Magic The Gathering Is Fortnite Now For Better And Worse

When Wizards of the Coast introduced the concept of Universes Beyond to Magic: The Gathering in 2021, there was a fair amount of skepticism and worry. Universes Beyond is the moniker used to label cards and sets printed for Magic: The Gathering that exist outside the canonical story of the planes and characters of Magic. Though Universes Beyond could be seen as a sort of creativity-fostering catch-all, more often than not it simply allows Magic: The Gathering to explore different IPs that exist outside of its universe, while adapting those characters and concepts into mechanics and gameplay that fit right into the 30-year-old trading card game. Essentially, it’s Magic’s way to cross over with beloved franchises, while also allowing those IPs to add trading card game adaptations to their portfolios without creating a separate, dedicated game.

When this experiment into licensed IP was announced, Magic’s head designer Mark Rosewater said that Universes Beyond would only exist in “eternal” formats and stay out of Magic’s more competitive Standard format. This decision would allow players to choose to engage with outside IP like The Walking Dead, Street Fighter, Fallout, or Assassin’s Creed in casual or less-sanctioned formats of play, or ignore it entirely if they so wished.

Fast forward to 2025, however, and Universes Beyond has evolved into a different beast. Not only does it make up half of Magic: The Gathering’s tentpole set releases for the year, but with the release of the Final Fantasy set in June, Universes Beyond is now legal in all competitive formats of the game, with Standard the last to include it. Herein lies the problem.