Tragic: The Gathering – The Story of How My Favourite Game Made Billions Losing Itself

In this post I’d like to tell a story about Magic: the Gathering. Magic: The Gathering (MTG, or Magic) is a trading card game developed by Wizards of the Coast (WotC), and for the past 6 years it has been my obsession. I’ve collected cards, traded with friends, and played the game, both casually and in tournaments. Coinciding with my interest in the game, however, has been a period of unprecedented change in Magic, especially with how Wizards of the Coast has used intellectual property. It is that story, with its financial successes and legal troubles, that I’d like to tell.

Cards and Magic’s Original IP

As the first ever trading card game,[1] MTG was a pioneer in the idea that cards could be more than just game pieces or collector’s items. Instead, it imagined that a card game could represent a larger story,[2] and so since its original release in 1993, Magic has worked to build its worlds, stories, and characters through its card designs.

While Magic has primarily built its story through its cards (like above), it has also done so through books and online story articles; there are even future plans for a Magic: The Gathering TV show. [3] (Note: Blogatog is the personal blog of the head designer of MTG, Mark Rosewater). Nevertheless, while Magic has largely been based in its own universe, it has never shied away from referencing other works – often quite blatantly.

This card, Delver of Secrets, depicts a scientist consumed by his experiments, and turning into an insectoid horror. The cinephiles among you will recognize this as a clear reference to David Cronenberg’s 1986 film, “The Fly”. Nevertheless, barring a few expansion sets from Magic’s early days, (Arabian Nights and Portal: Three Kingdoms),[4] cards and stories in Magic were always centered on its own IP. Delver of Secrets is a “The Fly” reference, but it is not the “Fly”. This, however, changed with the introduction of “Universes Beyond”.

Universes Beyond

“Universes Beyond” (UB) is the way WotC designates products (cards, expansion sets, limited edition decks, etc.) that use non-Magic IP, ranging from Doctor Who[5] to SpongeBob.[6] As we will see, the UB project has grown into a beast all its own, but at the beginning of the UB experiment products tended to follow the precedent of cards like Delver of Secrets. For example, in the set Ikoria, Lair of the Behemoths, certain cards received alternate arts that featured characters from Godzilla.[7] Take for example, Titanoth Rex and Godzilla, Primeval Champion.

With these cards we are past the point of merely taking inspiration from other properties — after all, that is the Godzilla owned by TOHO Co,. Ltd.[8] — but it isn’t so far removed from what we’ve already seen. This is still an MTG card; it’s just wearing a costume. One can then imagine if there were any legal troubles with WotC’s ability to distribute or reprint the Godzilla cards (foreshadowing), they could always just print Titanoth Rex and the other selected cards. For gameplay purposes, they are the same. This, however, begs the question: what if there is no Magic: The Gathering base card? Enter: Warhammer 40,000 Commander. 

October of 2022: Warhammer 40,000 Commander released with new cards featuring characters from Games Workshop’s popular miniature model series Warhammer 40,000. Unlike Ikoria, this is no case of “Magic cards wearing costumes”; if you want to buy and play with Marneus Calgar, you have to buy that card.

There were, as far as I know, no issues with the physical release of the cards, and they were generally well received; the problems, however, came when WotC tried to add them to their digital platform. In addition to playing with physical cards, players can play with digital versions on Magic: The Gathering Online (MTGO). Usually, when new card sets are released, digital versions of said cards are soon after uploaded onto MTGO. However, in this instance, MTGO was not updated with the new cards. So, players waited, and waited. In fact, they waited until February of 2024.[9] A two-year wait is by itself a worrying sign, but there’s more. First, Warhammer 40,000 Commander was made available for much shorter period than usual. Second, All-Access tokens — digital passes that can be bought by players in order to gain access to the entire online library of cards — uniquely do not give access to Warhammer 40,000 Commander cards.[10] Why? We can’t know for certain, but given that there was no stated logistical/technological reason they couldn’t upload the cards, there is likely some legal reason stemming from the license agreement that prevented WotC from distributing their own cards on their own digital platform. Perhaps most striking of all, though, is that a similar situation has already happened again.

Only a few months ago, on September 26th, Wizards of the Coast released a set based on Marvel’s Spider-Man. By buying “Marvel’s Spider-Man” packs, fans have the chance to play with cards such as Spectacular Spider-Man and Venom, Evil Unleashed.

