Is Universes Beyond A Problem In Pauper? | Magic: The Gathering

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:03]My favorite way to play Magic the Gathering isn't Commander, and it certainly isn't standard. It used to be modern, but modern hasn't felt like modern for a while now. No, my favorite way to play Magic the Gathering is Popper, the best budget format there is, where you can play with cards from throughout Magic's history, but you cannot play with anything other than commons.

[00:00:26]Back in March, I was fortunate enough to attend the most recent Popperon tournament. And honestly, the format is looking great. Nearly 1,000 players gathered from all over the world for a weekend of tight, skill-intensive games in what's quickly gaining steam as the hottest way to play 60card constructed Magic the Gathering. And given the state of 60card magic at large lately, I'm not surprised. Standard is fun, but it's also prohibitively expensive. Dominated by Shockland heavy manab bases and $30 to $60 cards that you need playets of.

[00:01:03]Modern is drowning in modern horizon's power creep. Pioneer and legacy haven't been heard from in years. And Magic as a whole is suffering from a constant deluge of new cards, half of which come from universes beyond. By comparison, Popper is thriving. Papagradon saw over 40 different deck archetypes registered to compete in the main event with only two decks, Cricsus Affinity and Mono Red Madness, taking up just over 10% a piece of the metag game share. Every macro archetype from aggro to control, mid-range to combo are represented, and there are tons of variations within each macro archetype for different decks and strategies. What's more, Popper is by far the most affordable way to play competitive Magic, thanks to the format's commonly stipulation. Some of the format's most powerful decks cost around the price of a commander precon.

[00:02:03]I mean, there are more expensive popper decks, and those might run you as high as a upgraded commander precon. And of course, since Popper is an eternal format, you never need worry about your cards rotating after you've bought into your deck.

[00:02:19]I know, I know it might sound like I'm gushing a little here, but it just feels so good to be excited about Magic right now. And if all this talk of Poergen in Italy is giving you FOMO, fear not, because this July, a similar Popper tournament, Popper Genesis, is going to be held in Baltimore, Maryland. I'll put a link and info about that in this video's description. But in all fairness, Popper is not without its own growing issues. For a format entirely of commons, top decks are starting to cost outrageous sums of $60, $80, even $100 for a top deck. And for a format using cards from throughout Magic's history, more and more cards are creeping in from universes beyond. And what if I told you that many popper players are starting to worry that these two issues, universes beyond cards and rising popper prices are actually linked.

[00:03:18]For a long time, Popper has been one of the few sources of shelter to players looking to escape the downpour of universes beyond hitting every other format. Sure, sets like Lord of the Rings introduced a few instant staples to Popper, such as the one mana land Cyclers, Lembboss, and Rally the Hornberg, but these cards at least fit in with the existing flavor of Magic and thus didn't ruffle too many feathers.

[00:03:41]This cautiously optimistic tone has begun to shift, though. Now that Universes Beyond makes up half, that's right, half of all Magic sets. And now that they're all standard legal, Hopper is becoming yet another format where outside properties are unavoidable.

[00:03:58]Final Fantasy's Black Maj's Rod may be one thing, but Spider-Man webser and Leonardo Big Brother becoming popper staples, plus whatever is coming next in Marvel superheroes, Star Trek, and beyond.

[00:04:14]What's more, with little clarity over what Wizards reprint policy will look like for Popper Staples from outside IP, or if it'll be possible to reprint universes beyond cards at all due to legal issues, we may be looking at the emergence of a new soft reserved list.

[00:04:30]Yes, Popper is cheaper than virtually every other 60card format, but it's also more expensive than it's ever been. For example, one new Univers's Beyond Popper staple, the Affinity Payoff Utra Monitor, already costs over $25 for a playset. What will it cost by the end of the year or by the end of next year? And what if this is one of many cards that they can never really reprint? So, what is to be done about this? It would be unreasonable to call for a banning of all Universes Beyond Cards from Popper, right? What about a banning of a card in Popper if it gets to be too expensive?

