Magic: The Gathering’s Epic Future: New Sets and MTG Crossovers Through 2026

Wizards of the Coast has shared with us more than twenty Magic: The Gathering sets taking us all the way into 2026, including everything from Standard-legal releases, Remastered sets, Universes Beyond, and some incredible MTG crossovers such as Jurassic Park, Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed.

Let’s look at what’s in store for MTG sets, and recap what we’ve had so far in 2023 and 2024.

Overview of Upcoming MTG Sets

Recap and 2023-2024 season

Wilds of Eldraine

The first standard-legal set we’re going to look at, Wilds of Eldraine is the follow -up to the much loved (and highly overpowered) Throne of Eldraine and was released in September 2023. As Magic: The Gathering’s ‘fairy tale’ world, Eldraine brought us more fun takes on classic stories, including Snow White and The Pied Piper.

Dr Who

October brought us the release of Universes Beyond Dr Who, featuring four commander decks and Collector Boosters with new cards and reprints, including art variants. More on this below!

Lost Caverns of Ixalan

The final Standard set of 2023, Lost Caverns of Ixalan was another Standard-legal set returning to a plane we’ve been to before, this time taking an ‘underground’ journey through the land of dinosaurs, pirates, vampires and merfolk. Within boosters, players could also find Jurassic Park Universes Beyond cards, legal in eternal formats.

Ravnica Remastered

It’s hard to believe that we first visited Ravnica almost 20 years ago back in 2005, so it makes perfect sense to revisit everyone’s favourite ‘city’ plane with a best-of set. Ravnica Remastered isn’t Standard-legal, but features many much-sought after reprints in a fun draftable format.

Murders at Karlov Manor

The first Standard-legal set of 2024 was also set on Ravnica, although you might not realise it (the guilds were almost entirely absent). Murders at Karlov Manor was a ‘murder mystery’ themed set brought to life with mechanics such as ‘investigate’.

Ravnica: Cluedo Edition

In a far-from-subtle Hasbro MTG crossover, Murders at Karlov Manor also released with Ravnica: Cluedo Edition, enabling players to play a hybrid of Magic: The Gathering and Cluedo, all in a single box.

Fallout

One of my personal favourite releases of the year so far has been Universes Beyond Fallout. Four pre-con Commander decks and Collector Boosters of reprints with Fallout flavour was without doubt one of the most popular releases of the year.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction

Yee-haw! Outlaws of Thunder Junction in Magic: The Gatherings first cowboy set, focusing on some of the game’s biggest villains. Outlaws is Standard-legal, and features bonus sheets such as ‘Breaking News’ with some much needed eternal-legal reprints.

Assassin’s Creed

Another Universes Beyond based on a popular computer game, Assassin’s Creed is legal in Modern and eternal formats, featuring both new cards and reprints with Assassin’s Creed flavour, available in Collector and Beyond Boosters.

Modern Horizons 3

The latest ‘Horizons’ set, designed to skip Standard and go straight to Modern, Modern Horizons 3 already wowed players with its format-spanning impact and deep limited play. New Commander decks, including one focused on Lhurgofys, have been well-loved too.

Bloomburrow

Bloomburrow is a Standard-legal set based on the (super cute) animal plane of Valley. Little creatures go on big adventures in the ‘typal’ set, focusing on creature types like frogs, squirrels, mice and otters.

Duskmourn: House of Horror

A standard set schedule for Halloween, Duskmourn provides a new take on a horror world of Innistrad – modern horror, featuring references to classic ‘80s horror movies, even with a few TVs on cards! Apparently, the entire plane is one giant haunted mansion… spooky!

MTG sets 2025

Innistrad Remastered

Speaking of horror, early 2025 returns us to our gothic horror roots with Innistrad Remastered – providing much-loved reprints and a draftable format.

Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy is the first Universes Beyond for 2025, featuring cards from each of the franchise’s releases and, while not Standard-legal, will be coming to MTG Arena much like the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth.

Codename “Tennis”

All we know about ‘Tennis’ so far is that it’s Magic: The Gathering’s take on the ‘racing’ genre, a death race moving across planes made possible by the omen paths. Sounds very odd, but let’s wait to see the cards! A little ‘Twisted Metal’ perhaps?

