As with the Assassin’s Creed crossover above, currently, very few details are known about this upcoming Universes Beyond product. Thankfully, as we mentioned before, this should change soon thanks to the Gen Con panel in August. Moving into 2024, Hasbro has confirmed that, in the future, MTG will be teaming up with Assassin’s Creed. Currently, beyond the fact this Universes Beyond crossover product will exist, very few details are known, unfortunately. There’s no word, for instance, if this crossover is just a Secret Lair release or a more substantial Set product. Currently, being the release date, theming, and mechanics of this Commander release, not much is known.
Hasbro is no stranger to creating movie adaptations of its products, which range from G.I. Released in late 2022, MTG has a surprisingly large amount of Universes Beyond Transformers cards. Of these, 15 are brand-new cards that are only available in Set and Collector Boosters for The Brothers War. Fittingly for the franchise, the cards could flip and transform from a creature form to a vehicle form. The Universes Beyond expansion brought Cloud, Tifa, and many other Final Fantasy favorite to the game in the form of new cards. But how does Wizards of the Coast decide what to turn into a card and what to leave out?
There are so many amazing styles to check out and collect, and I will be adding my opened Prelease Pack to my FINAL FANTASY collection. When FINAL FANTASY XVI was revealed to us, I knew we needed a land to represent it, but we already did the gag and balanced it across each basic land type … so what should we do? Given some of the early worldbuilding elements in FINAL FANTASY XVI, I pitched adding Wastes to Zakeel and Gavin, and they were all for getting it in, if not just to hit the flavor! We were left with sixteen basic lands, one for each game entry, and that made me really happy. Universes Beyond represents an exciting, new, and, yes, different take on Magic.
Magic: The Gathering The Lord of the Rings: Tales from Middle Earth - Starter Kit
A Collector Booster Box contains 12 shiny booster packs specifically made for collectors and bling enthusiasts (15 cards per pack). These packs are bursting with foils, alternate art, and special card treatments. Each Final Fantasy Prerelease Pack contains 6 Play Booster packs of the set, plus some extra goodies to build and play a Sealed deck at the event. Notably, it includes 1 premium foil promo card – a Rare or Mythic from the set, stamped with the mtg decks year and the Planeswalker symbol – which you can include in your deck. It also comes with a spindown life counter (a special 20-sided die) themed for the set, used to track your life total in gamesmagic.wizards.com. All of this comes packaged in a deck box shaped kit, which you can use to hold your cards during the event.
I think I could write an entire article about just this part of development and the production magic we worked in to build this set. Yoni and Joseph had more to say in their articles, but something that I cannot understate about this set's creation is its complexity. A special shoutout to Stephanie Cheung for her work directing most of the FINAL FANTASY XIV cards. If you feel emotional when you see some of those pieces, you have her to thank! And we can't forget the amazing Booster Fun, collectability, and packaging teams! Tom Jenkot, Alicia Mickes, and their stellar teams pushed forth the most amazing alternate card styles and beautiful packaging designs.
Collection: Magic The Gathering (MTG) Universes Beyond
They also worked with us to find ways to update the visuals of retro characters; being very responsive and optimistic to our pitches for new takes on costume direction and likeness goals. It was an epic collaboration between so many teams, so many artists, so many creators, to find the right blend of Magic and FINAL FANTASY. Now that you've learned the rules, found the colors you like, and learned a strategy that suits you, you probably want to move up to playing at a local game store (LGS) in your area. Your mileage will vary, as some stores' player bases favor certain formats over others.
Alongside the new cards found in Boosters, Transformers also had several UB Secret Lair drops. Comprised of only reprints, the trio of Secret Lair drop contained plenty of valuable Commander staples. This allowed players to better theme their decks around their new Transformers cards, which can all be Commanders. The answer is "both," but often we'll default to letting these cards stand on their own. We may find charming opportunities to do the reskinned versions of existing cards and will continue to balance between the two as we move forward.
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The Gift Bundle in particular is aimed at holidays or special occasions – it’s a bit pricier but you’re getting that added Collector Booster and foil extras. Everyone has a fond memory of playing their first game, meeting their first favorite party member, conquering their first super-boss, and finally beating that game. Furthermore, many people have multiple favorite FINAL FANTASY games—full of amazing characters, epic fights, and memorable battle systems. The games gave us a lot of fuel to work with both creatively and mechanically, so we had plenty of top-down designs early in development. I'll let game designers Yoni, Gavin, Daniel, and Cameron Williams speak more to the design process in their articles, but it was important we all came together across our disciplines to make the best FINAL FANTASY cards possible.
Additionally, a Secret Lair containing six Fortnite-themed basic lands were released. Collaborations with franchises like Doctor Who and Warhammer 40,000 have set a strong example for future partnerships. These projects show how picking the right properties, building strong relationships with licensors, and crafting thoughtful designs can create products that benefit both brands and grow their audiences. The success of Universes Beyond comes down to three main elements that can serve as a guide for similar collaborations.
Every pack also contains a guaranteed foil card (with a chance of an extra foil basic land in about 20% of packs). That means when you open a pack, you might not only pull a brand-new Final Fantasy-themed spell or character, but also a famous Magic card reimagined with FF art. While details are still forthcoming (as of this writing), we do know that fan-favorite characters “Lightning” (FFXIII) and “Noctis” (FFXV) have been specifically mentioned as appearing via Secret Lair. This suggests that some main characters or content from later Final Fantasy games, which might only be referenced lightly in the main set, could get dedicated cards in these special drops.
We will not be creating Through the Omenpaths sets mirroring every Universes Beyond set, only the ones that will not be coming to digital platforms. This lets our formats remain mechanically at parity with one another digitally without having to create patchwork solutions here or there. We are also currently only planning to create Through the Omenpaths releases for full sets that are legal in all formats. But we also hope that Universes Beyond will bring the game we love to more people who might not have otherwise found us. We hope fans of these worlds and characters will find our game through Universes Beyond—and we hope they'll stay a while and become part of our amazing community.
But we may change our minds in the future if it makes sense and is a fun net positive for Magic and D&D. From the speed of Sonic to the nefarious chaos of Dr. Eggman, this drop delivers classic characters, explosive plays, and legendary speed. These drops are only available at MagicSecretLair.com and are available in limited quantities.