Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast and Marvel surprisingly announced The Soul Stone. Thankfully, unlike many of the Spider-Man spoilers that we have seen recently, this one is actually pretty good. Offering ramp and reanimation, this card will be a gem in Commander and a future staple in black decks.
While this is all well and good, there was one problem with The Soul Stone. At first glance, this appeared to be another two-word type, which Wizards got major pushback on in the past. Thankfully, MTG’s Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, has already stepped in to clear up this confusing detail.
Two Separate Types
“Themartiangeek: Is Infinity Stone another two-word type?
Mark Rosewater: No, they are two separate types.”
Via: Blogatog
Luckily, it didn’t take long for Mark Rosewater to give the answer that many MTG players were hoping to hear. Despite appearances, Infinity and Stone are both separate new creature types in MTG going forward.
As flavorful as an “Infinity Stone” type would have been, this is definitely the right decision. After all, we’ve seen how two-word creature types can cause confusion. This first happened with the Doctor Who Commander decks, which opted to include “Time Lord” as a creature type.
Unlike Assembly-Worker on cards like Academy Manufactor, this two-word type bizarrely wasn’t hyphenated. This may have had something to do with restrictions from the license holder, but that hasn’t been explicitly confirmed. Whatever the cause, MTG players seriously weren’t happy about this change, and Rosewater even called it a mistake.
Thankfully, despite first appearances, this isn’t a mistake that Wizards of the Coast is keen to repeat. That being said, what we’ve been left with thanks to this change isn’t exactly perfect either.
Infinity and Stone
While Infinity Stone as one type would have caused confusion, it would have at least made sense. The Infinity Stones in Marvel are Infinity Stones, after all. Now, we’ve got Stone as a type, which isn’t too bad, and Infinity, which doesn’t make sense at all.
In theory, if we’re generous, Infinity could make sense if it were used like Arcane. Potentially Infinity cards could be replayable from exile, or a new name for cards that shuffle into the library after use. Since this is an artifact type, however, that doesn’t really fly, and there’s no clean explanation of what it means.
In reality, the Infinity type might only get to be used six times, once on each Infinity Stone. Potentially a seventh for an Infinity Gauntlet artifact. There’s no promise that every new creature type is going to be supported long into the future, after all. For better or worse, Stone does have a lot more potential, but even this is in a weird spot.
Currently, there are plenty of Stones that aren’t Stones in MTG. Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone (no, not that one), Thrumming Stone, and plenty more aren’t Stones. Instead, these cards are just Artifacts. While we do have a few Powerstone cards, like The Mightstone and Weakstone, these aren’t too common either.
Technically, Wizards could go back and errata Magic’s sort-of-Stones to become Stones once Marvel’s Spider-Man releases. Admittedly, the chances of something like this happening feel astronomically low. While this new artifact type could definitely be used in the future, it’s similarly not really needed.
Not the First and Not the Last
For better or worse, this surely isn’t going to be the last time that a Universes Beyond reference creates some awkward subtypes. We’ve already seen plenty of new creature types thanks to Universes Beyond, and that trend is hardly going to stop. Each franchise and property has its iconic elements that will want to be celebrated, after all.
At the moment, there’s no telling if any of the inevitable future creature types will be two-word types or if they’ll be hyphenated. Given what’s happened with Infinity and Stone, we can only hope that Wizards is keen to avoid this mistake again. Whether this will hold up against pressure from other properties, however, remains to be seen.
Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the future. While we know what’s happening this year, the 2026 Universes Beyond sets are still under wraps. Depending on what these sets are and what we get in the future, the boundaries may be pushed even further.
Thankfully, this shouldn’t cause the end of MTG as we know it. While these unusual creature types do cause some double-takes, even Time Lord has been accepted by the community. Despite the frustration, players are often able to get their heads around Magic’s more confusing aspects. With that in mind, however, we definitely don’t want to see this problem repeated anytime soon.
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