Last updated on October 14, 2025
Captain America, Super Soldier | Illustration by Anna Podedworna
Since its scrappy inception in 1993, MTG's ethos has revolved around finding creative ways to weave arcane folklore and high sci-fi/fantasy tactics gameplay into one tapestry. Goblins, golems, warriors, wizards, and everything else.
Despite the vitriol in the title of this piece, I believe that, at its core, Magic has always been Universes Beyond. Are you really gonna try and tell me that Richard Garfield invented orcs? That Amonkhet isn't inspired by Egyptian myths? That Tiamat isn't the name of an ancient Mesopotamian god? The list goes on.
As I'm sure you've noticed, MTG has been swept by popular IPs in the past five years. The Walking Dead, My Little Pony, Transformers, Jurassic Park, and much more. We'll be getting four Universes Beyond sets next year alone. This has felt like a concertedly odd direction for the game to go considering its thematic roots.
By 2024, a Magic: The Gathering collaboration with one of the biggest giga-franchises on earth was slated for release, solidifying an unfortunate truth about the game.
Marvel dominated the box office throughout the 2010s. For many years, it was like anything they touched turned to gold.
2024 brought us Magic's first cards with the creature type hero since the olden days. Now we have Spider-Man, and we've got “Marvel Super Heroes” coming next year. Marvel is here to stay in Magic: The Gathering, whether we like it or not.
Universes Beyond is Mega-Chocolate Ice Cream Cake
Dance of Many | illus. Caroline Gariba
in 2020, The New York Times published an article by writer Jonathan Bromwich. He asked a simple question: Why are there so many flavors of Oreo? The interviewer spoke with an individual from the marketing team at Oreo, who candidly explained the strategy.
“They help drive consumers back to milk’s alleged favorite, the 108-year-old paterfamilias, the plain old Oreo. In other words, the new flavors function as advertisements for the original.”
Nothing beats the original, and all of the other options effectively act as ads. Shelf space is shelf space.
This is exactly what I believe has slowly been happening in Magic: The Gathering over the past several years. Bigger multiverse, bigger audience reach, bigger payoff. The major difference between MTG and Oreo in this model is that the mega-chocolate ice cream cake flavor is currently outselling the classic.
Multiverse Madness
Multiversal Passage | Illustration by Pablo Mendoza
Magic is about an ever-rotating cast of characters who traverse different planes in a multiverse. This allows the game to evolve and embody different aesthetic and thematic flavors. Kaldheim was the Norse mythology-inspired set, Duskmourn was the horror set, Aetherdrift was the car set, etc. All of it works because we're in the Magic multiverse.
I firmly believe that MTG's long history of using elements from folklore and fantasy history is what makes it great. It uses our shared ideas about the arcane and powerful, and it mashes them together so that we can all enjoy them together.
People have been telling stories about vampires for eons. Dragons show up in ancient writings from cultures across the world. Dwarves, elves, fairies; these names carry the weight of our collective imagination from throughout history.
Superheroes Feel Bad
Wolverine, Best There Is does not have that kind of gravitas. They've only been telling stories about him for 51 years.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the OG X-Men movies when I saw them in theaters as a kid. Truly. I believe that Spectacular Spider-Man and other characters from popular media hold weight. They just punch a class below the rest of the history.
Marvel in MTG feels like an in-app purchase. Tiny cardboard billboards. Ad space on local game store shelves.
I'm Not a Total Hater
Rules Lawyer | illus. Sean Murray
To be clear, I'm down for a wacky Oreo every now and again. I had a great time with Final Fantasy, I bought a few of the Warhammer 40k decks. Magic was always going to advertise, whether that be with their own IP, or someone else's. We all just want to play the game we know and love.
From a logic standpoint, I don't fully care that Sonic the Hedgehog or whoever else is in Magic: The Gathering. Every multiverse is a realm of infinite possibility. New York City is a plane.
But, in my heart? I can't untangle humanity's shared mystical lore from the fabric of this game. Because that's what it feels like it encompasses.
Chucking a pop-up video of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into that just doesn't sit well with me.
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8 Comments
It is always an ad for Magic IP they are paying for marvel.
Feeling bold are we?
Always.
I don’t know why some people don’t like it when the game about visiting other universes visits other universes.
Sure, I think it’s more that people like the creative stuff MTG has developed for themselves, and people see Universes Beyond as crowding that out.
I disagree.
Would love to hear your opinion about it!
One of my favorite board games, Unmatched, is a “kitchen sink” style game. I mean it’s original 3 sets had the characters of King Arthur, Medusa, Sinbad, Alice (from Wonderland), Robin Hood, Bigfoot, and Bruce Lee. We’ve always known what we were getting into.
And yet… when it did Marvel, the game didn’t include everyone. But picked out characters appropriate to the game’s “feel” and “power level.” Ghost Rider and Dr. Strange are pushing things a bit I’ll admit, but we don’t see The Hulk or Thor among the selection.
What I mean is they selected characters that would best fit to the feel of the game. Sure a few are kind of pushing the envelope, but even those are clever and well done enough to be good fits. Yeah in a fight Bruce Lee or Sherlock Holmes would probably not have a chance against Dr. Strange, but it’s a bit more believable than if they had to fight Hulk.
Basically I wish Magic had done something similar. I don’t object to superheroes innately in MTG, but rather all the heroes being in MTG. Just like how I have less objection to Final Fantasy being in MTG than I do Star Trek. Dr. Strange and his crew are a better fit for Magic than Spider-man or Captain America. (Yes I am aware of Spidey having some “mystical” links with the spider totems and stuff – but not every fan liked that.) It would be nice if MTG could be a bit more judicious about what got mixed in with universes beyond. While you could – in theory – fit any property to the game system, not all of them are going to be a great fit.
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