Way | Illustration by Izzy

Perhaps fittingly for a character who has so many different versions across alternate universes, Magic is about to run its own clone-saga. Through the Omenpaths is Wizards’ way to let you play the Marvel’s Spider-Man cards on Arena/MTGO without actually using the Marvel’s Spider-Man cards. Same mechanics, colors, and card types, but different names and new art. If that sounds like a multiverse detour to dodge licensing limitations, well… you're absolutely right.

Let's dive into what's what, and who's the real Spider-Man.

Table of Contents show

What Is Through the Omenpaths?

Extraordinary Journey | Illustration by Volkan Baga

Through the Omenpaths is Wizards’ new way to keep digital and tabletop formats mechanically aligned when a Standard-legal Universes Beyond (UB) set isn’t licensed for Arena/MTGO.

The digital cards are mechanically identical to their UB counterparts, but they’re presented as in-world Universes Within versions with different names and art. According to WotC's Through the Omenpaths and Digital Universes Beyond, “We will not be creating Through the Omenpaths sets mirroring every Universes Beyond set, only the ones that will not be coming to digital platforms.” Final Fantasy, for example, was released on MTGA and MTGO with the original names and art, and Avatar: The Last Airbender got the same treatment.

According to the same article, future Marvel sets will get the Omenpaths treatment. We don't know if that’ll be true for every premier set based on a Marvel IP, but it seems likely that's the case.

The first Through the Omenpaths set launched on September 23, 2025, as a Universes Within reskin of the Spider-Man set. It’s mechanically identical to the tabletop cards, but with names and art based on Magic's (rather than Marvel‘s) multiverse, and it even includes Spider-Man‘s Source Material bonus sheet. The set code is OM1 for the main set, and OMB for the bonus sheet.

What’s the Point of Through the Omenpaths?

Wizards of the Coast hasn't given an official reason for why they are doing this, but it's a fairly easy guess: licensing (that they failed to acquire). This is speculation, but the most likely motivator is that for whatever reason, Hasbro (WotC's owner) didn't acquire the digital rights from Disney (Marvel‘s owner).

This could have happened for a multitude of reasons. It may have been a matter of pricing: Perhaps Disney asked for a lot more money than Hasbro was willing to pay for the digital rights. Or perhaps Hasbro's initial plan for Spider-Man was for it to be Commander-only product (like Warhammer 40K or Fallout) that wasn’t intended for Arena, so they never acquired the digital rights in the first place. Further, when they pivoted into making all Universes Beyond sets Standard-legal, it might've been too late to reopen the deal.

Or it could even have been an inability or a lack of desire on Disney‘s part to give Hasbro those rights to begin with. For example, Disney may have signed a previous video game deal with a third party (for example, Second Dinner, makers of the Marvel SNAP video game) which prevents Disney from licensing those rights to Hasbro.

We'll probably never know the exact “why” since it's part of the Disney-Hasbro negotiations, and licenses for a franchise like Spider-Man (which spans pretty much every product you can sell, from toys to coffee mugs!) come with a lot of strings attached.

What we do know officially is that Through the Omenpaths is WotC's way to circumvent that limitation and keep tabletop and digital Magic aligned as far as Standard is concerned by bringing the mechanics but without the non-Magic IP.

For example, there's no Arachne, Psionic Weaver on digital platforms, so we get Yera and Oski, Weaver and Guide instead. It’s the exact same card as far as mechanics go (Spider-Man‘s “web-slinging” becomes OM1's “enweb”, but works the same), just with a different name and art.

We also know that mechanics used in Marvel sets could return in future Magic sets (even non-Marvel ones). Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater has specifically confirmed it for web-slinging in particular, but if it returns it’ll be with a different name. It seems easy to imagine that “enweb” will be that name in such case.

Desecrex, Gift of Servitude + Carnage, Crimson Chaos

In some cases, the new Spider-Man mechanic even keeps the name, like with Carnage, Crimson Chaos and Desecrex, Gift of Servitude. The rules text is literally a copy-paste of the original, and even mayhem keeps the original name.

What Sets Have Through the Omenpaths Versions?

At the time of writing, there are two sets that have received the Through the Omenpaths treatment:

Marvel’s Spider-Man (SPM), which comes to MTG Arena and MTGO as OM1
Spider-Man‘s Source Material or Marvel Universe bonus sheet (MAR), which comes to digital platforms as OMB.

We know that future Marvel sets will go through the omenpaths, but that the next Universes Beyond set (Avatar: The Last Airbender) comes to MTG Arena unchanged. It looks like Through the Omenpaths is reserved for Marvel sets, or anything else that might pose licensing issues.

Will We Get Through the Omenpaths Versions of Older Universes Beyond Sets?

Lychguard | Illustration by Games Workshop

There's no official announcement about whether older Universes Beyond sets will get “omenpath-ed”, so the factual answer is: “Who knows?”

My guess is that it's highly unlikely, though. Through the Omenpaths‘ key goal is to keep Standard parity between tabletop and digital, but that doesn't seem to extend to other formats.

For example, all the Standard-legal cards from Final Fantasy are available on MTG Arena, but that doesn't extend to cards from Final Fantasy‘s Commander precons: There are around 300 FIC cards that were not released on Arena.

Spider-Man also has a lot of cards that, as far as we know, won't come to MTG Arena: the cards with the SPE set code from the Welcome decks and the Scene box.