Except, if you play on MTGO or Magic’s newer platform, Magic: The Gathering Arena (MTGA), you would not play with these cards; you would buy packs of “Through the Omenpaths”, and you would play with Ademi of the Silkchutes and Tethex, Gift of Malice.

These cards do not exist as physical cards; they exist only on the digital clients as “universes within” replacements. To be clear, this did not happen with just a few cards in the set; every single one of the 193 cards in “Marvel’s Spider-Man” has a “universes within” counterpart.[11] On one hand, WotC “fixed” the problem of getting cards onto their digital platforms. But, on the other hand, WotC again has conceded some ability to distribute their own product, and has had to resort to getting all new art for an entire set that customers cannot physically purchase. Again, we can ask why, and again we can only speculate. It’s likely that in this case Marvel is trying to learn from the mistakes it made when it sold off the film rights for Spiderman to Sony,[12] and is now trying not to let too much get away from them in the gaming space. In addition, it’s possible that Marvel does not want competition for its own digital card game, Marvel Snap. Regardless of the actual reason, the ramifications of these licensing deals are, again, that WotC seemingly has substantially reduced control.

Future Costs and Future Benefits

Beyond this all simply being confusing, it’s potentially quite harmful to those wishing to buy from card vendors on the secondary market, where the prices of cards are largely determined by their availability.[13] If WotC is unable to reliably reprint cards as a result of these license agreements, thus limiting supply, it’s possible that the resulting unavailability will cause prices to rise substantially. Evidence for this exists in the Reserved List: a collection of old cards that WotC has promised to never reprint (a legal problem all its own).[14] The resulting lack of supply, these cards only ever being printed in the 90s, has led to some, like the (in)famous Black Lotus, reaching prices of upwards of $50,000.[15]

Of course, some people, namely collectors and investors, might like that the value of their cards could balloon, but recall that MTG is a trading card game. Yes, people buy cards to collect as art pieces or investments, but plenty also want to buy game pieces. What then happens if cards get too expensive? Quite often people simply print off their own fake cards, referred to as “proxying” within the community. The act of making “proxies” could be a whole article in itself with regards to its potential infringement on WotC’s copyright (though potentially protected as “research” in a similar manner to SOCAN v Bell)[16] but the important point here is that some non-zero number of players are choosing to forego buying real cards because prices are just too high. Anecdotally, I don’t think proxying is common enough to make any substantial effect on MTG’s revenues, but if more “Reserved Lists” are made by WotC not being able to reprint UB products, it’s possible proxying will become more and more popular, thus leading WotC to open another front on which they must wage battles over IP.

Given the relative pessimism of this discussion thus far, one will surely be tempted to ask: why go to all this trouble? Simply put: because it sells. If you look at Hasbro’s financial reports (the owner of Wizards of the Coast), you will see MTG accounts for almost all of Hasbro’s growth and a massive share of its operating profits.[17] Moreover, Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth became the best-selling Magic set on record in 2023 and this year the Final Fantasy themed set broke that record in a single day.[18] It should then be no surprise that, even with the hiccups along the way, of the seven expansion sets being released in 2026, four are UB products: Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles, Marvel Superheroes, The Hobbit, and Star Trek.[19] Will these sets be successful? In my opinion, it’s very likely. Will we see more issues like with Spider-Man and Warhammer? It’s hard to say, but clearly WotC has done the calculation that regardless, it’s worth it and then some.

A Fan’s View

Now, I’d like to comment on this purely as a fan of the game. While it’s undeniable that bringing in all this outside IP has certainly made the game more popular, and has perhaps been the greatest financial successes in Magic’s history, I’m hesitant to say that it’s made the game better. For all its popularity, I can’t help but feel the value of the MTG IP itself — not the brand, but the world and story — has never been weaker. For all the different properties Magic has brought in, I rarely see it, MTG, referenced in other work. In a way, it is as if WotC’s increased reliance on IP licensed from other companies has diluted the goodwill in its own brand. This isn’t to claim that there are potential legal repercussions that will spring up from this (it’s not as if WotC isn’t using their trademarks), but more recently I have heard more people talk about Magic in terms of, “Oh, that’s the Final Fantasy card game”, and not “Oh, that’s the card game with Black Lotus”. In other words, I worry MTG is becoming a niche aspect itself.

