Magic: The Gathering’s recent MagicCon event in Las Vegas just wrapped up on Sunday. The event included events forMagic’s Pro Tour, and a variety of panels discussing the game’s latest set, and looking ahead to what is to come. While there was a lot of information shared about what’s coming later this year forMagic: The Gathering, there was one upcoming set that was notably absent from the proceedings.
Now,Magic: The Gatheringdoes have a lot in the works. Its upcomingEdge of Eternitiesset, which will introduce the new Spacecraft card type, is the next set that will be released, so naturally many of the previews focused on it over other upcoming products. We also got a briefglimpse of theAvatar: The Last Airbenderset, a look at art from next year’sLorwyn Eclipsed, and the announcement of a return to Strixhaven sometime next year. However, we didn’t get a look at a set that will be coming sooner than most of the ones previewed.
Spider-Man Didn’t Appear At MagicCon, But Avatar Did
Avatar Comes out After Spider-Man
The nextMagic: The Gatheringset that will be released afterEdge of Eternitiesis theSpider-Man Universes Beyondcrossover. It is set to be released on August 03, 2025, nearly two months beforeMagic’sAvatar: The Last Airbenderset. Although we have seen some initial previews ofSpider-Man,I was a little surprised that MagicCon Vegas’ preview panel skipped over talking about itto focus onAvatarand the sets coming next year. In fact, theSpider-Manset wasn’t even mentioned during part of the panel.
Now,I’m sure that this doesn’t mean anything negative about the set’s development.Magic: The Gatheringsets take years to develop so, this close toSpider-Man’s release date, a lot of the set’s design is probably already figured out. However, I still found it a little strange that we didn’t hear anything about it at the convention, especially given the treatment of otherUniverses Beyondsets. Looking at the most recent example,Final Fantasy, the preview schedule between it andSpider-Manseems pretty different.
We’ve Only Seen Six Spider-Man Cards So Far
We got our first look atFinal Fantasy’sMagic: The Gatheringset all the way back in February, about four months before the set released. We got a look at a variety of cards, including the double-sided Sephiroth, and all four face commanders for the set’s preconstructed decks. In total,this initial run of previews showed off 22 cards from the set.
AlthoughSpider-Manwas previewed in March, which was farther out from its release date, we only saw six cards from the set. Now, only three months from its release date,we have still only seen those initial previews. Because of rolling previews released by Square Enix oncertainFinal Fantasycharacters' birthdays, the total number of previews was up to 24 cards at this point during the wait for that set.
Although still a little late,MagicCon Vegas would have been the perfect time forMagic’sSpider-Manpreviews to catch upwith where theFinal Fantasyones were this far out from release. Additionally, Marvel hasn’t provided any rolling spoilers the same way Square Enix did between official announcements fromMagic: The Gathering. That said, there could be a good reason why Wizards of the Coast chose not to share newSpider-Mancards during MagicCon Vegas.
Why Spider-man Might Be Previewed Later
MTG Could Be Worried Spider-Man Would Overshadow Edge Of Eternity
WhenMagic: The Gatheringreleased its extensive preview ofFinal Fantasy,and as we continued to get drip-fed spoilers along the way, it did have the unfortunate side effect of somewhat overshadowingTarkir: Dragonstorm. The return to Tarkir represented a massive effort byMagic’s designers to recapture the feel of the original set while also correcting some issues with the flavor of the original set.I could easily seeMagic: The Gatheringbeing hesitant to repeat this in the lead up to theSpider-Manset.
Edge of Eternitiestakes place in a brand-new setting forMagic: The Gathering, and it’s one that a lot of care and effort has clearly been put into. I could easily imagine Wizards of the Coast not wanting to jeopardize the success of this new setting by overshadowing it withSpider-Mannews.Spider-Manbeing a massively popular IP, it probably doesn’t need as much build-up as an in-universe set anyway, so we may have to wait a bit longer to see more cards from it.
