Welcome to the second week of Magic: The Gathering® | Star Trek™ previews. Last week, I told the story of my personal involvement and relationship to Star Trek. (The article about its design was written by Gavin Verhey, and you can find it here.) This week, I'm going to talk about a bigger picture design issue that came up when designing the set. And, of course, I will have a new preview card to show you before I'm done.

The Bigger Picture

All Universes Beyond sets are not the same. Some properties are based on a small number of sources, a series of books or a singular television show. Other properties, like Star Trek, are based on a large collection of sources. Star Trek celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. In that time, there have been 13 series entries (almost 1,000 episodes across 52 seasons) and 14 movies. If you watched every Star Trek television show and movie back to back for 24 hours a day, it would take you over 41 days to watch it all. And that's not counting books and comics and a variety of other mediums Star Trek has appeared in. There's a lot.

And we have to capture the totality of it in one set. That's the topic of today's column. How do we tackle adapting a property with such expansive source material to Magic? It's a problem unique to Universes Beyond. So, before we dive into it, let me first start by contrasting it with how we design a Magic Multiverse set.

We have an arc planning team, of which I'm a member, that figures out what sets we'll be designing in the future. Exploratory design, the first part of the design process, begins rightly three years before a set is released to the public (four years for a Universes Beyond set, as there's extra time to allow the licensor to sign off on everything). Arc planning is another two to three years ahead of that. The week of writing this article, in 2026, we discussed what sets might be in 2031 (and 2032 did come up).

Arc planning is responsible for figuring out what new worlds we might want to visit and what returns we'll want to have. The new worlds can come from a variety of sources. The Creative team does hackathons where it creates new world ideas. We have incubation teams that work on partially solidified ideas the arc planning team has. We also do a lot of research on trends popular in other media. For returns, we talk through what new thing the return might bring to the table or what modern revision we can attach to it.

Once we have several ideas fleshed out that we feel have promise, we run them through market research to see how players react to different ideas. We talk through various ideas with other people at Wizards. We talk a lot amongst ourselves about lessons we've learned from past sets. In the end, we put together a plan for each year (three Magic Multiverse expansions) for what we think will make a suite of great sets. Those plans are then put through rigorous internal examination until we're happy with the lineup.

Exploratory worldbuilding and design begin, and we start with the work of figuring out the practicalities of what the set and world will need. Eventually, we'll get to vision design, where we start to firm up what exactly the structure of the set will look like, and the Creative team figures out what parts of the world will need the most work. After the vision design is handed off, the worldbuilding push happens where we bring in artists for several weeks to work through all the core visual issues of the world. There's a hallway between R&D and Creative where all the art goes up as the Worldbuilding team begins narrowing down their choices. It's fun to walk by and watch as the world slowly evolves.

One of the truisms of worldbuilding is that the world we create must meet the needs of the set we're building. The Vision Design team will start mapping out what the set needs mechanically, and the Creative team makes sure they have answers for those cards. Also, the Creative team might have elements of the world they'd like to see on cards and the Vision Design team can use that as inspiration to make new cards, sometimes new mechanics. There's a lot of back and forth as the Vision Design team and Creative team create synergy between the set and the world.

Here's the important part, at least in contrast to today's topic. We have a lot of worlds to make, and they take a lot of time, so we prioritize making what the set needs and not too much extra. If what the set uses is 100%, the Worldbuilding team wants to build about 110%, a little extra for flexibility to give the Creative team downstream the tools they'll need to do the card concepting, naming, and flavor text, but not so much that there's wasted effort. The key to building a Magic world involves making just enough that we can create a cool set.

Because we've been making Magic sets for so long, we have a pretty good idea of what we need to make them. For example, we have what we call the creature grid. Each color gets its own column, and there are spaces for small, medium, large, small flier, medium flier, and large flier. Not every color needs every space filled in, such as green not needing flying creatures (well, on most worlds), but every world has to have answers for each of the spaces in the grid. Essentially, when we build a Magic world, we make sure to create the things a Magic set will require.

The Worldbuilding team does want to create the illusion that the world is much bigger than the set. A lot of work goes into hinting at things that won't be on cards but create the illusion that there are many more stories to hear. Some of this is done to allow card-by-card solutions for problems, and some of it is to set up potential material for a return.

