The Multiverse at a Crossroads
Magic: The Gathering has been going strong for over three decades, and in that time it’s managed to establish its own personal identity. They’ve built a reputation through intricate worldbuilding and mechanical innovation with a passionate player base. However, as an evolving commercial product of Wizards of the Coast, they’ve departed from their universe in favor of other IPs. While this is an interesting and fun twist, and pulls in much more revenue, it’s begun to take over the landscape of new sets.
Recently, Wizards of the Coast has been releasing a new style of sets called Universes Beyond, which are collaborative sets with other IPs. While many players do enjoy this and appreciate getting to see characters from other franchises, it takes the focus off of the in-universe sets Wizards puts out. Now with the upcoming release of the Teen Mutant Ninja Turtles set and the recent release of Lorwyn Eclipsed, some of these opinions have reached an all time high.
Many players enjoy the hand crafted world that Wizards has spent over three decades building. Making more and more sets that take place in other franchises takes the focus off of what Wizards has done and what players enjoy and shifts it to profit. Lorwyn Eclipsed was a lore-win for mtg fans as it’s one of the oldest planes in the games history and hasn’t seen a new set in so long. It’s one of the most-loved, traditional high-fantasy planes that MTG has to offer. After the set was initially released, there was a lot of discussion on how the future of MTG has to be dominated by Universes Beyond sets when the original “in-house” sets are better and are received as such as well.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the other hand as a pop-culture icon, has received praise but uncreative or lacking game mechanics make some players less emphatic. Not only that but it’s a departure from what most enjoy about Magic and its fantasy worlds.
The discourse surrounding these sets reveals more than simple product preference. It highlights generational divides and conflicting visions for Magic’s future. At its core, the debate asks: What should Magic: The Gathering be?
What Is Lorwyn Eclipsed?
Background on Lorwyn
I want to give a little bit of history on the Plane of Lorwyn, it was originally introduced into the game back in 2007 during the Lorwyn block. With its fairy-tale and high fantasy kind of aesthetic, it was a popular fan favorite location. It was also known for its tribal themes within the set itself, emphasizing the use of specific creature types like Faeries, Kithikin, Elves, Merfolk, and Goblins.
What Lorwyn Eclipsed Represents
Lorwyn is important for more than just being an interesting fantasy world. It represents a return to the traditional MTG worldbuilding. It also boasts heavy lore integration into both the story of the set itself and into the mechanics of the game. Story and lore is a heavy driver for many players of any given franchise. But with its emphasis on cohesive mechanics that mesh well with the story, game, and the expanded MTG multiverse, it’s no wonder why so many players relished a return to the days of old.
Community Sentiment
Being a returning older set, of course nostalgia of older players is a factor in overall player sentiment. A broad portion of the playerbase comes from an older time in magic’s history. (MTG Player Count by Year) So many of those players flocked to Lorwyn hype over universes beyond hype. Not only that but it also saw a return of in game mechanics geared towards tribal synergies. Some classic creature tribes saw new staples get printed while others received increased viability within MTGs formats. However, because this is a love letter to an older set, many players are skeptical whether or not sets like this will continue to see support or player excitement.
What effects did the establishment of Universes Beyond bring to MTG
Universes Beyond’s Impact on MTG as a whole
Universes Beyond being a collaborative series of products, it brings a lot of new players into the community through the different IPs used, which is never a bad thing. But it does bring up other issues. For one, how it started, it began as small secret lair drops that featured existing cards with custom arts & styles of other IPs. This was received really well by the community, as they essentially offered no competitive advantage or were relatively accessible.
The first Universes Beyond product was also a secret lair drop, so it remained accessible, but it contained 6 cards that were completely unique, both mechanically and aesthetically, being characters from The Walking Dead. This started the trend of entirely new cards, which was then expanded to full sets as well as specialized commander sets for those IPs as well.
This put universes beyond in the crosshairs of another hot button issue within the community, how the cards are being made for formats like Commander instead of traditional magic. While Commander is the more popular format, much of the player base, especially the veterans, still play formats like standard, modern, or limited.
- Previous examples include:
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- Warhammer 40k
- Fallout 4
- Dr. Who
- Spiderman
- Marvel Heroes
- Final Fantasy
So far, all of these sets have both a full set collaboration and prebuilt Commander decks.
The TMNT Collaboration
With the newest Universes Beyond right around the corner, I want to go over what all will be included and some of the cards & mechanics to keep an eye out for:
First off, the new main mechanic coming with TMNT is the sneak mechanic. While older players would recognize it as a watered-down version of ninjutsu, it operates as yet another way to sneak creatures out onto the battlefield during combat.
It’s worded “you may cast this spell for it’s sneak cost, if you do, also return an unblocked creature to your hand during the declare blockers step, if a creature was cast this way they enter tapped and attacking”
This operates slightly differently from ninjutsu, most importantly, a timing restriction only allowing you to cast it before damage goes through and also has you cast the spell for an alternate cost rather than activate an ability.
Secondly, there is a new artifact token, the mutagen token.
Now what are some interesting cards?
These are some new cards that I am personally looking forward to. Splinter’s technique is gonna be a great addition to many decks, letting you tutor for a card and possibly retrigger an enters the battlefield effect by returning a creature to your hand.
Donatello is going to be a fun combo piece for many decks, letting you move counters between creatures, which is always a powerful effect. Not only that, but he lets you animate artifacts, turning them into creatures and giving them the robot creature type.
Finally, Michaelangelo is actually an effective combo piece, having a two-card infinite combo with Deathrender. Since Michaelangelo goes back to your hand when he dies, you can constantly return him to the battlefield with the right setup.
Overall Conclusions
Overall, many are excited to see where both routes lead, while others are still concerned; the effects are yet to be seen. So we may as well enjoy the game anyway. I am personally excited for the release of the Teenage Mutant Ninja-Turtles set. New mechanics and cards are always a good thing to see. i hope to see both “in-house” and universes beyond sets in the future.
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