Codename “Ultimate”

“Ultimate” will be a return to the plane of Tarkir, so expect multi-coloured dragons in the much-loved ‘wedge’ world.  

Codename: “Volleyball”

If you thought a death race sounded odd, wait until the ‘Space Opera’ set of ‘Volleyball’ is released… my mind goes to ‘The Fifth Element’, we’ll find out more soon!  

Codename: “Wrestling”

Wrestling is another Stand-legal return to a much-loved plane, this time to Lorwyn, the plane of faeries, kithkin, elves and more.

MTG sets 2026

Codename: “Yachting”

Little is known about “yachting”, aside from it’s a return to the ‘Wizard School/Harry Potter’ inspired wizard school world of Strixhaven.

Codename: Ziplining

Ziplining is a set that will wrap up the current storyline, similar to War of the Spark.

Details on Major IP Crossovers

One of the major themes of the coming years is the inclusion of some very exciting and highly anticipated crossovers, namely in Jurassic Park, Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed.

Jurassic Park fitted perfectly with the dinosaur world of Ixalan, and cards are included in Lost Caverns of Ixalan boosters much as we saw Transformer cards in The Brother’s War packs. Assassin’s Creed and Final Fantasy are different in that they are full-sets – providing players with even more from the franchises they love. Filled with highly south-after reprints with new treatments, and new cards that will be legal in eternal formats, there will be something for everyone in these exciting crossover products.

Introduction of Unique Anime Art Cards

Magic: The Gathering has dabbled with anime cards several times, however with the vast increase in the number of treatments per set, we’re seeing an increased amount of Anime variants. Wilds of Eldraine has 20 anime style versions of powerful enchantment reprints, while Ravnica Remastered has 30. While they certainly look different to traditional Magic: The Gathering art, they aren’t anywhere near as big a departure as some of the Secret Lair variants we’ve seen over recent years, and fans of the slightly more ‘comic book’ appearance are going to love them.

The Universes Beyond Sets

One thing we know is that Universes Beyond will continue to be released with an increasing number of MTG crossovers. It’s well documented that sets such as The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth and Fallout are among the most popular products Wizards of the Coast have ever released. One such set is the Dr Who Commander decks and Collector boosters, featuring 50 new MTG cards in each deck along with reprints with Dr Who flavour. Each deck allows players to have two commanders in a variant of ‘partner’ called ‘Doctor’s companion’, alongside Planechase cards that enable players to visit the different worlds from the TV show.

Three of the four decks feature Doctors from the TV show, while the fourth is dedicated to the villains. Each has a ‘whacky’ theme, according to designer Gavin Verhey:

• Blast From the Past is a Green/Blue/White deck with the first eight doctors, and, as such, has a ‘historic’ theme caring about legends, artifcats and sagas
• Time-Wimey is a Red/Blue/White deck featuring doctors nine, ten and eleven, centring on the theme of time via the suspend mechanic and the new ability of ‘time travel’
• Paradox Power is a Green/Blue/Red deck featuring doctors twelve and thirteen and is based around playing cards from anywhere other than your hand, such as from the exile zone
• Masters of Evil – as the name suggests – is based on villains, in Black/Blue/Red, and forces your opponent to make villainous choices, which are bound to be bad for them!

Celebrating 30 Years of Magic: The Gathering

There’s no doubt in my mind that Magic: The Gathering is the best game ever created and has gone from strength to strength over the last 30 years. For many years Magic: The Gathering was all about Standard, skewing more to the competitive scene, with a few eternal formats to play older cards. Now, Magic has become more of a game system catering for all kinds of players, whether a pro or casual, across a huge number of formats, and with exciting new MTG crossovers. Not only do these collaborations widen the game’s appeal in bringing in new players, but they create a whole new game experience – why not dip into the world of Fallout by hosting a Commander game night using the four new pre cons? Some may say Wizards is churning out these products to improve the company’s bottom line, however it’s essential for the game to evolve to ensure it remains relevant and continues to exist. One of the biggest changes over the past 30 years, catalysed in part by the rise of Commander, is the vast increase in ways to play and the further legitimising of casual play. Magic has never had more going on, so cheers to another 30 years!