While Spider-Man and his Marvel cohorts will be swinging into the Magic: The Gathering multiverse later this year, Spidey and friends will not be showing up on MTG Arena or Magic Online.
Wizards of the Coast (WotC) announced today that the future of digital Magic and Universes Beyond products will be handled differently on a set-by-set basis. Some sets, like this year’s releases of Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY and Magic: The Gathering | Avatar: The Last Airbender will appear in whole on MTG Arena and Magic Online. However, Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man and all future Marvel sets will not be appearing on digital platforms.
Because all Universes Beyond sets will be Standard legal, starting with Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY in June, WotC needs a solution for keeping Constructed environments the same across tabletop and digital play. The answer is what WotC has dubbed Through the Omenpaths.
“Through the Omenpaths releases will be digital sets that are Universes Within versions of Universes Beyond sets that otherwise wouldn’t be coming to digital Magic platforms. These digital cards will be mechanically identical to their Universes Beyond tabletop counterparts but with unique creative treatments, different art, and different names.”
Blake Rasmussen
Notably, WotC is only planning to create Through the Omenpaths releases for full sets that are legal in all formats. This means certain Universes Beyond products like Commander Decks may not ever come to digital platforms.
Some Magic players will already be familiar with the Universes Within process of translating UB cards into in-world cards with the alternate versions of cards from The Walking Dead and Street Fighter. Still, this will be the first undertaking of this size as WotC will have to flavor-shift an entire Standard set to allow for Limited and Constructed to play the same as tabletop offerings.
The first Through the Omenpaths set on will release on September 23, three days before the worldwide release of Magic: The Gathering | Marvel’s Spider-Man. More information will be available later this year.
Read the official announcement from WotC.
