Magic The Gatheringdoesn’t necessarily seem like a game made for crossovers at first. It takes its lore very seriously, and is always grounded in its fantasy ideals. However, the basic mechanics that make upMagiccards are flexible. Themes associated with each of its five colors are great ways to categorize fictional characters from all kinds of different sources. As a result, there’s lots ofMagic the Gatheringcards representing characters from totally different IPs. Not all of them are legal in most forms of play, but they’re definitely all worth appreciating, especially when Wizards of the Coast creates unique and funny designs to match the source material.
Not every crossover gets particularly flashy.Magic’s crossover withThe Walking Deadlast year featured some fairly straightforward card designs that wouldn’t have felt out of place in a properMagicset, so long as the characters got new names. Some crossovers take the opposite route and get as odd and flashy as possible. That brings to mind the handful ofMy Little Ponycards thatMagiconce produced. Out of all the game’s crossovers, a few in particular stand above the rest in terms of themes, design, and charm.
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Nerf and Transformers Sets
For those who don’t know, Wizards of the Coast’s parent company is toy company titan Hasbro. Back in 2017,Magic the Gatheringmade an appearance at HasCon, a fan event meant to celebrateMagic the Gatheringand Hasbro’s other products. Two of those products are theNerffoam dart gun seriesand theTransformersfranchise. It’s pretty easy for Hasbro to arrange internal crossovers forMagicand these other IPs. Plastic toys might seem hard to cross over with trading cards, butMagic’s developers did a great job and produced a couple amusing and perfectly playable cards.
Grimlock was chosen to representTransformersin this crossover. Grimlock is generally known as the leader of the Dinobots, a faction of Transformers who turn into dinosaurs instead of vehicles. Grimlock is a really efficient and aggressive creature, and happens to fit very well into Dinosaur decks.Nerf’s card isn’t as practical as Grimlock, but it’s pretty hilarious.
The card encourages its user to pack the biggestNerfgun they have available when playing a game ofMagicin the hopes of blasting the other player’s deck away with a deluge of foam darts. Nerf War might not fit into any deck in particular, but it’s a pretty hilariousbreak fromMagic’s normal rules, and the flavor text parodyingNerf’s motto is delightful.
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Godzilla
WhenMagic the Gathering’sIkoriaset was revealed, it was obvious that the developers were taking heavily inspiration from kaiju movies. The plane of Ikoria is all about humans trying to survive in a world where animals adapt at lightning speed and frequently mutate into towering monsters of all kinds. With that in mind, it’s more than appropriate thatIkoriareceived aGodzillacrossover.
Many ofIkoria’s most noteworthy creatures were reskinned as variousmonsters fromGodzillamovies, including three different versions of Godzilla itself. Although these classic monsters didn’t get cards specially designed for them, the cards that Wizards of the Coast chose to assign to them were largely very appropriate. On top of that, the art for these cards is fantastic, perfectly capturing the power and majesty of the kaiju that are allies and enemies to Godzilla.
Dungeons and Dragons
Technically speaking,Magic the Gathering’sbigDungeons and Dragonscrossoverhasn’t happened yet. However, the entire set dedicated to Wizards of the Coast’s famous tabletop RPG is easily the biggest and most ambitious crossover the company has ever attempted. It’s one thing to dedicate a couple fun promotional cards to an IP, but nowMagic’s developers have more than two hundred cards to come up with for the crossover.Dungeons and Dragonsis such a rich IP that the upcoming Forgotten Realms set is sure to be breathtaking. Finally players can seeMagicincorporate creatures like beholders, illithids, mimics, and so much more.
Technically there has been one crossover between these two tabletop games before. Wizards printed a joke card called the Sword of Dungeons and Dragons, an Equipment card inspired by a list of powerfulMagicsword Equipments. This Sword is actually pretty strong even though it’s a joke card, producing free Dragons for the user. Even though the Sword is a gag, it teases themes that’ll surely come to play in theForgotten Realmsset. This is a crossover that seems like it’s a long time coming, seeing asMagichas beeninvited intoDungeons and Dragonsbefore. The inverse is worth looking forward to.
Magic The Gatheringsets are available now in game shops and digitally inMagic: The Gathering Arena.
