tome wizards of the coast is the company that makes the Pokemon trading card game. That probably says a lot about my age and how well I know the company: the fact that it was only responsible for the first few waves of Western Pokémon releases before Pokémon went in-house. It just so happened that TCG took over the playground of my school. But the point is, in everything WOTC does, I usually still associate them with a brand they haven’t worked with in decades.
Or to put it another way: I’ve never really been a Magic player.
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This was never really tracked.it is Strange, actually. I love the Pokemon TCG, and regular readers of iGamesNews will know that I’m a shameful RPG mecha fan.Magic is something I’m supposed to like – but I never really do bypass to it. I needed some kind of push to get me into it – and Wizards certainly found the right way.
A few weeks ago, at the height of the Fallout TV series, I did what a lot of people do: started a new Fallout 4 save, dabbled in Fallout 76, and obsessed over Wikipedia to remind myself of my near irrelevance. series of stories. But I also did one more thing: I ordered some Fallout-themed Magic: The Gathering sets online. Until the show instilled in me a strong sense of Fallout fandom, I would never have considered these sets – but more importantly, until recently, I wouldn’t have purchased Magic cards at all.
I owe my little magical transformation to the BBC TV series Doctor Who return Got the MTG tie-in. I picked up these cards because I’m a huge Doctor Who fan and do actively collect some show memorabilia – but this scratched the itch for me. I’m delighted by the original art on each card. It opened the door a crack, tempting me to see the Fallout cards. Once the Fallout series arrived, that door opened wider – and I started playing.
A few weeks later, here I am: I purchased my first non-tie-in Magic Card, downloaded a digital version of the game on Steam, and now I’m eagerly anticipating future video game tie-ins. “Assassin’s Creed” is coming soon and will introduce 100 new cards with unique mechanics. By 2025, MTG will have the two largest libraries of stories and characters from licensed series, adding Final Fantasy and Marvel themed sets.
Released under the overarching banner of Beyond the Universe, these series have been around for a while. The first release of such cards was in 2020, and the cards were based on The Walking Dead. There were even gaming collaborations at the time, with Magic: The Gathering having crossovers with Street Fighter, Fortnite, and League of Legends’ Arcane. But all of these offerings were relatively limited—a handful of cards, essentially designed for collectors first. For Magic fans, they’re an added bonus.
Nostalgia is a powerful medicine, though – and it feels like Wizards of the Coast just happened to find what a crossover game really needed when they released the much-heralded Lord of the Rings series in 2023. A few cards, but the entire set – enough that you can play a strictly Middle-earth version of the game if you want. For Lord of the Rings fans, this feels like a more authentic way to enter the world of Magic: The Gathering. Now that that foundation has been broken, we’re reaping the rewards with a wide range of decks and collections based on the game’s brands.
With so many characters, locations, and staples from each series popping up in the new version of Beyond the Universe, it’s suddenly more fascinating to see how Fallout or Doctor Who tropes play out in Magic: The Gathering mechanics , even though these cards aren’t technically compatible with all the “correct” rulesets. How are the relatively common characters in “Assassin’s Creed” represented in the cards?
Will elements of intergenerational memory in these stories become as dominant a mechanic as time travel did in Doctor Who? How does the Final Fantasy series represent ATB, equipment, upgrades, etc.? The way it’s all executed is delightfully ticklish.
More than anything, I can feel myself being bitten by the bug – both in terms of playing and collecting. I’m very interested to see what these Final Fantasy cards look like, and to see what other game series could support additional Universe Beyond releases. If this plan was to convert MAgic, then its mission was accomplished. All it takes is a heavy dose of weaponized nostalgia.
