Magic: What to expect from the 2025 releases

The year 2025 has arrived, and it’s going to be a huge one for Magic: The Gathering. While Wizards of the Coast is sticking to its promise of fewer releases in —the company says all sets announced in November 2024 are the only ones coming out in 2025—they include two expansions from the Universes Beyond series that will make as much noise as Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth did in 2023—Final Fantasy and Marvel’s Spider-Man.

In terms of Magic’s IP, the releases include the interplanar racing-themed expansion Aetherdrift, as well as a return to Tarkir to wrap up the game’s current story arc, with a new arc opening up in Edge of Eternities, the first set outside the Multiverse, and the first space-travel-themed Magic set.

In this article, we show everything we know so far about the 2025 releases and what we can expect from each set based on what we know and/or what other sets with similar themes have proven to us!

Release: February 11

Aetherdrift will be the first expansion of 2025 for Standard and the first with exclusive cards of the year. Like Outlaws of Thunder Junction, it will be a set where several characters from various planes make appearances and explains this “mix” with an interplanar race organized by Avishkar - Kaladesh's new name after the beginning of the Omenpaths arc.

Lore

The plot revolves around the Planeswalker Chandra Nalaar and her journey to win the Grand Prix of Ghirapur, a race that passes through Avishkar, Amonkhet and Muraganda, recording the first time that Magic lore will visit a known world since Future Sight.

The prize for the race is The Aetherspark, a spark imprisoned in a cage made of Aethek (I know, the name isn't that original), and ten teams from different planes compete for it, including some natives of worlds that players have never heard of before.

Mechanics

We don't have many cards revealed yet, but the ones we do have revealed some key points of what we can expect:

The first, obviously, are Vehicles. In a racing-themed set, it wouldn't make sense not to have these artifacts and/or cards that interact with them. It's likely that we'll have a significant number of Vehicles in Aetherdrift.

Another novelty, perhaps more important than the vehicles, is a new cycle of Gearhulks, which were released in Kaladesh in monocolored versions. Now, they return as two-color cards, and since Aetherdrift has ten teams, it's likely that we'll have a Gearhulk for each two-color combination.

There are doubts whether the entire cycle will consist of heavy colored mana costs () or whether some cards in the cycle will have a lighter color requirement at the expense of a higher colorless mana value.

As mentioned above, Aetherdrift will have several characters from other planes. In addition to Daretti, who lost his spark, we have confirmation of Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and Winter, Misanthropic Guide in the lore, possibly with new cards in the expansion.

The two Commander decks have already been revealed, and their names indicate that their themes include two mechanics inherent to Amonkhet and Avishkar: Eternalize for the deck and Energy for the deck. It remains to be seen whether these will be used exclusively in Commander lists, or if they will carry over to the main set.

Releases on: April 11

After ten years, Magic returns to one of the most famous planes in the game's lore - and which brought one of the most infamous moments in Standard history with the Fetch Lands reprint - Tarkir.

Lore

The last time we visited this world, Tarkir had undergone a temporal shift caused by the survival of Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, which changed the chronology of the story and made the dragons survive extinction and subjugate the Khans, becoming the owners of the Clans that now represent two colors instead of three:

The expansion marks the conclusion of the current story arc, where the Dragonstorms on Tarkir have created portals to other planes and dragons are invading them. The characters Sarkhan Vol (Desparked) and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon are confirmed in a new version.

On his personal blog, Mark Rosewater hinted that Nicol Bolas may have escaped from his prison plane, which would justify Ugin's presence on Tarkir, since he had decided to stay with his brother in this prison forever to watch over him until his natural death.

Mechanics

There is still no official information about new or returning mechanics in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. But there are some possible options that we can speculate about.

Dragons

It seems a bit obvious, but Tarkir is still a plane dominated by dragons and these were a core theme in Dragons of Tarkir, with cards that were staples of its Standard era like Draconic Roar and Thunderbreak Regent.

With Dragons being a central theme of this plot, it is likely that the expansion will have more cards that interact with them, which justifies, for example, the reprint of Haven of the Spirit Dragon in Pioneer Masters to make the card available on Magic Arena.

Battles

On the more speculative side, one of the key images revealed at MagicCon Vegas shows a clash between two clans that appear to be, respectively, Dromoka and Silumgar. The layout of the image is very reminiscent of a type of card revealed in March of the Machine that has not been reused in any other expansion so far: Battles.

A Tarkir at war would justify the return of Battles, especially given how much this card type was given attention by Wizards in March of the Machine not to return at some point to the game, perhaps with new subtypes.

New three-color factions

Another important detail in the image above is in the armor of some warriors on the left side, with what appears to be a face “spitting” fire. Options include that this possible war has caused clans to form new alliances (e.g. Dromoka with Kolaghan), or that new three-color clans are establishing themselves on Tarkir - for example, these armors could indicate the addition of to Dromoka's warriors, which would put them in the colors of Naya (), or the addition of to Kolaghan for Jund ().

Releases on: June 13

Universes Beyond: Final Fantasy, or just Final Fantasy, is the first expansion of the Universes Beyond series in 2025 and the first to be legal in Standard. In it, Magic brings to the card game the extensive universe of the Final Fantasy franchise, created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and launched in 1987, with 16 mainline games and hundreds of spin-offs.

