A consistent message from every interview and Q&A session at MagicCon weekend is clear: Magic is crafted for anyone, but the design team acknowledges that not every player will love every release. While universal acclaim would be ideal, the creative minds behind the game recognize its impossibility.
At MagicCon Atlanta, two significant panels unveiled both short-term and long-term strategies for the decades-old card game. The Preview Panel announced nearly all expansions planned for 2026, including four “Universes Beyond” collaboration sets. Concurrently, the Secret Lair panel revealed over a dozen new limited-time drops scheduled for October, featuring iconic names such as Jaws, Furby, Iron Maiden, The Office, and multiple PlayStation franchises.
Though these announcements generated excitement within the room, the sheer volume of “Universes Beyond” collaborations alongside traditional Magic content sparked considerable apprehension among the fanbase. A viral post from a competitive Magic player critically labeled the trend as `slop,` and numerous YouTube content creators voiced similar concerns in their videos.
However, subsequent conversations with many of the key designers of Magic: The Gathering revealed that none of these reactions came as a surprise.
You Can`t Please Everyone
Head designer Mark Rosewater addressed player expectations during his Q&A, stating, “I really understand that people want to see the game through their own lens, and that`s fine. My number one message is: what you enjoy, and how you play Magic, that just isn`t everybody. You`re not everybody.” This highlights the team`s awareness of diverse player preferences.
The design team is highly attuned to all feedback, positive and negative, that follows major announcements. Blake Rasmussen, Wizards of the Coast`s communications director for MTG, described the team as “terminally online,” acknowledging that while negative opinions often garner the most attention on the internet, they don`t always represent the majority of players.
Rasmussen observed, “It is not hard to find positive opinions, though negative ones are the loudest – but that`s just true for the internet. People are nuanced and different and have complex opinions and feelings about things, and that`s what we really need to keep in mind, both for the world at large and also for Magic.”
The Universes Beyond Debate
Rosewater admitted that “Universes Beyond” won`t appeal to every player, and he has accepted the negative reactions its continued expansion has generated. He elaborated on the concept of individual player boundaries: “There`s always a line in the sand where people say `this is Magic` or `this is not Magic,` but everybody`s line is different.” He emphasized, “I know your line seems like the line, because it`s so clear of a line to you, but your line is just not everybody`s line. And as the guy who has to make the game, I have to respect everybody`s line.”
The reasoning behind the continued growth of “Universes Beyond” is data-driven. Rosewater revealed, “The data says that Universes Beyond is a runaway hit by every metric you could possibly measure.”
This success is exemplified by the “Magic: The Gathering – Final Fantasy” expansion, which generated $200 million in sales on its opening day, making it the fastest-selling expansion in the game`s history. Its predecessor, “The Lord Of The Rings,” took several months to reach the same sales milestone. Additionally, Rosewater confirmed that one of the 2024 Fallout “Secret Lair” drops achieved the highest sales for any such product to date, though he did not specify which one.
Magic has a history of incorporating external worlds even before the “Universes Beyond” initiative. The game`s first expansion in December 1993, “Arabian Nights,” adapted tales from “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.” Later, “Portal: Three Kingdoms” integrated the history of China`s Three Kingdoms into a set specifically for Asian markets.
However, Rosewater acknowledged that the surge of “Universes Beyond” sets can be disheartening for some long-time players. As he put it, “when the collective wants something, and it`s not your thing, it can be demoralizing.” He even offered a personal example: despite being the head designer, Mark Rosewater is not a fan of Commander, the game`s most popular format. He explained, “To me, Magic is a strategic game; I love it because I win when I`m outthinking my opponent. Commander is not a strategic game; it is a political game. You`re playing the people. I really had to come around to it, and that`s okay. I realized that the more people play, and the more people enjoy it, the better the game is.”
