Last updated on April 22, 2025
Sensational Spider-Man | Illustration by Dan Dos Santos
Spider-Man, the Universes Beyond MTG crossover expected for next September, won't be coming to Magic Arena or MTGO.
But its masked version will!
No, that's not a joke. According to Wizards of the Coast's official announcement yesterday, Marvel's Spider-Man won't be coming to digital Magic platforms.
“Instead, we will release our first Through the Omenpaths set on September 23,” says the Through the Omenpaths and Digital Universes Beyond Updates article.
As per the short announcement – which doesn't get into the why of this decision – “Through the Omenpaths releases will be digital sets that are Universes Within versions of Universes Beyond sets that otherwise wouldn't be coming to digital Magic platforms. These digital cards will be mechanically identical to their Universes Beyond tabletop counterparts but with unique creative treatments, different art, and different names.”
The announcement has been quite harshly received by high-profile MTG content creators and influencers, who didn't mince words to point out what a terrible idea this is in their opinion.
Magic's “Through the Omenpaths” Announcement
Daryl, Hunter of Walkers | Illustration by Romana Kende
The official announcement is short and to point: Instead of the Spider-Man set, digital MTG platforms will get a set that is the exact the same thing as far as mechanics go, but with different, in-universe art and card names.
In short: The digital release will be a reskinned version of the paper product.
A useful comparison here would be Hansk, Slayer Zealot and Daryl, Hunter of Walkers. Daryl is a Secret Lair card from the The Walking Dead crossover. Hansk is the Universes Within version: exactly the same card mechanically, and they even count as the same card in your deck for the purposes of deck construction. You can't have both Daryl and Hansk in your Commander deck; they're considered the same card, so you can only have one copy. You can even read “=SLD 144” on the lower left side of Hansk's card, which refers to Daryl's set code.
So, we'll basically have Spider-Man fighting Doc Ock in paper, and a mechanically identical “Arachno-Boy” wrestling with “Squid Warlock” digitally.
The first big difference with the Daryl/Hansk example is that WotC will do this for the whole Spider-Man set. And the most baffling difference is that the Universes Beyond version of Marvel's Spider-Man (the “Daryl” version, so to speak) will only exist in paper, while the Universes Within version (the “Hansk” version, if you will) will be digital-only.
The article specifies that this will be the norm with future Marvel sets, but not with every Universes Beyond set.
“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,” notes WotC's article. “We are also currently only planning to create Through the Omenpaths releases for full sets that are legal in all formats.”
In other words: Commander-focused products like Fallout or Doctor Who, that were never ported to MTG Arena, most likely won't have a Through the Omenpath versions.
And specifically for 2025, Spider-Man will be the only MTG set with this forked treatment – both Final Fantasy and Avatar: The Last Airbender will come to MTG Arena and MTGO.
But… Why!?
The short announcement does not go into detail as to why, but it's very likely due to licensing issues.
“Marvel lawyers>Wizards lawyers,” notes u/Johanitsu on reddit. “You meant to say Disney lawyers,” jokes u/Rose-Red-Witch, “and those mean mother hubbards are practically boogey men in the legal world.”
It's a very safe bet that we'll never know for sure, although it's crystal clear that this is not what Hasbro would have preferred. The cost of reskinning a whole set for its digital implementation is not small, and both MTG Arena and MTGO lose the Spider-Man hype this way (not to mention, probably pissing off existing players that were eagerly expecting it).
The most common speculation among Magic's playerbase is that it may have to do with Marvel Snap, a very successful digital CCG that is wholly based on Marvel's IP, and that competes directly with MTG Arena.
At any rate, it seems clear that either Hasbro couldn't meet Disney's price for the digital rights, or that Disney wasn't even able to offer those rights due to licensing issues.
The Problems With Many Names
Pirated Copy | Illustration by Daarken
“An entire set where each card has two distinctly different artworks and names?” wonders Tolarian Community College, arguably the biggest MTG YouTube account. “I worry this is going to make things confusing.”
“For what it's worth, I think Universes Beyond is broadly speaking a good idea,” notes Magic Hall of Famer Brian Kibler, to clarify that it's this specific Spider-Man treatment, and not the whole UB idea that he has trouble with. “I have met *so* many people who it has either brought into or back into Magic. I'm more skeptical that the number of UB sets this year and including them in Standard is a good idea.”
But he also notes it's going to be extremely confusing for players that interact with Magic both digitally and on paper:
And it will be pretty lousy for Limited players in particular, above all for content creators. If reviewing and rating 300+ cards was already hard work, just imagine the pain it's going to be for creators and the community if they now have to remember twice as many names.
Welcome to the Big Magic Apple
Plains (Clue Edition) | Illustration by Alayna Danner
One of the silver linings of this announcement is trying to guess: Where will the Through the Omenpaths sets take place? What flavor will WotC go for, since they have to visually reimagine a whole set?
One possibility is to make it all happen in a single, known plane.
“Ravnica has tall towers and the simic hybrids”, says u/ryzouken. “My money is on a Ravnica theme even if we had MKM fairly recently.” Others put their gems on Innistrad getting the Universes Within reskins, or perhaps with New Capenna, which doesn't lack tall skyscrapers for “Arachno-Boy” to swing from.
Another possibility is WotC creating one whole new plane for all these Omenpaths sets to take place – as far as anyone knows, only the Marvel sets will get this differentiating treatment. So maybe we'll get the “Magic-hattan” plane, loosely based on New York, where all the digital X-men copycats can face their Magnetic Menace rival.
And a third path WotC may follow is the tried-and-true Core Set approach: Forget about a single, cohesive plane, and just put characters in whichever plane they suit best.
“I feel like putting “Omenpath” in the name sort of implies that,” notes u/ZachAtk23. “It's probably going to be more like a core-set, with limited theme/connective tissue and individual cards themed however they can fit them.”
Silver Linings?
Spider-Man Promotional Art | Illustration by Javier Charrc
There's no shortage of reddit comments actually celebrating this news, and calling it a win for MTG Arena. The “Fortnite-i-fication” of Magic and use of external IPs is something not all players are happy with, and they see a Universes Within version as an upgrade.
There are even players who wish these UW Magic cards existed on paper, to have the option to buy them instead of the Universes Beyond version. And some are even thanking WotC for designing in-universes versions for them to proxy!
But, overall, sentiment seems to be markedly negative:
WotC's official announcement promises that “We'll have more information on [Through the Omenpaths] as we get closer to the release date,” on September 23.
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