New MTG Marvel set stars a brand-new character in an original dimension

At New York Comic Con today, Wizards of the Coast announced its next MTG Marvel set, MTG Marvel: Darkhold Destiny, which will feature all the supernatural and arcane elements conspicuously missing from the previous release. What is particularly exciting and interesting about this set, though, is that for the first time ever Wizards is telling an original story through a Universes Beyond product. The set, by the way, comes out pretty early next year: April 9, 2027.

It seems Darkhold Destiny isn’t just a collection of magical or spooky Marvel superheroes. Wizards actually sat down with Marvel to create what the MTG Daily announcement article calls a “dimension-hopping narrative”. It explores the “the secrets of the Dark Dimension”, “Marvel’s pantheon of gods”, and explores the origins of a brand-new character that hasn’t actually been introduced yet.

That character will first appear in a new Marvel comic by duo Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, in February 2027, but the Magic: The Gathering set isn’t just a tie-in to a coming new narrative; the “story was crafted by [Wizard’s] Narrative team with Magic in mind”.

This set will presumably center around the Darkhold, which if you don’t know, is essentially the Marvel Comics equivalent of the Necronomicon: a mystical text of black magic. We can expect to see sorcerer characters associated with the book, like Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange, and Morgan le Fay. Oh, and Blade will also definitely be in here, the announcement pretty explicitly teases “vampire-hunting vampires”.

In fact, it might be a good idea to stop and just list all the characters teased in the Daily MTG article. I spotted:

• Werewolf by Night
• Blade
• Mephisto
• Varnae and/or Dracula

We’ve also already seen art or card spoilers pointing to:

• Doctor Strange
• Magik/Darkchild
• Sif
• Moon Knight
• Hela
• Gargantos
• Dormammu
• The Time Stone

Finally am I reading too much into this, or is this “Some of the most hotly anticipated Super Heroes and Super Villains will make their debut in Magic, bringing all their grim power to your decks” meant to hint at a Ghost Rider card? He’s hotly and he’s grim. No? Too tin-foil hat for you?

Some clever-clogs Magic fans had already looked at the character roster in MTG Marvel: Superheroes, thought about who was missing or under-represented and then determined it was likely we’d get a release showing off the magical side of the setting. But I don’t think anyone anticipated Wizards contributing to another IP’s story through a new Magic set.

This feels like a gigantic sea change for Universes Beyond, and I sincerely hope it’s not a one-off. While it might only have been achievable because Wizards struck a long-term, multi-year partnership with Marvel, I would be so much more excited by UB sets overall if they had some actual plot to them. ‘Here’s that thing you know but as a Magic card’ is wearing a little thin.

What do you think of this new approach to a Universes Beyond set? If you’re a particularly lovely tabletop fan, we’d like to invite you to join the discussion over on the Wargamer Discord.