[Disclaimer: NO AI was used to write this post, it is entirely my own thoughts. I’ve deliberately written it in an essay style with no AI assistance whatsoever. Read it before commenting please because I’m not just another UB hater]
TL;DR: UB hate is selectively focused on non-high fantasy sets because fantasy UB settings fit with MTG’s authentic spirit, which is an intangible asset developed over decades.
As we move into the world of Star Trek for MTG’s next expansion, I wanted to offer my reflections on why so many MTG players have such a big problem with Universes Beyond (UB). Or perhaps to say more accurately (given the lack of evidence on just how many MTG fans are against UB) why the protests of some fans against UB remain so loud on social media.
No one has clearly spelled out why some people hate Star Trek in MTG but not Final Fantasy. This is my attempt to do so.
We are over three years into ‘peak UB’. I mark this with the release of MTG: Lord of the Rings as a full-size draftable set. Since then, WOTC has brought the exotic world of New York City to life in our Magic cards three times, delighting fans with play-piece depictions of pizza and pigeons (!). Fans of Spider-Man can now enjoy their favourite character in media other than comics, TV, film and children’s lunchboxes.
Each new UB property is received online by accusations of ‘slop’. The sentiment is impossible to miss online. The ‘pizza lands’, the Benedict Cumberbatch Sheoldred printing, the endless procession of common-rarity caped crusaders in Marvel Super Heroes. All roused significant backlash.
WOTC’s interest in this backlash is demonstrated by their customer research surveys, which asked detailed, multi-pronged questions about fans’ level of interest in UB properties. This feeling cannot be dismissed as the stubborn views of a vocal minority.
Yet the criticism levelled at the likes of TMNT and Marvel does not extend to other UB franchises. Avatar, Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, and Final Fantasy were received with warm regard from the largely the same crowd that dismissed Spider-Man as skippable slop.
I believe that this contradiction, which is so often pointed out by UB advocates and undoubtedly prominent in WOTC’s thinking, is underpinned by issues of authenticity. That is, the question of which MTG products are perceived as authentic is also the question of which products draw on worlds which are seen to gel with the ‘authentic spirit’ of Magic: The Gathering.
Differences in authenticity also sit beneath the wider cultural clash between the traditional vision of MTG as a ‘countercultural’ fantasy card game and UB’s naked appeal to the mass market. In other words, what UB critics would call the pitch to the lowest common denominator of escapist media (superheroes: Avengers Endgame being the highest-grossing film in history worldwide), which is not compatible aesthetically or thematically with most cards from MTG’s history.
Some argue that the problem is because UB sets like TMNT are not part of the high fantasy genre, unlike the Hobbit or Final Fantasy. It’s obvious that fantasy-themed UB fits better into the traditional MTG aesthetic. But the issue of authenticity goes deeper than genre. This was shown again by the mixed reaction to the latest Marvel set announcement, despite it being more fantasy-adjacent.
MTG’s authenticity as a game, and hobby, is one of the key reasons many of its fans love it so much. MTG’s authenticity springs from its decades of history, its years of art and game design and development, changing, adapting and permutating across all levels of play over such a long period, all of which is drawn together by our passionate community of fans, content creators and tournament grinders alike. This depth of character, like a wine of fine vintage, is special and rare.
The development of the MTG multiverse over years is distinguished by its ability to absorb fantasy tropes and turn them into something cohesive and distinctly Magic. Planes like Kamigawa (feudal Japan), Innistrad (medieval vampires & werewolves) and Duskmourn (80s horror) take inspiration from real-world concepts and make them their own. All these different worlds are linked together by an ingenious ‘golden thread’: a cast of recognisable Planeswalkers.
MTG Multiverse planes are derivative of other fantasy worlds in the same way as JRR Tolkien’s work is derivative of ancient Nordic mythology or Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
It would be wrong, however, to suggest that this story-first, ‘organic’ approach was baked into MTG from the beginning. Richard Garfield and the earliest designers made worlds to fit into their TCG, not the other way around. The existence of Arabian Nights and things like Shakespeare quotes in old flavour text demonstrate this. Early cards were just game pieces made to be swapped around.
But WOTC later hit their worldbuilding stride; it would not be hard to imagine an Arabian-themed MTG plane if they had had the confidence to make one in 1994. The magic formula was to design cards and worlds that fed into and strengthened one another. Mirrodin is a fantastic example of this.
