12, Jan, 25

MTG Designer Predicts Best Performing Set of 2025

2025 is going to be a massive year for MTG, potentially the most profitable in the game’s 31-year lifespan. Wizards of the Coast may only be releasing seven major sets throughout the year, but there’s still a ton to look forward to. Kicking us off, we have Innistrad Remastered in just two weeks, and then a whole lot more beyond that.

For fans of Universes Beyond crossovers, this year should be even more exciting. There’s even a third unannounced Universes Beyond crossover happening later in the year, which remains under wraps for now. Even before we’ve seen any spoilers from these sets, it’s clear they’re all going to be tremendously successful.

If Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth has taught us anything, it’s that Universes Beyond sets really do sell. The only question going into 2025, then, is which one of these sets will sell the best? Given Marvel’s recent cultural dominance, Spider-Man might seem like the smart answer. If you ask MTG’s Head Designer, however, they might just surprise you.

Rosewater’s Response

Final Fantasy Sephiroth

To fill the spoiler-free void before Innistrad Remastered releases on the 24th of January, Tumblr user Tporter222 recently asked Mark Rosewater about their thoughts on the 2025 release calendar. Asking for his thoughts on what will be the “best-performing set of 2025,” Rosewater didn’t leave room for misinterpretation in their answer. Instead, Roseawter simply stated, “My prediction is Final Fantasy.”

If you know anything about Mark Rosewater, this may come as a surprise. For years Rosewater has been known as a die-hard Marvel fan who has routinely shared their hype for the upcoming Universes Beyond crossovers, so their prediction is rather surprising. It’s worth noting, however, that context is completely lacking from Rosewater’s answer and he’s not giving anything away for free.

Technically, we don’t have any official details about the size of 2025’s Universes Beyond sets just yet. It’s entirely possible that the Spider-Man release could be a micro-set, like Assassin’s Creed in 2024. Personally, this seems very unlikely, but countless behind-the-scenes factors could be swaying Rosewater’s answer.

Beyond whatever is going on behind the scenes, and what market research has potentially revealed, audience size will obviously play a factor. Spider-Man may be known and beloved globally, but that doesn’t automatically give them the edge. As a gaming franchise, Final Fantasy is more adjacent to MTG already, potentially allowing for easier fan conversion and higher sales as a result.

Ultimately, there’s no telling which way everything will go right now. Rosewater has his own opinion, but that doesn’t mean it’ll automatically be correct. We’ll just have to wait for the riveting Hasbro quarterly reports in 2025 to find out how well everything has sold.

Player Reaction

Final Fantasy Emet-Selch

In the Blogatog post’s comments, user Whith14 mentions that the art alone that has been shown by Wizards has been enough to encourage their friends to get back into Magic. Similarly, Reddit user Lahankof stated that their brother who doesn’t play Magic already wants a case of collector boosters from the new set.

It’s true that some enfranchised players don’t like Universes Beyond sets as a whole. Nonetheless, their ability to appeal to even the community outside of our beloved game is undeniable. As some players have mentioned, Final Fantasy in particular is known for having absurdly high levels of emotional attachment amongst the fan base.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Final Fantasy will do well. The question is, will it do better than Spider-Man?

Fierce Competition

Final Fantasy Lightning

It’s obviously a bit hard to know whether Spider-Man or Final Fantasy will be more successful without seeing more of the design of the cards. Regardless, Final Fantasy does have a number of things going for it.

First and foremost, Final Fantasy has a huge appeal on a global scale. As Moonbluesvoltage points out, there’s a huge overlap between Magic fans and fans of Japanese RPGs. Even if Marvel is more popular in the United States, Final Fantasy’s worldwide reach could play a major role in its performance.

On top of that, there’s a good chance a small subset of the population of Final Fantasy fanatics will be willing to spend a fortune collecting all that the set has to offer. General popularity matters, but if more high-spenders flock to Final Fantasy, the set may end up performing better than Spider-Man regardless.

Overall, whether you love Final Fantasy or Spider-Man, you’re in for a good time this year. It’ll be tough for these sets to manage to top Lord of the Rings, though it’s certainly a possibility.

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