At MagicCon Vegas over the past weekend, Wizards of the Coast unveiled a number of new products they’ll be releasing over the next year to a variety of fan reactions. Many of these sets and supplemental items will be paper-exclusive, but a fair number of them will be coming to Arena, so I wanted to break them down and discuss what we can expect from these sets.
Magic Foundations
Foundations is the next set and it's coming up fast with a November 11th release date. The preorder bundles are already in the Arena store and a large number of cards have already been spoiled as of this writing.
Foundations is a Standard-legal set, so if you're keeping up with Standard, it's a fine set to pick up. Additionally, all the cards in it will be legal in Standard for at least five years barring bans, so it's the safest investment you'll find on the client. Many of these cards are reprints that already exist on the client such as Harmless Offering and Omniscience, so if your collection is loaded already, you may not need to invest much to get the benefit here. Of course, this set will provide a fantastic jumping-on point for new players for both paper and digital.
Aetherdrift
The Wacky Races/Death Race set name has finally been revealed as Aetherdrift, and it will be coming out in February of 2025. The story will follow an interplanar race and each color pair will represent a different team competing for the coveted Aetherspark trophy. We've only seen a few cards from it so far, but one that captures my attention is Brightglass Gearhulk. The power level of this card seems very high and if it's a multi-card cycle like the gearhulks of the past, it bodes well for the power level of this set.
Tarkir Dragonstorm
We'll be returning to Tarkir and the team at Wizards promises a gameplay experience that incorporates elements of both Khans of Tarkir and Dragons of Tarkir. While we don't have any individual cards from this set spoiled yet, we have been teased with an Ugin planeswalker and a new legendary creature card of Sarkhan. It will drop in April of 2025 and be Standard legal.
Universes Beyond Coming to Standard
There are a number of changes coming to Standard in the next few years, and a significant one for 2025 is the inclusion of Universes Beyond sets being dropped directly into Standard. Many fans of Magic's storyline and internal continuity have voiced objections to this move, such as Sam from Rhystic Studies, and the arguments are well thought out and fair. The core of Magic’s identity has always been its iconic characters and planes that can be explored through the mechanics of cardboard in ways that other media just can’t portray so cleanly, but this is changing and time will tell if it was for the better or not.
On the one hand, Fblthp, Liliana, Chandra, and others may not appear as often moving forward and that is a negative to this move. However, the inclusion of popular IPs directly into the primary competitive formats will likely result in more players coming to the game.
Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, and Warhammer 40K all introduced the game to brand new players through Commander decks or direct-to-Modern sets. I can't imagine either of these formats being conducive and fun for someone who is brand new to the game and still trying to learn how attacking and blocking work. Going directly into Standard and, as a result, being available on Arena gives players an opportunity to play in the smallest available constructed card pool with the cards that drew them to the game in the first place. We all know Magic's gameplay is excellent, so I believe this onramp will get a ton of new blood onto the Arena ladders and the paper tournament scene moving forward.
Will this influx of new players outweigh the enfranchised players who cash in their cards and leave? Time will tell, but I believe it will. While it’s unfortunate some people will be turned off by this change, I do believe it will keep Magic successful in the long run, even if the game’s identity fundamentally changes.
The first two full Universes Beyond sets to inject into Standard will be Final Fantasy and Spider-Man.
Final Fantasy
A full, draftable set in the Final Fantasy canon will be coming to Magic and will be the first of this new wave of Standard-legal Universes Beyond sets. Given the popularity of the franchise and the natural overlap, it will likely sell well in the same way that Lord of the Rings did.
Given that this property carries a lot of history and emotional cachet with so many gamers, I anticipate the set will be a commercial success. What has not been seen is evidence of Wizards pushing the power level of Universes Beyond or if they’re going to take the opportunity to create cards that are lower powered, but maintain market value because of the strength of the IP. This could present an opportunity for Wizards to pump the power creep brakes a bit.
As a huge Final Fantasy fan myself, I'll definitely be writing about it more as spoilers are released.
Edge of Eternity
Edge of Eternity is Wizards of the Coast’s take on a space opera within the mainline Magic canon that will be released in August 2025. The setting will take place within a solar system and include multiple planets. At this time, we don’t have many confirmed details, but we did see promotional art featuring Tezzeret, who was last seen working with the Phyrexians to better his own selfish ambition.
See what I did there?
Spider-Man
Pretty much all the points I made about Final Fantasy above will apply to Spider-Man, as it's another installment of Universes Beyond coming into Standard. The set will likely include some cards that are Standard playable but hopefully none that are meta-defining, but I'm afraid we have very few details at this time. Stay tuned for more.
Even More Universes Beyond?!
There is a sixth Standard set slated to come out before the end of 2025 and Wizards was scant on the details in Vegas. It is another Universes Beyond property but we'll have to wait for future updates to get more information.
