There have been many elements of what has historically been labeled as nerd culture that have been seeping into the mainstream lately. Dungeons & Dragons has become far more accepted as a social gaming experience compared to 10 or 20 years ago. Similarly, collectible card game Magic: The Gathering has seen its popularity spread more into the mainstream.
In fact, it’s reached what could be considered by some to be a critical mass, as it’s about to launch a multiverse crossover with Marvel Comics.
Wizards of the Coast revealed a “years in the making” partnership with Marvel. While details are still scarce, the collaboration involves bringing Marvel superheroes and villains into the world of Magic: The Gathering. How exactly is this being implemented? No idea yet; the announcement trailer is just a vague promotional spot that shows kids dressing up as Marvel characters, reading comics, and then a mom sees a kid drop a Magic card.
This brings up a lot of questions as to what’s going to happen in terms of how this crossover will work. Is there going to be any compatibility with non Marvel MTG cards? How many cards are going to be in the starting sets, are there going to be any rule changes specifically for this set? After all, this isn’t the first time MTG has done something like this under the “Universes Beyond” branding. For sure though, this is a big one, especially given the insane number of material they can use for characters, attacks, etc.
As for Marvel, this isn’t their first foray into collectible card games as well. Previously the comics giant had teamed up with Upper Deck for their VS System card battling game. It even received a video game version for PC, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable about 16 years or so ago.
So, we’ll let you know what we hear about this collaboration.
We’ll present more information as it becomes available, but for now you can at least check out the incredibly vague announcement trailer above.
