When Marvel’s Spider-Man came to Magic: The Gathering, the iconic hero and his amazing friends skipped the digital game client Magic: The Gathering Arena (MTG Arena) altogether. As the easiest way to play Magic, thanks to a mobile version and a free-to-play model, MTG Arena’s alignment with every new set release in line with the physical game is important.
But instead of releasing Marvel’s Spider-Man in MTG Arena like other sets, Wizards of the Coast created a whole set’s worth of alternate art and names exclusively for digital play, thanks to rights issues. The end result was a confusing and divisive attempt to mitigate a strange branding conflict.
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The long and short of Marvel’s Spider-Man’s Arena issues is, well, it’s complicated.
Players’ concern has been that this snafu will repeat with the TCG’s next Marvel collaboration. However, Wizards of the Coast has officially shared that when the Marvel Super Heroes set arrives on June 23rd, it will also come to Arena looking the same as the paper cards – and Spider-Man is coming with it.
Because Marvel’s Spider-Man is a Standard legal set, Wizards needed the cards to be available on Magic: The Gathering Arena, for unclear reasons. The company was able to do so by creating “Through the Omenpaths,” a mechanically identical but visually different set for the platform.
Only a few cards, notably Multiversal Passage, kept their names. The move is somewhat embarrassing. Licensing IP is not cheap, and the double set idea kind of makes the case for those who would rather Magic not dabble in it. If in-universe cards have to be created anyway, why bother?
Marvel Superheroes won’t have the same double-set fate as Spider-Man.
Thankfully, Marvel Super Heroes will function the same way as every other set on MTG Arena does. The set will be fully represented with the same art, names, and rules text as the paper cards. In comparison to the Through the Omenpaths, this is a huge relief. Now, when players move between digital and paper, they do not need to try to remember two card names. Cosmetics and other aspects of the Arena experience will also align, which grants far more consistency to the experience.
On top of Marvel Super Heroes not having to deal with Through the Omenpaths, whatever conflict was preventing WOTC from putting Spider-Man in the client is now sorted out, and on June 16th, those paper cards will finally line up with Arena’s.
The team behind Arena plans to add the cards to existing collections, right alongside any collected “Through the Omenpaths” cards, when the client updates. And as a player, it’s genuinely nice not to have to collect those cards again.
Through the Omenpaths card versions are staying. All Hail Fleem!
There are those players who found “Through the Omenpaths” a way to digest the Marvel’s Spider-Man set without having to parse another IP while playing the game. These members of the community even found themselves rallying around a surprisingly adorable recreation of the Green Goblin’s card called Fleem.
While there’s a chance that some of Fleem’s popularity is about trying to make a point about Universes Beyond, weird little guys are something Magic does extremely well, and Fleem is loved by people, not trying to resist IP, too. The Arena team even distributed a Fleem avatar to all players as a treat, capitalizing on the popularity.
As such, it’s nice to know the existing “Through the Omenpaths” cards aren’t being pulled out of Arena. Per the Wizards’ press release, these cards will remain in-game as alternate card styles. That might be cold comfort to the Universes Beyond haters, but “Through the Omenpaths” was already just a cosmetic layer.
Goben, Gene-Splice Savant | 1 Colorless Mana, 1 Blue Mana
Legendary Creature — Human Scientist Villain
Goben can’t be blocked.
Whenever Goben deals combat damage to a player, he connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
1 Colorless Mana, 1 Blue Mana, 1 Black Mana, 1 Red Mana: Transform Goben. Activate only as a sorcery.
1/1
Fleem, Goben’s Creation | 1 Colorless Mana, 1 Blue Mana, 1 Black Mana, 1 Red Mana
Legendary Creature — Goblin Human Villain
Flying, menace
Spells you cast from your graveyard cost 2 Colorless Mana less to cast.
Each nonland card in your graveyard has mayhem. The mayhem cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast a card from your graveyard for its mayhem cost if you discarded it this turn. Timing rules still apply.)
3/3
Marvel’s Super Heroes being in MTG Arena is necessary and good.
Universes Beyond remains a contentious topic in the community. Even so, “Through the Omenpaths” could never really be a good solution for the situation. For the occasional reprint of a Universes Beyond card, creating an alternate name and art can get the job done, provided some marker is also included on the card, like what was done for the Street Fighter Secret Lair. But to do that at scale is asking a lot, if “Through the Omenpaths” is any indication.
“Through the Omenpaths” is an alternate set that needed to be intrinsically tied to spiders in its concept, but could not do the same kind of world-building that any other Magic plane really gets. Fleem is an adorable guy, one that I and many hope return, but he’s surrounded by spiders and their tamers that blur together more than the Spidered people in the paper set. Magic’s in-universe sets can and should be much stronger than this effort was.
Yes, players won’t be able to escape Iron Man and Captain America, but MTG Arena will be better served by getting the cards as they are designed. The Arena team won’t need to try to sell a set of disconnected skins and confuse players. At the same time, players will be able to see what they are playing on the game store and on their computer.
Marvel Super Heroes will be available in Magic: The Gathering Arena on June 23rd. Marvel’s Spider-Man cosmetics will be available on June 16th.
