Magic: The Gathering is really on a roll right now, all thanks to Universes Beyond. Sure, Edge of Eternities might be a refreshing and highly flavorful adventure, but Universes Beyond is on another level. This was made clear when the recent Final Fantasy MTG made $200,000,000 in a single day.
For reference, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth took six months to achieve this feat. While in-universe sets have also been doing well, especially recently, they don’t come anywhere near this close in terms of revenue. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that Wizards of the Coast is releasing three Universes Beyond sets each year going forward.
As much as this is good news for Wizards, MTG players haven’t exactly been overjoyed. Sure, Universes Beyond is successful, but it doesn’t exactly leave room for anything else. For the longest time, it looked like next year was only going to include three in-universe sets and three Universes Beyond. Now, however, Mark Rosewater has seemingly revealed more is in store.
The 7th Set Confirmed?
Earlier this month, we theorized that Wizards of the Coast had an extra set up their sleeves. Looking at the early release dates for 2025, everything appeared to have been bumped forward slightly. Rather than releasing in the usual February slot, Lorwyn Eclipsed has been pushed to January 23rd, 2026.
In the past few years, this release slot has been taken up by Remastered sets, which have now been seemingly shelved. To us, it felt like Wizards was making room for an extra, as-yet-unannounced set down the line. At the time, this prediction was simply exactly that; however, MTG’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, has seemingly just confirmed our suspicions.
“Lorwyn was delayed only because we slowed down the number of sets per year. It was 8 in line and we cut from 9 down to 7, so it became the first set of next year. It was never moved out of its #8 position.”
Mark Rosewater
Speaking on Blogatog, Rosewater recently responded to telomerase19, who asked what causes an MTG set to be delayed. In particular, it didn’t seem to make sense that Lorywn was delayed while Spider-Man remained in place. Considering Spider-Man grew from a small to a medium-sized set, it seems like it could have done with more time.
For better or worse, Rosewater revealed that Lorwyn Eclipsed wasn’t delayed because of any problems with the set. Instead, it was simply down to a shift in the release schedule that means less is being released each year. Rather than getting nine major sets or products, as we got in 2024, we only got seven this year.
While Rosewater’s statement isn’t totally crystal clear here, it seems this trend should continue. We’ve had nine major MTG releases for the past couple of years now, so it makes sense that seven would be the new normal. If this is the case, then we should be getting the hypothesized seventh set that we expected.
What Will It Be
Now that we pretty much know a seventh set is coming in 2026, it’s only a matter of time before it’ll be announced. Potentially, this might happen in late September at MagicCon: Atlanta, since that’s the next major MTG convention. While it would make sense for Wizards to reveal more about the 2026 calendar on this date, there’s no telling what’ll be revealed.
This mystery seventh set could be anything, from new Commander decks to even a new Un-set. Admittedly, the latter of these options is tremendously unlikely, but there are a few more sensible suggestions. If you ask us, the most likely candidates for a seventh set would be a Horizons or Masters set.
While both of these sets have the potential to sell like mad, it has been longer since we’ve had a true reprint-focused Masters set. As much as Remastered sets have filled this void somewhat, there are tons of needed reprints. In particular, there are loads of mechanically unique Universes Beyond Secret Lair cards that are now long overdue for a reprint.
Sadly, even if this is the sensible option, there’s no guarantee this set is in the pipeline. As controversial as they are, a new Horizons set may be too lucrative to ignore. Heck, the same is true of new Universes Beyond Commander decks, since they have been proven winners.
Ultimately, there’s literally no telling what Wizards has planned at the moment. As such, we’re just going to have to wait until late September to see what, if anything, gets revealed. Technically, even with Rosewater’s statement, there’s no guarantee this seventh set actually exists after all…
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