Following the success of crossovers Secret Lair: The Walking Dead and Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, Wizards of the Coast is full steam ahead on its 'Universes Beyond' range for the Magic the Gathering. Bringing outside franchises into the game, sometimes as reprints and sometimes as mechanically unique cards, they've been a controversial addition.
With crossovers with Warhammer 40K, Stranger Things, Lord of the Rings, Fortnite, and Street Fighter already announced, here are five things we'd love to see get the Universes Beyond treatment later down the line.
5 Discworld
A lot of Magic the Gathering stuff is very intense. In the last couple of years, we've had Innistrad's eternal night, Ikoria's last bastion of humanity facing off against monsters, an escape from the Theros underworld in Theros: Beyond Death, and a full-scale interplanar war in War of the Spark. It'd be nice to have something a bit more lighthearted, and what better way of doing this is there than Terry Pratchett?
Pratchett's Discworld is one of the funniest fantasy series ever made, without being a full-on genre parody. Despite being full of off-beat and weird humor, it was also a cohesive and well-made world well worth exploring in card form. The hapless wizard Rincewind, Death and his apprentice Mort, the city of Ankh-Morpok, the Hogfather, Granny Weatherwax, the list goes on for characters and settings that could appear in a Universes Beyond crossover.
Magic does funny cards all the time, even in black border "official" cards (you can't look at the punk-rock Chatterfang and say Magic is a serious game for serious people), but Discworld would really go a long way towards lightening the tone as we go into another thematically dark year for the core game.
4 Redwall
Brian Jacques' Redwall series has been read and loved by children since the first book debuted in 1986. Over the next 25 years, 22 entries into the series were published, chronicling the Redwall Abbey and the animals that lived in it, and the outsiders who threatened their peace. Not bound by any strict chronological order, the Redwall series spanned hundreds of years and was full of legend and history. From Martin the Warrior and Cluny the Scourge right back to Lord Brocktree's quest to find the Salamndastron, there is so much to work with.
More importantly, Redwall has a very specific aesthetic that would fit perfectly into Magic. Anthropomorphic animals fighting hard battles before returning to the Abbey for a delicious feast, it has vibes of Magic's high fantasy settings of Eldraine and Lorwyn, while also being refreshingly lighter in tone. Having Wizards' roster of artists bring the Abbey to life would be incredible.
This may sound like a weirdly specific and deep cut for a list such as this, but don't forget: Netflix is working on an animated movie and TV show based on Redwall. If we've had Stranger Things, why not stretch to Redwall?
3 Dead By Daylight
In Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, we were introduced to the Fleshtaker. A mysterious figure roaming around Innistrad wearing a pig's head, the Fleshtaker takes victims back to his abattoir before murdering them and suspending them on meathooks. It's one of the most interesting new lore morsels given in the set, but it could be taken so much further.
Dead By Daylight features an entire roster of horrific serial killers, inspired by cinema's greatest slasher villains. Ranging from the grounded, like The Tricker's craving for attention or The Legion's band of teenagers, to the fantastical Spirit and Oni, there is so much for Wizards to work with here.
What's more, Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive isn't opposed to crossovers. A significant portion of the game's playable characters come from other media: Pyramid Head, Freddy Krueger, Ghost Face, Michael Myers, Pinhead, even Stranger Things' Demogorgon. A crossover could work both ways, with Magic's famous killers Massacre Girl and Fleshtaker not putting in their own appearances in Dead by Daylight at the same time.
2 Dishonored
Dishonored takes place in the 'whalepunk' Empire of the Isles, where ancient gods interfere in the political machinations of the ruling elite. As the rich vie for power, the common people suffer more and more from plague, crime, and oppression. Though the series tends to stay more towards exploring the political power plays of the Empire, a Magic crossover could go right the way through Dishonored's society. It's interesting to imagine a Dishonored set as something of a tribal theme, in line with Magic's own color philosophies. Ranging from the very Orzhov-Esque rulers of Dunwall to the Gruul-ish Witches hiding out in Serkonos, even the Outsider, the 'impartial' eldritch being who gives many characters their magical abilities, would make for a fantastic colorless card.
There could even be an artifact subtheme, thanks to the technological genius of Anton Sokolov. Clockwork Soldiers make for compelling Artifact creatures, while Walls of Light, Arc Pylons could also play a role. Don't forget the numerous gadgets and weapons the main characters use: Korvo's expanding sword, Emily Kaldwin's crossbow, sleep darts, mines, the works. A Dishonored crossover would also hit a thematic place we've not quite seen in Magic the Gathering yet. Combining Kaladesh's steampunk stylings with Innistrad's eldritch horrors, with an extra helping of nautical aesthetic for good measure, the Empire of the Isles feels like it's destined to find its way to Magic eventually.
1 Pokemon
Wizards of the Coast and Pokemon have major history, with Magic's creator also being the first publisher of the Pokemon TCG outside of Japan. Though things ended sourly in 2003, when Wizards relinquished the license to the Pokemon TCG and then sued Nintendo for stolen insider secrets, it might be worth revisiting the relationship now, 19 years later?
A crossover between Pokemon and MTG could go a few different ways: first, classic Magic cards could be reprinted in the Pokemon TCG frame. Imagine casting a Lightning Bolt that looks like a trainer card, or playing a Mountain that's actually a fire-type Energy. A Sakura Tribe-Elder on a Grass Pokemon backing, a Stadium card that's actually an Enchantment, there is so much flexibility for making some unique-looking Magic cards.
The alternative is the complete opposite direction, with Pokemon and Trainers from across the series' history being printed as Magic creatures on the normal Magic frame. Being able to make a Team Rocket-themed Commander deck would be so exciting, or even using Pokemon as functional reprints of existing cards, like a Charizard Goldspan Dragon or a Houndoom Akoum Hellhound.
There is significant overlap between Pokemon and Magic's player bases, and it would be nice to see Wizards and The Pokemon Company finally reconcile decades after their falling out.