For almost 30 years, Magic: The Gathering has been one of the world’s most popular collectible card game, pulling in more than $581.2 million for Hasbro in 2020 alone. For the longest time, the game refrained from crossovers with different IPs, but Hasbro has finally started to branch out over the past few years, crossing Magic with other popular properties. With various crossovers over the past decade, including Team Fortress, Plants vs. Zombies, Puzzle and Dragons, My Little Pony, Godzilla, and more, Wizards of the Coast has tried a few different things, some of which have worked well and others that have flopped.
With the announcement of the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, and Warhammer 40,000 crossovers, Magic is shifting into new territory with entirely new sets based around an IP instead of a smaller, Secret Lair drop or collectible set. With fans eagerly awaiting what is to come, now is a good time to look back at some of the best crossovers the monarch of CCGs has seen so far.
In 2019 Magic announced a set of collectible cards whose sales benefit Extra Life. Magic: the Gathering – Ponies: The Galloping was a limited edition boxed set card featuring characters from Hasbro’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The $50 set contained three non-tournament legal cards featuring Rarity, Nightmare Moon, and Princess Twilight Sparkle with all-new art that combined the style of MLP with Magic. Sales of the set ran from October 22, 2019 until they completely sold out on November 5th, 2019, as fans quickly scooped up the cards.
Like the crossover in 2019 with My Little Pony, a three-card boxed set featuring cards from Dungeons & Dragons, Nerf, and Transformers released a few years earlier in 2017. The Transformer card, Grimlock, features some amazing artwork of popular Dinobot and is the set’s best-looking card. Double-sided, Grimlock is portrayed in both his robot and alt modes with some pretty good stats and an amazing quote from the smartest Dinobot.
As a tie-in with the release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Magic released cards featuring famous kaiju from the movie in 2020 as part of their Ikoria: Lair of Behemoth Collector Boosters. Interestingly, this crossover is that the Godzilla cards are perfectly tournament legal, so players can use Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and more in their competitive decks. Overall, sixteen different cards were released in English, with an additional three being available only in Japanese. Not only were the cards printed and released in booster packs, but they are also available in Magic: The Gathering Arena.
The crossover that most Magic fans had been waiting for since Hasbro purchased Wizards of the Coast back in 1999, Dungeons and Dragons has had the most extensive list of crossovers with Magic: the Gathering. Crossing over in both directions, Magic started to bleed over in the world of DnD with free PDF supplements. It was not long before Hasbro announced the Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica, the first-ever official hardcover release of a Magic: the Gathering property for the world’s most popular role-playing game. The book has been a huge success, bringing the races, lore, and guilds of Magic‘s Ravnica to DnD in a seamless way that countless Dungeon Masters and players have been able to enjoy.
With the recent rebranding of Wizards of the Coast and a new eagerness to expand Magic: the Gathering, the future looks bright for the game. With entire new sets on the way featuring different IPs, it will be interesting to see how Wizards handles them. With so many products revolving around a specific release, fans can expect new theme decks, Brawl decks, Commander decks, booster packs, and more in the Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, and Warhammer 40k universe. The previous success up to this point with crossover experimentation has paid off, and it is time to see what those seeds have sown.
Magic: The Gathering‘s latest set, Kaldheim, was released on February 5, 2021. Magic: The Gathering Arena is available now on Android, iOS, and PC.
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