If Wizards of the Coast didn't think it was worth the effort to include the Commander cards from Final Fantasy (which happens to be the best-selling Magic set of all time) via Through the Omenpaths, and they didn't include a lot of the cards from Spider-Man, I think it's very unlikely that they’ll go through the trouble to “omenpath-ize” older Commander-only products like Warhammer 40K, Fallout, or Doctor Who (let alone flops like Assassin's Creed). WotC never intended those to be on MTGA to begin with, and I doubt that will change.

What Formats Are Through the Omenpaths Cards Legal In?

OM1 (the main set) is legal in all Arena formats, and Standard in particular – that seems to be the most important reason, by far, for WotC to do Through the Omenpaths to begin with.

OMB (the bonus sheet) is legal in Brawl, Timeless, and Historic. OMB is also legal within OM1 drafts: If you open (or are passed) an OMB card, you can use it in your “Spider-Man Limited” pool.

About a dozen of the OMB cards are already legal in Pioneer.

Will Through the Omenpaths Sets Be Draftable?

Yes, it will!

In fact, Spider-Man was designed with a new draft format in mind: Pick-Two Draft. WotC has confirmed that Pick-Two Draft will be available on Arena.

At the time of writing we still don't know the entry fee or prize structure on MTG Arena, though. I’d guess that Through the Omenpaths will have the three usual draft modes on MTGA (Quick Draft, Premier Draft, and Traditional Draft), and that the only change will be picking two cards rather than one, within smaller pods. But there's no official news about this yet.

What Is the Through the Omenpaths Bonus Sheet?

OMB is the bonus sheet paired with OM1.

It contains the exact same cards as Spider-Man‘s MAR bonus sheet, but in most cases these are just reprints with existing Magic art (rather than using brand-new art). The few exceptions include Reprieve, Unexpected Windfall, and Tangle, that got new art for the Arena version.

Does Through the Omenpaths Affect Magic Online?

Yes, it does. WotC’s April 21 announcement explicitly includes MTGO in the digital plan.

Through the Omenpaths Pros and Cons

Universes Beyond is a bit of a hot topic among Magic players, and by “a bit of a hot topic”, I mean that some players really, really dislike other IPs making their way into Magic. Through the Omenpaths’ different names and art may be a downer for a Spidey fan, but it’s a boon to a purist – this one is down to personal taste.

What's definitely a pro is that Through the Omenpaths preserves mechanical parity when a UB set can’t be licensed for digital. That's the big one, clearly the main reason for why WotC is jumping through so many hoops here, and it's really huge: It keeps Arena and MTGO metagames aligned with tabletop, and it makes Standard a format that’s playable on all platforms.

There seems to be a lot of players that very much like having a glimpse of Magic's planes through the omenpaths, even if some of them would have also liked to get Spider-Man on Arena. Some players are in fact asking Wizards of the Coast to consider reprinting Through the Omenpaths as a full tabletop set; Mark Rosewater has said it's not a consideration at the moment.

On the other hand, having to deal with two names for the same card royally sucks. If you play on Arena, you may be totally lost if you watch the Pro Tour or read a tabletop metagame report. If you play draft on tabletop, you may have a headache every time you watch a streamer or YouTuber draft on Arena. In general, MTG websites that have to deal with both names will incur quite a bit of groaning for having to deal with two mechanically identical MTG sets but with different card names.

Luckily, the Arena devs have confirmed that you'll be able to import decks with SPM cards into Arena and search for SPM cards on Arena’s deckbuilder, and MTGA will auto-translate them into OM1 cards.

Example Gallery: Spider-Man vs. Through the Omenpaths

Below is a full gallery of Marvel's Spider-Man, re-envisioned for Through the Omenpaths.

White

Blue

Black

Red

Green

Multicolor

Colorless

Lands

Wrap Up

Open the Way | Illustration by Livia Prima

So that's the gist of Through the Omenpaths, folks: It gives MTG Arena and MTGO the same game pieces that tabletop gets when a Universes Beyond set can’t be brought to digital as-is. Today, that means Marvel’s Spider-Man becomes OM1/OMB; tomorrow it likely means more Marvel sets are transformed into this “alternate universe that works exactly the same but we're all called something else.”

The good? Standard is playable in all formats.

The bad? Name dissonance is real, search engines will cry, and your group chat will invent at least three nicknames for Yera and Oski, Weaver and Guide before week two.

The “It depends”? Digital platforms get an extra peek at what's happening on MTG’s planes, and they don't have to deal with an invasion from outside IPs – a huge boon for some players, a downer for others. There's always gonna be that Arena player that was not even aware a Spider-Man x MTG crossover is a thing, and now they never will.

What are your thoughts on the Through the Omenpaths versions of these Spider-Man cards? Do you wish they were available in paper Magic? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord! And don’t forget to download Draftsim’s Arena Tutor to enhance your Through the Omenpaths drafting experience, track your collection, and more!

Hope you have enjoyed this Through the Omenpaths deep dive, and good luck with all the names!

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Herko Kerghans

Herko has been battling online since EVE was a thing, fell in love with digital CCGs nearly a decade ago, and got his first taste of MTG during Arena's Open Beta. He loves Limited formats, crunching data, and (usually silly) puns and wordplay.

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