Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast revealed 224 new MTG cards from Through the Omenpaths. While we’ve technically seen all these cards before during Marvel’s Spider-Man spoiler season, these new cards are nonetheless hugely exciting. Adorned with new art and mostly new names, Through the Omenpaths is our first true Universes Within set for MTG Arena.
While this set has come about through digital licensing issues, rather than player demand, there’s definitely been a strong reaction. As soon as the card image gallery for Through the Omenpaths was complete, MTG players couldn’t get enough of it. The set might not be perfect, but players are already clamoring for paper versions of these digital-exclusive MTG cards.
A Universal Overhaul
Despite all of the cards technically being old news, Through the Omenpaths cards are all over social media right now. Since we’ve seen all the mechanics before, we can firmly chalk this attention down to unabashed love for the art. This adoration isn’t at all surprising, as one quick look through the card image gallery reveals tons of awesome art.
Spread across seven plans, Through the Omenpaths feels like a true Core, or rather a Masters, set. Not to be mean to the aesthetics of Marvel’s Spider-Man, but each of these cards actually looks like an MTG card. Sure, they might have the digital MTG Arena card border, but cards like Imposter Syndrome look straight out of Duskmourn.
While there do appear to be some oddities at first glance, even cards like Chosen by Valgavoth make sense with a little extra thought. Cards like these help keep the set distanced from Spider-Man; however, that’s not always possible. Since the types on cards are mostly the same, Through the Omenpaths has an awful lot of Spider Heroes.
Even with new names, cards like Ademi of the Silkchutes and Borys, the Spider Rider are left feeling like clear references to Spider-Man. Thankfully, this problem doesn’t plague every legend, as cards like Flash Thompson, Spider-Fan, are completely transformed into Basil, Cabaretti Loudmouth.
Impressively, the vast majority of Through the Omenpaths cards have been translated especially well. It’s no wonder that MTG players have had such a positive reaction to these reskinned cards because of this. That said, while players are definitely loving the art, there seems to be some upset around the set’s digital exclusivity.
Shut Up and Take My Money
Across social media, each post highlighting a Through the Omenpaths card is surrounded by calls for reprints. Unsurprisingly, these calls are especially common on the more adorable cards like King of the Coldblood Curse. Almost immediately after this adorable villainous Lizard was posted online, elite4koga commented, “He’s so cute, how dare they deny me the paper version of this art.”
With comments like these all over Reddit, it’s safe to say that paper players feel like they’re missing out right now. Even if you are a Spider-Man fan, it’s hard to say that the Through the Omenpaths cards don’t look good. Some cards are already so beloved that players are trying to make them Magic’s new mascot.
Thankfully, there is good news for paper MTG players who can’t get enough of Through the Omenpaths cards. Responding to a question on Blogatog recently, MTG Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, revealed that Through the Omenpaths reprints are entirely possible. Notably, this is only really the case for individual cards, so don’t expect the whole set to come to paper.
According to Rosewater, a full paper reprint of Through the Omenpaths simply “won’t sell well.” This might seem silly given all the pleading for reprints online, but Reddit can be an echo chamber at times. Ultimately, Rosewater is the one with all the data, and he claims, “The audience that refuses to play with Universes Beyond cards is pretty low.”
Notably, it probably doesn’t help things that much of the anti-Universes Beyond audience seems very quick to proxy. Along with the calls for reprints, there are already tons of players stating their intention to proxy Through the Omenpaths cards. Right now, we can only hope that this interim solution won’t be needed forever, since reprinting individual cards is possible.
Stick the Landing
While there is a lot of love for Through the Omenpaths, the set’s spoiler season hasn’t exactly been perfect. In the card image gallery, there’s no way to see the equivalent Spider-Man card for each Through the Omenpaths card. This makes it needlessly difficult to peruse the card image gallery, as you can’t easily cross-reference with what you already know.
Thankfully, MTG players have come to the rescue here, creating a spreadsheet to compare the two sets. The fact that an unofficial resource like this is needed, however, is absolutely wild. We can only think that licencing issues prevent Wizards from doing this themselves, as it seems like an otherwise baffling omission.
Curiously, this omission only appears to be during spoiler season. Responding to a comment on Reddit, WotC_Jay revealed that MTG Arena has solved the card name problem. When importing or searching cards on Arena, you can use either the Spider-Man or Through the Omenpaths card name. While this should help deck creation, discussions around decklists may still be frustratingly messy.
Hopefully, this source of confusion will prove to be short-lived in the grand scheme of MTG. Right now, we really have to hope this will be the case, as we know we’re getting more Marvel and Through the Omenpaths sets in the future. When these future sets do roll around, we’ll also be hoping for slightly more distinct set symbols. Currently, the OM1 and OMB set symbols are virtually indistinguishable from one another.
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