For those who followed Magic: The Gathering in 2024, one trend prevailed more than any other: that of the “Hat Set.” This was a term coined by the community to describe sets that leaned too heavily on genre tropes. Murders at Karlov Manor, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and Duskmourn were the principal offenders.
These sets left a bad taste in many players’ mouths, and February’s Aetherdrift did little to address that. With Edge of Eternities, however, it turns out Wizards is making some big changes to how it handles tropes in MTG sets.
Crucial Changes To Tropes In MTG
These changes to how tropes are handled in MTG were announced yesterday, in an official mothership article by Ethan Fleischer. In it, Fleischer directly addresses the primary issue with last year’s “Hat Sets:” their overuse of allusions. While similar to tropes, which are part of every genre, allusions are more specific. Cards like Case of the Gateway Express, which is a clear Agatha Christie reference, fall into this category.
“At their best, these types of allusions act as a fun Easter egg as players experience a frisson of recognition when they decode the allusion. At their worst, they break players’ immersion in the fictional world of Magic: The Gathering.”
Ethan Fleischer
Looking back at the “Hat Sets” of 2024, the big problem most players had was the overuse of these allusions. All three of the sets mentioned above included some pretty egregious examples. Resilient Roadrunner and Cunning Coyote were Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote from Looney Tunes. Orphans of the Wheat was a particularly bad example, as a barely-concealed imitation of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn.
Fleischer acknowledges the problems with allusions like this, and also discusses how they now land differently in a world where half the sets each year are Universes Beyond.
“The introduction and rapid expansion of our Universes Beyond product line forced me to confront the distinction between tropes and allusions as I led the Edge of Eternities Vision Design team. Universes Beyond sets don’t merely allude to other stories, they adapt them directly into another medium. […] So, we made a rule for ourselves: no allusions to popular space opera media. And I believe that Edge of Eternities is all the better for it!”
Ethan Fleischer
This makes a lot of sense. With so many sets full of direct references, having them in regular Magic sets is much less necessary. Universes Beyond is an outlet that allows Magic to explore pop culture properly, without an annoying ‘copyright friendly’ glaze applied. Designers no longer need to cleverly wink at Spider-Man characters in their work: they can now use the actual Spider-Man.
With the new half-and-half core Magic/Universes Beyond system in place, regular sets like Edge of Eternities are now free to be their own thing, without leaning on well-known references as a crutch. Given how well players are responding to the worldbuilding in the set so far, the policy seems to be working already.
Obscured From View
This is excellent news for all the Vorthos’ out there. While Mark Rosewater has acknowledged that the abundance of tropes in MTG last year was a mistake, it’s great to see some actual changes enacted to address the problem. That said, Fleischer’s article does come with a caveat. Edge of Eternities doesn’t contain any allusions to popular sci-fi media.
“But, of course, it couldn’t hurt to make a few allusions to an unpopular series, right? Perhaps a reference to something foundational but since largely forgotten?”
Ethan Fleischer
Here, Fleischer brings up a crucial wrinkle in the discussion: some allusions are more obvious than others. The kind that players complain about, the ones that really stretch immersion, tend to be the obvious ones. The majority of players are going to pick up on the fact that Duskmourn’s Unsettling Twins is a reference to The Shining, for example.
When an allusion references a more obscure piece of media, however, it actually won’t register as an allusion at all for a lot of players. Take The Dominion Bracelet from Fleischer’s article, for example. This is a reference to a piece of mind control technology from E.E. Smith’s classic Lensman series. This isn’t a particularly well-known series, so many discussing Fleischer’s article on Reddit had no idea it was an allusion at all.
“I think this really highlights that allusions in and of themselves aren’t necessarily bad, it’s how you use them and how obvious they are.”
zeldafan042, via r/magicTCG
We’ve seen deep cuts like these in past sets, too. Krovod Haunch is a reference to the Roald Dahl short story Lamb to the Slaughter, for example, while Replicating Ring is an artifact from Norse mythology. Players don’t tend to take issue with obscure examples like this, since they’re not so obvious that they immediately pull you out of the setting.
If Wizards is sticking to allusions like this, in Edge of Eternities and beyond, I don’t expect we’ll be hearing more Hat Set complaints. Focusing on deep references like these feels like an ideal solution to the problems that plagued Magic: The Gathering last year.
A Positive Step Forward
Based on the early reaction, the MTG community is totally on board with these changes to how tropes are handled. The r/magicTCG thread discussing Fleischer’s article has amassed nearly 200 comments since yesterday. In a truly shocking twist, pretty much all of them are positive.
“Glad to see them discuss this and the nuances between paying homage to the tropes of a setting (inherently an aspect of all genre writing) and putting in nudge-nudge hey gettit it’s that thing references (an annoying crutch they started leaning VERY heavily on).”
Keatsta, via r/magicTCG
It’s rare to see such a consensus in the Magic community, but this is one of the rare times when everyone seems to be in agreement. Even those who enjoy some of the recent allusions acknowledge that things have gone too far. People definitely wanted change, and this seems like a good way to handle it. Many in the thread praised the specific approach Fleischer’s team took here.
“This guy gets it, and it makes me hopeful for Magic worldbuilding going forward. I was wary of EOE when it was announced but it’s been great so far, easily the best worldbuilding and immersion they’ve done in a long time.”
Nuzlocke_Comics, via r/magicTCG
While we haven’t had confirmation that this policy is being rolled out more generally for future Magic: The Gathering sets, I’d say chances are good. Players are responding very well so far, and if the sales data bears that out, then Wizards will undoubtedly respond in kind. Universes Beyond doesn’t seem to be going anywhere fast, either, and as TsarMikkjal put it on Reddit: “There is no space for hat sets now that half the sets instead of hats wear full cosplay.”
Universes Beyond, as an initiative, has generated a lot of controversy among players and inspired a lot of yearning for more classic Magic content. If the increase in these sets will allow core Magic worlds to stay more true to themselves, however, die-hard MTG players may be more inclined to look upon them kindly.
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