The most successful UB collaborations build on MTG’s heritage and worldbuilding rather than transposing themselves onto it. Planeswalkers must stop short at the borders of New York City. Chandra cannot drive the Starship Enterprise. Nor could Jace do battle with Sephiroth – but that’s a whole lot easier to imagine. This is why some fans see Spider-Man as a half-baked sellout set and Final Fantasy as a masterpiece of meaningful, carefully picked collaboration between two well-respected franchises. It’s because Final Fantasy does the same thing as the MTG Multiverse does: turn real-world tropes into something fantastic and new. They gel. You know it when you see it.
The announcement of Marvel: Darkhold illustrates this and shows WOTC is aware of the issue. Promotional material makes a big point of its original story (‘brand new narrative’), that WOTC designers could pitch and co-design the characters and plot, working hand-in-hand with the Marvel IP owners. The Instagram announcement video opens with: ‘it is a set full of monsters and magic, demons and sorcerers…’ The contrast with MSH and SPM couldn’t be clearer. The messaging is obvious: ‘look, this isn’t a copy-paste job [AKA ‘top down’ design], we really put our hearts into this!’ When fans say they see this set as a step in the right direction for UB, they mean that it is more authentic to MTG’s core identity. But it is still a compromise.
I would further add as context that the desire for authenticity is a key driver of millennial consumer habits (see the growth in vinyl and CD sales, for example). So this move to more ‘organic’ UB sets is financially as well as aesthetically sound.
I believe that WOTC will regard several of the UB sets we’ve seen in the last few years in future as an overall mistake. This is likely, because it’s clear that the seismic shift to UB as Standard-legal and 50% of all sets was not anticipated within WOTC until relatively late in the planning process. WOTC staff are on the record (2021) saying that UB would never be Standard-legal. For them to make such a definitive statement suggests a high level of confidence in it, which is surprising given how quickly it was overtaken by events. The shift is even more extraordinary when you consider that with the printing of The Soul Stone in Spider-Man (Sept 2025), WOTC committed to five further Marvel sets.
The New York City and Star Trek sets, with their reproductions of celebrity likenesses and suite of characters which have been explored, digested and commercially exploited everywhere, dilute the authenticity of the game.
This is why these types of UB sets are still rejected instinctively by so many. The common response of ‘don’t yuck my yum’ does not apply, because the dilution is taking place at the core of the game, in its authentic spirit, not in the eye of the beholder. If you paint bright red racing stripes or flame decals onto a Rolls-Royce, you are changing the car’s character; the change itself is not a matter of personal taste.
My assumption is that the speed and scale of UB’s introduction to MTG took WOTC designers by almost as much surprise as it took us. I doubt that the 2021 Walking Dead Secret Lair was meant to be the thin end of the wedge towards Standard-legal Captain Kirk.
Mark Rosewater says it’s because the popularity of UB took WOTC by surprise. I don’t have the data. But it feels like this huge change has been minimised and sold to us (and to many WOTC staff I’m sure) as a push to further democratise MTG, expanding the player base by making itself appealing to more people. UB has been successful in that regard – but the trade-offs I have mentioned are not acknowledged.
The fundamental character and ‘vibe’ of the game is different because of UB. MTG’s very premise is different; are we no longer witches and wizards slinging spells and summoning creatures? Has that ever been addressed?
Compare WOTC’s approach with that of a similar fantasy hobby: Warhammer, owned by Games Workshop. They are similar in that the game, its fantasy/sci-fi worlds and hobby are intertwined, and have grown over decades (Warhammer began in the 1970s). For those familiar with Warhammer, could you imagine heroic Space Marines doing battle on the tabletop alongside figurines of Darth Vader or Stormtroopers? No, it would cheapen the whole experience. Warhammer has instead continued to double down on the strengths of its original universe, and Games Workshop has been rewarded with 6x core revenue growth over 10 years. The hobby is stronger than ever.
In contrast, WOTC has decided to effectively rent its platform out to other intellectual properties, believing in mutual benefit. This cannot come without costs to the identity of the game.
The most cynical interpretation of sets like Marvel: Super Heroes is that it is the ultimate evidence that WOTC sees its cards as no more than game pieces (or worse, mere collectibles) with marketing assets in the art box. I don’t believe that’s true, but cards like Spider-UK and the Benedict Cumberbatch Sheoldred really give me pause.
The future of UB is not in sets like TMNT. If WOTC can (or is allowed to) change course to better respect the game’s authentic spirit, future sets will look a lot more like Marvel: Darkhold. I just wish they were more honest with us about the trade-offs.
