Exclusive Preview: Four Cards from Spider-Man’s Magic: The Gathering Set

By Cameron Kunzelman | September 2, 2025 | 11:00am

Tabletop Features Magic: The Gathering

Exclusive Preview: Four Cards from Spider-Man’s Magic: The Gathering Set

On September 26, 2025, Spider-Man is swinging into Magic: The Gathering as yet another added universe to the many that Magic encompasses today. Following The Lord of the Rings, Final Fantasy, and several others, Spider-Man and the characters around him are going to be showing up at local game shops and on Magic Arena to taunt the hell out of their opponents. After all, it is so much more insulting to be beaten by Peter Parker, local dweeb, than it is by Aragorn, legendary cool guy.

The Universes Beyond set, technically called Marvel’s Spider-Man, has a few unique things for gameplay, including two-player draft that I am sure I will cover in my review of the set. For collectors, it has three different special kinds of card treatments so that you can engage with whatever kind of visual thrill you find in Spider-Man. There are “iconic covers,” which are famous Spider-Man covers adapted into cards; there are “panel cards” which represent characters and situations like they would be on a comic page; and there are “source material” cards that take iconic Spider-Man art and adapt it to represent gameplay actions.

I’ve got four of those for you today. Importantly, these cards are not Standard-legal, but you’ll be able to tear through your local Commander group with Spider-Man theming.

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Magic The Gathering Spider-Man Universes Beyond MTG

I think there are some delightful choices being made here, beyond just the fantastic art from creators like Mike Zeck, Erik Larsen, Ron Frenz, Walter Simonson, and Mark Bagley. Leyline Binding being represented by the push and pull of two Spider-Man identities rules (imagine this happening to Ragavan). Mystic Confluence, a spell about confounding your enemies and making their lives just absolute misery, being represented by the iconic “look, it’s me!” image of the Symbiote Suit is A+ as well. I’m not the world’s biggest collector of alternate arts, but I think these are great, and I’m going to be on the lookout for them as I open packs.

Endless Mode is Paste and The AV Club’s new sister site devoted to games, anime, and all realms of play–including tabletop RPGs and collectible card games. For more of our coverage of Magic: The Gathering, click here.

Cameron Kunzelman is an academic, critic, co-host of the podcasts Ranged Touch and Game Studies Study Buddies, and author of The World Is Born from Zero. He tweets at @ckunzelman.