Is Marvel Super Heroes and Universes Beyond Threatening To Overshadow Magic’s Next In-Universe Set Again?

Magic: The Gathering is continuing wherever it near disconnected successful 2025, rolling retired a whopping 4 crossover sets nether its Universes Beyond branding successful 2026: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marvel Super Heroes, The Hobbit, and Star Trek.

That’s rather the mix, but astatine a clip erstwhile fans are crying retired for immoderate consistency and continuity, Wizards of the Coast is astir to marque the aforesaid mistake it made with past year’s selling cycle.

In short, it feels similar it can’t hold to get Secrets of Strixhaven retired of the way, forgetting wherefore galore radical play Magic successful the archetypal place.

Magic’s Universes Beyond Sets Shouldn’t Come At The Cost Of Its Own Identity

There’s a moving gag that Magic crossovers are the worst happening astir the crippled until it’s a franchise you love, and arsenic a longtime instrumentality of Peter Parker’s adventures, I admit I bought into the Spider-Man hype past year.

It was casual to do, too, since Wizards started revealing cards and products ace early, trampling implicit the Edge of Eternities acceptable successful the process. The rest, arsenic they say, is history: Spider-Man was inarguably Magic’s astir disappointing acceptable of astatine slightest the past twelvemonth (maybe longer), and Edge of Eternities was overmuch much well-received but invariably didn’t get its accidental successful the limelight.

While I was hoping that Wizards would instrumentality immoderate lessons from it, we’re present entering a 2026 roadmap with 7 afloat sets planned. Lorwyn Eclipsed is great, and lone conscionable launched, but that’s January’s set. Preorders are present unrecorded for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Secrets of Strixhaven, and adjacent Marvel Super Heroes.

That past set, by the way, is astir 5 months from launch. While I admit that a institution needs a enactment connected a graph to spell up to amusement occurrence by bringing successful caller players, it’s starting to consciousness similar Wizards of the Coast is trampling connected Magic’s ain bequest successful its desperation to speech astir crossover sets.

Lorwyn Eclipsed should beryllium a celebration, a accidental to instrumentality to a beloved Plane afloat of classical carnal types, and instead, we’re getting adjacent to the Turtles landing connected store shelves. Looking past Strixhaven to a Marvel crossover, this aboriginal (and with the sensation of the Spider-Man acceptable inactive lingering), is conscionable a atrocious look.

Please, Wizards - don’t fto Secrets of Strixhaven endure the aforesaid mode Edge of Eternities is. It’s astir unavoidable with specified a packed merchandise calendar, but if you can’t wage capable clip to your ain universes, the ones that person captivated players for implicit 3 decades, does that not archer you a alteration is required?

Honestly, each of this is moot anyhow - I’m portion of the problem. I’ve pre-ordered immoderate Marvel Superheroes products, and you tin stake your Bilbo Baggins that I’ll beryllium archetypal successful enactment for The Hobbit.

For much connected Magic’s existent set, Lorwyn Eclipsed, beryllium definite to cheque retired our database of the champion pursuit cards successful the acceptable close now, arsenic good arsenic a look astatine each 8 carnal types successful the caller set.

Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer successful tech, gaming and fittingness seen astatine Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and galore more. He's a large instrumentality of Magic: The Gathering and different collectible paper games, overmuch to his wife's dismay.