Marvel Spider-Man set: quick links
The Universes Beyond sets for Magic: The Gathering have grown from an interesting experiment that added some twists for the long-running trading card game to some of the hottest expansions for any card game.
The most recent Final Fantasy UB set was a banging success for MTG, and the JRPG franchise’s grandiose and stylish tone proved to be a solid fit for Magic’s particular brand of fantasy. Now, Wizards of the Coast is prepping another set of Marvel UB cards, and this time, they’re focusing all on Spider-Man, his iconic rogues’ gallery of villains, and the larger Spider-verse.
Just ahead of the larger showcase at PAX West 2025, ScreenHub visited the North American Wizards of the Coast office to get an early look at some of the larger sets for the Marvel Spider-Man Universes Beyond set.
In addition to speaking with MTG head designer Mark Rosewater and principal game designer Jadine Klomparens, we saw how deep the comic book influences run in this fun and stylish spin on Magic The Gathering.
‘In some ways, the making of Magic itself is just a giant iterative loop – we make a Magic set, we see what the audience thinks, we learn from that, and then we make the next Magic set,’ said MTG head designer Mark Rosewater.
‘The Universes Beyond sets so far have been exciting for us; it’s very different from a lot of stuff we’ve done before. It’s an exciting challenge to figure out how to capture Spider-Man in MTG, but it’s been a lot of fun. We’re doing a lot of changing, but in a really good way, we’re testing ourselves in ways we’ve never tested ourselves before.’
Magic: The Gathering is, of course, no stranger to a Marvel crossover. Previously, MTG has seen X-Men’s Wolverine and Storm, Deadpool, Black Panther, and some characters from Guardians of the Galaxy make an appearance. But the Marvel Spider-Man UB set really pulls out all the stops to create a curated deck of characters that not only fit into Magic: The Gathering’s colour pie system but also celebrate what makes Marvel comic books so endearing.
Marvel Spider-Man set: the cards
The cards from the Marvel Spider-Man set spotlight many of the characters and New York City iconography from the Spider-verse, which includes classic Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man Miles Morales, and even Peter Porker/Spider-Ham.
The larger set will also include a variety of known favourites and other classic villains, which include Eddie Brock/Venom and Norman Osborn/Green Goblin (both of which are transformation cards).
- Eddie Brock is a black type human villain that can return a chosen creature card with one or fewer value from the graveyard. When a player has three red, black and green mana, Eddie Brock can transform into Venom.
- Venom is a black, red, green type symbiote hero villain that casts menace, trample, and haste. Whenever Venom attacks, you may sacrifice a creature. If you sacrifice, draw X additional cards to put a permanent card with X mana value or less on the battlefield.
- Norman Osborn is a blue type human scientist villain who deals unblockable damage and connives. When a player has one blue, black, and red mana, Norman Osborn transforms into Green Goblin.
- Green Goblin is a flying, blue, black, and red type of Goblin Human Villain that menaces. Spells you cast from your graveyard cost two less to cast. With the Goblin Formula ability, each nonland card in your graveyard has mayhem. The Mayhem coast 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.)
Marvel Spider-Man set: Sinister Six
One of the bigger surprises coming is the addition of the classic Sinister Six – an infamous villain group that plots to take down Spider-Man. Here’s a quick breakdown of the cards tied to The Sinister Six:
- Behold the Sinister Six is a black sorcery card that can return up to six different creatures from the graveyard.
- Doctor Octopus is a blue-black type human scientist villain that can give other villains under your control +2/+2, and letting you increase your hand size to eight gives you the chance to draw cards to fill out to eight at your end step.
- Electro is a flying red-red type human villain that lets players not lose unspent red mana as steps and phases end. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, add red mana. Electro can also spend X to deal damage when this villain leaves the field.
- Kraven the Hunter is a black-green human warrior villain who can trample. When a creature under player control dies, a +1/+1 counter can be placed onto Kraven.
- Mysterio is a blue human villain that, when drawn, creates a 3/3 blue Illusion Villain creature token for each non-token villain under your control, which can then be exiled when Mysterio leaves the battlefield.
- Sandman is a green-green sand elemental villain that has power and toughness equal to the number of lands under your control. Creatures with two or less power can’t block Sandman. Note: Sandman uses similar abilities from the often unused Sand token card from classic MTG.
- Vulture is a flying, blue-black human artificer villain that grants other villains under your control the ability to fly until the end of the turn.
Marvel Spider-Man set: traditional & multiverse
The Marvel Spider-Man set not only taps into the traditional aspects of the Spider-Man comics, but it also showcases the various layers of the larger Spider-Man mythos, extending into the multiverse.
In addition to Spider-Man India, Peni Parker and her Spider Mech, Spider-Rex, and Ultimate Green Goblin are also cards to be found within the set and booster packs.
One card in particular that the WotC team was particularly pleased with was The Clone Saga card, which is a deep cut to a particularly controversial 1990s comic book storyline involving clones of Peter Parker.
Another neat twist that this deck brings to MTG is the inclusion of more card variants, including reprints and bonus sheet cards. Referencing the style of famous comic-book artists spanning decades of comics, such as Jack Kirby, John Romita Sr., and Todd McFarlane, some of the Marvel Spider-Man UB cards will feature alternate versions that replace the traditional MTG card layout with comic-book style panels inspired by iconic storylines from comics.
Essentially, they are alternate skins for the cards, but they’re a very thoughtful and neat spin on the traditional look of MTG.
Furthermore, the Spider-Man UB set will also feature the first appearances of the Infinity Stone cards. One of the first three gems to appear in this set will be the Soul Stone card; the other gems have yet to be announced. So it’s fair to say that the Marvel Spider-Man UB set won’t be the last Marvel set of cards to be coming to the card in the immediate future.
Our early look at the variety of new cards offered some great insights from the development team at Wizards of the Coast. They also shared that the Universes Beyond initiative for MTG has proven to be an excellent outlet for the team to try new things in the long-running card game.
‘As Magic: The Gathering has been growing so much in recent years, we’ve also seen that the audience is changing. It feels like every couple of years, we get a new sense of what the audience wants and the cards we want to make,’ said principal game designer Jadine Klomparens.
‘We’re continually updating things for players, and what kind of motivations we’re trying to tap into with our cards, and we’re getting better at thinking about who the cards are for. Of course, Universes Beyond brings a whole swath of [discoveries] for us, like, “what does this property’s audience want out of these cards,” or “How do they relate to their characters?” and “What exactly do they want to see?” So it’s been just a ton of learning, and we’re getting better all the time as we’re making these new sets.’
