MTG's Future Universes Beyond Sets Will Be Legal In Standard And Modern

Summary

Universes Beyond crossover sets will be legal in Standard, Modern, and Pioneer starting in 2025, simplifying set legality.
Straight-to-Modern sets are going away.
Future set releases will be a 50/50 split between Magic universe sets and Universes Beyond releases.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering’s upcoming Universes B🔥eyond crossover sets with Final Fantasy and Spider-Man will be legal𓆏 in the game’s premiere format, Standard.

This change c𓆏omes as part of a wider simplificatioꦉn of set legality being rolled out in 2025 that will also make them legal in both Modern and, also for the first time, Pioneer.

Announced at the MagicCon Vegas preview panel, from 2025 every set will be divided into one of two categories. Either it is considered an eternal set, meaning it is only legal in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Commander, Vintaಌge, and Legacy, or it is all-formats legal, which includes Standard and its two non-rotating offshoots, Modern and Piꦓoneer.

Ezio Auditore da Firenze by Luisa J. Priessler

This is very different to now, which also includes direct-to-Modern sets that are also legal in the eternal formats. This year we had two such sets, in Modern Horizons 3 and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Universes Beyond: Assassin’s Creed, and the differing legality between them and the other sets launchin🐬g around the time caused confusion 🐈for newer or less invested players.

Wizards has said it still wants to do the occasional M💎odern Horizons set, but without the pressure of Universes Beyond also effectively doing the same thing.

Future Universes Beyond sets will come under the second category, and be legal in every format. And so Wizards is making an unprecedented move with Universes Beyond and making it legal in Standard aꦆnd Pioneer for the first time, starting with Final Fantasy in June 2025.

This change is not retroactive. Previous Universe⛄s Beyond releases will not be becoming legal in more f🔯ormats than they already are.

Universes Beyond is Magic’s sub-brand dedicated to adapting propert🔯ies Wizards of the Coast doesn’t own. Despite causing controversy wi🍷thin the community, they have consistently been among the best-selling Magic products, with Lord Of The Rings: Tales Of Middle-earth quickly becoming the best-selling set of all time when it launched in 2023.

In addition to becoming legal in more formats, the ratio of in-Magic-setting sets and crossover products w꧃ill be changing. Whꦿile each year since Universes Beyond has had one or two crossover products, from 2025 onwards it will be a rough 50/50 split between sets that use Magic’s own characters and worlds, and Universes Beyond releases.

Wizards of the Coast's artwork of Marvel's Spider-Man Magic The Gathering crossover set

This can be seen in the 2025 lineup, with Aetherdrift, Tarkir Dragonstorm, and Edge Of Eternities representing Magic, while 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spider-Man, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a third unannounced project representing Universes Beyond.

A Broken Promise?

This is a huge change from the assurances made when Universes Beyond was announced in 2021, and is definitely going to cause much controversy for the community. At the time, that “💞Universes Beyond cards will not be Standard legal” and that they are “above and, well, beyond our normal Standard releases”.

Personally, while I’m not thrilled with the change, orꦡ with having one less in-universe set to enjoy each year, it’s hard to deny that Universes Beyond hasn’t been a net♊ positive for Magic so far. Every single release for it has been stellar, ranging from the smaller ones like Transformers right up to Tales of Middle-earth. It's also brought new players in with each new release.

The cards have been flavourful, the art great, a🔴nd any concerns we’ve had of Rick Sanchez fighting Master Chief in a game haven’t yet come to fruition. They just exist in the same cardpool as everything else, in-universe or not.

There are still major questions to be answered by Wizards, though, such as how a higher frequency of Universes Beyond sets, and in more formats, could cause difficu🌠ജlties for reprints.

The next Universes Beyond 🔯release will be Final Fantasy, launching in June 2025.