MTG Universes Beyond is a steadily growing section of Magic: The Gathering's ecosystem. It's the term used to describe Secret Lairs, commander decks, and now full crossover sets that incorporate a third-party IP. From The Walking Dead to Warhammer 40k, Assassin's Creed to Avatar, her you'll find the full list of every Universes Beyond product released so far and what's coming up in the future.
If you want to know all the products planned for this year, including the ones set in Magic the Gathering's own multiverse, check out our guide to the MTG release schedule. And if you want to look back in time, we have a comprehensive guide to all the MTG sets ever produced.
Here's our complete MTG Universes Beyond guide:
- What is MTG Universes Beyond?
- Are Universes Beyond cards legal?
- Upcoming MTG Universes Beyond products
- Released MTG Universes Beyond products
- What is Universes Within?
- Non-UB MTG cards featuring 3rd party IPs
What is MTG Universes Beyond?
Universes Beyond is a collection of product releases that explore franchises beyond the Magic universe. Wizards of the Coast has released many different products under the Universes Beyond label, and these have shifted in appearance and prominence over time as the UB line slowly grew to become as large as Wizards' own IP.
The cards in a Universes Beyond release might be:
- Reprints using art and flavor text from another IP
- New, mechanically unique cards.
Universes Beyond cards have been released in many different ways:
- As MTG Secret Lairs
- As MTG Commander precons
- As bonus cards inserted into regular Magic booster packs alongside regular Magic cards
- As complete sets sold in booster packs, that are legal in one or more constructed formats, and which can be drafted
- As auxiliary products, such as Ravnica: Clue edition
Not every release that you might expect to be part of Universes Beyond has actually received the label. For instance, WotC's two Dungeons and Dragons weren't called Universes Beyond because the company owns both franchises.
Wizards also made products using outside IP before the term Universes Beyond existed, such as Godzilla-themed cards printed as box-toppers for the Ikoria set.
But. for completeness, here we'll cover every crossover, whether or not it was officially dubbed a Universes Beyond product at the time.
Are Universes Beyond cards legal?
Cards from Universes Beyond sets released after October 5, 2024 are legal in all constructed formats. However, things are a bit more complicated for UB cards printed before that date.
Which MTG formats an older Universes Beyond card is legal in depends on what the card is, and how it was printed. If it is a reprint of an existing Magic card where the only difference is unique art, it is treated exactly the same as the basic Magic card.
The legality of Magic cards that get their first printing in a Universes Beyond set depends on how they were released. As a baseline, all Magic cards are legal in Legacy, Vintage, or Commander, unless they have been explicitly banned. Check the MTG Commander banlist to find out if a particular card is legal for your deck.
When unique Universes Beyond cards have appeared as bonus cards in regular MTG boosters, they are not considered part of that set and have a unique set symbol. They're therefore legal in Legacy, Vintage, and Commander.
A few Universes Beyond sets were never legal in Standard, but are playable in other Constructed formats. Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth is legal in Modern, as will the upcoming Assassin's Creed set.
Upcoming MTG Universes Beyond products
These Upcoming MTG Universes Beyond products are still to release - though some aren't far away!
Released MTG Universes Beyond products
MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Included: Full set, 1 Commander precon, 6 Secret Lairs (reskins)
A smaller set, this release was seriously stuffed with Ninja Turtles, with many different versions of the four main turtle brothers, and a designated 'Turtle slot' in boosters to ensure one appeared in every single pack.
The set's most exciting mechanic was Sneak, a Ninjitsu variant that allowed ninjas to zip back to your hand for additional value. There was also an artifact sub-theme, with a new artifact token type, Mutagen, introduced, which could splash +1/+1 counters around.
The single Ninja Turtles commander deck was themed around the TMNT video games, and was highly customizable, allowing you to choose between several different characters to slot into the command zone.
