It feels like we’re undergoing a card game renaissance. In recent years we’ve seen the likes of Lorcana and Riftbound take the TCG community by storm, and in 2026 alone we’ve seen Cyberpunk and Palworld both enter the proverbial cardboard fray, each to general praise. Our guide to the best trading card games grows richer every month, it seems. But, after 33 years, Magic: The Gathering remains stalwart; to borrow the words of Principal Magic Designer Gavin Verhey, it’s the “grandfather of card games.”
MTG isn’t going away, but as competition increases and new development teams innovate with fresh ideas, I do wonder how Wizards of the Coast views its competition, and about how Magic plans to keep its crown for another 33 years. But, in an interview amid the chaos of Gamescom, Verhey tells me MTG only benefits from new, rival TCGs popping up and gathering their own crowds.
“For me, when other card games come out, I’m like ‘awesome, that’s great for us'” he says. “[There are] two reasons. One: I believe that card games being popular is good for Magic in general. A lot of people are trying out card games, and that gets people trying out Magic. And the other one is, quite frankly, if people try out a card game for the first time, they’ll eventually try Magic.”
“If people are coming to these other games from whatever background they have,” says Verhey, “they’ll play their game for a while and they’ll love it. And while I’m not going to say they’re going to quit it or anything, they’ll be like ‘what about that Magic thing I’ve heard about?'”
MTG’s longevity, scale, and popularity do give it a gravitational pull in its own right. On top of that, according to Verhey, Wizards’ lucrative line of setting-blending Universes Beyond sets gives the Magic Fly Trap even more enticing entry points (controversial though it’s been with many long-time fans).
“[Magic] is like the grandfather of card games,” he says. “Being able to come and check it out, and even have a landing place that they might be excited to see – like ‘oh, I want to try out The Hobbit, or Star Trek, or Final Fantasy’ – has been great. Some of our large booms have actually not been that long – a couple of years – after other big card games have come out.”
“I feel totally fine with how we are out in the market right now,” he adds. “I think that, honestly, a bit of competition helps make sure that we try to do the best we can as well.”
I know people who’ve played the likes of Star Wars Unlimited and Riftbound because of their interest in George Lucas’ films and League of Legends – and they have, just like Verhey says, always found their way to MTG. “A lot of players play many games,” he agrees.
“Magic is a multifaceted beast, but we’re doing a lot to help people learn how to play and make it not that intimidating. Also, by the same token, there’s no game with the history that Magic has. If you wanted to play with 33 years’ worth of cards, that’s not something that any other games have, and so being able to jump into a format like Commander with so much rich history and find all of these hidden gems in the rough from 20 years ago, I think is a very special experience.
“There is no better time to get into Magic than right now,” he concludes. “The offering slate for Magic is huge right now, and there’s lots of ways to check it out.
MTG is never going away – it’ll never lose its ‘magic,’ so to speak. There are over 230 entries in our complete list of all MTG sets in order, with more coming out each year, driving the game to record profits. The next set, Reality Fracture, drops in just a couple weeks, and all the terrifying Jace spoilers are rolling out as I write this.
But one of the most exciting things about the TCG community right now is that increased variation. It’s the ability to tune into myriad universes, each with its own unique quirks and rulesets, and engage with something new every time. Whether it’s Magic: The Gathering, Riftbound, or anything in between, the card game ecosystem has never felt so alive, and man, I absolutely love it.
If you wanna chat all things Magic, give us your take on Gavin’s comments, or just chinwag about your rival TCG of choice (seriously, I’m dangerously into Riftbound), come join us in the free Wargamer Discord community – we’re in there talking about this stuff seven days a week.
Source: Wargamer
