2025 was a banner year for Magic: The Gathering. New mechanics and card ideas brought fun and innovative ways to play. Still, not every set was created equal so some ideas were more successful than others. Today, we take a look at the best and worst of what came to Magic in 2025.
Honorable Mention — Innistrad Remastered
The first set of the year was Innistrad Remastered. The set, which was nearly all reprints, celebrated the Innistrad block from 2011 and 2012. With very few new cards and no new innovations to Magic: The Gathering, it didn’t seem fair to compare it to this year’s new sets but it’s important to note that it did have a lasting effect especially on Commander. Before its release, Edgar Markov had a market value of about $100 due to its popularity and powerful Eminence ability that makes him useful without ever being cast.
Casting Edgar Markov makes him even more powerful as a 4/4 with first strike and haste that buffs other vampires you control. With the release of Innistrad Remastered, the market value at the time of writing is now $27.56 with listings on TCG Player as low as $19.99. This makes Edgar Markov a much more affordable commander for players wanting to play a Mardu deck in Magic’s most popular format.
6 — Marvel’s Spider-Man
I really hate that this is on the bottom of this list because I am a huge Spider-Man fan. From a flavor standpoint, it was amazing. Seeing my favorite spider-heroes and villains come to life in Magic: The Gathering was fun and the artists truly did an awesome job showcasing what makes Spider-Man special.
The problem was that aside from flavor and art, there just wasn’t much there. The only game-changing card in the entire set was The Soul Stone. Aside from that, the other valuable cards in the set get their value from their worth to collectors instead of because they became crucial to building good decks. Case in point — at the time of writing, the standard art for Peter Parker has a market value according to TCG Player of $2.31. The Borderless art has a market value of $4.88. The extended art was a promo and that raises its market value to $17.60 while the Borderless version with original Steve Ditko art is valued at $54.68. While it was really fun to see all the cool Spider-Man cards, flavor and artwork aren’t enough for it to be a good set.
5 — Aetherdrift
When I first heard of Aetherdrift at MagicCon Vegas in 2024, I was really excited. The idea of a cross-plane race between different legends of Magic: The Gathering was a great concept. Unfortunately, its execution left something to be desired.
Don’t misunderstand — there were some good things to come out of the set. The Max Speed/Start Your Engines mechanic was a cool and flavorful way to add bonus effects to the cards in the set. Cards like The Aetherspark and Full Throttle are great options for slower formats like Commander.
The problem is that the competitive side of Magic: The Gathering suffered from Aetherdrift not having much in the way of cards that change the scope of Standard. A notable exception to that statement is that Monument to Endurance was a key piece of Seth Manfield’s winning deck at the recent MTG World Championship.
4 — Tarkir Dragonstorm
Putting Tarkir Dragonstorm at the bottom half of this list is proof of 2025 being a great year for Magic. Tarkir Dragonstorm was a phenomenal set. The dragons were fierce and felt larger than life. Planeswalkers like Ugin, Eye of the Storms and Elspeth, Storm Slayer were inspired versions of some of the best characters in all of Magic.
Utility Lands like Dalkovan Encampment added value to resources necessary just to play. Each mana color was given a unique Utility Land that had an extra ability. From countering spells to creating creature tokens, there was a flavorful option for players of every color identity.
The enchantment All-Out Assault is absolutely busted if played correctly. If played during the second main phase, it creates a second combat phase and a third main phase. In a Commander deck or any deck with a rich well of resources, that is a wild way to get a larger-than-life turn and static buffs on all your creatures.
The Commander deck featuring Teval, the Balanced Scale was also a great addition to Tarkir Dragonstorm. Teval is great at bolstering the battlefield by bolstering your available resources. With two of this year’s sets being completely void of any Commander pre-cons, it was good to see this set feature a really good deck.
3 — Avatar: The Last Airbender
Let me be clear — I could put the top 3 sets in a bag, shake it up and make a legitimate argument for why each deserves to be in the top spot. I really only put Avatar: The Last Airbender here because of its lack of Commander pre-cons. That being said, it was probably my favorite set of the entire year because I’m a huge Avatar fan and the set was really well constructed.
