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Mark Rosewater, head designer for Magic: The Gathering, must be very tired of answering questions about Universes Beyond. So I imagine he wasn't thrilled when, after sitting down for an interview during MagicCon Amsterdam 2026, I asked if he wanted to clarify his controversial Tumblr post from a few days before. A user had respectfully criticized Rosewater's answers to discontent with Universes Beyond, and MaRo listed three possible ways for players to move forward: Accept the change, create a "bubble" of like-minded people, or “walk away.”
Predictably, most outlets focused on the last statement, which Rosewater clarified is not what he wants players to do. "A lot of what I was trying to say is that Magic always has ebbs and flows," Rosewater said. "And the players as a whole kind of dictate where the game goes." Rosewater gave Commander as an example, which was originally a fan format. Wizards of the Coast noticed the demand and started creating products for Commander, which turned out to be hugely successful. The same thing happened with Universes Beyond, which is responsible for the top-selling individual Magic sets, Commander sets, and Secret Lairs. "Maybe you don't like Commander, but lots of people do," Rosewater said. "Maybe you don't like Universes Beyond, but a lot of people do. The game trends where the gestalt of the players is."
What about those players who don't fit the gestalt? Universes Beyond isn't going anywhere as long as it remains as wildly popular as it is. "There are three paths you can go down," Rosewater said. "First, you could try to think about why people like this. Maybe you can get in the spirit and understand there's fun to be had here. The second path is to invent new ways to play that don't involve Universes Beyond. Players are inventing new formats, like Planar Standard or Premodern, and if enough people play those, we'll notice. Finally, path three, which is not the path I want anyone to take, is that you can walk away from the game."
This sounds very logical and matter-of-fact, with one exception: You can't exactly ignore Universes Beyond that easily. If you are a competitive Magic player, you'll have to play with, and against, cards from these sets, regardless of your format of choice. But Rosewater had the perfect answer: "If you're choosing to be competitive, if you're prioritizing competition, then guess what? You are playing the things that win."
It's a simple statement, but I never really thought about it in those terms. Some Magic players don't like specific cards or playstyles. For example, I really don't enjoy burn or combo decks, because they're built to be non-interactive, taking away an aspect of the game I enjoy. But if I'm playing in a competitive event at any level, I expect to face these decks, and I can't complain about it. "If you're going to play to win, then you're prioritizing what wins, and then it's really not about what you don't do or don't want," Rosewater said. "It's about what wins, and you don't have a great say."
Rosewater is sympathetic to the plight of players who are struggling to adapt to the presence of Universes Beyond in the game. He mentioned what he calls his "dark night of the soul," a crisis of faith that happened when Commander started becoming a popular format. "I have played Magic since the beginning, and I like the two-person strategic approach," he said. "I'm going to beat you because I out-think you and I make better decisions, not because I can convince the other players I'm not a threat. So when Commander became wildly popular, I thought 'Magic is turning into something that is not what I enjoy.'"
I have to imagine that the dilemma has a whole other complexity when the game is so embedded in your life: You can't exactly walk away from your dream job just because you don't like Commander, but at the same time, it's hard to do your best as a designer when you don't enjoy the game. To see the dawn at the end of the night, Rosewater had to ask himself what he really loved about Magic. "It's all the joy it brings to people and how much I consider this a force of good," he said.
What is it that I love about Magic? I absolutely enjoy building decks and testing myself in competitive events. But Magic also plays a massive social role in my life. I've met some of my best friends through the game, and it helped me build new connections when I moved to a new country. Sure, I originally gravitated toward the game for its classic high-fantasy aesthetics, which are almost impossible to find in modern sets. That's what worked for me at the time, but it doesn't necessarily apply to fans today.
"Magic is this brilliant thing that just finds the zeitgeist of the times, and it becomes the game that the audience needs it to be," Rosewater said. "I stopped seeing Commander as changing my game: I got what I needed when I found the game, and this is what other people need when they find the game. Commander existing does so much good and makes so many people happy and lets them make friends, and the same goes for Universes Beyond. The thing that I try to explain is that other people's happiness is a plus for you."
While I will still cringe at seeing Benedict Cumberbatch staring at me from a Magic card, I also realized that, maybe, it's not the end of the world. I can still play. My friends are still playing. I can join a Premodern tournament and reminisce about the good old days, or showcase my comic book nerd knowledge during a Marvel Super Heroes draft. And we still get some "good" Universes Beyond sets, like The Hobbit, which really nails the spirit and aesthetic of Magic that first attracted me.
Rosewater wasn't encouraging anyone to abandon Magic, but rather asking people to think about the first two options. What he wants to make sure everybody understands, however, is that a hypothetical fourth path of winding back the clock and wiping out Universes Beyond from the game simply doesn't exist. "Universes Beyond is probably the most popular thing we've ever done," Rosewater said. "So we're not going to take it away. That doesn't mean that we don't care. If that changes, if the collected player base moves away from Universes Beyond, we'll adapt in that direction."
