[STEAM] Magic: The Gathering’s new Marvel set is a love letter to the super hero genre | new cards revealed

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When Mark Rosewater found out about Magic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond initiative, he immediately knew he wanted to design a Marvel Comics set.

The Magic: The Gathering head designer first learned about Wizards of the Coast’s third-party IP licensing initiative in a meeting with WotC vice president of Magic design Aaron Forsythe.

“The very first thing I said to him was, ‘dibs on Marvel,’” Rosewater said in an interview with GamesBeat during the Summer Game Fest Play Days demonstrations in Los Angeles this week.

At SGF: Play Days, where Wizards of the Coast was showcasing Magic’s new Marvel Super Heroes set, GamesBeat sat down with Rosewater to discuss the philosophy behind the set, its warm reception from the Magic community thus far, and Rosewater’s passion for Marvel and the super hero genre at large. Rosewater and his team have been working on the Marvel Super Heroes set for four years, and his excitement about the crossover set’s June 26 release was on full display during the interview.

“I’m a giant Marvel fan. Obviously, I like Magic. So, this was a really fun set to work on, because I brought my two loves together in one thing,” Rosewater said.

Although Marvel’s IP holders at Disney gave Rosewater and his team freedom to design around a wide range of characters, locations, and other elements of the Marvel universe, the Marvel Super Heroes set is broadly built around the concept of the Avengers super hero team, with significant typal set mechanics revolving around the Hero and Villain creature types. Rosewater noted that he had designed potential cards for Marvel characters that didn’t make it into the Super Heroes set, including a

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card that could show up in a future expansion. He noted that Marvel superfans could likely get a sense of the nature of future Marvel expansions from the characters and story elements withheld from the upcoming set.

“We clearly spent time and energy before we started sort of chopping everything up — so we were aware when we made this, and we knew what was coming,” Rosewater said. “And so, the things that are missing here, maybe they’re missing for a reason.”

In addition to prominent Marvel characters like Iron Man and Captain America, Magic: The Gathering’s Marvel Super Heroes set includes a number of characters that Rosewater described as “deep cuts,” such as Reptil, a dinosaur-themed hero originally popularized through the “The Super Hero Squad” animated television series, and the fan-favorite Squirrel Girl.

“One of the cool things is, you don’t need to know all the depth of the Marvel universe to enjoy things from the Marvel universe — and you know what? A guy that turns into dinosaurs made a really fun Magic card,” Rosewater said. “And Reptil, to me, is the poster child of, you don’t even need to know who he is to appreciate the character and the card.”

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Rosewater and his team are working on additional Marvel expansions, so there is much more to come in the future for Marvel Comics fans looking to rip packs and slam cardboard featuring their favorite heroes. And there is hope on the horizon for fans of other fictional super hero worlds who enjoy playing Magic: Rosewater is a DC Comics fan, too.

“I’m a huge DC fan — I would love that,” he said. “I probably need to go back down to say, ‘dibs on DC.’”

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