MTG Avatar: The Last Airbender
Included: Full set, Beginner Box, 2 Scene Boxes, Jumpstart Boosters, 5 Secret Lairs (reskins)
Magic: The Gathering's visit to the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender included new mechanics for each type of bending, multiple Aangs, and legendary creature cards for every character you can think of, from Cabbage Merchant, to the Earth King's pet bear.
While this set didn't feature precons, there was plenty of additional content, including two scene boxes with unique cards. This release was targeting beginners, and included a large beginner box product to ease newbies into learning how to play Magic: The Gathering.
MTG Marvel Spider-Man
Included: Full set, 6 Secret Lairs (reskins), 1 Scene Box, 5 Welcome Decks
A smaller set than most, Marvel Spider-Man included a ton of different Spider-people, with every variant of the wise-cracking web-crawler you could hope to name.
From flavorless cards to the news that Spider-Man (and future Marvel sets) wouldn't be coming to the MTG Arena platform, this release is considered a bit of a dud by many Magic fans.
MTG Final Fantasy
Included: Full set, 4 Commander precons, 4 Scene Boxes, 1 Starter Kit
Officially the biggest Magic set of all time, Final Fantasy fans showed up in droves for this release, which spanned the entire franchise - with all 16 games getting some love and attention.
From innovative EDH decks to a setting that gelled well with Magic's own IP, this was about the strongest possible start WotC could've hoped for for Standard-legal Universes Beyond sets.
Magic the Gathering: Assassin's Creed
Brand new cards printed in the MTG Assassin's Creed set were legal in Modern. This set also featured two Secret Lairs with reskinned reprints of old classics.
MTG Fallout
There are four MTG Fallout-themed Commander decks, featuring a mixture of brand new cards and reprints of existing MTG cards with Fallout art. Collector boosters were also available, featuring alternate art variants of the main cards.
Three MTG Fallout Secret Lairs were also released, with unique art reprints of existing MTG cards. These had a nasty surprise in them - the Secret Lairs were advertised as containing a bonus, unannounced card. When people got their packs, it turned out that the choice of card was randomized - some people landed a $50 card, and others got an (admittedly pretty) piece of junk.
MTG Clue
The MTG Clue product was a strange one. Ravnica: Clue Edition is a multiplayer variant of Magic: the Gathering which uses some of the concepts from the classic board game Clue (aka Cluedo outside North America).
Each pack of Ravnica: Clue Edition contains eight Ravnica: Clue Edition Edition boosters. Players take two of these and shuffle them up to make a deck. Players also receive some evidence cards. When players deal damage they can ask their opponent about the evidence they're holding. As well as being the last player standing, you can win the game by correctly working out the murderer, location, and weapon.
Most of the cards in this set are reprints from old Ravnica sets, but some are unique cards. They're set in the world of Ravnica but inspired by the characters and artifacts in the board game Clue.
MTG Jurassic World
Original MTG Jurassic World cards were printed into booster packs of Lost Caverns of Ixalan, with one card in every Collector booster, and one in every 12 set boosters. Two Jurassic World Secret Lairs were also printed, featuring Jurassic World art variants of classic Magic cards.
MTG Doctor Who
The MTG Doctor Who Universes Beyond set released in October 13 2023, with four Commander decks. These contain a mixture of unique cards, and reprints of existing cards with new art. They were accompanied by Collector Boosters which featured alternate art variants of cards from the Commander decks, but no additional cards.
MTG Lord of the Rings
Released in summer 2023, MTG Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth was Magic's first full Universes Beyond set, featuring not just four Commander decks, but also a whole batch of new cards in draft boosters. This set is coming to MTG Arena as an MTG Alchemy set, but won't be in Standard - instead going straight to Modern.
MTG Lord of the Rings is designed to be drafted and features all your fave Lord of the Rings characters, many of them depicted in an enormous 18-card collage. Wizards expected MTG Lord of the Rings to sell better than the regular Standard set - and it was right. It became the second most successful set ever printed.
