The legality of Universes Beyond cards has always been a contentious topic. At first, the fact that cards from outside Magic’s multiverse could be played in Eternal formats was a lot to take in. Unsurprisingly, their step into Modern with The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth similarly drew a lot of flack. As if that wasn’t far enough, mechanically unique Universes Beyond cards will be Standard legal in 2025.
While we’ve come a long way since Universes Beyond was first envisioned, it’s not as hated as it once was. The Lord of the Rings set, in particular, was a turning point that seemed to get much of the community on board. Now, upcoming Universes Beyond sets and Secret Lair drops are widely celebrated rather than despised. That being said, these products aren’t immune to causing legality issues.
A Botched Bonus Card
Last week, Wizards of the Coast announced and revealed Secret Lair x Marvel’s Deadpool out of the blue. Celebrating April Fools’ Day, this surprise release was incredibly fitting for Marvel’s Merc with a Mouth. With comical art and a wild mechanically unique card, this drop took the MTG community by storm, but the fun didn’t stop there.
Thanks to remarkably fast shipping times, it wasn’t long before we started to see bonus cards from the Deadpool Secret Lair drop. At first, a newly revealed reprint of Harmless Offering appeared to be the guaranteed inclusion, thanks to its new art. Not long after, however, we saw a new reprint of Blacker Lotus, which took many by surprise.
First printed in Unglued, Blacker Lotus is a fantastically fitting bonus card for a Deadpool Secret Lair drop. Thanks to being physically destroyed when played, this card screams Deadpool, especially thanks to the new art. Believed to be the ultra-rare bonus card for this drop, this reprint is expected to be obscenely expensive.
As a flavor and monetary win, Blacker Lotus seems like a great bonus card. From a gameplay perspective, however, this card caused some concern. Unlike its original printing, this card reprint didn’t have a proper silver border. There wasn’t even the new Acorn security stamp to helpfully denote legality. Instead, as you can see above, the card essentially used a wood-grain border to play into the homemade aesthetic.
Technically, the scribbled-over Black Lotus in the art has been given a faux silver border, but that’s hardly the same thing. This quickly led to questions about the legality of Blacker Lotus and whether or not Wizards had quietly changed things. After all, in a world of Standard-legal gold borders and security stamps, there was nothing overtly saying this card wasn’t playable.
Needed Clarification
Thankfully, while this Blacker Lotus immediately raised eyebrows, it wasn’t long before we got an official answer. Shortly after the bonus card was revealed, concerns were taken to MTG’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, via Blogatog.
“Chronicpuppygirl: Been seeing a lot of discussion about this – can you confirm that blacker lotus is not legal because of the Deadpool SLD.
Mark Rosewater: It is still silver border/acorn. A new printing doesn’t change that.“
Via: Blogatog
While this clarification provided players with a concrete answer, it’s a problem that it was needed in the first place. As much as Secret Lair’s artistic freedom should be celebrated, all of the usual legality identifiers were ignored here. If nothing else, the Universes Beyond security stamp can be blamed for this snafu, following the move to the Acorn stamp.
Technically, Wizards of the Coast is in the process of solving this problem, for better or worse. When the Marvel’s Spider-Man MTG set releases later this year, on September 26th, the Universes Beyond stamp will be going away. In theory, this would leave room for the Acorn stamp on any Universes Beyond cards or reprints, but we’re not there yet.
Due to this, the correct decision may have been to give the Blacker Lotus reprint a clearer silver border. That said, hindsight is 20/20 on this issue, as Wizards clearly didn’t make it obvious enough. Even if the faux silver border signifier is there, it could easily be dismissed as just being a thematic part of the artwork.
We can only hope that Wizards of the Coast doesn’t repeat this mistake in the near future.
Don’t Play It
At the end of the day, MTG players really shouldn’t be playing with Blacker Lotus. Not only is this card not legal in any MTG format, but you have to destroy the card to use it. Considering that even Unglued copies of Blacker Lotus are worth $17, playing this card really isn’t smart.
Even if it’s not an ultra-rare bonus card, the new Blacker Lotus reprint is bound to be significantly more expensive. This makes playing it even more of a bad idea since you’re literally ripping up money. Since this specific bonus card is foil, ripping it up isn’t even going to be easy, adding extra insult to financial injury.
Ultimately, it’s clear that this new Blacker Lotus is just for collectors, which sort of negates any legality issues. Hopefully, outside of the brief storm on social media, this card shouldn’t actually cause any genuine problems. If someone does end up using this card, it’s certainly going to be a very costly mistake.
