Wizards of the Coast has had huge success using Universes Beyond to build its Magic: The Gathering player base. The IP-crossover sub-brand allows the company to tap into existing fandoms like Final Fantasy — even if that tactic may frustrate longtime fans who enjoy the game’s own characters and lore. Popular franchises aren’t always a good match for Magic, either. Marvel’s Spider-Man veered too far from fantasy tropes, while Avatar: The Last Airbender had to awkwardly stretch its four elements across five colors. But there’s one extremely successful world that would fit perfectly with Magic: Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere. The thematic match between the two properties, and the fact that Sanderson is a lifelong fan of the game, make it feel like a collaboration that is all but inevitable.
The Cosmere spans multiple planets, each with their own civilizations and ways of using magic. While each of Sanderson’s books takes place on a single planet, his series are interconnected by Worldhoppers, like the storyteller Hoid, who can travel between them. The effect is very similar to Magic’s planes and Planeswalkers. Sanderson previously told Polygon that his worldbuilding has been shaped by his lifelong love of tabletop role-playing games like Magic’s sibling Dungeons & Dragons. He even has detailed rules for magic that make his work easy to translate into game mechanics.
Sanderson’s connection to Magic goes deep. Early in his career, he would exchange signed copies of his books for cards that he wanted to add to his collection. In 2018, he wrote the novella Children of the Nameless, which is set in Magic’s gothic horror world of Innistrad. The story was originally free to read on Magic’s website, but it’s now being published in a $250 deluxe edition that will partially benefit the charity Child’s Play
At Q&A at Dragonsteel 2024, Sanderson said that Wizards had approached him about the possibility of collaborating on a Universes Beyond set and that while he responded that he was excited about the idea, he never heard back. He assumed that he just fell lower on the priority list than Marvel of The Lord of the Rings, but did say he’d hold out for a full set rather than a Secret Lair drop. Sanderson fueled speculation that a collaboration with Wizards was imminent last year when he previewed a card from the Tarkir: Dragonstorm set and made an appearance at Wizards headquarters.
Sanderson negotiated a deal to have significant control over Apple TV’s Cosmere adaptations, and he’s already said he’d want to travel to Wizards headquarters in Seattle to be involved in the development of any Magic set based on his works.
“I do think it is probably something that will happen, assuming MTG doesn’t fall apart,” Sanderson at a convention in 2024 (via Star City Games). “If the wheels don’t come off by trying to do so many sets in one year, I think it is something that will eventually happen. I am in a place where I can wait to do it, until they are willing to give me the full set or something like that.”
The author has even already tried his hand at Magic design, creating special mechanics for the Commander Cube he showed off in a 2019 episode of The Command Zone. Brotherwise Games started turning the Cosmere into a TTRPG with the Stormlight Archive series before expanding to add a Mistborn setting and the possibility of Worldhopper games. Wizards would be wise to take a similar approach, much like how it divided Marvel’s heroes across multiple sets.
Universes Beyond sets are often at their best when they have strong crossover in their fanbases like Final Fantasy or The Lord of the Rings. The Cosmere has been built by an author who loves Magic and, in many ways, thinks like a Wizards designer. A Magic set based on any of Sanderson’s worlds would feel similar enough to the game’s core lore to appease purists, and delight fans who have proven their willingness to spend money by repeatedly breaking crowdfunding records to back Sanderson’s work. A Mistborn movie is already in the works, and hopefully a Magic set based on Mistborn – or one of Sanderson’s other series – will be released soon.
