MTG’s Lead Designer addresses Universes Beyond fatigue: “We have to be careful”

Magic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond sets have thrust the TCG into the mainstream, but they’re not without their detractors. We spoke with MTG Principal Designer Gavin Verhey about his perspective on the more controversial aspects of these collaborations.

For the uninitiated, Universe(s) Beyond are Magic: The Gathering sets featuring crossovers with major IPs, ranging from video game franchises to television and movies. Since the breakthrough of a fan-favorite Lord of the Rings set, the team at Wizards of the Coast has been dropping more and more of these into their annual release schedules.

2025’s Final Fantasy collab was a particular standout, becoming the fastest and best-selling set in the TCG’s long history. While there’s certainly no denying the concept’s popularity, the saturation of these sets is rubbing certain pockets of the MTG community the wrong way.

At PAX Australia, we interviewed Magic: The Gathering’s Principal Designer Gavin Verhey. In between chats about how he applied for his role at the age of 11 and the possibility of an MTG X Expedition 33 collab, we asked him about the proverbial elephant in the Universes Beyond room.

Why is there backlash to MTG’s Universes Beyond?

Discussions among MTG players in community spaces such as Reddit and X are generally positive when it comes to Universes Beyond. There are certain caveats to that, however.

The most common sentiment among fans hesitant of Universes Beyond boils down to a perceived lack of dedication to MTG’s original settings and characters.

Longtime fans of the TCG were drawn into the game by legendary Planeswalkers like Jace Beleren and Liliana Vess, and their adventures through the fantastical realms of Innistrad, Lorwyn, and more.

Now that the tabletop plays host to these characters and outsiders like Spider-Man, Dr. Who, and Ezio Auditore, it’s easy to see how it could feel like somewhat of an invasion. With five Universes Beyond sets already announced for the coming year, it’s also understandable that fans longing for more of MTG’s original content might feel a little short-changed.

MTG Principal Designer defends Universes Beyond

We put those perspectives to one of the game’s most senior designers and developers, Gavin Verhey, to see how those behind the scenes feel about the future of Universes Beyond.

“We’ve talked about it a lot,” Verhey revealed. “It’s very important to us because those original Magic worlds are the core of Magic. Building up our worlds and characters is something we want to do, especially in the long term.”

Specifically, he cited efforts on Wizards of the Coast’s part to introduce wider audiences to Magic: The Gathering’s unique setting, characters, and lore via outside media. “We have a movie coming down the pipeline, we have a TV show coming down the pipeline, and it’s all going to be set in the Magic worlds.”

Of course, there are also several TCG sets announced that will see players returning to Planes like Strixhaven and Lorwyn. Even with these offerings, Verhey did make a compelling case for the continued rollout of Universes Beyond.

“One of the ways we see Universes Beyond is, yes, it’s fun to go make Sephiroth cards, but also, it is an amazing avenue to get into Magic.” It’s hard to deny that 32 years of lore can seem inaccessible.

Dropping into the TCG while it’s focusing on familiar elements of your favourite video game or TV show is definitely a little more inviting. Verhey mentioned hard data to support that conclusion, though summoning it off the top of his head would be a hard task after two days of presentations and card signings. He did have some anecdotal evidence, however.

“When I talk to someone who started in the last few years, nine times out of 10, it’s a Universes Beyond set that they started with,” he explained. “It could be anything: Warhammer, Fallout, Doctor Who, Final Fantasy, Lord of the Rings; they’re like ‘that’s what got me into Magic’.”

Far from catering to ‘tourists’, Verhey said Universes Beyond is creating dedicated fans of the MTG IP and TCG. “We’ve seen these people get into Magic through this. Lord of the Rings is a great example. We have some good data on this. They come in and they stick around. They’re like, ‘Great! Now I’m a Magic player’.”

It isn’t just MTG’s collaborative sets that have the potential to draw in new players, however. They can still knock it out of the park with some strong flavor.

“We talk about Universes Beyond bringing new people into the game. Bloomburrow also did an incredible job of getting people into the game because the theme was so widely appealing,” Verhey noted. “A lot of people who are not traditional Magic players jumped in there.”

Bloomburrow’s cuddly anthropomorphic animals were a big hit and a major draw for new players (myself included). Figuring out cohesion between original content like this and the collaborative efforts of Universes Beyond is a major talking point internally at Wizards of the Coast.

“I think we have to keep a careful balance, and I mean be very careful. We need to make sure that people who have been playing Magic for a long time and love Magic’s worlds feel like they’re getting what they need,” Verhey admitted. “But I think the Universes Beyond is doing some amazing things for us, and when executed well, people love the stuff.”

It’s clear that as long as Universes Beyond continues to expand the MTG audience and delight a significant enough portion of the existing fanbase, they’ll be sticking around. At the very least, Wizards of the Coast has heard the concerns of longtime fans who appreciate the collabs a little less.

The next big Universes Beyond set to launch is Magic: The Gathering | Avatar: The Last Airbender, launching in full on November 21, 2025. It remains to be seen whether Aang and friends will draw similar numbers to the Final Fantasy set, but with an IP that strong, they’re in with a fighting chance.