Magic: The Gathering has a whopping three Universes Beyond sets coming out next year. First, we get Final Fantasy, where Wizards has promised cards relating to every single game in the series. Then comes Marvel’s Spiderman, where we’re expecting to see all sorts of famous characters from the webslinger’s world, going from strength to strength after a series of highly successful Sony movies.
And then… there’s a mystery. We don’t yet know what WotC has in store for us in Q4 2025. Whether you love Universes Beyond sets or are dismayed to see them become an increasingly important part of Magic’s repertoire, you’re probably curious as hell to know whose name is written in that blank space. What could be such a strong crossover it takes Lorwyn’s place as the sixth Standard MTG set (six sets still feels so wrong) of next year?
Well, we’ve put on our thinking caps and come up with this list of eight likely IPs Wizards might have tapped for 2025.
Lord of the Rings II
This is a pretty likely, but also a pretty boring option. Firstly, Wizards has already told us it’s happy to make multiple sets for the same property, as Marvel: Spiderman is the first in untold generations of Super-sets. Secondly, Lord of the Rings is the most profitable product the company has ever released. Finally, there’s plenty of extra content left to mine in The Hobbit or Silmarillion. All in all, a second Lord of the Rings set seems almost inevitable; the only question is when it will arrive.
That said, I think it might be a bit of a struggle to make Lord of the Rings II: 2 Rings 2 Lordlious anything like as thunderous as the first set, especially not coming so hot on its heels. After all, the most popular of Tolkien’s characters have already appeared, and on several different cards at that. We probably didn’t need five Aragorns; we definitely don’t need ten. Perhaps a full Warhammer 40k set is more likely?
The Witcher
The smart money is on The Witcher. It’s in the zeitgeist, with a new game on the distant horizon and in the #discourse. Gwent is becoming a real TCG next year, and the two games are different enough that I think they’ll feed one another rather than fight.
Not to mention, The Witcher is a perfect fit for a Universes Beyond project, far more in keeping with the overall vibes of Magic: The Gathering than Marvel is, and with tons of iconic monsters, spells, and characters that would make for good cards. It’d be quite fitting, too, for Lorwyn’s replacement in 2025 to be a setting that also draws a lot of inspiration from Celtic Myth.
Discworld
No matter how much some people hate Universes Beyond, the secret to its success is that everyone has one or two properties they would sell their car to buy more packs for, and Discworld is one of mine.
I’m self-indulgently sticking this on the list, but I do genuinely think it could make for a fantastic Magic: The Gathering set. Perhaps Wizards would go for a Secret Lair instead and just throw in the main characters, but that’d be a waste. With 41 novels of content, handy Discworld flowcharts are only rivaled by explainers of the Horus Heresy book order.
There are multiple multi-book series, each with their own roster of characters to convert. I don’t just want to see Granny Weatherwax and Samuel Vimes in Magic card form, I want to see Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler or The Luggage.
While I’ve got you, I’m making the bold claim now that Death is more White, or maybe even Green, than he is Black. There’s no malice or personal ambition in that blue-eyed skull; he’s a personification of natural forces just doing his job.
The Muppets
The Muppets did the Universes Beyond thing way before Magic, when Brand Manager Kermit The Frog sold out in 1992, signing a lucrative contract with the Dickens estate and putting out The Muppets Christmas Carol.
It makes perfect sense that a property with such a rich history of IP crossovers would want to see its characters immortalized as Magic cards. Perhaps the crossover can go both ways and we can get a story of how Muppets handle the Phyrexian invasion. Gonzo, of course, gets compleated day one.
Fortnite
The kiddies, they don’t buy Magic cards like they used to. They keep on getting distracted by those darned Pokemon. How can Wizards of the Coast undercut the stupid yellow mouse? With the buildy-shooty-glowy-noise game that kiddies love more than their FNAF dolls and families combined.
Wizards has already done its Fortnite Secret Lair, cleverly cutting the endless back-and-forth ‘Fortnitification of Magic’ discussion off at the root. Since then, it’s done good work softening us up, shifting the Overton Window of what Magic cards can be to prepare the ground for a full Fortnite set. Another plus point: Wizards will already have the contact details on file.
Yugioh
In a bit of brand synergy no one saw coming, Wizards teams up with Konami to bring Yugi, Kaiba, and his big, blue dragon to the world of Magic, along with some Egyptian Gods and stuff to synergize with Aetherdrift’s Amonkhet cards.
This is a sneaky one on Wizards’ part; half the work’s been done for them. Writing a full Magic: The Gathering set is going to be a doddle when all you need to do is take the existing TCG rules and convert them over to your own system.
Or at least, that will have been what the designers would have thought when they gleefully came up with the concept. Then they had to pull out the magnifying glasses and actually try to decrypt a Yugioh card.
Podcasters
Hitching your wagon to big franchises might be a little bit frightening when so many all-time greats like Star Wars and the MCU seem to be in a fairly rough spot right now. Wizards needs to find another avenue, tap into something that’s on the rise, not on the decline, something truly modern and influential…
…Like podcasts! Against all expectations, it’s podcasts that have risen up to new heights in the last year. They’re big, they’re popular, and they shaped the 2024 US elections like nothing else. In 2025, I’m looking forward to the ‘heterodox’ political commentators UB set, where we’ll be playing with cards like Supplement Sponsor, Rambling Rant, and a counterspell named Just Asking Questions. Maybe we can get a reprint of Invoke Despair too.
Monopoly
The Dog is Red. The Thimble is Blue. The Shoe is White. The Top Hat is Black. I will be taking no further questions at this time.
For more Magic goodies this holiday season, here are some free MTG Arena codes you can use online. We can also help you find your perfect MTG Arena deck.
Source: Wargamer