[00:05:06]We can't have reprints of universes beyond cards unless they're printed in universe. How exactly do we go about that? Can wizards be doing more? Should wizards be doing more to address these issues in Popper? Well, I have many opinions, all of them strong. So, buckle up because let's take a look. But first, a question for many Magic the Gathering players. Are you tired all the time? Do you have trouble concentrating or just being motivated to get tasks done? Do you feel just blleh? Well, it's possible you are not getting enough sleep. And if so, you're not alone. An alarming number of people are tired all the time. And one of the biggest biggest potential factors is simply not having a good quality mattress to sleep on. Other factors may include the state of the world, the economy, the environmental crisis, social media, poor diet due to an emphasis on fast food, the gig economy, human rights crisis, personal problems, lack of exercise, worries over inflation, political crisis, lack of exercise, and of course, too many Magic the Gathering sets that are universes beyond. While I cannot help you with any of those problems, I can help you if you have a bad mattress by recommending one of the best out there for a great night's sleep. Helix, sponsor of this video. Helix Sleep makes premium mattresses and bedding that are customized to fit your personal needs and conveniently shipped to your door.

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[00:07:51]blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

[00:07:57]With the sudden increase in Popper staples from Universes Beyond and with many more assuredly on the horizon, many popper players are calling for an outright ban of all universes beyond cards. It is certainly true that a blanket ban of universes beyond from the moment each one gets leaked on Reddit would solve this problem immediately.

[00:08:17]But putting aside the fact that Wizards of the Coast would never ever do that, I honestly don't even think this hamfisted solution is really what the situation calls for. It's no secret that I am not a fan of Universes Beyond, but it's too late to put the toothpaste back in the tube. The decision has been made.

[00:08:36]Universes Beyond is Magic. Now, in a very real and very meaningful sense, what rational argument is there that Popper should be any different from any of Magic's other formats? On top of that, I just can't see any compelling argument against most universes beyond cards in Popper from a gameplay standpoint. Sure, you may not like the flavor of these cards. I certainly don't. But are they really banan worthy?

[00:09:03]Mono White aggro decks have seen quite a few universes beyond cards added to their lists as of late, but two of the biggest standouts are Leonardo Big Brother and Spiderman webslinger. Both of these creatures are notable for their reduced alternative casting costs that help you cheat in a strong creature well below rate. Not only that, but given that they're both legendary, they dodge one of the format's premier removal spells, cast down. The typical play pattern is to swing out with a wide board of little creatures, then sneak Leo in off of any of your unblocked guys for some massive direct damage. After the wreckage clears, you webs sling him out for Spider-Man, setting yourself up for another big attack next turn.

[00:09:49]These cards are definitely forces to be reckoned with, but do they really need to be flatout banned? I'm not so sure.

[00:09:57]Popper tends to be a creature ccentric format that there are answers to these cards in, especially in your sideboard.

[00:10:04]Game one might be a blowout, but a well-timed breath weapon will help keep the board clear and that pesky turtle in your opponent's hand.

[00:10:13]Another Universe Beyond card that has gotten on players radars is guac and marshmallow pizza, which has gone so far as to deliver in 30 minutes or less a brand new deck of its own pizza combo. The engine of the deck is built around casting cards like Banishing Knack or Retraction Helix on a devoted druid, then getting a hot and ready guac pizza delivered to the board.

[00:10:40]Target the druid with the pizzas enters the battlefield ability to buff its power and toughness and untap it. Tap the druid to bounce the pizza back to hand. Untap it with its own negative one ability. Then tap it for green to recast the pizza. Congratulations, you now have a loop that generates an infinitely large devoted druid which can then generate an infinite amount of green mana and then bounce every blocker on your opponent's side of the field. While at first glance this bears some resemblance to the problematic basking brood scale sadistic glee combo deck of Popper's recent past, I don't think it's nearly as potent or ubiquitous of a threat. We're talking about a highly fragile three card combo involving a creature that you have to untap with.

[00:11:26]That's miles different from the two card brood scale glee combo.

[00:11:31]If anything, as much as I hate and I really do hate the flavor of this unholy pizza concoction, from a mechanical standpoint, I think pizza combo is honestly a really cool deck. I feel it fits right in alongside other face up wacky combo decks like Flickerron, Jesse, or Walls. Though my heart did break for the poor Italian players who had to watch a card called Guac and Marshmallow Pizza get put on the stack.

