Magic: The Gathering has made big strides into crossmedia with the Universes Beyond sets, bringing franchises like Marvel, The Lord of the Rings, and Final Fantasy into the popular trading card game fold. With the upcoming Star Trek Universes Beyond set, it’s showing that even far-future science fiction can be an intriguing addition to the decades-spanning game.
With the growing popularity of the Magic: The Gathering card game and the excitement around the new Star Trek crossover, Wizards of the Coast held a launch event for the next Universes Beyond set celebrating over 60 years of cosmic stories. We attended this special event in Los Angeles, where actors from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Voyager, Enterprise, Deep Space Nine, Strange New Worlds, Discovery, Lower Decks, and many more got to see the new cards and the Magic community in person.
Along with hearing from famous actors about seeing their characters in trading card form, we also heard from key MTG creatives about translating the tone and spirit of Star Trek. We learned how they let the classic Star Trek diplomacy guide strategies for winning.
Set for release on November 13, the Star Trek Universe Beyond brings several hundred variant cards that pay tribute to the long-running sci-fi franchise. Along with captains like Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, and Burnham, players can also collect a variety of cards celebrating ships, supporting characters, and villains throughout the series. The set also includes many key locations and events, such as Quark’s Bar, Starfleet Academy, and the infamous Borg Unicomplex.
Compared to other Universes Beyond sets like Final Fantasy or Marvel, this collection has a more celebratory feel. Along with the special collector cards and some detailed Star Trek lore drops, including a special General Chang card written in Klingon. There’s also a set of autograph cards for each of the captains of different eras signed by the lead actors.
But for the designers of Magic: The Gathering, translating Star Trek into the rules of MTG meant having to adopt the unique tone of the series as well. This opened up opportunities for the team to come up with cards and synergies that tap into the dramatic and non-violent solutions from many of Star Trek’s most memorable moments.
“For me, what was different about bringing Star Trek to Magic: The Gathering compared to other brands was its rich 60-year history – there’s so much Star Trek to look at, there’s more episodes of Star Trek compared to many other shows like it,” said MtG game designer Gavin Varney. “It was really challenging to figure out what to include from which shows and movies, and that took a lot of time. But one thing that came out of this collaboration was a focus on non-violence in strategies and winning games. Other properties have a focus on action and violence, but with Star Trek there’s diplomacy and coming up with non-violent solutions that match moments from the shows.”
At the event, we got to see many of the cards and the impressive art on full display. Set aboard the fictional U.S.S. Gathering, attendees could explore different levels of the venue themed around the main bridge of The Next Generation‘s Enterprise-D, the Borg Cube, and Quark’s Bar. Along with different activations for photo-ops and specialized holographic cards, experienced players were also on hand to teach folks how to play. Even Ethan Peck, who portrays Spock on Strange New Worlds, took part in some games.
During a special talent panel with actors from different shows, they shared their fascination with Magic: The Gathering‘s popularity. Several actors playing Magic: The Gathering saw parallels between the passion and diversity of this community and Trekkies.
“I was not very familiar with Magic: The Gathering as the card game, but I knew of the larger series of it, and how popular it was with many people,” said actor Tim Russ, who portrayed Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager. “I was just on YouTube the other day, and I saw this ad for Star Trek Magic: The Gathering, and then I thought to myself, ‘I’m gonna be in this pack.” So I did my homework about the game, and it’s really amazing to see myself as a card, and that’s a first for me. It’s really exciting to be a part of a big game like this, which has such a large community, and I’m very excited to be able to learn how to play it.”
The Star Trek Universes Beyond set arrives in Magic Online on November 10, and the physical set releases on November 13.