Right now, Magic is changing faster than it ever has before. We’re barreling into an era of five-year core sets, yearly Standard rotations, and a huge number of Standard-legal Universes Beyond sets. All of this is big for players, but the Universes Beyond elements in particular have ignited a lot of controversy. At such a critical time, Magic’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, has brought up another thorny issue. Despite promises to the contrary, Universes Beyond cards from Secret Lairs will not necessarily be getting MTG Universes Within versions going forward per new changes. Suffice to say, players aren’t particularly happy about this.
Promises Made
Before we get into what’s been said today, we need to look back at what was said before. When Secret Lair was still in its infancy, and mechanically unique cards were just starting to get printed there, Wizards made a promise regarding reprints of those cards.
“For the next Universes Beyond Secret Lair, we plan to: Create and print versions of the mechanically unique Secret Lair Universes Beyond cards that are set in Magic‘s Multiverse approximately six months (the exact time may vary) after their release in Secret Lair.”
Wizards of the Coast, June 2021
This policy made a lot of sense. Keeping unique designs gated behind limited-time Secret Lairs is clearly a bad move, even on a print-to-demand model. Printing in-universe versions also addressed the immersion issue many had with Universes Beyond. Now players could enjoy the new designs without engaging with non-Magic IPs if they didn’t want to.
For a while, this system worked well. We saw Universes Within versions of the Walking Dead, Street Fighter, and Stranger Things Secret Lairs. While these were The List reprints, and therefore not hugely accessible, they did still serve their purpose well. Many ended up a lot cheaper than the original Lair cards, too, which was a nice bonus.
To be clear, this policy only extended to Universes Beyond cards from Secret Lairs. This much was clear from the start, and Mark Rosewater reaffirmed it on Blogatog the following year.
“The only Universes Beyond cards we’ve promised to make in-universe versions of is Secret Lairs.”
Mark Rosewater, August 2022
While fully in-universe versions of everything in Warhammer and Lord of the Rings would be great, the logistics of such an initiative would be tricky, to say the least. Reprinting a handful of cards is very different from reprinting an entire set, after all. With that in mind, Universes Within reprints of just the Secret Lair cards seemed like a fair compromise.
So that’s where we left things off. Today, however, Mark Rosewater has released a new statement that contradicts crucial details of this policy.
An Uncertain Future
“Much has changed since we made our initial plan on how to get mechanically unique cards from Secret Lairs into players’ hands who didn’t purchase the Secret Lair drop. In the article we published, it said they’ll appear in The List in set boosters, both things that don’t exist any more.”
Mark Rosewater, November 2024
Before we discuss the Universes Within changes Rosewater is discussing for MTG going forward, it’s important to note that the above statement is totally true. With The List gone, the outlet Wizards was relying on to distribute these reprints is also gone.
This, naturally, demands some kind of change in strategy. Unfortunately, what Wizards has in mind so far doesn’t sound too promising. In his statement, Rosewater revealed that they are “still working on the details” of the new Universes Within policy but that two key points had been agreed upon.
“1: We want to make sure that players who aren’t able to purchase the Secret Lair have access to the card mechanically. The non-Secret Lair version will always be different from what the Secret Lair offered, but might keep the same name, representing the same character/object/place – aka it won’t always be a “Universe Within” version.”
Mark Rosewater
Right off the bat, this is a direct contradiction of the previous Universes Within policy. Before, we were guaranteed in-universe reprints of Secret Lair exclusive cards. Now we’re only being guaranteed reprints outside of the Lair itself. Since we’re moving into a much more Universes Beyond-heavy Magic, you’d assume this means we’ll get the reprints within actual mainline sets. According to Rosewater, there likely won’t be a catch-all solution like this, however.
“2: There’s not going to be a single way to do this. Each Secret Lair might have its own solution. The intention is that we will make sure a version of that mechanical card is made available somewhere other than from purchasing directly from our site.”
Mark Rosewater
These points are both too vague to be useful at present. What’s clear is that Universes Within reprints are no longer guaranteed, which feels like a betrayal given the promises made in the past. With Universes Beyond taking up half of Standard, the number of core Magic havens is already taking a huge hit next year. Removing Universes Within feels minor in comparison, but it’s another step toward Magic becoming a very different game from the one many in the community fell in love with. Hopefully, we see some changes to this new policy when Rosewater clarifies it further.
