Universes Beyond has always sat in direct opposition to Magic: The Gathering’s homegrown multiverse sets in several key ways. While crossover expansions with Final Fantasy, Spider-Man, and Lord of the Rings all sold like hot lembas bread and helped bring new players into the fold, they lacked the intricate storytelling, original character design, and complex gameplay mechanics that the core game regularly delivers. In 2027, that’s finally going to change.
Magic’s first Universes Beyond set of 2027, Darkhold Destiny, looks to finally bridge that gap by uniting the best of both worlds in what feels like the most ambitious UB set yet. Polygon spoke to the Darkhold Destiny team ahead of the set’s big reveal at New York Comic Con 2026 to get a behind-the-scenes look. Here’s what we learned and why it has us so excited for Marvel’s third crossover set.
An original story with an original character
Here’s the biggest difference between Darkhold Destiny and previous Universes Beyond sets: Magic publisher Wizards of the Coast is using this one to tell an original story set within the Marvel sandbox. In this case, the story centers on the supervillains Hela and Dormammu getting their hands on the Darkhold and using it to unleash chaos and destruction across the Marvel multiverse. To save their worlds, a team of heroes including Thor, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch and other magic-focused characters will rise up and fight back against the forces of evil.
This might not seem like a big deal in a world where superhero team-ups are as common as, well, common Magic cards, but for Universes Beyond, it really is. The in-multiverse sets typically tell complex stories that play out over multiple years and culminate in epic event sets (like Realty Fracture). By comparison, UB typically feels more like a showcase for what another IP would look like as Magic cards. What if, instead, Wizards used Magic cards to tell an original story set in another beloved fantasy universe rather than just recreating your favorite heroes and villains as fancy pieces of cardboard? That’s the question Darkhold Destiny aims to answer.
Wizards says the idea for an original story arose naturally over the years. At first, they were just saving certain Marvel characters that felt more in-line with the core Magic vibe for something special. Then they realized that something special could be something more than a set full of witches, wizards, zombies, and elder gods — it could be an original story. Luckily, Marvel was game and even pushed Wizard to go further with the world and its characters than they had originally planned. (To support the release, Marvel will publish a comic that tells the same story as the cards.)
At a certain point, while mapping out the story of Darkhold Destiny, Wizards also realized they needed a type of character that didn’t exist yet in the Marvel universe. So with a bit of encouragement, they pitched five ideas for original superheroes. Marvel picked one, which happened to line up with something the comics publisher had already been looking to develop internally.
Wizards isn’t revealing the new character yet, but they’re hopeful that their creation will eventually show up in other Marvel stories. Magic‘s head designer, Mark Rosewater, points to DC’s Harley Quinn as a similar example of a character created outside the comics (in that case, for Batman: The Animated Series) before ultimately becoming a key player in the broader DC universe.
“That’s a staple of how comics work,” Rosewater says. “They work with different partners and the good ideas sort of make their way in.”
An expert-level Draft
Another recurring issue with Universes Beyond has been smaller set sizes (sometimes due to the limited scope of the IP they’re adapting), which leads to less interesting gameplay when it comes to Limited formats like Draft and Sealed where players create decks on the spot based on a pool of random cards.
That won’t be an issue with Darkhold Destiny. Rosewater tells me that the set supports strategies for all 10 two-color combinations, which hasn’t been the norm across Universes Beyond. Magic‘s senior vice president of design and creative, Aaron Forsyth, adds that it will feel like an expert-level set.
“It may be the most complex Universes Beyond set we’ve made because we knew that it was very aimed at Magic players,” Forsyth says. “We think this is in their wheelhouse, so we wanted to pull out all the stops with artifacts, enchantments, and sorceries. It’s not just wall-to-wall legendary creatures fighting each other.”
The future of universes beyond
So how will this huge leap forward affect future Universes Beyond sets? Wizards can’t reveal much, and the fact that the company works on each UB years in advance to navigate complex partnerships means we may not see the impact for a while. Still, it’s clear that this experience has left the team hungry to do something similar with future crossovers.
“Now that we’ve done it once, at least it’s an idea that we now have,” Rosewater says. “We’d have to find the right partner, but doing anything the first time just makes the second time more likely.”