This reflects all my fears about universes beyond quite thoroughly

I personally hope I can use Abraham Lincoln as my commander in the next 20 years.

It's so fucking over. And i completly agree. I also hate seeing all the MtG youtubers shift opinion and doing a 360 and saying "WOW NOW THAT THEY MADE DOCTOR WHO I LOVE IT !" The comic is already accurate. People already play gandalf with transformers, and you can technically already play Godzilla, Dracula, Ryu, Optimus Prime, Gollum, and the TARDIS in the same deck. I guess MtG will just be kitchentable casual with my friends now

Oh, they are definitely going the Fortnite route - why do work making something unique when we can just pay for licensed properties?

Hey, not only I am not going to argue differently, but you even worsened the negative view I had on the whole situation 💔 I think I'm going to gather some cards to build my cube for when I'm a sad old man remembering how cool the game used to be

Fire vid. I hope you’re wrong

This is exactly what I predict too. Magic: The Gathering will literally be phased out and the new Magic will be Magic: Universes Beyond. They will only keep the card backs for the same reason they keep deckmaster on the back of the cards today, so the complete library is accessible.

Just discovered your channel and have been binge watching your videos. Very enjoyable and I appreciate the content

WOTC is already there and they don't care if we like it or not. while i believe Mark when he says they won't phase out magic as an IP entirely, the mainline magic sets are phasing out the "Magic" in magic the gathering. heck duskmourn is literally a 1980's horror set with chain saws, TV's and ghost busters references literally baked into the set given what spoilers have shown, we're getting a space themed set which looks like an off-brand unfinity as well as a massive gimmicky death race set, Karlov Manner and Thunder Junction are complete Gags, Jokes and "catch the reference" machines with Karlov Manner ruining Ravnica has a plane. meanwhile U Beyond even back when it was hated by everyone during the walking dead secret lair days, WOTC STILL pushed it and kept doing it despite the backlash, despite WOTC refusing to state how badly it sold and everyone saying "No cross overs".

They did have to make an aesthetic for the LOTR set. It was ugly and bad but it didn't matter.

I don't remember who brought up the idea first, but someone mentioned the idea that Universes Beyond has effectively made a second Reserve List. Outside of straight up rereleasing the same products, how are you going to reprint a lot of these cards? How do you reprint Nuka Cola Machine or Powerfist? Those cards may never be reprinted, especially if licensing is an issue.

These were very reasonable worries and still are but eight months out after the moderate success of fallout and failure of assassins creed, it's looking like bloomburrow and hopefully duskmourn and foundations will revitalize magic focused on magic.

The Black Lotus costing more than the Hubble Telescope sounds accurate. Also, F1 Universes Beyond when? I want to trample my enemies with "Max Verstappen, Collider of Rivals", counter spells with "I will not be driving for Alpine next year" and exile my opponent creatures with the artifact "Red Bull's Second Seat".

It's definitely a symptom of Hasbro's issues trickling down to WotC, but I don't think it will be the end of Magic the Gathering as a whole. My prediction is that we'll see Hasbro slowly collapse and WotC will be able to buy itself out of the company or something to that effect. Hasbro is certainly coming to an end, but Magic itself is far too strong in the long run. It'll get better. It's just gonna take time.

Bro. Doomsayers living their best lives it seems. They aren't gonna drop their ip for universes beyond.

If only you would have known about "value" boosters when you made this video

If Universes Beyond isn't enough of a problem that you stop playing, then it's not a big issue in the first place. Also no way WotC will axe the Magic IP entirely. Bad take.

Disney aquiring Hasboro is a god damn nightmare......

Sad, but true. As someone studying it right now, I also do enjoy the financial and business angle on the topic. I'm right there with you dooming about Magic's long term future and this is coming from the perspective of someone that generally has no problem with Universes Beyond. It was never UB as a concept, it's always been the excess. The push for it over everything else. That and the choices of crossover, but that's neither here nor there. The question though is what we mean with "end" of mtg? If we're speaking about it just as an ongoing production and a product, yeah, it's probably going to crash and burn if they don't pull some miracle shit. However, what would happen to Magic after it's death? What kind of communities would remain/grow around what is essentially a dead game and would it be able to prosper? That's a whole different topic and one I'm quite underqualified to speculate on, but I would be surprised if Magic didn't have staying power beyond just following new releases. I for one know I'd still be here so long as people keep playing. If the local folk wanna host a cube draft or commander night, I'm there. I'll still be on Discord playing our progression-series through Magic (and I mean hey, we'd even have an end-point for that then). If a convention's hosting some Magic, I'll be at the tables. Whenever I envision the moment, when Wizards or Magic goes belly-up, I take a bit of solace in that idea.

