Within the infinite multiverse of Magic: the Gathering exists the Universes Beyond. These crossover releases interpret other series and franchises as Magic cards. While Universes Beyond has been controversial at times, they have released some truly unique cards for all players to enjoy.
Found in Secret Lairs and as independent sets, Universes Beyond allow you a chance to explore far-off places and times. Everything from video games to comic books and even tabletop games have been featured as a Universes Beyond set. While each Universes Beyond is unique and has their strengths, some are certainly better than others. Let’s take a look at all the Universes Beyond and see how they compare against one another.
All currently released Universes Beyond sets are only legal in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage formats, with a few exceptions.
There are several more Universes Beyond announced but not yet released. Coming in 2023 is a draftable and Modern legal set based on The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, as well as four Commander decks. Also releasing in 2023 is a Doctor Who product release, with Commander decks and a Secret Lair. Further, in 2024 a Final Fantasy release and another based on Assassin’s Creed though the details on these crossovers are scarce.
7 Arcane & Arcane Lands
A mix of reskinned cards and alternate artwork, the Arcane Secret Lair has some powerful cards. With screenshots from the show, the Arcane Secret Lair features characters like Jinx, Jayce, and Vi. The most powerful card in the Arcane Drop is Unstable Harmonics, a reskinned version of Rhystic Study. Other fun cards include Gromp, a reskinned Spore Frog, and a Path to Exile with new artwork.
The artwork for the Arcane Lands is taken directly from the show, showing off places in both Piltover and Zaun. This Secret Lair Drop comes with one of each basic land, as well as a Command Tower that has been reskinned into Summoner’s Rift. While really cool for fans of League of Legends and of the show Arcane, there isn’t much in the way of playable cards outside of the Rhystic Study.
6 Fortnite & Fortnite Lands
An entire Secret Lair of reskinned cards, the Fortnite Universes Beyond brings together some of the most iconic elements of Fortnite to Magic. With cards like the Shrinking Storm (a reskin of Wrath of God), you can experience the stressfulness of a shrinking battlefield. Another powerful card, Crack the Vault, is a reskin of Grim Tutor, letting you find any card you like from your deck and add it to your hand.
Much like the Arcane Lands, the Fortnite Lands Secret Lair features five basic lands and a reskinned Command Tower. Each of the full-art basic lands shows off a location from Fortnite, like the Steel Farm and the Slurpy Swamp. Being an entirely reskinned set, there are no original cards. There are some powerful cards to chase after, but outside of those, the Fortnite Universes Beyond is a little light compared to other Universes Beyond.
5 Stranger Things
This Secret Lair lets players take command of their favorite characters from the show and use them to battle their foes. This nine-card set features eight legendary creatures, including Jim Hopper, Eleven, and Lucas. Every legendary creature comes with the friends forever ability, which functions like the partner mechanic but only with other cards with friends forever. This is a little limiting if you’re looking to build a Commander deck around them since it forces you only to use those pairings.
Each card in the Stranger Things Universes Beyond is its unique card, only later being printed as Rebranded Magic cards (also unofficially known as Universes Within) in the Streets of New Capenna edition of The List. This Universe Beyond has some really cool flavor wins. The backs of each card are actually upside down, representing the fictional world of the Upside Down, the source of terrors in Stranger Things. The Mind Flayer, the evil, all-powerful entity from Stranger Things, is also represented as being upside down on its card.
4 The Walking Dead
While originally released several months before Universes Beyond was officially announced, The Walking Dead Secret Lair Drop was brought into the Universes Beyond fold. This set has six cards in it, five characters from the show, plus Lucille, Negan’s legendary spiked baseball bat from the comics and the show.
Each card in this Universe Beyond is wholly original and features abilities that reflect the characters from the show. The Walking Dead Universes Beyond also includes five zombie tokens, each one depicting a memorable zombie from the show.
There is a surprising amount of power that will sneak up on your opponents if they’re not careful. Daryl, Hunter of Walkers can generate a lot of value for players with token generations card draw, while Glenn, the Voice of Calm, can accrue a ton of value through combat damage triggers.
3 Street Fighter
Straight from the iconic fighting game comes your favorite Street Fighter characters to battle it out in Magic: the Gathering. Fan favorites like Chun-Li make an appearance, as well as Dhalsim, Ryu, and Blanka. There are eight fighters in total in this Universes Beyond, representing the eight playable characters from Street Fighter 2. There’s also an extra spell included that’s a reskinned version of Lightning Bolt, reimagined as Ryu’s Hadoken.
The Street Fighter Universes Beyond was released as a Secret Lair Drop and coincided with the 35th Anniversary of the Street Fighter games. Each Street Fighter card comes loaded with unique abilities that feel like the moves and powers of their game counterparts. Ryu, for example, comes with the Hadoken ability, which includes the untap ability and symbol, which physically resembles the input command on an arcade fightstick that allows Ryu to fire off a Hadoken.
The flavor of each character’s card and the overall power of the set make Street Fighter one of the better Universes Beyond sets released.
2 Transformers
The Transformers Universes Beyond brings 15 of your favorite Autobots and Decepticons to Magic: the Gathering. These cards can only be found in certain packs from The Brothers’ War which include Set Boosters, Collector Boosters, and The Brothers’ War Bundle. There is about a 10 percent chance to open a Transformer card in your packs - which is not a terrible rate.
Each Transformer card from this Universes Beyond has two printings, the regular one, and the Shattered Glass Universe versions. The Shattered Glass version shows an alternate good or evil version of that character. These Shattered Glass versions can only be found in Collector Boosters at a slightly higher rate than the regular versions.
Unlike other Universes Beyond collections, there is no plan to release any of these cards as a Rebranded card, meaning the only way to get these cards is through The Brothers’ War packs. Each card in this Universes Beyond is double-faced, with the vehicle form on the front, and the humanoid version on the back. Between the flavor in this Universes Beyond and the unique cards included, Transformers stands out from the other collections.
1 Warhammer 40,000
The Warhammer 40,000 Universes Beyond collection is not only the largest Universes Beyond set but also the best released so far. First up are four Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks, bringing a collective 168 brand new and completely original cards and two new mechanics, squad and ravenous. Each deck brings powerful cards to Commander, with every card featuring brand new artwork all inspired by characters, events, and factions from the tabletop minis game.
Then there are three Secret Lair Drops: Warhammer 40,000 Orks, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and Blood Bowl. Each of these Secret Lairs features either reskinned or alternate art versions of popular cards like Aggravated Assault and a reskinned Najeela, the Blade-Blossom as Archaeon the Everchosen.
With so many original and powerful cards released across four Commander decks and three Secret Lairs, the Warhammer 40,000 Universes Beyond set is the best set released so far.