‘Magic: The Gathering’ Head Designer Says Number Of Players Opposed To ‘Universes Beyond’ Sets “Continually Shrinks Over Time”
In providing a brief update on the ongoing push-and-pull between those who welcome the introduction of third-party IPs like Marvel’s Spider-Man or Fallout into the TCG’s ecosystem and those who don’t, Magic: The Gathering Head Designer Mark Rosewater says that the amount of players who oppose the game’s Universes Beyond sets continues to steadily decline.
The long-time MTG lead offered this insight into the current state of the Universes Beyond debate during his recently published State of Design 2025, an annual column wherein he “looks back at the year as a whole, examining the highlights and lessons of the year.”
“Each release had some lessons, which I’ll get to today, and there are some larger trends that some players aren’t happy with, which I’ll also touch upon. I do believe, though, that design is in a healthy place, and that we’re continuing to improve our ability to make awesome Magic sets.”
Their first mention of their crossover efforts came in reflection of their use of story tropes and popular memes in their card art, particularly in the Duskmourn: House of Horrors and Aetherdrift sets:
“Magic is at its best when we recontextualize the tropes we’re working with. Resonance is an important part of design. When we explore new themes, there are certain expectations that it’s important for us to hit in our card designs, but we need to be careful that we’re doing our take on the trope and not just repeating it without any filter. Universes Beyond sets are where we should do straight allusions, and not in-Multiverse sets. Both Duskmourn: House of Horror and Aetherdrift suffered from being a bit too on the nose with some of our references.”
From there going through each set from the past year individually, Rosewater would eventually come to their recent Final Fantasy release, itself the best-selling of MTG‘s entire history.
Following specific notes regarding the highs and lows of the Square Enix collaboration, he then took the opportunity to discuss the general fact that “There are ongoing complaints about Universes Beyond sets,” including their easing reception among players:
“As this is the only randomized Universes Beyond product I’m talking about today (I sadly didn’t have space to discuss Magic: The Gathering – Assassin’s Creed), I’m using this section to go over much of the feedback about Universes Beyond in general.
“There are still players that don’t like that we’re doing Universes Beyond, although that sentiment continually shrinks over time. For example Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY is already the best-selling Magic set of all time and it just came out. Some players don’t mind Universes Beyond sets in general, but they feel at home in Magic’s fantasy setting. Some players are unhappy that we’re including Universes Beyond sets in Standard. Some are unhappy that Universes Beyond booster packs cost more on average than Magic Multiverse booster packs.”
It should be noted that while this claim did come from Rosewater, whose position would make him privy to behind-the-scenes analytics that the public is not, he did not provide any details as to the actual ‘on the ground’ details of the alleged ‘Universes Beyond attitude shift’.
As such, it’s unknown whether players are actually growing more accepting of said sets or another factor might be at play – for example, that certain Universes Beyond cards are mechanically useful for a popular play style will drive more players to pick-up these cards in service of strengthening their decks, even if they aren’t a particular fan of the property.
The next major Universes Beyond release, Marvel’s Spider-Man, is currently set to crawl onto stores shelves this September 26th.