8 months later and its so over 💀

I am one of the players jumping ship, so to speak. It is really hard to parse through sets that don't feel like Magic sets. Yugioh has yet to cross streams with other IPs and I like that. Flesh and Blood doesn't have Godzilla or transformers and I like that. Lorcana is... just kidding, I will not play that game of I can help it. Thanks for the video. Informative and enlightening. It's also nice to have the foreboding feelings I have put into words. Scary that the best tcg in the world has also become the Fortnite tcg

Fire vid. I hope your right.

Magic has become Fortnite.

I feel like there's "seemingly" so little push by the players against Universes Beyond, because most of the hardcore lore fans of old just moved on when we saw the warning signs. Or if not properly moved on, just became disenchanted with the game we used to love and just check on how the game is doing from time to time, sticking to discussing it with other players with similar gripes. I have no proof of this to be the case, but i think most people who play MTG nowadays are relatively "new" players, who got introduced to the game at the very least, around New Phyrexia. I started playing when Portal came out, so when i think MTG i think of the Urza block, or Judgement, Zendikar or Mirrodin, and of trying to piece together the lore of the block through the cards, so there's no conceivable way i can look at Secret Lairs like, TWD, or Dr. Who, or whatever, and think that it would fit in any way or form into the game, without at the very least a silver border for all cards, and a ban across any serious format. The idea of creating in-lore counterparts to SL collabs is proper implementation, but really inconsistent in their handling. At this point i'm just hoping for the Secret Lairs to get even more ridiculous, just to see how far they can take it before normie fans start questioning what game they are even playing. Maybe we can get a Pickle Rick SL in our lifetime.

I really hope that the Marvel universes beyond set is an absolute failure. I think the reason why LOTR was so successful was that it’s a FANTASY IP being put into a FANTASY game. Idk much about doctor who but I’m pretty sure it had medium levels of success. My point is, I hope that enough magic players recognize that Marvel (or Star Wars in the future) simply just doesn’t belong in MTG and just avoid the product overall. Obviously it won’t happen, but it’s why me and some of my friends didn’t care for Doctor Who since it doesn’t really fit with the theme. I’m fine with Fallout, since I think it fits better. Assassins creed could be ok but I’m not sure. And Jurassic park was just a shoe in for more dinosaurs so that’s not that much of a stretch IMO

Why not, instead of firing dozens of employees, cut back on the bonuses for the higher ups. I'm sorry, but they don't need the fifth Rolls-Royce.

You asked for counterpoints...I don't have any. I've hated UB since the first Secret Lair. They've introduced UB from IP's that I like such as Street Fighter and League of Legends and I never got excited. UB is a blight on the game.

Stop giving them money. I did. I have a bunch of ways to play that do not involve wotc or hasbro at all

Well, it's time to move to Flesh and Blood :)))))

But why is that bad? Everyone I met loves it

Based

I think when people hears crossovers thinks the world will tear apart and hell will be upon us, but in reality, no matter if there is or there isn't crossovers in magic people want to play the game because is fun. If we still have people creating new cards and making fun moments with friends in local game stores we don't have to worry❤❤❤

The only thing i disagree with you is this idea that magic would have to be wiped in favor of Universes Beyond. For me there will be a point in wich Magic as a brand will be seen as a cardsystem to several IPs, even if it mantains the original lore. Hell, i belive that this will be the case after Assassins Creed set: after that point magic will be seen as absolute clownfiest of IPs.