The Other Way

As a final note, I’d like to look at another property Magic has borrowed from: League of Legends. In 2021, Magic released a special set of cards featuring characters from League of Legends.[20]

And it should be no surprise; League of Legends (LoL), a video game developed by Riot Games, has put immense work into building a well known and well-loved IP; and, much like Magic has done, they’ve grown the property beyond the game. Riot Games has created music, spinoff games, a digital card game, and a popular TV show (Arcane: League of Legends). In my opinion, the cultural relevance of LoL had never been stronger, so of course Magic would want to capitalize on that goodwill. It should also be no surprise that Riot Games has seen the boom in the trading card game market, and so, on October 31^st of this year, they entered with their own game: League of Legends: Riftbound (examples below).

And so, as I look back at the trajectories Magic and LoL have taken, and all the successes, troubles, and changes they’ve experienced, I can’t help wondering: taking everything into account – a few years down the line, once it has established itself in the market, will League of Legends print Magic: The Gathering into its game? I don’t think so; do you?

All card art sourced from Gatherer, https://gatherer.wizards.com/, Scryfall, https://scryfall.com/, and the Riftbound Card Gallery, https://riftbound.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/card-gallery/

Featured Image made using Gemini AI

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[1] Hasbro, “Magic: The Gathering” https://investor.hasbro.com/magic-gathering

[2] M. Rosewater, “Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast #1249: Stronghold” (13 June 2025) https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Sa037HsPFKdbdUKUAjCqq

[3] M. Rosewater, “Blogatog” (28 January 2025) https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/773942526915772416/why-hasnt-there-been-a-magic-tv-series-about-the

[4] MTG Wiki, “Arabian Nights” (25 February 2025) https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Arabian_Nights/

[5] Magic: The Gathering, https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/doctor-who

[6] Magic: The Gathering, “Secret Lair X SpongeBob SquarePants: Legends Of Bikini Bottom” https://secretlair.wizards.com/us/en/product/1151491/secret-lair-x-spongebob-squarepants-legends-of-bikini-bottom

[7] M. Turian, “Collecting Ikoria” (2 April 202) https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/card-preview/collecting-ikoria-2020-04-02

[8] TOHO, “Company Profile” https://www.toho.co.jp/en/company/info/profile

[9] Magic: The Gathering Online, “Magic Online Weekly Announcements, February 20, 2024” (20 February 2024) https://www.mtgo.com/news/mtgo-blog-02202024

[10] Magic: The Gathering Online, “Magic Online Weekly Announcements, February 20, 2024” (20 February 2024) https://www.mtgo.com/news/mtgo-blog-02202024

[11] B. Rasmussen, “Through The Omenpaths and Digital Universes Beyond Updates” (21 April 2025) https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/through-the-omenpaths-and-digital-universes-beyond-updates

[12] K. Maline & W. Wong, “The Spider-Man Problem” (28 January 2022) https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/1076531156/the-spider-man-problem

[13] Danireon, “Why is Magic the Gathering So Expensive? Most Expensive MTG Card” (5 March 2025) https://www.danireon.com/blogs/news/why-is-magic-the-gathering-so-expensive?srsltid=AfmBOormztkrohfh0NIiiYAEcKQJwy5h75VBk7r-YzZStV1L7xEKPs23

[14] S. Peitzer, “Contract From Below: Promissory Estoppel and the Reserved List” (13 July 2018) https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/contract-from-below-promissory-estoppel-and-the-reserved-list/

[15] https://www.mtgstocks.com/prints/16374-black-lotus

[16] Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada v Bell Canada, 2012 SCC 36

[17] https://investor.hasbro.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hasbro-reports-third-quarter-2025-financial-results

[18] S. Cacciatore, “Magic: the Gathering Final Fantasy Set broke The Lord of the Rings’ record in one day” (29 July 2025) https://www.polygon.com/mtg-magic-the-gathering/617076/mtg-final-fantasy-set-200-million-record-lord-of-the-rings/

[19] J. Hall, “Magic: The Gathering Full Set Release Schedule For 2026” (10 October 2025) https://articles.starcitygames.com/magic-the-gathering/magic-the-gathering-full-set-release-schedule-for-2026/

[20] Magic: The Gathering, “Secret Lair X Arcane” https://secretlair.wizards.com/us/en/product/696669/secret-lair-x-arcane