[00:11:58]A single new card spawning a new deck, even another look ma, we broke devoted druid deck, isn't just cool, it's exactly the kind of thing Popper needs to remain fresh and healthy.

[00:12:10]There's nothing really broken about these three cards. And if anything, complaints and calls for bans seem to stem more from a flavor fail rather than gameplay issues. I don't think there would be nearly the outcry if Spider-Man was core javeliner and his webs slinging ability was called grapple. Nor would anyone mind if guac and marshmallow pizza was, I don't know, simic sllo. In fact, I think they would be celebrated as great additions to the format that help keep it fresh. The designs aren't the issue. It's the coat of paint.

[00:12:45]Fully removing Universes Beyond Cards from Popper would not only hinder innovation in a format that's regularly touted as a brewer's paradise, but it would fundamentally reshape the format in some really detrimental ways.

[00:13:00]One of the most exciting things about Poppers is being able to play powerful cards that are restricted or even banned in other formats like Brainstorm. And that's largely aided by the shuffle effects provided by Lord of the Rings land cyclers without which popular decks like Monol Terror would fall to the wayside overnight. It would be doing a disservice to longtime players to totally uproot the format over what largely circulates around aesthetic differences. Of course, it's not all about aesthetics, is it? Card availability is a real issue to contend with, even within universes within Magic sets. #repprint dusttod dust, you cowards. Universes beyond sets compound this problem, not only with the reprint problem, but with the places the cards are printed in the first place. The Universes Beyond project has been touted as a way of attracting new players to the game. And that means an increasing number of supplemental products aimed at getting them in the door with something that's a little less intimidating than your typical Commander precon. After all, Commander is not a good format for introducing new players to the game.

[00:14:06]Generally, this is great. More people playing is always a good thing, and having accessible entry points is awesome. That being said, an increase in these products means an increased chance of a mechanically unique common getting designed and slipped into something with a limited print run, totally breaking the Popper format wide open. If you're an established Popper player, you may know where I'm going with this. We need to have a talk about Utram Monitor.

[00:14:35]Utram Monitor is a five mana 33 blue artifact creature with flying and affinity for artifacts. Famously safe line of text to put on a card. When Utra Monitor was spoiled back in the hion days of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles preview season, Popper Affinity players were shook. A flying mirror enforcer.

[00:14:57]Surely this can't be printed into standard. Well, for better or for worse, it's not. It's also not printed into the TMNT Commander deck, even though they share a set symbol. Nope. Utra Monitor is exclusively available in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtle Teamup, a jump start like product aimed at getting new players involved with Magic. That's more of a board game than something like the starter decks of Yore. This means there are way fewer copies of Utram Monitor than there are of any given common from either the main set or the commander deck. That's bad news for its price if it sees play, which it does.

[00:15:36]Quite a lot of play, in fact.

[00:15:38]Affinity is one of those decks that makes Popper special. Having been around in some form or another since the creation of the format, it's been my favorite Popper deck for a very long time. I miss you every single day, Atog.

[00:15:52]That smile, that damn smile. But while the affinity archetype is eternal, the specific makeup of it changes depending on what the affinity bandour happens to be.

[00:16:04]The current most popular build is a Grixus mid-range one, leveraging the tandem of efficient interaction, card draw, and threats available for the archetype. One of these threats is Utram Monitor. three power and toughness on a flyer that can reasonably be cast for only a single blue mana and adds to your artifact count in the process is, as it turns out, a very good addition to the deck list. Naturally, the card's demand and therefore price has skyrocketed, at least by popper standards. At the time of recording, a single copy of Utra Monitor is around $6. That's outrageous.

[00:16:43]Compare that to the less than a quarter a piece price for the pizza card or either of the white legends I mentioned earlier on Magic Online. Yes, Magic Online still exists. It currently costs about 10 tickets. This is far from the first time that Wizards of the Coast has printed a highly desirable card into a product intended for entirely different audiences. This has been a recurring problem in legacy whenever a powerful card like I don't know true name nemesis many years ago or pox walkers much more recently gets printed into commander precon decks leading players to scramble to acquire playsets to keep their decks relevant. Now this problem has come to Popper. What do we make of it?

