As we near the end of every year, I like to look over the announced sets for the coming year and imagine what the upcoming slate of Magic expansion sets could offer us. I occasionally do a decent job with my guesses, so this year I thought I'd write down my predictions so I could check back at year's end to see how I did at reading the tea leaves.

As always, these are solely my predictions, I don't have any insider notice, and all my attempts at scrying spells required acts of depravity that are better not mentioned.

Aetherdrift will feature new Gate cards

If Aetherdrift focuses on a race that crosses the multiverse, what better way to travel from plane-to-plane than through gates! With the inclusion of Maze's End in Foundations, I've seen a ton of streamers and brewers try and make the Gates deck work. It's definitely a mechanic that has drawn interest, and it feels like it was seeded in Foundations not as an end point for the archetype, but as a starting point for a future set. With Gates as a theme in Aetherdrift, it would go a long way toward showing us how Wizards plans to fit the cards from Foundations into future sets.

Universes Beyond: Final Fantasy Will Be the Year's Best-Selling Set

Confession time. As a series, I like Final Fantasy, but I don't love it. There are stand outs. FF VII is in my top 5 all-time greatest games, and I can vividly remember my first time playing it and seeing Sephiroth descend to... well, spoilers. I really enjoyed FF X. The rest were really hit or miss. BUT, while I don't love this series myself, I do recognize that it is an immense property, with a very strong and dedicated fanbase, and I can really see it exploding similarly to the The Lord of the Rings set.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm will tease Nicol Bolas's return

We've already seen an Ugin card spoiled in the promotional material for the set, and we know that Ugin exists in the Meditation Realm to shield the multiverse from Bolas, so... Look, we know Nicol Bolas will return at some point, he's too wily and too great a villain (from Magic's own IP even) to sit on the sideline for too long. And while I think it's too early for him to return now, it's not too early to see the shadow of his machinations, to remind people that Magic's original Big Bad is still out there, biding his time...

October 2025 will feature a Secret Lair based on the Alien Franchise

At this point, Wizards has definitely shown consistency in catering to the horror fans during spooky season. We've already seen Secret Lairs based on the Evil Dead series and the Child's Play franchise. Alien is probably the most popular series that straddles both horror and science fiction, and would pair well with our first space-themed set in Edge of Eternities. Alien is currentlyundergoing a renaissance, with a popular new entry in the film series and a television series slated for FX, so the timing couldn't be better to capitalize on the property.

Universes Beyond: Spider-Man will Bring Back Dual Faced Cards

This feels like a shot in the dark, but I'd love to see cards that feature a before/after effect where characters like our favorite web slinger evolve from their mild-mannered personality into the Superhero/Villain version of themselves. A base version of "Peter Parker, Photographer" that meets a condition and flips into, "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" would be amazing. I think the original flip Planeswalkers from Magic Origins were some of the best designed cards we've ever seen, telling a complete story in their mechanic. I'd love to see us return to this with heroes and villains from the Marvel sets.

Edge of Eternities will have a set mechanic that focuses on the exile zone

One of the most often cited, yet least used, areas of Magic is the exile zone, where cards go when they are removed from the game, and where your sideboard resides. There are a ton of cards that exile creature/permanents from the battlefield, cards that exile cards from your hand, cards that exile the top card of your library, and cards that exile cards from your graveyard. There are a ton of ways to get cards into exile, but we've yet to have a set mechanic that really focuses on interacting with cards once they enter the exile zone. It seems fitting that the set that takes us to the very ends of the Magic universe will take us to the pace no other set had dared to tackle.

And finally, my big swing...

The Unannounced Universes Beyond set will be announced... on May 4th, 2025

Securing the rights to Marvel for a multi-year, multi-set relationship suggests that Wizards has built a strong relationship with Disney and has become comfortable integrating landmark properties into Magic. So, why not go for broke and transport the final set of 2025 to a galaxy far, far away? Arriving on the tail of Magic's first space opera set in Edge of Eternities, this would be the perfect time to bring Star Wars, the biggest geek property of all time, to Magic. We round out 2025 by focusing on space before 2026 arrives and we dive back into traditional fantasy with the new Lorwyn set.

You can find more of my Magic musings on Twitter/X @travishall456