Lore

Like Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth or Assassin’s Creed, Final Fantasy is not part of Magic’s lore. Instead, the expansion brings some of the franchise’s most iconic moments to the TCG, such as the villain Kefka poisoning Doma in Final Fantasy VI, or the kiss between Tidus and Yuna in Final Fantasy X.

Only the sixteen main Final Fantasy games will be on the cards. This excludes titles like Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Type-0 and puts prequels or direct sequels in a sensitive situation: characters like the antagonist Genesis, from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, may not appear despite FF VII being one of the main and most famous games in the franchise.

Mechanics

No information about mechanics or cards has been revealed for Final Fantasy yet. And given the breadth of the franchise in developing diverse themes and exploring distinct worlds across 16 games, it's hard to even predict what kind of mechanics the design team is planning with the expansion, especially when it's also being released for Standard: either it'll have a middling power level, or it'll be the power creep of 2025.

If we were to make any bets on the set, these are the ones that seem safest at the moment, given my general knowledge of Final Fantasy and Magic's history with Lord of the Rings and Assassin's Creed.

No Duals

Final Fantasy comes on the heels of two expansions with potential themes involving two or more colors. It's very likely that Aetherdrift will have a dual rare land cycle and Tarkir: Dragonstorm will follow suit and/or even have a three-color land cycle.

In 2023 and 2024, Magic had at least one expansion where there were no dual rare lands, but which had many utility lands with activated and/or triggered abilities like Fountainport or Rockface Village. If Final Fantasy comes after two sets with themes where two or more colors matter, it makes sense that it would be the "no duals" set of the year, including due to the wide diversity of locations that can serve better as utility lands.

On the other hand, 2025 has three Universes Beyond expansions, and since we don't know anything about the third set yet, Final Fantasy has much more freedom to add duals to the set than Spider-Man, given that the 16 games in the franchise offer more options for different ecosystems, fauna and flora to justify color combinations without forcing too much on visuals.

Legends-Matter Themes

Among all the illustrations and information revealed about Final Fantasy so far, which include characters such as Cloud, Sephiroth, Lightning, Emet-Selch and even a mention of Noctis, only three do not involve a character card, and with so many iconic characters to be distributed, keywords focues on legendary cards might be the set's core theme.

This was actually one of the subthemes of Lord of the Rings and would work with Final Fantasy. Whether through the Historic mechanic, originally released in Dominaria, or with cards that care about legendary permanents like Plaza of Heroes and Mox Amber, or spells that improve if you control a legendary creature, the number of notable characters that attract fans of the franchise is vast, and exploring “Legends” as one of the themes of the set would help make their inclusion among the 300+ cards something more natural for the Sealed environment.

Releases on: August 1

Edge of Eternities is Magic's last in-lore expansion in 2025, inspired by sci-fi space operas like Dune and Star Wars, and takes players to the Sothera System, a set of planets outside the Multiverse that borders the boundaries of the Blind Eternities.

Its plot marks the beginning of a new story arc in Magic: The Gathering that should last about a year, and also brings the return of the Planeswalker Tezzeret, his first appearance in the game since War of the Spark.

Concept art for the expansion shows themes such as space travel to other planets and even alien life forms, but it doesn't offer details on what we can expect from the expansion, either in terms of story or mechanics, since Magic has never been to regions outside the Multiverse before, much less had any mention of space travel.

A relevant point is that, if demand justifies it, Edge of Eternities seems like the ideal set to bring back Planechase in Commander precon decks with the theme of space/interplanar travel, but without additional information, it's impossible to speculate on this subject.

Release date: To be announced.

Marvel’s Spider-Man will be the second expansion for Universes Beyond in 2025 and will also be legal in the Standard format, bringing the adventures of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to Magic: The Gathering and will mark the first main set of the partnership between Wizards of the Coast and Marvel.

Like Final Fantasy, Marvel’s Spider-Man does not follow the official lore of Magic and, instead, immerses players in the multiverse of the comic book hero’s adventures through cards, with iconic characters such as Peter Parker, Miles Morales and others who will probably be present.

This expansion is very difficult to predict for a dozen reasons: being a product of the Universes Beyond series and released so far ahead, after two other expansions that we have little information about, puts it in a position where we do not have enough to speculate on it.

Sure, we'll have plenty of Spider-Man characters, some iconic moments from the comics, and probably nothing or too little of the cinematic universe (the image rights to have Tom Holland on a Magic card would most likely be quite expensive), but in terms of gameplay, we have no idea how Magic intends to adapt Peter Parker's adventures in New York City to cards in a main set.

We can look at expansions like Fallout or Doctor Who that came in Commander decks, or even Secret Lair cards, but these don't work well as a reference due to the structure of the product that doesn't communicate the same way as a booster box with distribution and planning for Limited play - although Spider-Man will probably have his own batch of five Commander decks.

Release date: TBA.

The last Magic expansion for 2025 will be another product in the Universes Beyond series, whose partnership has not yet been announced. Speculation and rumors about which franchise Wizards has partnered with for this product range from Game of Thrones to The Elder Scrolls video game series, but no official information has been released.

A third set of Universes Beyond seems a bit too much. The appeal of this product is that it is special, something that fans of other brands look at and are interested in, becoming the gateway that this audience needs to get to know the vast and complex universe of Magic: The Gathering, and the moment that Hasbro makes the same mistake with Universes Beyond that it made with all of its Magic products - releasing more of them than the audience can digest - it risks breaking the magic of having such famous and special brands for other demographics in what is considered one of the best card games in the world.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!