Alright, gather ’round, because your favorite tired dad needs to vent. I love this game. I love the Marvel crossover. And I am also completely out of breath trying to keep up with the release schedule, and I suspect I’m not the only one.
The Firehose Is Real
Between Universes Beyond crossovers and regular sets, 2026 is stacked. We’ve had a Marvel set, a Ninja Turtles set, an Avatar set, and there’s a Hobbit set on the way — and that’s just the stuff I can name off the top of my head. When I quit Magic in the early 2000s, a couple of sets a year felt normal. Now I blink and there’s a new prerelease and three preorders I’m supposedly supposed to have an opinion about.
I’m not saying any individual set is bad. Marvel Super Heroes is great! That’s almost the problem. They’re coming so fast that I barely get to enjoy one before the hype machine spins up for the next. As a guy with a job and two kids, I physically cannot keep pace, and I refuse to feel bad about it.
FOMO Is the Real Final Boss
The thing that actually grinds my gears isn’t the crossovers — it’s the fear of missing out baked into the cadence. Limited print windows, fancy collector treatments, "preorder now or else" energy. It nudges you to buy reactively instead of buying what you’ll actually play. And for a budget family player, that pressure is the enemy.
So here’s my dad-rant resolution, and you’re welcome to adopt it: I’m opting out of the firehose. I’ll buy the sets that genuinely excite me and my kids, I’ll ignore the rest, and I’ll let the must-have-it-day-one panic roll right off me. The cards aren’t going anywhere. The game I love will still be here next month, and the month after that, with three more sets I’ll also calmly ignore if I feel like it.
The Silver Lining
For all my grumbling, there’s an upside to this avalanche: there’s now a Magic set for nearly everyone. Love Marvel? Covered. Tolkien? Covered. Made-up wizards on made-up planes, the way God and Richard Garfield intended? Still covered, I promise.
The firehose means more on-ramps for more people, including my kids, who got into this because a superhero showed up on a card. I can be annoyed at the pace AND grateful for the access. That’s allowed. That’s just being a dad — perpetually overwhelmed and quietly delighted at the same time. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go not preorder something.