Universes Beyond Rules

Although the Universes Contained format does not allow Universes Beyond cards in a deck normally, that doesn’t mean Universes Beyond cards aren’t allowed. Rather, as the format name suggests, they are allowed but only together—that is, if every card in your deck is from the same Universes Beyond franchise, your deck is fair game as long as it complies with the rules on this page. (In most cases, that will mean you can combine cards from a Universes Beyond booster pack plus the accompanying Commander precons or “eternal” variant product.)

This is actually the overarching rule of the entire Universes Contained format, and applies even to the “regular” banlist. It’s just that the entirety of the non-Universes Beyond Magic Multiverse is essentially treated as if it were one franchise (which means that franchise has a much larger card pool and thus requires a much longer banlist).

Rules

All normal Universes Contained rules apply as a baseline (e.g., 60 card decks, 10 card sideboards, max of 4 copies of any 1 nonbasic card), except that the legal card pool applicable to Universes Beyond is unique:

Every card that has a standard-frame printing (i.e., all non-Bonus Sheet cards) with a set code corresponding to the relevant Universes Beyond franchise is permitted unless the card is specifically banned by name (see the Banned Cards page), so long as every single card in your deck (no exceptions) is from the same Universes Beyond franchise.

Examples

If you’re building a Final Fantasy deck, “Sunpetal Grove” is legal because it was in Final Fantasy Commander, but “Woodland Cemetery” from the same land cycle did not get a printing in either Final Fantasy or Final Fantasy Commander, so it is not permitted in a Final Fantasy deck.

On the other hand, “Aerith, Last Ancient” is legal in a Final Fantasy deck, because she was printed in Final Fantasy Commander, even though she would not normally be legal in a Universes Contained deck because she never had a Standard-legal printing.

Notes

This rule does mean that very small Secret Lair only Universes Beyond releases are unplayable (as there aren’t enough cards to fill out a full deck, and in most cases no legal lands). Sorry, Jurassic Park and The Walking Dead!

Unique cards specific to a franchise that were only released in a Secret Lair or Scene Bundle are not legal, and even if they have the relevant set code and can appear in Collectors Boosters.

On Scryfall, the “standard-frame printing” component can be checked using the filter “is:default” (and there are hyperlinks to Scryfall in the list of supported Universes Beyond franchises below that show the relevant card pools, though notably these do not exclude cards which are specifically banned by name such as “Sol Ring”).

The card pool is based on set code and printing, but once a card is legal, any version of it is legal—so for example, “Dragonskull Summit” is allowed in a Lord of the Rings deck because it is legal under the “regular” rules and was printed in Lord of the Rings Commander, but if you only have a copy of the Ixalan or Doctor Who printings, you could still use those. We do encourage you to “match” arts to their franchises for flavor, but you are not required to do so.

Consistent with official Wizards of the Coast policy, Dungeons & Dragons is considered an in-universe franchise, so cards from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms are legal in regular, non-Universes Beyond decks.

Supported Universes Beyond Franchises

Lord of the Rings — Set Codes: LTR & LTC & HOB & HOC

Final Fantasy — Set Codes: FIN & FIC

Avatar: The Last Airbender — Set Codes: TLA & TLE

Marvel — Set Codes: SPM & SPE & MSH & MSC

Warhammer 40,000 — Set Code: 40K

Assassin’s Creed — Set Code: ACR

Fallout — Set Code: PIP

Doctor Who — Set Code: WHO