Universes Past has at all times sat in direct opposition to Magic: The Gathering’s homegrown multiverse units in a number of key methods. Whereas crossover expansions with Closing Fantasy, Spider-Man, and Lord of the Rings all offered like sizzling lembas bread and helped convey new gamers into the fold, they lacked the intricate storytelling, authentic character design, and sophisticated gameplay mechanics that the core sport recurrently delivers. In 2027, that’s lastly going to vary.
Magic’s first Universes Past set of 2027, Darkhold Future, seems to lastly bridge that hole by uniting the very best of each worlds in what appears like essentially the most formidable UB set but. Polygon spoke to the Darkhold Future workforce forward of the set’s massive reveal at New York Comedian Con 2026 to get a behind-the-scenes look. Right here’s what we realized and why it has us so excited for Marvel’s third crossover set.
An authentic story with an authentic character
Right here’s the most important distinction between Darkhold Future and former Universes Past units: Magic writer Wizards of the Coast is utilizing this one to inform an authentic story set throughout the Marvel sandbox. On this case, the story facilities on the supervillains Hela and Dormammu getting their fingers on the Darkhold and utilizing it to unleash chaos and destruction throughout the Marvel multiverse. To avoid wasting their worlds, a workforce of heroes together with Thor, Physician Unusual, Scarlet Witch and different magic-focused characters will stand up and battle again in opposition to the forces of evil.
This may not seem to be an enormous deal in a world the place superhero team-ups are as widespread as, nicely, widespread Magic playing cards, however for Universes Past, it truly is. The in-multiverse units usually inform advanced tales that play out over a number of years and culminate in epic occasion units (like Realty Fracture). By comparability, UB usually feels extra like a showcase for what one other IP would appear like as Magic playing cards. What if, as an alternative, Wizards used Magic playing cards to inform an authentic story set in one other beloved fantasy universe slightly than simply recreating your favourite heroes and villains as fancy items of cardboard? That’s the query Darkhold Future goals to reply.
Wizards says the thought for an authentic story arose naturally over time. At first, they had been simply saving sure Marvel characters that felt extra in-line with the core Magic vibe for one thing particular. Then they realized that one thing particular could possibly be one thing greater than a set filled with witches, wizards, zombies, and elder gods — it could possibly be an authentic story. Fortunately, Marvel was sport and even pushed Wizard to go additional with the world and its characters than they’d initially deliberate. (To help the discharge, Marvel will publish a comic book that tells the identical story because the playing cards.)
At a sure level, whereas mapping out the story of Darkhold Future, Wizards additionally realized they wanted a kind of character that didn’t exist but within the Marvel universe. So with a little bit of encouragement, they pitched 5 concepts for authentic superheroes. Marvel picked one, which occurred to line up with one thing the comics writer had already been trying to develop internally.
Wizards isn’t revealing the brand new character but, however they’re hopeful that their creation will finally present up in different Marvel tales. Magic‘s head designer, Mark Rosewater, factors to DC’s Harley Quinn as an identical instance of a personality created exterior the comics (in that case, for Batman: The Animated Collection) earlier than finally turning into a key participant within the broader DC universe.
“That is a staple of how comics work,” Rosewater says. “They work with completely different companions and the nice concepts type of make their method in.”
An authority-level Draft
One other recurring difficulty with Universes Past has been smaller set sizes (generally because of the restricted scope of the IP they’re adapting), which ends up in much less attention-grabbing gameplay on the subject of Restricted codecs like Draft and Sealed the place gamers create decks on the spot based mostly on a pool of random playing cards.
That received’t be a problem with Darkhold Future. Rosewater tells me that the set helps methods for all 10 two-color combos, which hasn’t been the norm throughout Universes Past. Magic‘s senior vp of design and artistic, Aaron Forsyth, provides that it’ll really feel like an expert-level set.
“It might be essentially the most advanced Universes Past set we have made as a result of we knew that it was very aimed toward Magic gamers,” Forsyth says. “We expect that is of their wheelhouse, so we wished to drag out all of the stops with artifacts, enchantments, and sorceries. It isn’t simply wall-to-wall legendary creatures combating one another.”
The way forward for universes past
So how will this large leap ahead have an effect on future Universes Past units? Wizards can’t reveal a lot, and the truth that the corporate works on every UB years upfront to navigate advanced partnerships means we could not see the impression for some time. Nonetheless, it’s clear that this expertise has left the workforce hungry to do one thing related with future crossovers.
“Now that we have completed it as soon as, not less than it is an concept that we now have,” Rosewater says. “We might have to search out the appropriate accomplice, however doing something the primary time simply makes the second time extra possible.”