Over the years, Wizards of the Coast has worked tirelessly to expand its Universes Beyond releases, with crossovers including Stranger Things, Hatsune Miku, and Warhammer 40,000, to name but a few. In 2025, they’re expanding further with Final Fantasy, featuring cards spread across all sixteen mainline franchise entries—initially teased in late summer of 2023. So far, we’ve seen Sephiroth, Lightning, and a Moogle. However, Square Enix producer Shoichi Ichikawa revealed we’d also see Cloud Strife and Noctis, along with a few summons, fan-favorite monsters, and iconic weapons. Maybe the Buster Sword?
While this announcement leaves Final Fantasy and Magic: The Gathering fans jumping for joy, Wizards of the Coast didn’t stop there. They also revealed that all Universes Beyond releases would be legal moving forward, starting with the Final Fantasy set. While it’s unclear whether past Universes Beyond releases would follow suit, for now, players can expect to use or face off against Cloud Strife and Sephiroth as the dynamic duo in future matches.
Right, so Final Fantasy is terrific and iconic, but what if you’re not a fan of the JRPG? Well, Wizards of the Coast isn’t leaving anyone out in 2025, as the studio unveiled a slate of Standard sets at MagicCon Las Vegas. These sets include:
- Innistrad: Remastered (January 24): A gothic horror world featuring vampires and werewolves, first introduced in September 2011.
- Aetherdrift (February 14): A death race in which three universes within the MTG setting come together violently for the win.
- Tarkir: Dragonstorm (April 11): On the plane of Tarkir, five clans battle dragons to bid for supremacy.
- Final Fantasy (June 13): The first-ever collab between MTG and Final Fantasy launches this coming summer, with sets spanning all sixteen mainline games.
- Edge of Eternities (August 1): The collectible card game’s first space opera setting, exploring the Solthera system as a returning villain makes its presence known.
- Marvel’s Spider-Man (TBA 2025): In another massive collab, MTG will feature a crossover with Marvel’s Spider-Man, as revealed at New York Comic-Con.
- Secret Lair x SpongeBob SquarePants (TBA 2025): Sometime in 2025, MTG visits Bikini Bottom in a crossover featuring the iconic animated hero.
If you prefer your collectible card games with some drama, you’ll be happy to learn that JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential candidate, revealed his hand over the weekend. In a recent interview with Semafor, the candidate admitted that he was obsessed with MTG as a 13-year-old, and his favorite card was Yawgmoth’s Bargain. It is, of course, a banned card, which allows the player to skip the draw step and pay one life to draw a card.
Only recently, Wizards of the Coast were forced to respond to Magic: The Gathering Commander Meltdown due to controversial card bans. With more cards coming to the table than ever, it’ll be interesting to see how the company balances sets moving forward.
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