Part of that success was the hunt for the One of One Ring card, a serialized variant with unique art. When it was found it started a bidding war, ultimately selling to MTG superfan Post Mallone for an estimate $2 million.
MTG Transformers
MTG Transformers cards were released in November 2022, appearing in the set and collector boosters for MTG The Brothers' War - a first for Universes Beyond cards. These featured 15 of the titular Transformers, all of which could switch between a creature form and an MTG vehicle form. There were also rare Shattered Glass variants for the cards, featuring artwork from a parallel universe where the Autobots are evil and the Decepticons are good. These are found only in The Brothers' War collector boosters.
MTG Warhammer 40k
The first real big-hitters for Universes Beyond were the MTG Warhammer 40k Commander decks, which came out in October 2022. There was one for the Tyranids, Necrons, all the Warhammer 40k Imperium of Man factions, and all the Warhammer 40k Chaos factions, each featuring powerful and flavorful cards, which went down a treat with fans.
Also included in the release were three Warhammer Secret Lairs, themed around Warhammer 40k Orks, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and Blood Bowl.
MTG Fortnite
Released in July 2022, the MTG Fortnite cards are all existing Magic cards reskinned with Fortnite flavor and names. Smuggler's Copter became Battle Bus, while Wrath of God was Shrinking Storm.
These 12 cards were split across two Secret Lairs, one with seven regular cards and one, Fortnite: Lands and Locations, just featuring Fortnite versions of the five basic MTG lands.
MTG Street Fighter
MTG Street Fighter was part of the February 2022 Secret Lair superdrop. It consisted of eight Street Fighter characters depicted on unique, original Magic cards. Their Universes Within reprints (more on that below) are each Dominarian characters that appeared in Phyrexia: All Will Be One.
MTG Arcane
Found in the Dec-Nov 2021 Secretversary Secret Lair, the Arcane Universes Beyond cards are reskinned reprints of regular Magic cards, such as a Duress featuring Jinx and a Round Two featuring Vi. There were two Arcane Secret Lairs in this drop, one again just containing Arcane-themed basic lands.
MTG Stranger Things
The October 2021 Superdrop had MTG Stranger Things UB cards, showing Eleven and the gang, the Mindflayer, Hopkin's Laboratory, and the Upside-down. The Universes Within versions of these cards showed up in Streets of New Capenna set boosters in 2022.
MTG The Walking Dead
Technically the very first MTG Universes Beyond product, and the first unique third-party IP cards printed, MTG The Walking Dead cards were highly controversial when they first appeared. Released in their very own Secret Lair in October 2020, the Walking Dead cards came out before the Universes Beyond term was coined and was grandfathered in, becoming part of the product line retroactively.
Wizards flip-flopped a little on whether this batch of cards would get Universes Within versions, eventually deciding they would - though we've seen neither hide nor hair of them so far.
What is Universes Within?
Wizards has promised to make MTG-universe versions of all mechanically unique Universes Beyond cards produced in Secret Lairs (though not those made for Commander decks, sets, and other products). These have been dubbed 'Universes Within' cards.
Why does Universes Within exist? When Universes Beyond first showed up, it was controversial with a subsection of MTG fans, as many players didn't like to use cards with characters from outside the MTG universe.
There was also a big concern that, if a Universes Beyond card was powerful enough to see play in eternal formats, the price could escalate forever (as it could never be reprinted without a licensing deal).
Non-UB MTG cards featuring 3rd party IPs
The Innistrad: Crimson Vow box toppers featuring cards reskinned to show characters and locations from Dracula, and the Ikoria box toppers reskinned to show Godzilla monsters are not considered Universes Beyond products, even though they fit the bill. The Godzilla lands that dropped in a 2020 Secret Lair aren't, either. See, we told you it was tough to keep up!
For more on the TCG, here's all you need to know about the latest MTG Arena decks - plus which MTG Arena codes still work.