MTG Salvation

Just in time for Star Wars’ 49th anniversary on May 25, Disney released The Mandalorian and Grogu.  The film which stars Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian, Din Djarin is the first movie to hit theaters for Star Wars since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.  With an audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 88%, it begs the question, “what can Star Wars fans hope to top this in just one year for the 50th anniversary of Star Wars?” The answer just might be Universes Beyond.

In 2025, Wizards of the Coast asked players if they prefer cats or dogs.  The results are in and cats won the vote.  Therefore, at the first MagicCon of 2026 in Las Vegas, Secret Lair announced that a Cats are the Best Superdrop is coming. To celebrate the moment, a cat adoption was set up and there was always a line of people waiting to meet the cats in person.  We now know exactly what will be included in each drop.

On September 23, 2024, four cards were banned in Commander that would ultimately change the entire direction of the format.  Those four cards — Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom were popular format staples for Commander players. Their bans overnight changed how players could construct decks and the backlash was loud.  In response to the heavy criticism, including death threats, a week later on September 30, the Commander Rules Committee, disbanded and handed control of the format over to Wizards of the Coast. In turn, WotC formed the Commander Format Panel(CFP), with designer Gavin Verhey at the helm of the format for the company. 

Wizards of the Coast, makers of Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons are owned by Hasbro. In addition to that, Hasbro’s portfolio includes popular IPs like Monopoly Go!, Transformers, and Play-Doh.  With today’s Q1 investor’s call being published on Hasbro’s website, we’re seeing that Magic: The Gathering continues to be the most profitable of these franchises.

In 2025, Marvel’s Spider-Man released on tabletop but due to contractual limitations, Marvel IPs could not be added to MTG Arena directly.  As a result, game designers for MTG Arena had to create a 1 for 1 copy of each new card being printed for Marvel’s Spider-Man using a different card name and art and release it for MTG Arena under the banner of Through the Omenpaths.  At the time, it was explained that future Marvel sets would also be released on MTG by way of Through the Omenpaths recreations. Now, according to an announcement on Daily MTG, that decision has been reversed and Marvel IPs both past and future will be able to come to MTG Arena.