[00:17:27]Well prices aside, is this card ban worthy? Just as with Leo and Guac Pizza, I think the answer is no. It's a very good card, a very, very good card for Affinity, don't get me wrong, but a three- three flyer that often costs one is not particularly groundbreaking territory for the historically broken archetype. If this card appeared in Modern Horizons 4 as a hover mirror, it would not be the subject of any ban talk. I guarantee it.

[00:17:57]No. Realistically, the only crime UT monitor committed was appearing exclusively in a product that hardly got opened. But in a very real sense, that's a lot worse for Popper than if Utram Monitor was an actually broken card.

[00:18:11]Then we could just ban it and move on.

[00:18:14]But a card that's good enough to see play but never get a ban that you need to drop $25 on to get a play set of, that's the beginning of a very sticky problem for the popper format. The way to bring a card's price down is to reprint it. Ideally, a lot. Look at how expensive True Name Nemesis is right now. For example, thank you reprints.

[00:18:34]But while that's all well and good for a pricey in universe card, there are few if any opportunities to reprint Univers's Beyond cards without going through a whole legal rigomearall with the companies that own the outside properties. This means Univers's Beyond cards are likely to remain expensive indefinitely. As while it is not impossible to reprint them in Universe, it is highly highly unlikely. And this is a problem that won't stop with UT monitor. Universes Beyond is intended to draw in fans of outside properties to become new Magic the Gathering players.

[00:19:08]As such, products like the turtle teamup are only going to happen more and more often. It's hard not to expect that we're going to get an Utram monitor equivalent in basically every Univers's Beyond set for the foreseeable future.

[00:19:22]As a result, buying the tier 1 build of Grixus Affinity and Popper will cost you what? $160 right now. Ridiculous for Popper. Anyway, Monoblue Terror costs $120, and I have to play that deck because its key card is Tallarian Terror. Many other popper decks currently cost upwards of $80 each.

[00:19:43]These are unsustainable prices for what is by definition a budget format, one that will live and die by its price accessibility. Something doesn't change, then Popper can easily go the way of standard in the next couple of years.

[00:20:00]Something has to be done. But what? Can we get a Universes Beyond reprint set to increase our access to these cards?

[00:20:08]Well, I've got a feeling that Universes Beyond Masters is not happening anytime soon. There'd be too many legal issues involved in licensing multiple outside properties under a single banner. And Mark Rosewater has stated that a Universes Within Masters set where we take all of the Universes Beyond cards that need reprints and reprint them within universe artwork and names just isn't going to happen. According to all their internal data, there's just not enough interest in it. It wouldn't sell.

[00:20:37]And the point of Magic the Gathering cards is to sell. But even if Utram Monitor itself is a lost cause, that doesn't mean we can't avoid future Utra Monitors. The solution has to come from wizards though. Fortunately, that solution is very simple. Want to know what it is? Don't print unique designs at common into nondraftable releases. I know that part of the selling point of these intro kits is to let someone who is magic curious get their hands on a card of their favorite character, but why do these cards have to actually be unique? Why can't they just be reskins of existing commons or at the very least designs that are not good enough to see Popper play? This doesn't mean you can't put new and exciting cards and characters in these products at higher rarities. Just fill the common slots with safe cards that have no shot at being proper relevant because they already safely exist in other formats.

[00:21:37]There's just no reason that Utram monitor had to exist at all, let alone as a common. You want to make a common Utram card, great. Make it an eight mana mirror enforcer or a five mana frogmite.

[00:21:49]There's no reason to make it a one- mana 33 flyer unless your explicit goal was to print a card that would be good in Popper. And if that really was the goal of Utram Monitor, then change that goal.

[00:22:01]Don't use a product like Turtle Teamup to give Popper new staples.

