There’s no doubt that Marvel’s Spider-Man MTG set is a hugely exciting release for many players. The set might not seem obscenely powerful so far, but the flavor is undeniable. That said, the flavor isn’t to everyone’s tastes, as the cards do look distinctly Spider-Man.
For many players, this is usually a strong selling point of Universes Beyond sets, and players don’t have an alternative. For Marvel’s Spider-Man, however, MTG Arena is breaking this trend thanks to Through the Omenpaths. This unique parallel release contains entirely reskinned versions of the Marvel’s Spider-Man cards.
Today, at long last, we’ve finally been given our first look at Through the Omenpaths cards. Surprisingly, however, these reskinned reprints might be missing a major detail that makes things rather confusing.
Through the Omenpaths Spoilers
In the latest weekly MTG Arena Announcements post, Wizards of the Coast debuted the first Through the Omenpaths spoilers. As you can see above, these definitely look like Magic cards with gorgeous visuals from long-time artists. Both Adam Paquette and Vincent Proce have really knocked it out of the park here, and the rest of the set will likely follow suit.
So far, this is all as expected, as Magic: The Gathering has no shortage of fantastic art. That said, these reprints are missing something. Neither Kraza, the Swarm as One nor The Terminus of Return has a secondary title bar. Unless you’re clued in to all of the new Spider-Man spoilers, this makes these look like new, mechanically unique cards.
This is a very weird choice, as it breaks a longstanding trend in MTG that has been in place since 2020. In Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, Wizards introduced the first reskinned cards with the Godzilla Series cards. While technically new, each of these crossover cards featured a secondary title bar and an in-universe counterpart.
It might have taken three years for Zilortha, Strength Incarnate to be printed in-universe, but the precedent was nonetheless set. Since 2020, we’ve seen this treatment used time and time again, especially for Universes Beyond reprints. All of the Lord of the Rings Realms and Relics Box Toppers, for instance, were reskinned reprints with a secondary title bar.
For some strange reason, this has been dropped entirely for Through the Omenpaths. Technically, this has happened before with the Universes Within reprints for Universes Beyond Secret Lair drop cards. Notably, however, these cards had additional set information at the bottom, showing their Universes Beyond equivalent. This information is also lacking on the Through the Omenpaths cards.
The Consequences
Much like the cards in Marvel’s Spider-Man, this aesthetic-breaking departure is a lot to take in. Sure, they might look like Magic cards, but at the same time, they really aren’t what we’re used to. In theory, this seems like the kind of thing that’s going to cause a ton of confusion, but it may be short-lived.
Throughout spoiler season, there’s definitely going to be a lot of second-guessing and needed cross-referencing. If you don’t know every Spider-Man spoiler, these cards might look new, after all. With that in mind, it’s worth explicitly stating who these new Through the Omenpaths cards even are.
- Kraza, the Swarm as One is Spider Punk
- The Terminus of Return is The Soul Stone
Potentially, while MTG Arena won’t be getting any Spider-Man or Marvel MTG cards, this may be displayed on the client. Thanks to being a digital game, Arena can easily display more information after clicking or tapping on a card. This should allow Wizards to show cleanly that cards like Kraza are technically reprints; however, I wouldn’t count on this happening.
Since Through the Omenpaths cards are only available digitally, there’s no need for crossover that connects the two sets. MTG Arena players only need to know about Through the Omenpaths cards, and paper players need only care about the Spider-Man ones. In theory, this all sounds simple, and the lack of a secondary title bar or other information makes sense.
Sadly, this theory falls apart pretty quickly when you remember that formats like Standard and Pioneer exist across Arena and paper. This could potentially cause significant issues when it comes to reporting and importing deck lists from tournaments. Hopefully, there will be solutions to this problem, but it really doesn’t look great.
It Just Gets Worse
To make matters worse, these sets aren’t literally identical to one another. Despite being the in-universe equivalent of The Soul Stone, The Terminus of Return has a different type line. Rather than being an Infinity Stone, which are two different types, don’t forget, The Terminus of Return is a Terminus Stone.
In theory, this change shouldn’t actually matter too much in the grand scheme of MTG. Any cards that would reference the Infinity type can simply reference the Terminus type instead. The fact that this difference exists at all, however, is absolutely wild and seemingly nonsensical.
Sadly, as MTG players already suspect, this change is likely due to digital licensing issues and Marvel’s overbearing oversight. Even as two different types, Infinity and Stone scream Marvel so much that they may have forced the change. This could also be the reason why we don’t have the secondary title bar like traditionally reskinned reprints.
Even if they’re inconsequential in the long run, both of these changes are massive problems for MTG. While it’s no secret that IP holders have some control over Universes Beyond sets, this kind of meddling seems way too far. Personally, it really feels like Wizards is really stretching to make this one work, and it shows.
Right now, we can only hope that more information about these cards will be available within MTG Arena. Sadly, we’re just going to have to wait and see if that’s going to happen or not, as the set won’t be released until September 23rd.
A Confusing Week
In the meantime, it looks like we’ve got a very confusing week ahead. As Wizards of the Coast revealed previously, spoilers for Through the Omenpaths officially start tomorrow, September 2nd. This set’s spoiler season goes on until September 8th, when the full Card Image Gallery goes live.
Unfortunately, there’s a good amount of crossover between this spoiler season and the one for Marvel’s Spider-Man set. Thankfully, these spoilers do conclude slightly earlier, on September 4th, but it’s nonetheless going to make things awkward. Sadly, it seems we’re just going to have to have our wits about us this week.
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