Magic: the Gathering will launch two new crossover products with Lord of the Rings and Warhammer 40k in the coming years, revealed Wizards of the Coast CEO Chris Cocks during Hasbro’s 2021 investor event.
The products will be part of a new class of products that Wizards is calling Universes Beyond, who “takes fan favorite brands and brings them to Magic game systems or new social and collective gaming opportunities,” said Cocks.
Cocks revealed that the next two Universes Beyond the products will feature crossovers from Warhammer 40k, a miniature war game produced by Games Workshop and Lord of the Rings. The Warhammer 40k crossover is scheduled for launch in 2022 and Wizards has confirmed that it will include Commander decks with the Warhammer 40k theme, although it is unclear whether there will be additional products. The release date for the Lord of the Rings product is unknown, but Cocks said Wizards “will include characters from the beloved Lord of the Rings universe in future Magic sets” and the Wall Street Journal said there would be a “Themed Expansion” Lord of the Rings. “
The cards will be Magic cards “in full”, Wizards said in his own article introducing the product, “but the frame will be distinctive and the cards will have a holofoil seal that indicates them as being Universes Beyond. “
THE Universes Beyond The line is based on the two initial crossover products that Wizards launched in 2020: the Godzilla Monster Series at Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths expansion, which included alternative card versions in the normal set with Godzilla characters, and Living Dead Secret Drop Lair that was made up of five mechanically unique cards (meaning they don’t exist outside your Living Dead versions) of five characters from the show. THE Universes Beyond the cards will use “both” card approaches, “but we will usually leave those cards on their own,” said Wizards. “We can find delightful opportunities to make the revamped versions of existing cards and we will continue to balance the two as we go along.”
Furthermore, “Universes Beyond the cards will not be standard legal, ”revealed to Wizards. “We strive to make Magic cards that are widely useful but Universes Beyond will be above and, well, in addition to our normal standard versions. So nothing is changing with our standard Standard release rate. This is purely a cool thing that we’re doing, in addition to all the other cool things that we’re already doing ”.
As such, the Magic’s Summer 2021 set, Dungeons and Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, which was provoked last year, is no a part of Universes In addition and will be legal standard as expected. However, the Secret Lair x The Walking Dead The fall of Secret Lair was incorporated into the product line.
Wizards said that Universes Beyond products will be “generally sold in all Magic channels ”and will not be limited to Secret Lair drops. “Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks, for example, will be available everywhere where we currently sell Commander decks, as well as the Lord of the Rings product,” confirmed Wizards. “We can occasionally associate Secret Lair products related to the main launch, such as Secret Lair Godzilla lands when Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths it went out. There will also be the occasional standalone product, such as Living Dead, but the intention is usually to Universes Beyond as available as any other Magic product. “