All of this is to say when we make a Magic Multiverse world, it's designed to meet the needs of the set and not much beyond that.

The Property of Properties

Universes Beyond sets are a whole different thing. For starters, they weren't made to contain a Magic world. We'll still make a creature grid, but there's no guarantee that every slot be filled. And unlike a Magic Multiverse set, some slots might have way more than can possibly fit.

So, let's go to the beginning of a Universes Beyond set. The Business team starts by looking at the data. Are there properties that we think would be a good fit for Magic? Mainly, are there a lot of existing Magic players that would enjoy that property and are there a lot of fans of that property that have the potential to become Magic players. In short, is it a good business fit? That list of names is then handed down to R&D.

R&D starts by examining those properties to see if we think they might make a good Magic set. We'll then make a team, usually with a few subject-matter experts (SMEs) to see if all the basic needs that a Magic set would require are in the property. If it's lacking in anything, that gets noted. A very common problem is not enough fliers, because most properties don't need the amount of fliers that a Magic set requires. R&D then gives a write-up on the property. Usually, it falls in one of three buckets.

  • Bucket One – It's a great fit for Magic.
  • Bucket Two – It's not a good fit for Magic.
  • Bucket Three – It has some challenges, but if we see a high enough potential, it's something we could examine further.

You'll note that this is close to Exploratory Design's three-bucket system: "yes," "no," and "maybe but needs work."

The Business team then contacts companies from bucket one, and possibly ones from bucket three, to see if they're interested in partnering with us. If they say yes, we get a contract, and once both parties have signed it, we can make a Magic set (or sets).

When a Universes Beyond property is added to the schedule, we'll have a few of what we call seeds meetings, where we'll walk through the big picture of what we think the set will want to be about. Usually at this point, we'll have the design leads picked out. Ideally, they're SMEs, but not every property has a person capable of leading a design team that's an SME of that property. If not, we'll pair the lead with a strong second that's an SME and make sure that the design team has at least one other SME on it.

On the first day of a Universes Beyond exploratory design meeting, we'll do what we call a "whiteboard activity." This is where we'll write down all the things we think are most important about the property. This will include the core mood and theme of the property, key characters, notable objects, memorable events, everything that we think a fan of the property would automatically assume was in the set.

This exercise falls into one of two categories. The first are Universes Beyond sets limited in source material. For these types of sets, usually we can hit all the major elements on a single whiteboard. But today, we're talking about properties with an extensive amount of material. Since it's a Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek preview day, I'll be using Star Trek as my example for this type of set.

The first whiteboard is used to capture the overall Star Trek brand. What are the commonalities across all (or almost all) Star Trek television shows and movies? This will include things like space exploration, the Federation, other species such as the Klingons, and technology like teleporters. The idea of this first whiteboard is to capture the essence of the property disconnected from any one show or film. This first board is super important because it's going to be the jumping-off point for exploring mechanics.

The second whiteboard is a listing of every version of Star Trek. We list every television show, every movie, everything we think is large enough that a fan might be interested in seeing elements of that expression of Star Trek. This is where the SMEs become very helpful, especially in a property as broad as Star Trek. Once we're done making the list, we will usually try to give an order to the importance of each element. The most common way to do this is what we call a "sticker vote." Each team member is given some number of stickers (the number can vary depending on how big the list is; usually around three to five stickers). Each member is allowed to put their stickers next to the items on the list they're most excited to see. When doing a sticker vote for a Universes Beyond set, we will usually pull in SMEs from the department and weigh their votes (for example, they get a different color sticker, and it counts for two votes).

We then make whiteboards for all the top picks in the sticker vote. For example, let's say the top sticker vote for Star Trek was for Star Trek: The Original Series. We'll make a whiteboard about it and list everything we think is important from it: characters, episodes, key objects, memorable lines, iconic scenes, memes, etc. What are the things we should prioritize including from Star Trek: The Original Series? Once this board is full, we'll do another sticker vote.

We'll repeat this for most of the things from the second whiteboard. The Next Generation gets a board, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and so on. After we've filled out each board, it gets a sticker vote. All of this is documented in the game design channel for the set.

