After what turned out to be a surprisingly busy year, the final MTG set of 2026 has now been released. All in all, this has been a pretty fantastic year for MTG players and Wizards alike, with multiple standout sets.
Of course, now the question is: which of the nine MTG sets released throughout 2026 was the best, and which was the worst? With everything released, we’ve got our take on the answer.
From The Zeta Set to Mystery Booster Commander Edition, and all the premier sets in between, here are all the 2026 MTG sets, ranked.
9 | The Zeta Set
Technically, The Zeta Set is more of a Secret Lair drop rather than a full Magic: The Gathering release. Like Mystery Booster Commander Edition, this set isn’t getting a proper retail release, and it’s not even draftable.
Despite this, Wizards of the Coast made ignoring this set rather difficult, since this Secret Lair release had rarities. Bafflingly, this decision meant a few cards were printed as commons for the first time, including
Baleful Strix
Baleful Strix
Flying, deathtouch
When this creature enters, draw a card.
.
This decision immediately caused a major kerfuffle as the Pauper legality of these cards was thrown into question. After some back and forth, it was deemed that the new commons would in fact be Pauper legal, after some bans.
Thanks to this, The Zeta Set effectively became enshrined as a real MTG set in 2026, and it’s clearly the worst from this year. Even if we ignore the controversy around its legality, selling seven-card packs for $19.92 apiece is insane.
To make things worse, the actual sale for The Zeta Set was a total disaster, as demand was so high the queue outright broke. Even once it was fixed, the sale was so fast that tons of MTG players were left disappointed.
Admittedly, while it’s really not great, The Zeta Set isn’t entirely bad news, as the art evoking the playtest Gamma set was fantastic. On top of this, Wizards has also committed to bringing The Zeta Set back for a print-to-demand sale, which is a very welcome turnaround.
Even with these slight saving graces, however, The Zeta Set is just not a good MTG release. Hopefully, if Wizards ever does something similar in the future, they learn from the mistakes made here.
8 | Star Trek
Considering Star Trek has only just been released, calling it the second worst MTG set of 2026 feels rather harsh. While the placement on this list really doesn’t look good, this isn’t a bad MTG set by any means.
Instead of being outright bad, the Star Trek MTG set is just a bit meh, really. Unlike a lot of the sets released this year, there aren’t a ton of insane bombs, and overall, the hype for the set feels lower.
Even looking at pre-sale prices, many potentially useful Star Trek cards felt surprisingly underpriced. As if this wasn’t unusual enough, the set’s precons have also had basically no impact on the secondary MTG market, which is practically unheard of.
While these aren’t concrete metrics that perfectly translate to sales numbers, it does seem like this set is underperforming. With plenty of tough competition this year, that alone could land Star Trek at the bottom of this list, but it does have one fatal flaw.
In the eyes of many MTG players, the Star Trek set was released far too close to Reality Fracture. As we’ll get to later, Reality Fracture was an all-around fantastic set, and players couldn’t get enough of it.
After just six weeks, however, this set has already been pushed out of the spotlight, leaving tons of players disappointed. Realistically, this is more Wizards’ fault, rather than the set itself, but it’s nonetheless a black mark against it.
Should the Star Trek set have been released a few weeks from now, there’s a good chance reactions would have been much more positive. As it stands, however, this set has been left feeling like a dud, but it’s far from the worst set in history.
7 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
As a small set, it’s not surprising that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was somewhat forgettable. Like Star Trek, this MTG set wasn’t outright bad, but in a year as busy as 2026, not everything can keep up.
On top of being a small set, the art direction of TMNT certainly didn’t help its appeal in the eyes of many fans. The abundance of pizza-themed artwork, and even having MTG depicted on a card, felt like a step too far.
While Universes Beyond can get away with a lot, this art and the overall video game-ness almost felt like an Un-set. The problems didn’t end there, however, as the limited experience was also rather dire, with huge color balance problems.
Outside of these admittedly rather glaring issues, however, the TMNT MTG set was pretty solid. There was a good suite of new staples and plenty of solid Commanders to build around too.
This set also had the Turtle Team-Up box, which was a rare co-op treat that supplemented the lone precon. With all these parts together, it’s hard to say the TMNT set was that bad, but it’s certainly not the best.
6 | The Hobbit
Like TMNT, The Hobbit MTG set was another small set, which immediately put it on the back foot. Between the pick-two limited format and simply having less material, these sets aren’t ideal, and there’s good reason why they’ve been retired.
Despite facing this uphill battle, The Hobbit still proved to be a very enjoyable MTG set. Even though it lacked precons, it still had tons of insane new cards, many of which didn’t hesitate to break out competitively.
The Hobbit did have one major downside, however: its Limited format. With the format absurdly unbalanced towards Rakdos and Golgari, it’s no exaggeration to say that The Hobbit was one of the worst Limited experiences in the past decade. Even TMNT looks great in comparison, which is really saying something.
Limited aside, while it was pushed out of the spotlight rather quickly, The Hobbit was a very enjoyable set while it lasted. The flavor was solid, the reprints were a nice touch, and technically, this set isn’t even done yet.
In 2027, The Hobbit will return with the Battle of the Five Armies Co-Op Kit, which sounds properly exciting. With new cards, including the highly anticipated return of Battles, this extra release could even bump it up the ranking.
5 | Marvel Super Heroes
While Wizards is unlikely to admit they play favorites, Marvel Super Heroes definitely feels like the big Universes Beyond set of 2026. With four precons, two scene boxes, a Jumpstart set, welcome decks, and, supposedly, a holiday release, Wizards really went all out.
Beyond just having an inordinate amount of content, the Marvel Super Heroes set contained tons of fantastic cards. Some cards, in fact, were so strong that they had to be banned to prevent them from warping multiple formats.
Thankfully, not every MTG card in Marvel Super Heroes was nearly this powerful, as many had a more appropriate competitive impact. This has given the set an enduring impact, keeping it in players’ hearts and minds.
As with The Hobbit, there’s a chance that this set’s rumored holiday release will only make things better, too. Supposedly launching on December 4th, if leaks are to be believed, we’re getting another Marvel precon, this time Spider-Man-themed, which would be a treat.
4 | Lorwyn Eclipsed
With every Universes Beyond set from 2026 in the back half of this list, it does look like we’ve joined the hate bandwagon a bit. In reality, though, 2026 has just been an absolutely stacked year for Magic Multiverse releases.
If anything, the fact that Lorwyn Eclipsed is our lowest-ranked Magic Multiverse set speaks volumes about how good 2026 is. MTG players had been waiting almost two decades for this set, and Wizards absolutely delivered.
For starters, Lorwyn Eclipsed had absolutely incredible flavor. The theming of the world, and how Wizards developed it through the story, is truly a standout. We even got blessed with Squen and Cragg, who have instantly become beloved by the community.
While flavor this good would already make Lorwyn Eclipsed a standout set, it delivered on the cards and mechanics front, too. By bringing back classic elements like -1/-1 counters and typal themes, this set was a real blast from the past.
Beyond nostalgia, many Lorwyn Eclipsed cards have become multiformat competitive staples. With plenty of stellar Commanders, Lorwyn Eclipsed is an absolutely incredible Magic: The Gathering set.
3 | Secrets of Strixhaven
It feels criminal that Secrets of Strixhaven is only our third-best set of 2026 in this ranking. It’s not even like this is a mistake, either, as 2026 just had that many insanely good sets.
In any other year, Secrets of Strixhaven could have easily claimed the top spot with how much it had going for it. Once again, the story was absolutely on point here, especially since Wizards even released a full novel for the first time in ages.
As much as the story and worldbuilding for Secrets of Strixhaven was standout, this set’s mechanics are what truly delivered. Through Prepared spells, Wizards brought back some of Magic’s greatest hits and made some truly standout cards while doing so.
On top of having plenty of incredibly competitive cards, this MTG set also had an insane suite of Commanders. Both in the main set and from each of the five precons, Wizards gave players tons of fantastic options to build around.
To top it off, Wizards also brought back the Mystical Archive for this set, which was a true delight. Offering plenty of gorgeous art, not to mention fantastic value, this set really had it all.
Through all of this combined, Secrets of Strixhaven is an insanely enjoyable set overall that’s had a tremendous lasting impact. There’s little question that it’s easily one of the best sets of the year, but it’s not quite our favorite.
2 | Reality Fracture
Reality Fracture is one of the best Magic: The Gathering sets of all time. The fact that we only got to truly experience this set’s limited environment for six weeks before Star Trek rocked up is a crying shame.
As with the other Magic Multiverse sets from 2026, Reality Fracture absolutely delivered on the flavor front. Through the set’s multiverse-bending theme, we got no end of fantastic callbacks and nostalgic moments.
Thankfully, Reality Fracture wasn’t just a jumble of references to past sets, as the storytelling was also on point. If anything, the only shame is that the Echoverse appears to be a one-and-done affair, as there was tons to explore there.
Through all of this fantastic flavor, Reality Fracture was more than deserving of being an arc-ending capstone set. Of course, the ending of this set’s story with Jace’s death makes it that much more impactful, keeping it in players’ minds.
Outside of the story, Reality Fracture has had no trouble staying in MTG players’ decks, too. This set contains tons of insanely powerful cards and has made a huge impact on multiple metagames.
For Commander players, the set was also a real gem, even though it only had one precon. Thanks to Multiverse Reforged’s unique Polymorph theme, there were tons of hidden build-around options, giving it an enduring appeal.
All in all, it’s hard to beat Reality Fracture, as it’s a truly legendary MTG set. Over time, this set is bound to go down in Magic’s history books. Despite this, it’s not quite our top pick for 2026.
1 | Mystery Booster Commander Edition
While it only contains 60 new-to-Commander cards, Mystery Booster Commander Edition is our top pick when ranking every MTG set from 2026. Considering how quickly this set sold out the first time around, this may feel rather surprising, but it’s undoubtedly deserving of the title.
In Mystery Booster Commander Edition, each new Commander feels like a real love letter to fans. Even without any official lore or story chapters, the actual mechanics more than make up for this shortfall.
Between the 60 new cards, we got so many varied, unique Commanders that support underloved archetypes and create new ones. Many of these are fantastic deep cuts, too, harkening back to classic cards from throughout the ages.
Within the set, Rulebreaker cards are the icing on the cake that really seals the deal. Not only are these fantastic cards to build around, but they solve a major problem in Commander.
If anything, the only shame with this MTG set is that it’s annoyingly hard to get ahold of. Even this problem, however, will be slowly solved throughout 2027 as more Festival in a Box drops are released.
All in all, while Mystery Booster Commander Edition is our top pick, we’re splitting hairs at the top here. Depending on personal preference, any of the Magic Multiverse sets could easily claim the best set crown.
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