Five new Magic: The Gathering Welcome Decks are coming out alongside the release of the Universes Beyond set, Magic: The Gathering | Spider-Man.
While designed for new players to ease them into the collectible card game, there is one thing some are finding surprising about the decks' 30-card card lists. Not all of the cards are legal in the game's Standard format, a format that uses only the game's most recent and easiest-to-obtain sets.
The company says this is because the Spider-Man Welcome Decks weren't designed with Standard specifically in mind.
"Welcome Decks are intended to be a general introduction to Magic gameplay and do not have a specific format focus," explains Wizards Play Network (WPN) Community Manager Nelson Brown. "The idea is that a new player can learn the basic rules using a Welcome Deck, and then be guided towards whatever form of play they are most compelled by, be that Standard, Commander, limited play, etc."
Indeed, on the company website, it's specified that while the deck does contain a number of Standard-legal cards, not all of the cards in the decks are allowed to be played in the format.
"These new cards have the SPE set code and are not legal in Standard," states the company. "SPE Welcome Deck cards can also be found in traditional foil in Magic: The Gathering | Marvel's Spider-Man Collector Boosters. There are five common, five uncommon, six rare, and five mythic rare SPE Welcome Deck cards."
Magic: The Gathering | Marvel's Spider-Man Welcome Decks will be available at WPN game stores once the set releases on Sept. 26, 2025.
