Magic: The Gathering crossovers with Universes Beyond have been a much bigger success than anyone expected. For players, they're a fun chance to play the game we love with a nice mix of TV shows, movies, and video games represented. For the card game's creator, Wizards of the Coast, it's been a steady moneymaker and has helped prop up some of the other Hasbro-owned companies that haven't been doing as well.
While there are some legitimate criticisms of Universes Beyond (such as that it makes card recognition difficult and contributes to the strange dilution of MTG lore that's been going on since March of the Machine), we generally like it. There's no denying the sheer power of things like Warhammer 40,000's Commander Decks or Lord of the Rings' Tales from Middle-earth.
They also offer opportunities to revisit mechanics that might otherwise get buried. Things like seeing Suspend develop thanks to Doctor Who decks or seeing energy make a comeback in this year’s Fallout Commander decks are all good things. Ultimately, they’re entertaining, and as long as they’re handled well and don’t become the main attraction of MTG, they’re a great opportunity for new people to discover the game and for existing MTG fans to show their love for other things.
That’s why we’ve put together a list of five more universes we’d like to see added to Magic: The Gathering in the future. If you’re wondering why, it’s because it’s a good way to pass the time, and life is short, expensive, and tiring.
1. Dragon Quest
Let’s start with one of the most beloved video game series of all time. That’s right: Dragon Quest. There are a lot of long-running video game series out there, and it’s hard to pick just one, but Dragon Quest fits the bill perfectly. For starters, a lot of the artwork, including the characters and monsters, comes from the genius of the late Akira Toriyama. Seeing that artwork in more places will make our inner Dragon Ball fanatic smile, and it turns out that the game series has a lot of aspects that would fit perfectly with Magic: The Gathering, too.
Dragon Quest is packed with amazing monsters, legendary heroes, fantastical locations, special weapons, magical effects, and so much more. You could pick just one Dragon Quest game, but if MTG was based on the entire series, it could have different heroes and villains wreaking havoc on the set alongside their companions and minions. Plus, frankly, we deserve a Slime card.
2. Jujutsu Kaisen
Jujutsu Kaisen is one of the coolest animes to come out in recent years. It's also one of the slowest, most laborious mangas out there right now, but hey, anime can fix that. Set in a world where sorcerers deal with powerful curses, it's packed with all kinds of amazing lore, plenty of powerful characters, and plenty of trauma. Each curse and human already has their own specific set of powers, which means they can be naturally translated into Magic: The Gathering cards – and that's not all.
The world of curses would fit wonderfully alongside the curses already in the TCG, meaning we could see a big focus on enchantments of different types. Jujutsu Kaisen also has plenty of characters that can serve as legendary creatures. We think Satoru Gojo would have all five colors of MTG mana because he’s chaotic and super powerful, but we’d love to know for sure. We also know that the potential for the artistic side of things is there because of all the anime-treated MTG cards that come to the game from time to time.
3. Dark matter
His Dark Materials is a book series by Phillip Pullman that began in 1995 with Northern Lights and primarily follows a girl named Lyra Belacqua and a boy named Will Parry as they navigate a seemingly cursed multiverse. Lyra's world sees humans with their souls effectively wandering outside of their bodies in the form of animals, while Will ends up in possession of a knife that can cut through reality itself. They end up traveling together to fight monsters that are close to the Grim Reapers and close holes between dimensions.
It’s a surprisingly good series, and it’s also still going strong thanks to a new trilogy of novels that started in 2017. The world’s lore already involves multiverses, and it has plenty of fascinating concepts and monsters. There are also things like polar bears that wear armor, so that’s always a good thing. His Dark Materials isn’t a series that’s packed with combat, but we already know that’s not necessary for a Universes Beyond collection. After all, if Doctor Who can be on MTG, so can His Dark Materials.
4. Barbie
The Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and directed by Greta Gerwig is a fascinating look not only at the impact the toys have had on the world, but also at feminism, the meaning of life, and Ryan Gosling's abs. At least, we think the last one was important to the plot. You might think there aren't enough characters in Barbie to warrant a full Magic: The Gathering set, but you'd be wrong.
All you have to do is make sure each character is a version of Barbie, Ken, or even Allan, and you’re done. That’s it. Make Universes Beyond: Barbie the first creature-only MTG set, make the bad guys capitalism, and then make the special treatment borders the brightest shade of neon pink you’ve ever seen, and boom, you’ve got a winner. Of course, you could always make this look more like a secret lair than a full-fledged set, but we think it could work either way.
5. David Bowie
As a Magic: The Gathering fan, you probably know that MTG typically has cards in sets of five. In addition to having five colors of mana overall, you also have five allied pairs, five enemy pairs, five tribes on Tarkir, and so on. What you might not know is that legendary rock star David Bowie had five alter egos. Ziggy Stardust is probably the most well-known, but he also had Halloween Jack from the Diamond Dogs era, The Thin White Duke from Station to Station, his later The Blind Prophet from his final album Blackstar, and Aladdin Sane.
As one of the most experimental and fascinating musicians of all time – at least since humans started recording music – it would be incredible to see the concepts and characters Bowie came up with find their way into Magic: The Gathering. You could have each of his alter egos leading their own faction, or all vying for control of a single body. The biggest challenge here, in our opinion, would be making sure it’s respectful to Bowie and his legacy, but if you focus on his creations rather than the man himself, that should be easier to do.