“Through the Omenpaths” is a set you might not be aware of if you only play physical Magic: The Gathering. It’s a digital set for MTG Arena that takes every single card printed in the newly released Spider-Man set and gives it a new name with new art. Why? Legal shenanigans. Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has the rights to make physical cards using the Spider-Man IP for their set, but they do not have the rights to make digital versions of those exact same cards. Their solution was “Through the Omenpaths,” a set taking place across the Magic multiverse.
I Am Confused
At first, I didn’t think having two mechanically identical sets would be a bad thing. If I wanted to, I could acquire physical versions of the digital cards and have “in-universe” versions of the cards instead of “Spider-Ham, Peter Porker.” Unfortunately, I was wrong, and even as a seasoned Magic player (seasoned mostly with salt) I find having to navigate between the two card versions to be incredibly confusing. If I were a new player attempting to play both digital and physical versions of MTG right now, I’m pretty sure my head would explode and spiders would come crawling out.
Since WotC denoted most characters with one of three new(ish) creature types: Hero, Villain, or Symbiote, all of the digital versions are also either Heroes, Villains, or Symbiotes. What this means is that every Spider-Man legendary creature (there are 75 cards with these types) had a brand new character made for them. There’s not much wiggle-room when your creature type is “Human Spider Hero Symbiote Villain.” My problem with this is that unless we go back to Spider-Man, or to a world inhabited solely by spider heroes, symbiotes, and villains, we will never see these characters again.
My Multiverse Can Beat Up Your Multiverse
I think Through the Omenpaths, a set that can print cards from any Magic universe, would be much better utilized as a supplementary product versus a cover-up of IP goobery. A set like this could reintroduce mechanics, creature types, or underrepresented characters without the need for a “Return To” set.
Here are a few examples of things I would like to see in a supplementary “Oops, all sets” product.
- Will of the Council/Voting: The Lord of the Rings set introduced a number of unique “voting” legendary creatures in the blue/green (Simic) color identity. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many other cards that involve voting within that color combination.
- Beasties/Glimmers: A recent set, Duskmourne, released a new creature type: Glimmer and a line of beasts called Beasties. Each of these represents hope and safety within an otherwise bleak environment. The Bedhead Beastie heard that monsters were hiding under the bed, so they went to check. I demand more beasties to keep me safe as I wander the ever-shifting rooms of a giant demon moth.
- Runes/Cartouches: We’ve been to Amonkhet a couple of times now, but we are sorely lacking in the set’s unique aura type, Cartouche. In reality, both runes and cartouches are nearly identical to other auras, but I still wouldn’t mind seeing more of them.
- Bobbleheads: Printed in the Fallout set, the familiar stat increasing bobbleheads have synergistic abilities based on the number of Bobbleheads you control. There’s more than five Bobbleheads within Fallout, so let’s get some more so I can finally make my Bobblehead deck!
Lore is Cool, Okay?
WotC has attempted to print a couple of sets that supplemented the end story of a previous set. March of the Machine: Aftermath was an “Epilogue Set” that let us know what happened after the Mother of Machines (Elesh Norn) was defeated. From my understanding, it flopped, but if you were to take two or three of these “epilogue sets” and smash them into a single full set you could more easily tell multiple stories at once while printing regular product. You and I, fellow nerds, could take a successfull journey THROUGH THE OMENPAAAAAAATHS!