The bending mechanics while not equal to each other were both flavorful and functional. I think I was more upset that things like Earthbending and Firebending aren’t likely to be in future sets unless we re-visit Avatar in the future. I could easily see Chandra having firebending or Nissa having Earthbending. They make sense in the universe that already exists for Magic but will likely be contained to Avatar-specific cards. Still cards like Toph, the First Metalbender and Ozai, the Phoenix King are great examples of bending in action.
While the set didn’t include pre-cons, it did include a lot of really good cards that seemed like they were made with Commander in mind. We even wrote a top ten list for the best commanders in the set. That list could have easily expanded to twenty. I even remember early in the spoiler season seeing someone on Reddit claim that Avatar was shaping up to be Commander Masters with an Avatar skin.
2 — Edge of Eternities
Again, I could have just as easily written Edge of Eternities as the best of the year. Taking MTG directly into the sci-fi arena was bold and even a bit risky but it paid off in ways that I think will re-shape Magic for years to come. Inspiring rule changes to allow Legendary Vehicles and the newly introduced Spacecraft like Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought to become eligible commanders was a nice way to liven up the scope of Magic’s most popular format.
The planeswalker Tezzeret, Cruel Captain was a return for one of Magic’s oldest villains. Making him colorless was the correct choice here as he was practically a relic er…um, artifact… anyways. I’m also happy any time a planeswalker uses emblems and Tezzeret’s emblem is so good.
The lands in Edge of Eternities were amazing. Reprints of popular shock lands like Watery Grave and Godless Shrine were powerful ways to get dual-lands added to the resource pool quickly. I also really like the land reprints in the Stellar Sights bonus sheet. While I haven’t gotten my hands on them already, I’d really like to edit my Lotus Field based deck to include the Stellar Sights version of the card. Edge of Eternities also created a new land type called Planet to really give the feeling of expanse and a grandiose setting beyond what we could ever hope to reach on our own. The Planet Uthros, Titanic Godcore really elevates the set to cosmic proportions.
1 — Final Fantasy
Yes, the best set in 2025 was a Universes Beyond Set. Yes, the top three sets of the year included two Universes Beyond Sets but considering that half of the new sets introduced this year were Universes Beyond, it was a 50/50 chance that was going to happen. Let me be frank— yes, I like Final Fantasy but I’m a much bigger Spider-Man fan and Avatar fan than I am a Final Fantasy fan so I like to think that my fandom isn’t the driving force here.
The four Commander pre-cons were a great addition. I’ve played with two of them. As an avid FFVII and FFVIII fan, I had to get my hands on the Cloud-led Limit Break deck. When the cards align and luck is on your side, that deck gets ugly real quick. With the ETB trigger for Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER allowing you a free equip cost upon entering, Cloud can get equipment that would otherwise require a lot of resources such as Colossus Hammer which has an equip cost of .
I also played with the Y’shtola-led FFXIV deck. Not being a FFXIV player means that I didn’t see all the flavor and I wasn't excited about specific cards but the deck was still a great option to play. Her end step trigger on each turn is an amazing addition because in a full pod, she interacts with every player’s turn instead of just her own.
Final Fantasy also saw some really broken cards that changed the competitive scene dramatically. Vivi Ornitier was so powerful that every Izzet deck in standard practically required a copy of Vivi just to be taken seriously. It was only 5 months before Wizards would ban it in standard and nerf it in Arena.
Every iteration of Final Fantasy was included in the set but it didn’t feel like it made the set too massive. In fact, I would have preferred some of the less popular games to have gotten a few more cards but I would have thought that the balance being struck would have caused it to have a “jack of all trades - master of none” kind of feel but it really didn’t. Wizards understood what games were the most popular and acted accordingly. That’s why there were vastly more FFVII and FFXIV cards than any other.
With 2025 in the rear-view mirror, 2026 looks to be even better. With seven sets releasing in the next year, there will be no shortage of ways to enjoy Magic for all kinds of new and returning players. Whether you’re interested in the main Multiverse sets like Lorwyn Eclipsed or Universes Beyond sets like Star Trek, there is something for everyone coming to Magic: The Gathering.
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