We'll use all this information to make what we call a knowledge pyramid. The pyramid is broken into three sections. The base includes things anyone who is even casually a fan of the property will know: the Enterprise, Spock, Picard, a phaser, a teleporter. The second section includes things that a dedicated fan would know but a casual fan might not: a bird-of-prey, Tasha Yar, tribbles, the Prime Directive, the Rules of Acquisition. The top of the pyramid is for the deep cuts, things a true fan will know but many others wouldn't: the Kobayashi Maru, Armus, Grilka, the Horta, the Battle of Wolf 359.

Another important resource is the partner. We are the experts of Magic, but the partners are the experts of their properties. Partner companies have collected a lot of information about the property or properties they represent, just as we have a lot of data on Magic. The Star Trek team at Paramount, for instance, was able to give us a lot of data about which shows, episodes, characters, and other elements are the most popular with the fans. This informed us about which elements should get cards and which should get multiple cards.

Another important resource is simply online research. What elements are the most talked about? Which ones show up the most? Which ones have the most popular memes? While it's important to understand what people like, it's also important to understand how Star Trek fits into pop culture.

Using all this data, the Vision Design team will take the first stab at labeling the design skeleton. For those unaware, a design skeleton is a tool designers use to map out all the individual card slots in a file. (Here's a link to my latest article on design skeletons.) It helps make sure the file has all the component pieces needed to make a cohesive set.

When I'm leading a Universes Beyond vision design, I like to take all this data and make a list of what I feel wants to have a card. I then do two things. I label each entry with the color or colors I could see it going into, then I arrange the list by order of importance. Usually, I group the things by section. First is "must have multiple," followed by "must have one," "should have," "might have," and finally "probably not, but maybe in a pinch."

In a Universes Beyond set, a vision design lead will often go through the file and name card slots to indicate we need to make a card for this concept. For example, Kirk is a very important Star Trek character as captain of Star Trek: The Original Series. So, we might want to make sure he shows up twice. One card may want to be a monocolor mythic rare, and the other may want to be a two-color multicolor signpost uncommon, so you label a red mythic and a red-white uncommon as Kirk. You don't have to design the card yet, just indicate we want to eventually make it.

By labeling the design skeleton, you can start figuring out how much will fit in the set. First, at the top of my list, I'll add cards until I run out of space. I usually do the characters first then move to non-character elements. This exercise is very important because it will tell you where you're tight and where you're missing things. A common occurrence is being over in white and red, and under in green. This will help you figure out how to shift things around to fit in as much as possible. Everything you label won't necessarily stay, but it will start to give the set a good feel of how you're capturing the property.

This will also help you start a list of what might not fit but would still like to see. For instance, these cards can go in Commander decks and other products. Often the cards you have will start to dictate themes that will help the Commander Design team pick their decks. Often, once the Commander decks have their themes, Commander designers will talk with the set design lead to make appropriate swaps with the main set. One of the Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek Commander decks is themed around the Borg, so maybe one or two of the main set Borg cards would be a better fit in the Commander deck.

The Vision Design team will eventually make designs for all the labeled cards, especially the commons and uncommons. This will allow you to start doing playtests. The feedback from playtests is another great place to get information about what you've chosen to include and not include in the set. Playtesters will give you passionate thoughts on what characters you've included, good and bad, and will ask why certain things are missing. This feedback will help you as vision design, and later set design, evolves the set.

Once we think we have a good take on our selection, the card file will go to the licensor. They will give notes, such as providing feedback on how we've represented the property in the set and suggestions for things that we might want to include but originally missed. Those items might be in the Commander deck, in which case we make a swap, or they might be missing all together and get added later.

All in all, it's a very unique problem to have, a world way bigger than the needs of the set. After over 30 years of designing Magic, it's a relatively new design challenge that I've been excited to tackle.

One last thing, before I sign off for today. I have a preview card to show you all.

Click to show/hide Will Riker, First in the Field
0179_MTGTRK_Main: Will Riker, First in the Field 0385_MTGTRK_LCARS: Will Riker, First in the Field

This is a fun design that captures the flavor of exploration in a new way. It's the kind of expressive card that I love. It does something odd and asks you to figure out how to maximize it. I hope many of you come up with cool decks with Will Riker.

That brings us to the end of today's column. I hope you enjoyed the peek behind this particular new design challenge created by Universes Beyond. As always, I'm eager for any feedback, be it on today's column or on the set itself. You can email me or contact me through any of my social media (Bluesky, Tumblr, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter).

Until next time, may you find all of your favorite characters throughout Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek.