A lot of MTG players seem to have a love-hate relationship with Universes Beyond. Sets like The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth and Final Fantasy are widely praised best sellers, but the product line isn’t faultless. New Universes Beyond Secret Lair drops, such as Furby and The Office, have still managed to be jarring and controversial.
Sadly, these new Universes Beyond Secret Lairs weren’t the only things raising eyebrows at MagicCon: Atlanta. During the main Preview Panel, Wizards unveiled almost every set on the 2026 MTG release calendar. While this news was expected, what was revealed still managed to take a lot of players by surprise.
In 2026, we’re going to be getting four Standard-legal Universes Beyond sets. With only three in-universe sets filling out the rest of the calendar, it seems there’s been a shift in Wizards’ priorities. The future may not be guaranteed to continue this way, but MTG players are still seriously miffed at the moment.
Four Against Three
So far, we only know three of the four Universes Beyond sets that are releasing next year. Even before this final set is confirmed on October 10th, MTG players aren’t happy about the 2026 set distribution. Having more Universes Beyond than in-universe sets doesn’t sit right for some, as it seems like the game’s core is being eroded. Due to this, several MTG players have taken to Blogatog, bringing questions and complaints to Mark Rosewater, Magic’s head designer.
Unsurprisingly, after some players commented that Magic is “taking a back seat to crossover stuff,” Rosewater attempted to set the record straight. On Blogatog, Rosewater stated that “in-Multiverse Magic is getting more attention from us than ever.” Pointing toward the upcoming book, the Netflix series, the planned movie with Legendary, the comics, and more, there’s certainly a lot going on.
While this is all very exciting, it’s worth remembering that none of this is out yet, and getting overly hyped could easily lead to disappointment. Sure, League of Legends got a fantastic show with Arcane, and the Castlevania show is incredible too, but that doesn’t guarantee MTG’s success. Similarly, movies based on games are far from a sure thing, as their quality varies dramatically.
Beyond the unknown quality and release date of most of these projects, there’s one major problem with all of them. None of these future plans is actually Magic: The Gathering. Sure, they’re all about the franchise, but none of them are physical cards that you can collect, trade, and play with. Due to this, Rosewater’s response didn’t seem to appease the disgruntled masses.
Perturbed Players
Responding to Rosewater’s response, it was clear that many Magic: The Gathering players wanted cards, not surrounding media. After all, that’s what MTG is built upon, and is what people have been enjoying for 32 years. As much as expanded media can be interesting, it’s the in-universe cards that are effectively going away.
As if in-universe cards becoming less common wasn’t bad enough, it’s troubling that Universes Beyond cards are everywhere. Of course, it’s a good thing that Universes Beyond fans can use their new cards, but they’re far from faultless. So far, Tales of Middle-earth and Final Fantasy have both introduced cards needing bans, while Spider Man swings in the opposite direction.
Even ignoring the flavor disconnect of these cards, the bans, scalping, and existence of Pick Two all show Universes Beyond’s problems. Now, thanks to the 2026 release calendar, these sets look like the focus, rather than an extra fun side product. Universes Beyond even appears to be pushing out once beloved, and highly successful, products, too.
When we first heard that we might be getting a seventh MTG set in 2026, there were a lot of fun possibilities. A Masters set, a Horizons set, or even a Conspiracy set were all theoretically options. Now, it seems like we’ll only be getting Universes Beyond and in-Universe Standard sets going forward.
According to Rosewater, Masters sets, and presumably also Remastered sets, are now retired. This has led to some rather apt memes on the topic, which lay the community’s frustrations bare. While there is a desire to reduce the number of products being released, Wizards hasn’t really cut anything. Instead, the usual slot for a Remastered set has been replaced with another Universes Beyond release.
What Players Actually Want
Given all the buzz on Reddit, it would be very easy to say that MTG players want more in-universe sets. If there are seven slots for sets each year, it seems players want at least four to be in-universe. While this does sound sensible, the ‘it seems’ is admittedly doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
As much as opinions around Universes Beyond are pretty negative on Reddit, these players don’t speak for everyone. MTG has millions of players worldwide who aren’t represented by online opinions whatsoever. Ultimately, this silent majority of players is the one Wizards of the Coast will listen to when making decisions.
With this audience in mind, it’s clear that more Universes Beyond is the answer. Both The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth and Final Fantasy smashed sales records and are insanely popular. While the jury is still out on Spider Man, there’s already growing hype for Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Outside of these sets, we’ve seen time and time again that Universes Beyond Secret Lair drops sell exceptionally well. Clearly, these products perform, and while scalpers are a problem, they’re surely not making every single sale. Instead, there are a lot of MTG players who quietly love these products and are happy with MTG’s current direction.
At the end of the day, for better or worse, Wizards of the Coast is a business. Due to this, Magic: The Gathering will always follow the money, and right now that’s in Universes Beyond. So long as players are buying, Wizards will keep catering to this audience. That said, the future isn’t set in stone, and we’re still in the early days of Universes Beyond.
The Future Is Unknown
As much as Universes Beyond sets do sell extremely well, we’ve only had four full sets so far. Out of these, two have been smash hit successes, while the other two are comparative flops. Early data for Spider Man really isn’t promising, and the Assassin’s Creed set went down like a lead balloon.
Admittedly, these failures surely still made a bunch of money, even though they were hamstrung as smaller sets. Still, it proves that Universes Beyond isn’t an automatic money printer. Should new Universes Beyond sets underperform as time goes on, Wizards may end up changing their attitude.
Ultimately, we can only wait and see whether or not that is going to happen. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend holding your breath, especially since any changes will happen in years, not months. Even if today’s controversy made Wizards change direction, it’d be two to three years before that actually takes effect.
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