It's no secret that, with Wizards of the Coast's proliferation of Universes Beyond releases, Magic: The Gathering's popular Commander format gets its share of such treatment.
In fact, most all of the Universes Beyond sets that have come out for the collectible card game, have had Commander decks released for them, if not (as was the case with the Doctor Who and Fallout releases) being complete Commander-only sets altogether. These decks, despite the controversial nature of Universes Beyond among the majority of Magic players, don't do half bad.
In fact, according to Wizards themselves, the reception of the Universes Beyond Commander decks have been "amazing." And this is, in part, because of the preconstructed Commander decks' ability to bring new players into Magic.
"One of the things we do a lot of with our Universes Beyond precons ... is realizing they're really good entry places for people ," comments Gavin Verhey, principal designer for Magic.
To that end, Wizards doesn't want to make them chock-full of amazing, high quality cards as a means to keep them accessible to newer and novice players while still making them appealing to more established players.
Verhey puts this example out for when the company comes out with multiple different Commander decks like they did for 2025's Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set, which featured four different preconstructed decks.
"One's very simple to play, one's very complex to play, and two in the middle," he explains. "With Universes Beyond, I might skew that a little bit further, like there's two that are very simple to play so it's very easy to latch on."
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One of the biggest tools Verhey says they have with Universes Beyond sets is the flavor that comes along with these third-party IPs. He believes that, due to this, even more novice players can better understand more complicated things because they understand the lore that these third-party IPs bring. Plus, the fact that Universes Beyond allows Wizards to include more new cards than they normally would for an in-universe Commander preconstructed deck, means that there can be more flavorful tools for newer players to use and understand.
"So, if you love Final Fantasy, you got that red-green-white equipment deck and you're like I get it -- I take my hero, put on him a big sword, thumbs up," he comments. "And I think that that sort of flavor goes a really long way on selling people on how their stuff works."
Also, when designing Universes Beyond Commander decks for any one specific IP, Wizards says they put a lot of work into designing the decks together in what they call the "biodome experience," which are the set's decks being played together. That's because, according to Verhey, "a lot of people experience it just playing those decks against one another almost like a board game."
In the end, it's about creating a good, immersive experience using the third-party Universes Beyond IPs that are not only approachable for new players coming into Magic, but also intriguing and enjoyable enough for veteran players picking them up as well.
