Whether you love it or hate it, Universes Beyond is here to stay. Thankfully, over recent years, the sentiment around this product line has trended toward positive. If recent sets like Final Fantasy and Tales of Middle-earth are anything to go by, MTG players can’t get enough of Universes Beyond.
In 2024, Wizards of the Coast announced a change that pushed things to the extreme. Not only were Universes Beyond sets becoming Standard legal, but we were getting three of them in 2025. So far, this has all been going well, and this year has proven to be one of the more memorable in Magic’s history.
While things are off to a good start, the future following this change has largely been a mystery. Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast has now provided some much-needed clarification about what to expect going forward. It’s hardly a surprise at this point, but Universes Beyond is definitely here to stay.
The 50/50 Split Continues
Since Wizards of the Coast announced the 2025 set lineup, many MTG players expected this to be the new normal. It’s not every year that Wizards radically overhauls the set release schedule, after all. With this in mind, it seemed we’d be getting six Standard-legal sets each year for a few years, at least.
Now, this speculation has been officially confirmed by none other than MTG’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater. Responding to a question about the cadence of Universes Beyond sets going forward on Blogatog, Rosewater gave a straightforward answer. “The plan for the near future is half and half.”
For starters, this means we’re going to get three Universes Beyond sets in 2026, alongside the trio of in-universe sets. If you ask us, Wizards may also be planning a secret seventh release, but that hasn’t been officially confirmed yet. Following this, we should also be getting a 3/3 in-universe and Universes Beyond split in 2027.
After that, we’re starting to stray away from the “near future” that Rosewater mentioned. Typically, Universes Beyond sets will spend around three years in development, so after 2027, the future is less clear. Potentially, this could allow Wizards to replace a Universes Beyond set with a Horizons set or Masters set.
The Cream of the Crop
Whatever the plan is in the far future, for now, we’re getting a lot more Universes Beyond. As mentioned, this isn’t really a surprise, especially given how well these sets sell. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth quickly broke records, which Final Fantasy later smashed into oblivion. From Wizards’ perspective, Universes Beyond just prints money, even with licensing costs included.
One important factor to note, however, is that Universes Beyond is a finite resource, as asker Samjames8520 noted. Well, good Universes Beyond crossovers are, at least. As Wizards of the Coast has noted previously, a lot of crossovers simply won’t work for one reason or another.
Even with that in mind, it seems that at least six unknown Universes Beyond crossovers are already set in stone. While we’re a long way from having these officially announced or confirmed, we can already expect good things from them. After all, there is no end to compelling suggestions for compatible books, films, TV shows, and games.
So long as Wizards can get the rights figured out, Universes Beyond could easily be a mainstay in Magic’s future. As Televangelist2 comments, “it’s very easy to imagine 15 successful years of UB.”
Notably, if Universes Beyond sets do continue at a high volume for many years, not every release will be for everyone. L-una-c, for instance, remarked how “Eventually we’ll get a full Bluey set.” While this might not sound great for everyone, there are bound to be MTG players and Bluey fans who would be rabid for this.
Finding the Right Balance
For better or worse, Magic: The Gathering is still figuring things out at the moment. Universes Beyond is working wonders, of course, but there’s still a lot that goes around that. As alluded to previously, figuring out space in the calendar for additional sets appears to be a work in progress.
On top of that, Wizards is also struggling to find the right balance of legendary creatures right now. Universes Beyond sets have tons of these, thanks to having tons of iconic characters who deserve cards. Since MTG players were previously complaining about the overabundance of legendary creatures, they’ve been toned down for in-universe sets.
Now, this reduction in legendary creatures is causing its own complaints, which have made their way to Blogatog. For better or worse, Edge of Eternities has significantly fewer legendary creatures than normal, which arguably leaves things feeling hollow. That said, the Blogatog post’s comments don’t appear too miffed about the sharp reduction between recent sets.
Ultimately, this smaller detail is still being worked out and will likely change on a set-by-set basis. On a larger, likely year-by-year scale, the same is also happening to Universes Beyond, so things can still change. Over the next few years, we’re bound to see continued shifts in the MTG release calendar until Wizards really nails the balance.
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