Magic: The Gathering likely to get a World of Warcraft set with D&D crossover

Wizards of the Coast announced at Gen Con that it is bringing Magic: The Gathering’s controversial but undeniably lucrative Universes Beyond strategy to Dungeons & Dragons, starting by journeying to Azeroth for Dungeons & Dragons: World of Warcraft. That’s big news for tabletop role-playing game players, but also for the Magic community, since it almost assuredly means that World of Warcraft will also be getting a Magic set next year. Wizards announced three Magic Multiverse sets at MagicCon: Amsterdam in July, but is likely saving the Universes Beyond reveal for MagicCon: Atlanta in November. One of the three Universes Beyond sets will almost certainly be tied to Marvel as part of the multiyear partnership that saw the release of Marvel’s Spider-Man in 2025 and Marvel Super Heroes in 2026. That leaves two more slots, the first of which is coming on April 9. While there are some players opposed to all Universes Beyond sets, Wizards has faced the most pushback for ones that feel too far removed from the game’s fantasy identity, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the upcoming Star Trek set. During the company’s latest earnings call, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks said the 2027 Universes Beyond partners would be more fantasy-adjacent. Image: Wizards of the Coast World of Warcraft would certainly qualify. It already incorporates many of the design elements Magic uses. It has several of the same well-established creature types like elves, zombies, and dragons, a huge library of spells and equipment, and zones that could serve as lands. It’s easy to imagine how Magic’s five colors could be spread across Azeroth, from the red banners of the Horde in Orgrimmar to the shining white marble of Stormwind to the dark depths of Undercity. World of Warcraft was one of our top picks for a future Universes Beyond set even before the Dungeons & Dragons tie-in was announced. There’s almost no way Wizards of the Coast can ignore that synergy, especially when it will save the company money on art, since the same assets can be used across both games. They already have a history of bringing the brands together with the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms (2021) Magic set and D&D sourcebooks like Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020), Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos (2021) and Lorwyn: First Light (2025). Image: Wizards of the Coast “I love all our Magic products like Strixhaven, Lorwyn, and Theros,” D&D creative leader Laura Hohman said during a virtual press conference. “We will continue figuring out the best timing and best strategies for each release that we have on our roadmap. I can’t say whether there’s going to be any overlap. We’ve got World of Warcraft coming in Q4, which is really what we’re focused on. But we’re always going to do what’s best for each partnership.” The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game has been out of print since 2013, when it was effectively replaced by the digital collectible card game Hearthstone. Wizards is primarily in the business of selling physical cards, and Blizzard likely isn’t too worried about losing players to Magic: The Gathering Arena. But that could be an issue for D&D's second Universes Beyond collaboration, Star Wars, which will be released in 2027. Fantasy Flight launched Star Wars: Unlimited two years ago and will be releasing its ninth set in October. The game's designers say they have plans through 2028, and they have been cultivating a competitive scene through events like July's Galactic Championship tournament in Las Vegas. Rumors circulated that Magic was working on a Star Wars set in April when some Secrets of Strixhaven cards had foil stamps with an X-wing design, but that appears to have been a mixup at a factory printing cards for both games. It's possible that Wizards was only able to secure the TTRPG license for Star Wars, which is still highly valuable. Though if they could argue that a Magic set didn't compete with Fantasy Flight's ongoing game, Star Wars would also qualify as fantasy-adjacent. It would make good use of the spacecraft rules introduced in Edge of Eternities and offer plenty of cool creatures, legends, and equipment. Two of next year's Universes Beyond sets are very likely to be Marvel and World of Warcraft, and it's very possible that Star Wars will join them.