What we think of the Star Trek x Magic: The Gathering collab

Star Trek isn’t the Final Frontier, It’s the Gathering.

In a galaxy far far away, Magic The Gathering fans are in a state of panic with the recent reveal that had both casual and competitive players shaking in their boots. During the July 14 WeeklyMTG stream, spoilers for the upcoming Star Trek set had finally been revealed. Having been announced for quite a while, it’s funny to think that the final set of the year Star Trek had actual card reveals with next month’s set in The Hobbit already looming in the distance. That aside though, while it is somewhat tiresome if you’re on the competitive side of things, the prospects are bright especially if you’re a Star Trek fan or just want some decent pick ups down the line.

A new frontier

Now you see an image of Captain Kirk and it’s been years since you’ve seen his glorious face aboard the Enterprise. Here’s the thing though, you realized that surrounding that art of Captain Kirk is a border you’re not too familiar with and it says he’s Boldly Going.

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Where he’s going nobody knows but what you do know now thanks a friend of yours is that Star Trek has its own dedicated set coming later this year for Magic The Gathering. You’re probably asking yourself, wait since when did this become a thing and isn’t MTG a fantasy game? And the answer is it started way back with the Walking Dead introducing the concept of Universes Beyond which takes other IPs and puts them into the world of MTG years ago and Magic always had sci-fi elements. Heck, in universe, MTG already went to space last year with Edge of Eternities. With that out of the way though, you’re already keen on MTG so let’s talk about some of the current set’s spoilers!

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Familiar Faces and then some

Going back to Kirk, he’s Boldly Going into a variety of formats and treatments together with other notable characters throughout the series multiple incarnations. From a fans perspective you get to see him in all sorts of situations with representation not only from William Shatner but with Chris Pine as well. There’s this sense of variety with the colors represented by the cards like for instance the multi colored Kirk, Boldly Going in bant shows him as the stoic captain of the enterprise playing into the MTG color pie pretty well while in Captain James T. Kirk, you see the brash hotheaded, sometimes shirtless protagonist ready to throw some hands.

It’s not just the main cast and crew with the spotlight shed on them with moments and memorable lines from the show like Set Phaser to… also getting its own card but what really surprised me going through the initial slew of spoilers was Salt Vampire. Now let’s put it into perspective as to why this caught my attention especially when looking at it through the competitive lens. It gives you information, removes a possible threat without even having to fight and it even has a somewhat relevant type in Vampire! Without going too heavily into it, this card is an all star and explaining it might take a while but what surprised me was the Salt Vampire is a villain of the week, a side character! Star Trek went deep into the vaults for this one and with loads more cards to come, you’d be surprised with who or even what could show up and if the Lord of the Rings and Avatar set have anything to say about it, Star Trek will really leave a mark in competitive play.

A shocking turn of events

Opening booster packs for fun is a bit of a strain financially speaking because what do you mean I spent more than 250 Pesos to get nothing in return? Pokemon fans are in shambles! Kidding aside though, one surprising reveal was the return of Shock Lands! Long story short, they’re valuable lands giving you access to 2 colors that you could use asap if you take 2 damage which is as much damage as you’d take from the Magic card Shock. Having these reprinted and all 10 of them at that, makes biting the bullet for the set more tolerable and from experience, I’m telling you lands are something worth investing in either for the short or long run.

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And don’t get me started on valuable cards out there being reprinted into the bonus sheet. Sometimes expensive staples like Sheoldred, The Apocalypse, which is currently pushing for almost $100 at the time of writing, are hard to come by but Star Trek like other sets out there have a way to circulate it again in normal booster packs. Having this sort of accessibility is important in the long run and undoubtedly, having more staples for everyone is always a good thing even if it is Benedict Cumberbatch.

(Also dumb note but you could have 3 versions of him in your deck with Smaug coming in the Hobbit, Doctor Strange in Marvel and now Khan Engineered Evil from Star Trek!)

Great gifts for family and friends!

Magic is anything you want it to be and quite frankly as somebody that had been in the space for quite some time, I’m quite excited for the set not because of the IP but because it attracts more players to one of the greatest games there ever is. Last year had droves of players joining in with the Final Fantasy expansion and if they play their cards right or designed them well enough, Star Trek could be an all time great set.

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There are tons of products for this expansion available especially for newbies, veterans and even collectors so as a quick roundup, here’s what I recommend you’d buy and why!

There’s also a premium assortment of items available with these being my thoughts on them

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And that’s it for me, see you in the prerelease when Star Trek eventually drops but for now, I’m thinking about making a Benedict Cucumber tribal deck for the laughs.