As someone who started playing Magic in the 90's and actively supported it through the 2000's and then dropped off (stopped in the early 2010's because kids and mortgage sapped my time and money), I'm flabbergasted by how many cards are being released each year. Back in my day (lords, I'm old enough to say that all the time now), we'd get a block with a large set and two small sets each year, and a core set of white border reprints every other year. Now we get 5 large sets a year, each with their own commander precons, and multiple supplemental sets each year to fill the gaps. This card acceleration clearly wasn't a decision for the health of the game. It really started picking up steam around the time that collector packs, bonus sheets and Secret Lairs became the norm. Those, plus Universes Beyond all scream "Cash Grab!". I haven't bought a booster box since Dominaria. I haven't attended a pre-release since Dark Ascension. I haven't bought a precon since Commander 2011. I don't see any of that changing, possibly ever. The only silver lining I can find is that the Universes Beyond seem to be well designed and made by true fans of the IPs. Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who and Fallout have all been warmly recieved, from what I can tell, and as a casual fan of all three, I'm happy with how they were translated into card form. If they can take the time to design cards, decks and sets that resonate with both sides of the audience, they'll be fine. If that quality drops consistently, that's when it's time to worry. Jurassic Park and Assassin's Creed don't give me a lot of hope, though.

Hasbro has pushed Wizards into making Magic a 'premium' card game with lack-luster content. I MIGHT buy the Final Fantasy UB, but that's only because it's an IP that I genuinely like. If they had a World of Warcraft UB, I'd absolutely buy some because I love that IP, but current Magic is filled with content I dislike and feels out of place. I DESPISE Dr. Who because the majority of art doesn't fit and it feels so out of place playing against that ugly 13th Doc. The ONLY thing Magic has going for it is Commander because it's a group format. If the WoW TCG still existed, I could have seen it having it's own Commander-esq format, but most other TCGs don't look as though they'd fit well for something like that. I started playing when Forgotten Realms released and since that point have most likely spent well over $3,000 on the game because it was something to do with my good friends that WASN'T League of Legends and that we ALL enjoyed. However, now I feel pushed to proxy more than feel proud about spending money on a hobby I love. Wizards is getting abused by Hasbro and Magic is suffering as a result. Corporate greed almost fully killed WoW because of Bobby Dick, so no wonder a guy named Cock is screwing over another company.

Magic needs a good series of blockbuster movies like Marvel or LOTR have

I'll be honest, as a newer player, I think the Magic IP is pretty weak. I feel like they've mismanaged the story a lot, and don't have a lot of strong characters or villains at this point. I've stayed away from magic for years because I thought the game was ugly and boring. I really enjoyed the new phyrexians, and then they killed them off. I do agree that if they can't sustain their core IP and turn this into a free-for-all crossover without any of their own contributions that the game is going to die. It seems like they're doing an okay job of that with karlov manor, and some upcoming in-universe sets. Wizards is not proposing universes beyond as a way of growing their player base to investors, but rather as a way of engaging their current players. I think they have a fairly solid handle on what they are doing on the commander side, even if their other formats are withering on the vine, but it is also entirely possible that they are pursuing a bubble by releasing so many sets a year.

I wonder what the difference is in the payout when it comes to UB IP and magic. Surely, it must cost a lot less to pay for the license than to pay employees to write stories and original characters 🤷‍♂️

I have no problem for hating the capitalistic evils of Hasbro. Hasbro is a nightmare monstrosity. That being said, I have no issues with the UB things. In fact, I wish they actually made the UB properties with magic IP in mind. The huge spark rupture was awkward for where we are now, but I mean, we have characters in Magic's IP that are literally meant to hop around the multiverse. Would it not have been genuinely awesome for Ral Zarek to drop in on the Who set for a story? Liliana showing up in Warhammer's verse and turning the tide of a random fight? (It makes more sense for WH40k since it's an eternal war, so the point is better made there.) There's no reciprocity acknowledging that Magic's tendrils should, theoretically, reach further than they are. Planeswalkers can come and go as they please to any universe. So let them! There was a crossover for SMITE that I actually thought was pretty cool - it's just a bunch of skins for MTG characters, but they made sense in that, the planeswalkers _can just go there._ The only one that didn't was Atraxa, but I guess a planeswalker could have brought her? Lol. I dunno. For me, it's all game pieces. The stories for Magic haven't been as amazing as they used to be, so I just like seeing all the different game pieces. I'm not worried about the art on them, or the names. I just like having a diverse array of game pieces to throw at people.

