One of the most significant announcements to come out of MagicCon: Las Vegas was the reveal that Universes Beyond sets would now be Standard legal. Previously, these sets have been geared toward Commander or Modern, so this is a colossal change. Understandably, a change of this magnitude was rather scary to many MTG players.
Despite change being scary, this move by Wizards should ensure that Universes Beyond sets are more consistent and approachable. In the grand scheme of MTG, this seems like a positive decision, especially since Universes Beyond sets are great at enticing new players.
Even if the change makes sense on paper, many MTG players have still been angered by this decision. A couple of years ago, Wizards plainly stated that Universes Beyond sets would never be Standard-legal, a stance which has obviously changed. Alongside many players feeling deceived by this change, there are now those calling into question the timing of this decision.
Given the length of time MTG sets take to make, it seems upcoming Universes Beyond sets could have been affected by Wizards’ change of mind. Once again, this is a concerning thought, however, the reality of the situation is far from a worst-case scenario.
Unique Timing
According to Head MTG Designer, Mark Rosewater, the 2025 suite of Universes Beyond sets was originally intended to not be Standard legal. Instead, this change was pushed upon the sets during their design process. Immediately this may make you concerned about potential balance issues, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
“We knew from the point that the set had to enter play design which is much farther along than the start of design. It’s when the power level gets set.”
Mark Rosewater
From Rosewater’s response on Blogatog, it seems that changes to Universes Beyond legality came into effect at just the right time. While the vision design process had already been completed, the power level of cards and mechanics was still in flux. Hopefully, it wouldn’t have been the biggest transformation to change what was once Modern or Commander cards into Standard viable ones.
Obviously, having to make this change, even during the play design process, isn’t ideal for Wizards of the Coast. Looking at the timeline of events, however, it makes sense why this happened. As Reddit user AliasB0T points out, this change was likely made following the success of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.
While we’re not privy to the exact development timeline of every set, it’s believed Magic sets spend roughly two years being developed. Understandably, Universes Beyond sets will take longer to create since they’re developed alongside the franchise’s owner. Should this mean a three-year development cycle for Universes Beyond sets, then all the pieces fall into place.
When Tales of Middle-earth launched in June of 2023, the Final Fantasy and Spider-Man Universes Beyond sets would have all been planned and in vision design. Once Wizards saw how successful this set was, the change to legality was likely implemented rather quickly. This would have given play design teams as much time as possible to create cards at the correct power level.
Power and Blend
Obviously, while the play design team is a talented bunch, this is a major change to contend with. Turning cards intended for Modern or Commander into Standard-legal cards is not exactly a simple feat. As such, hopefully, Wizards has paid even greater attention to balancing these sets than usual. We don’t want another Nadu, Winged Wisdom slipping through the cracks, after a
While tuning cards to the appropriate power should be doable, there may still be unintended consequences from this major development change. There’s a non-zero chance, for instance, that Final Fantasy and Spider-Man cards will be more complex than traditional Standard cards. This would be a remnant of their original Modern or Commander design philosophy which is much harder to remove.
Furthermore, there’s a good chance there’s less mechanical overlap between these two sets and the rest of the premier sets in Standard. It’s common for Standard sets to feature some mechanical synergies with each other. Unfortunately, with Final Fantasy and Spider-Man cards already in the play design stage, it’s tough to retroactively make these synergies more of a focal point.
So, while Mark Rosewater’s response is relatively minor news, it does provide some insight into the creation process for these two sets. Hopefully, Final Fantasy and Spider-Man are well-integrated with no blatant power issues. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see.
