Doctor Who & Universes Beyond: The Good, the Great, and the Ugly

Hello and welcome back. Doctor Who Universes Beyond spoilers are in full swing and many celebrate the designs of the cards and the moments, often gut wrenching, that they invoke.

While I’ve watched enough Doctor Who myself to appreciate a lot of the card designs and the mechanics that they use to get that across (and the awesome art), I’ve never liked the inclusion of outside IPs in Magic in black border. So, in this article I want to discuss why that is, beating on some well tread points and some personal ones while also arguing that at the end of the day, this is better for the game’s long term survival.

Basically this article, it’s an opinion piece with ONLY my opinion.

The "Bad"

The well-tread opinions against Universes Beyond (here on out written as UB) are fairly numerous. One of the better ones is that the cards are mechanically unique. While some of this has been negated with the release of In Universe cards for the Magic IP from various Secret Lairs, the larger sets haven’t received and probably won’t receive any of the same. If one chooses to, this excludes any cards from UB ever being used in our decks.

Another well tread argument is that the cards are immersion breaking which in practice has been something I’ve also noticed first hand, though that’s certainly an opinion and I’ll cover later. The cards themselves can vary in this regard based on the person involved to make that judgment. For myself, the ones closer to Magic like DnD are less offensive to immersion than something like WH40K.

One more argument made against the cards is the power level the new cards are presented at, though these largely apply to the cards in full sets or series of commander decks. While this has fallen by the wayside thanks to the normal Magic IP sets coming out with their own great designs, it can still be applied to some cards when they come out in a contemporary environment.

The "Ugly"

My personal opinion of UB is, well, low. I’d prefer that UB had never happened. I’ve played Magic for a long time as an escape from everything else, including other IPs and franchises. To me, these additions are an aberration and an invasion of the game experience I want.

Part of this is probably my own mental state. I usually keep to myself and am fairly private, but autism means I don’t like change much and the immersion break these cards create for me during gameplay is unwelcome to say the least, especially when they are from different IPs because I also separate things into categories immediately. Essentially, to me they will never belong. The One Ring next to Ken, Burning Brawler is weird and off putting, much less having them with Magic IP cards.

I won’t use any of these cards myself for these reasons and others. I’ve given the cards a fair try in my commander decks, with Feather getting Fiery Inscription and Xyris getting Balor. I’ve since removed every card from my decks.  Mechanically they are usually very good additions to the game and many decks will want and are already using them. I just can’t bring myself to wreck my thought processes by using them. 

The Good

That leads to the good though. Despite my personal or unbiased arguments against the cards, they are bringing new people into the game. We older players against UB do have to face the fact that we are going to… well, age out in a way. As we get older, the business making the game will need new customers to keep making the game, so the cycle goes. I’ve always advocated for anyone to be included into playing the game and increasing the player population, so that’s one argument in favor of UB.

Getting new players, and indeed current players, hyped up and excited for these products is something else that works in the games favor. The IPs made into magic cards could even be argued to target the player base that Wizards’ has now with the benefit of bringing in new faces. All in all, a win for the players and a win for the business, even if the money making isn’t comfortable to think about.

The Great

Beyond the cards themselves is something I CAN appreciate about UB. Wizards’ careful design of the cards and art selection have made almost every single set featuring these cards an absolute win on the flavor side. There is definitely a passion there by the set designers and their consultants to make the experience of using and collecting these cards as much a blast as possible.

This also translates into a win on the Magic IP side. We’ve seen with Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty the importance and resonance of cultural consultants helping to create a cohesive world that also does justice to the culture that inspired it from our own world. That’s important and necessary to honor within the theme of a set the real world peoples that help make it up without insulting them or their ways of life. UB may have proved the money for this was a good idea and it was brought over to the regular sets. It might be a chicken or egg scenario, but the impact on both is noticeable and welcome.

The End

I’ll be brief. I’ll never like UB. There isn’t an IP in this world I’d want to be Magic besides the Magic IP itself. Despite that, I’m not completely biased against the good it does for the game no matter how much I despise it.

If you as a player like UB, then enjoy it. The great part about Magic, especially Commander, is that it leaves room for expression and conversation. As long as we do that respectfully, Commander will flourish along with the game we all love.

Until next time, remember to take off the emergency brake.

(to be clear, on the TARDIS)