[00:22:07]This is a problem that is so much easier to solve preemptively than it is after the fact. Once you print a card like Utra Monitor, there's very little that can be done. Popper now has to deal with the new $6 staple forever. But honestly, what possible reason is there for a card like Utra Monitor to need printing in the first place? You want to give new players exciting commons to play with?

[00:22:30]Great. Then do it with big splashy cards, not hyperefficient, evasive threats. What new player is even going to appreciate the strength of a five mana 33 flyer with affinity for artifacts anyway?

[00:22:43]Maybe that's the thing that's most baffling to me about UT monitor. This is not a cool card. It doesn't do anything special. It's just a very good version of a very basic category of card that has been printed a 100 times over the past 20 years. Why did it have to be really, really good? Why couldn't it have just been okay?

[00:23:04]No, we cannot just outright ban all Universes Beyond cards from Popper any more than we can from any other format.

[00:23:11]Universes Beyond is a part of Magic now.

[00:23:14]But what doesn't need to be a part of Magic is the everpresent problem of card availability or lack therein. This is only going to become more and more true with the increase in new products and of set exclusive products that are tailored to new audiences or unique casual oriented game experiences like the turtle teamup product. This is an expensive game, but there are many simple ways that Wizards of the Coast could make it a little less expensive, particularly for a format like Popper that was literally conceived of as a budget option for players who want to play this great game without dropping a month's rent on a stack of cardboard.

[00:23:53]But now I want to hear from you. How do you feel about Universes Beyond Cards and Popper? What about the everinccreasing cost of the format? Do you agree with me about cards like Utra Monitor or have you got a differing opinion? Let me know in the comments below. And remember, we actually played Popper with Andrea Menuchi, Gavin Verhe, and Paige of the Popper format panel in an episode of Shuffle Up and Play. You can watch that episode by clicking the the the I or linked in this video's description.

[00:24:38]Next time on Shuffle Up and Play, >> I've got a very special deck. This was this was a plot um a scheme rather.

[00:24:47]>> Our lead director came up to me before shooting and just said, "Prof, just go with it when you see it. Don't start frowning. Just go with it, please."

[00:24:53]They've been trying to troll me with this for a month now. They've been going on and on about it. And I don't know what this deck is.

[00:25:00]>> Lannoir Elves.

[00:25:01]>> Oh, classic.

[00:25:02]>> Sixth edition. Your turn.

[00:25:04]>> Oh, sixth edition.

[00:25:06]>> Okay, I'm going to flash in Gandalf.

[00:25:08]This is a card.

[00:25:09]that card. That was the one in the secret layer where it was like 42 cents worth of cards. So, I got loot. Oh, YOU GOT LOOT, TOO.

[00:25:17]>> YEAH. Loot times two is six. I think I'm starting to hate what you hate.

[00:25:23]>> Yeah, all of this looks crazy. You must have just subscribed to Tarian Community College. I am literally going to shuffle up and >> I'm at five time counters. Just >> be careful. Prof doesn't misplay. Prof does bad plays.

[00:25:40]>> That's like the underside of a FEMALE PIG.

[00:25:43]>> I'm not I'm not even mad. This episode is probably never going to air this. I don't even care. How much Magic 30 did you buy?

[00:25:51]>> I don't want to talk about it.

[00:25:52]>> Do I look like I care? I'll just pick a car.

[00:25:56]>> SHUT UP. NOW, LET ME ASK YOU THIS, IDIOT.

[00:25:59]>> How much better does Soul Ring make, Batman?

[00:26:02]>> This is the kind OF >> You can do it. Lend the shot.

[00:26:07]>> Smash it.

[00:26:07]>> OH. OH MY GOD.

[00:26:12]>> It's the most up card I've ever seen in my life. I have no idea how it worked. save my mind.

[00:26:26]>> Captain America throws his mighty.

[00:26:28]>> I was going to say that.

[00:26:29]>> Oh, I'm sorry.

[00:26:30]>> I passed.

[00:26:31]>> Cut that out. Cut that out. Go ahead.

[00:26:33]>> No, CUT IT OUT. WE CAN ANYMORE. Go ahead.

[00:26:35]>> I DON'T CARE.

[00:26:36]>> IT'S YOUR TURN, Six Boy. I thought, "Oh,