Magic: The Gatheringhas been having a lot of fun with crossovers lately. When theIkoriaset was first revealed, it was clearly inspired by monster and kaiju movies of all kinds, but to the surprise of many,Magic: The Gatheringmarked the occasion with a slew of special edition cards reskinned asGodzillamonsters.Magicdidn’t used to interact with other settings so much, but now it puts a huge amount of effort into these rare crossover cards. That’s only one of many crossovers, too. Wizards of the Coast has dedicated resources to designing cards specifically to reference other pieces of pop culture many times now.
It seems like all of these events have been gearing up forUniverses Beyond,Magic: The Gathering’s new official subseries dedicated to representing other IPs. Wizards of the Coast has already announced a couple other pieces of media that will getMagiccards, andone of them isWarhammer 40K.This sci-fi wargame by Games Workshop is extremely successful in its own right, so it’s not surprising that fellow tabletop gameMagicwants kick off itsUniverses Beyondby making a connection withWarhammer.Wizards of the Coast has yet to reveal much about itsWarhammer 40Kproducts, but fans can guess at some of the details.
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Warhammer in Commander
It’s highly appropriate thatWarhammer 40Kis going to be convertedinto a series of Commander decks. In Commander,Magicplayers construct large and highly themed decks with a special legendary creature as their designated Commander. Commander’s highly themed decks and long play time are pretty similar to the long, sprawling games thatWarhammer 40Kis famous for.Warhammer 40K’s factions will probably be the inspiration for the Commander decks; Wizards of the Coast will produce probably a deck each for the Imperium of Man, the Necrons, the Orks, and so on.
That also means each deck will feature an important character from each faction as the Commander. The Emperor seems like a shoe-in for the Commander of the Imperium’s deck, for instance, whereas a Chaos deck might offer the player choice between Chaos Gods like Khorne and Slaanesh. The backbone of each deck will be built on all the unique types of units that each faction has available to it.Warhammer 40K’s Commander decksare likely to set the tone for futureUniverses Beyondsets in that it’ll require Wizards of the Coast to come up with way more unique cards than any previous crossover. For fans of the game, that’s a big plus.
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Capturing Warhammer’s Mechanics
Players should be ready for new keywords and mechanics introduced by theWarhammer 40Kcards to capture each faction’s unique playstyle and the types of units that each faction generally has available to it. It’s up to Wizards of the Coast to decide how close it wants these Commander decks to play likeWarhammer.For instance, the decks might have a lot of alternative win conditionsto referenceWarhammerobjectives. Alternatively, the decks might put an emphasis on the positions of players sitting around the table, since inWarhammer,the distance that units have to travel makes a world of difference.
While theWarhammer 40Kdecks are bound to be unique because of a lot of these potential mechanics, they do come with a small drawback. The cards in the decks might be designed very specifically to work well with each other andnot normalMagiccards. That’s no skin off the nose of Standard and die-hard traditional Commander players, sinceUniverses Beyondisn’t Standard legal, but it could disappoint casual Commander players who want to tinker with theWarhammer 40Kdecks. It might be a little harder than usual for players to find new spins on theWarhammermaterial.
No matter what theWarhammer 40Kdecks look like, though, they’re sure to stand out fromthe rest ofMagic’s products.Universes Beyondis a bold initiative, and it has yet to be seen how it’ll perform. There’s already a bit of tension in theMagiccommunity overUniverses Beyond. Some fans are delighted at the notion that their favorite IPs might get lots of officialMagiccards, while others are concerned about pop culture taintingMagic’s original ideas and getting in the way of play. If theWarhammer 40Kcards are very self-sufficient on purpose, that might assuage some fears. Whatever the case,Warhammer 40K’sMagiccrossover is clearly a big deal. Hopefully Wizards of the Coast gives fans a taste of what’s to come soon.
Magic: The Gatheringis available now in game stores and digitally throughMagic Arena.
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