Preserving the Internal World
Some fans worry that with so much external intellectual property integrated through “Universes Beyond” and “Secret Lair” drops, the core narrative of Magic itself will be neglected. For instance, while “Lorwyn Eclipsed” in 2026 will be an in-universe expansion, it will launch four months after “Edge of Eternities,” the last expansion set within Magic`s original world (released in August). Two “Universes Beyond” expansions, Marvel`s Spider-Man (September) and Avatar: The Last Airbender (November), are scheduled between them.
Rasmussen, however, assured that Magic: The Gathering`s own story will continue to be told. “We care very much about our story. Our fans care very much about our story. When people love something, we do more of it,” Rasmussen stated. He added, “People love the Magic multiverse. They love our characters, they love the worlds, and the stories, and we are doing more of it.”
Multiple projects centered around Magic`s internal world are currently in development. These include an animated Netflix series announced in October 2024, and a live-action film and television universe in the works with Legendary Pictures. The MagicCon Atlanta preview panel also unveiled a new novel set in Strixhaven, timed for release with the “Secrets of Strixhaven” set, and a new comic series with Dark Horse Comics recently debuted.
Rasmussen acknowledged, “There`s been a fear for a long time that Magic will become all Universes Beyond and that we`ll lose that thread,” but firmly stated, “we`re heavily investing in that side of our business and our storytelling. It`s not something we`re abandoning.”
Finding the Right Fit
Even fans who have accepted “Universes Beyond” into Magic still have concerns about the quality of adaptation for outside characters. One specific point of debate from the panels was “Jaws, Relentless Predator.” Despite being an ocean creature, the MTG version of Jaws is mono-red, focusing on its rage and bloodlust rather than its aquatic nature.
Rosewater noted that discussions over character color assignments have been ongoing since the game`s inception. “One of the most common questions I got all was, `What are the colors of this popular character?` What color is Iron Man? What color is SpongeBob? It was clear that it was fun for the audience to imagine pop culture through the lens of Magic,” Rosewater explained. “Fans did that on their own.”
Regarding card design, Steve Sunu, a senior product designer for Secret Lair, emphasized that authenticity is paramount. He stated that sometimes a potential drop is scrapped if they cannot find a way to represent the property authentically within Magic. “We`ve explored a lot of different properties where sometimes we can`t find a good way to present it authentically for Magic, in which case, we don`t do it,” Sunu said. “We take great pride in the fact that when we choose a partner, no matter what it is, our main mission is to make sure that it comes across authentically, and that passion for that project or band or movie or TV show comes across authentically.”
Sam Strick, a creative lead on the Secret Lair team, explained that the diverse interests within the large Wizards of the Coast offices enable their broad approach. “Within the building – and it`s a large building – there are fans of just about everything. We listen to everyone,” Strick said. “So no matter if it`s Romantasy [like the Artist Series: Kieran Yanner drop announced during the panel], or that one IP no one knows about that everyone has to Google, what we`re designing is going to be someone`s favorite thing.”
Ultimately, Strick describes the Secret Lair team as “curators,” bringing unique and unconventional elements to Magic that the main design team might not handle. Recent collaborations with the Los Angeles art studio Brain Dead and independent radio station KEXP serve as prime examples. For Sunu, this approach aligns with the goal of designing for individual appeal rather than attempting to satisfy everyone. “We`re very careful and protective of what it is that we take on,” Sunu concluded, “not just because there are only so many hours in the day, but because we also really want to make sure that we`re serving not just Magic fans, but the fans of those individual communities as well.”
The design teams recognize that the mere presence of external IP in Magic: The Gathering will inevitably lead some fans to draw their own boundaries. Rosewater confirmed that designers, including himself, will continue to respect these differing viewpoints. He summarized the situation: “I know this is a hard pill for some to swallow, that it`s making so many people happy even though it`s not your thing. We add things to the game, and if you think Magic would be better without those things, fine. But if you`re not in the majority, taking it away is really hard to do.”