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As a big Universes Beyond release and the first major Marvel set from Magic: The Gathering, Spider-Man had a lot to live up to. IP crossovers always have to justify their own existence, and while there have been many similar collisions in recent years – Lord of the Rings, Final Fantasy – Spider-Man shoulders the burden of being just the first release in what's meant to be many more. So, in other words, there's definitely a great responsibility. Which is also why it's such a shame that Magic's Spider-Man set is lacking in great power.
Admittedly, I'm an odd mishmash of target audiences when it comes to one of the best card games. While I'm historically a huge Marvel nerd with Spider-Man being first in line and X-Men a close second, I'm also one of those curmudgeons that really, truly love the iconic Magic: The Gathering storylines. My heart lives in the Weatherlight Saga and dies with the Nine Titans on Phyrexia; Freyalise is, to this day, my favorite planeswalker.
But I am officially on the record as being really into the Final Fantasy set. It didn't financially ruin me as much as I'd anticipated, but I did spend more than I'd like to admit here in writing. And before that, the Lord of the Rings set was good fun, with great art and fascinating mechanics. I like Universes Beyond, conceptually, when the designers are able to play in a slightly different sandbox. Sometimes, it really is as simple as two great tastes that go great together. Spider-Man, unfortunately, has left me cold, which I suspect is the opposite of where Magic's creatives would like me – a longtime Magic fan with a historic clear interest in Marvel both nostalgic and temporaneous – to be.
Spider-Man is far from the only friendly neighbourhood hero when it comes to MTG, because the Turtles are on their way. As an '80s kid, MTG Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just feels right... but why can Aunt May and a Pigeon beat Super Shredder?
I've struggled to pinpoint what it is about this specific set that hasn't worked for me. Beyond a general distaste and a lack of excitement surrounding the card mechanics (save for J. Jonah Jameson's menace interaction) the one true sticking point and actively negative aspect is the bizarre Through the Omenpaths release in Magic's digital properties. The digital half of Magic has stripped all of the branding from the Spider-Man set in favor of what one might consider to be a more traditional release, splitting any interest in the set effectively in half in the process. There's some kind of legal reason for this lurking in the background, but the end result is absolutely bizarre.
A core problem here is that I suspect I'm not alone in experiencing Spider-Verse fatigue. It's not simply a matter of being tired of superheroes – I'm decidedly not, and even if Fantastic Four this year was ultimately too maudlin to move me, Thunderbolts managed to remind me what I loved about Marvel's movies in the first place. My exhaustion is much more specific. Spider-Verse, when it first arrived on the scene, felt like a breath of fresh air, introducing tons of vibrant characters and bringing forgotten ones back into the spotlight.
And then comics… went back to the same well. More Spider-Verse. And again. Then the movies. Then the comics again. And now, finally, we've come to the moment where this exact same event with multiversal shenanigans and many different versions of Spider-Man and his mythos has come to an exceptionally popular trading card game – and I feel nothing. This isn't a thrill; it's yet another example in the long history of Marvel rehashing its most popular events but in a different format.
It's an awkward first step forward for the new normal of Magic. And it's leading directly into an Avatar: The Last Airbender set in November, followed by a more traditional Magic set called Lorwyn Eclipsed, followed by yet another IP crossover in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If I were being generous, I could chalk it up to growing pains. Magic is expanding in new and different ways; there's bound to be some friction. But if I were being less generous, I would point out that Magic already had 30 years to figure out how to make good and cool cards.
The Magic: The Gathering set Marvel's Spider-Man is available now in stores and online retailers. If you'd like to try something a little different, why not swing by our guide to the best board games?