Yeah sounds like comment bait. I’ll bite. You make it sound like Magic The Gathering is this pure original IP, that doesn’t “borrow” from other themes, stories, etc. I mean weren’t we playing with pirates, dinosaurs, vampires and merfolk not too long ago? Aren’t other videos even pointing at similarities between Heartstone and this years “original” releases? I don’t think it’s a pure IP that is being spoiled by other IPs. Just like you mentioned is not like quality has been it’s strength either. I think this stance is too dramatic. What changed is the realization that Magic The gathering is not a game but a platform. The card system works so well that any lore can fit in and work. Wether people prefer to play “original” IPs or anything else they want to throw at it, the core of the game has remained the same. The absurdity would be someone complaining about a future dragon card from a game of thrones set, because it’s not “real” magic. Or an elf from LOTR. Also they can very much coexist. No one forces anyone to buy or play any set. The real problem here is that developing a proven IP takes a long time and with Magic, the core game was polished and perfected much quicker than the lore. At this point it’s not about “easy mode”, the competition already has an established IP. Pokémon had the easy mode. Basically wizards built their core business, and then they reverted their rights and now they just push their IP. Wizard has to make each universe work and feel like the real thing, and play well otherwise the collaborations will not work. If you want real doom and gloom, imagine a future were even that fails. Also you make it sound like Wizards depends on Magic The Gathering, I think they would do pretty well without it. Instead of gatekeeping this, you would want this to work, otherwise it could be the whole game that phases out, not just those original dinosaurs, pirates, ninjas, zombies, vampires, etc. etc.

I love when they made Theros, Amonkhet, Khaldheim, etc. Loved the cultural feel. I'm not a fan of the new universes beyond. My exception is Lord of the Rings. I would be happy if they made a million more LOTR sets.

I will say I don't think UB is inherently bad for the game as long as there's still actual magic IP. And I'm not sure I 100% buy that original IP is going to completely go away, or if it does we still have a ways to go. Honestly, I think (and hope) that the cracks in their short-sighted plan are going to get too big to ignore before we reach that point.

I miss old school universes beyond. When people created custom art for their cards.

I thought so, but the universes beyond cards have been some of the best designed cards of the last at least half decade of not decade. Warhammer 40k, Walking Ddad, Street Fighter, LotR, the Jurassic park cards spoiled. You’d think they’d be cash grab gimmicks but what has seemed to happen is ppl that love the IP and MTG have found creative mechanically sound ways to combine the IPs. Ghyrson has been one of my favorite commanders to pilot of recent years. A lot of the other points are good though. I worked at Circuit City at the end too lol.

i dont think it'll kill the game, theres lots of players that arent players yet since they just havent been interested, but itll more "start a new era" for the game rather than kill/end it. itll probably end magic "as we've known it" but not actually do anything all that bad

tbh i hate universes beyond, they lack imagination from mtg staff, and usually seem like cash grabs. modern companies are just terrible. everyone of them. they want to make fast money, never invest into fanbase. also i HATE marvel/disney with passion, i hope it will be their lowest selling set.

Godzilla, Fallout & Assassin's Creed are making me play Magic when I would play DBS or Digimon otherwise

I was very alarmist when universe is beyond became prevalent but I have really changed my mind about it. I didn't want walking Dead cards on my magic table but I don't have to play with them. I like the reskinning of cards like that so they can fit a more MTG theme but things like Lord of the rings and even Warhammer fit perfectly within a game that is jumping from multiverse to multiverse anyway. The key is that you don't have to play them and you can still enjoy this game for the rest of your life even if you never bought a universal beyond card or a secret lair. I think remastered sets and secret layers are far more damaging to the game than anything universe is beyond has come out with. If you don't like the universe is beyond then you can skip them and it actually makes less set the year that you have to keep up with. So for people that don't like them it's a blessing and for people that do like them it's still a blessing

" ___ will KILL Magic the Gathering" is a mantra that has been repeated since the game's inception. WotC is not going to kill off their own original, unique content because then it just gives more power to external companies and they become completely dependent on other companies to survive. You really enjoyed making the comparison to Fortnite in this video, Fortnite still creates and releases original content so it really comes off as unfounded.

I despise Universes Beyond but people seem to love it. If the product sells, if consumers like it, what's the problem?

What is with everyone gatekeeping your niche game?

Listen as a budding mtg player coming from yugioh i think the universe beyond is awesome it’s what got me coming to the game I will agree booster prices are fucking nuts but I like the whole fortnight treatment it’s not like magic lore is even that good anymore idk maybe I’m wrong but I think it’s a great thing but they could do with lowering prices

Apparently Yu-Gi-Oh also is dying due to the complex nature of the current game: lots of old players, just no new.

when he said he respects rosewater, he lost all my respect

ok boomer