With the advent of Universes Beyond, the number of legendary creatures in Magic has been increasing rapidly year on year. Given how many IPs and iconic characters are being introduced this way, this isn’t exactly surprising. While most are already aware of this phenomenon, many players aren’t aware of the sheer extent of the recent MTG legendary creature imbalance. This past weekend, however, a social media discussion over the weekend opened many players’ eyes.
Magic’s Major Legendary Creature Imbalance
This discussion began with a post on X from MTG content creator and Commander Format Panel member Rachel Weeks, in which she pointed out the following:
“Doing research on Scryfall for a future episode and I realized:
There have been MORE new Legendary Creatures printed in 2026 than Non-Legendary Creatures.
I knew it was bad, but… damn.”
Rachel Weeks
Looking into the raw data on Scryfall, this worrying conclusion is correct. So far this year, 748 legendary creatures have been printed, and only 638 non-legendary creatures. This means 54% of the creatures printed this year are legendary, marking a sharp increase from 43% in 2025, and 27% in 2024. While we admittedly don’t have the full 2026 stats yet, the last set of the year will be Star Trek, which will likely have a disproportionately high legendary count.
It’s worth noting that over half of this year’s legendaries come from Marvel Super Heroes, across its main set and supplemental products. As one of the biggest sets of all time in terms of raw card quantity, with a heavy legendary focus, this could certainly be skewing things. That said, with four more potential Marvel sets on the horizon in the years to come, it may not be a meaningful exception after all.
In any case, many players aren’t too happy about this massive influx of legendaries into the game, and they used Weeks’ post as a jumping-off point for discussion. For the most part, the criticisms here were directed at how this shift has affected Limited and constructed Magic.
The issue of legendaries being awkward to draw in multiples comes into play in these formats, especially Limited, where you have no control over the contents of your pool. While we’ve seen attempts to address this issue recently, with cards like
Key to the Side-Door
Key to the Side-Door
{2}, {T}: Target creature can't be blocked this turn.
{1}, {T}, Discard a legendary card with the same name as a legendary permanent you control: Draw two cards.
and
Solitary Cell
Solitary Cell
When this artifact enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls with mana value 3 or less until this artifact leaves the battlefield.
{1}, {T}, Discard a legendary card: Draw a card.
, it’s still a significant gameplay problem.
Flavor-wise, this new abundance of legendary creatures isn’t ideal, either. As several players noted in the thread, Magic as a game system wasn’t designed to support such a high density of legendaries. This means the game, as it is, meshes awkwardly with IPs featuring so many named characters. The massive influx also dilutes the overall ‘feeling’ goals of legendary as a supertype.
No End in Sight
The elephant in the room for this discussion is, of course, Commander. As some players pointed out, more legends is a double-win for the format. It not only expands the range of possible Commanders, increasing deck diversity, but the format’s singleton nature also removes the type’s awkward downside. Decks built around
Clone
Clone
You may have this creature enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield.
effects can run into it sometimes, but cards like
Spark Double
Spark Double
You may have this creature enter as a copy of a creature or planeswalker you control, except it enters with an additional +1/+1 counter on it if it's a creature, it enters with an additional loyalty counter on it if it's a planeswalker, and it isn't legendary.
and
Hall of Echoes
Hall of Echoes
{T}: Add {C}.
{5}: This land becomes a copy of target creature you control until end of turn. The "legend rule" doesn't apply to permanents you control this turn.
get around that.
Given that Commander is now the biggest MTG format by far, this new legendary creature imbalance is actually an upside for a lot of players. Since Wizards has shown its commitment to the format many times over by now, it’s likely by design and a core part of how the game works in the Universes Beyond era.
That’s not to say that Wizards hasn’t taken players’ concerns on board, of course. Mark Rosewater has said multiple times that he’d remove the legend rule if he could, due to the awkward gameplay scenarios it can create. We’ve also seen experiments with non-legendary versions of named characters in Universes Beyond sets, like
Selfless Police Captain
Selfless Police Captain
This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it.
When this creature leaves the battlefield, put its +1/+1 counters on target creature you control.
(George Stacy) and
Beifong’s Bounty Hunters
Beifong’s Bounty Hunters
Whenever a nonland creature you control dies, earthbend X, where X is that creature's power. (Target land you control becomes a 0/0 creature with haste that's still a land. Put X +1/+1 counters on it. When it dies or is exiled, return it to the battlefield tapped.)
(Xin Fu and Master Yu). This lets these sets include more characters without upping the overall legend count.
Ultimately, while Magic is an ever-evolving game, I believe this new legendary imbalance is a feature, not a temporary bug. While players have voiced very valid concerns, on this thread and many others, about the abundance of legendaries, the game has continued to grow from strength to strength. Constructed and Commander are both doing well overall, and most players are having a great time in their formats of choice. Aside from a string of dubious Limited formats, the game is in fantastic shape overall.
This means we’ll likely continue to see the percentage of legendary creatures in Magic increase even further in the years to come. With at least three Universes Beyond sets a year from here on out, not to mention supplemental products, that 54% could look downright modest before long.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!