Through Universes Beyond,Magic: The Gatheringhas crossed over with some of the biggest series ever devised. Lord of the Rings, The Walking Dead, Warhammer 40,000, and Final Fantasy have all graced our decks, bringing their characters and stories to the table.
But why does it need to just be the big juggernauts of media that get to worm their way into MTG? Indie games have arguably more character than many of the biggest properties, and these indie legends deserve their own chances to be shuffled up and put to work.
Being the son Hades, god of the Underworld, is a tough thing for Zagreus to deal with. Instead of settling in to his life in the afterlife, he spends most of his game attempting to fight his way back up to the surface. Fortunately, his trials never dampened his sense of humour, and Zagreus' suave, sarcastic wisecracking helped cement him as an integral part of Hades' success.
In Magic, I imagine him as an Equipment commander. Instead of being the usual white or red, though, why not give him some black to represent his life in the underworld? Maybe he can sacrifice himself to search your library for an Equipment and put it into your hand, giving him a similar death loop to what he has in the game.
The vast majority of The Binding of Isaac is probably too grim even for Magic to adapt. Whether it’s mutant, inbred offspring hiding in the basement, the religious trauma, or the mountains of faeces that lines Isaac’s escape from his homicidal mother, the only thing that could probably fit into Magic is little Isaac himself.
Part of Isaac’s whole shtick is becoming gradually more mutated as he descends into the basement, so why not bring back the infamous mutate keyword from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths? Instead of turning into a hive of flies or a one-eyed plasma cannon, the best Magic could hope for is letting him turn into an Auspicious Starrix or Migratory Greathorn.
Cuphead is best known for its combination of hard-as-nails platformer shooting and gorgeous rubberhose animation. The game is full of characters who would be perfect fits in Magic, like Cuphead’s buddy Mugman, Satan, and the countless bosses you take on. If I had to pick one, though, it would have to be Cuphead himself.
It’s not like Cuphead’s art style is too out there for Magic, as we’ve already had a Secret Lair drop dedicated to a similar cartoony style.
Cuphead would have to be a burn commander, with a way to repeatedly ping opponents' creatures to showcase his fast-paced gunplay For added flair, give him a dice-rolling activated ability, dealing damage based on the result. After all, it’s the very first thing his theme song says he loves to do.
When Wilds of Eldraine launched in 2023, one of the stand-out commanders was The Goose Mother, a multi-headed Bird Hydra. What it does isn’t all that important; something with Food and +1/+1 counters. Instead, the only reason it proved so popular was the promise of being a horrible goose.
You can’t have horrible geese and not have the original, the untitled goose from Untitled Goose Game. Its entire reason to exist is to cause havoc, and so turning the goose into a go-to chaos commander would have been perfection. I want to swap permanents at random, steal stuff off the top of your opponents' decks, and generally be a honking nuisance.
It wouldn’t be an indie crossover without Shovel Knight. Armed with his horns and whacking great shovel, it’d be quicker to list the games Shovel Knight hasn’t been added to than the ones he has. It makes sense though, as his retro platformer is easily one of the best ever made, and it’s thanks in no small part to the inventive designs of its many knights.
Shovel Knight would definitely be some sort of graveyard commander, allowing him to literally dig things back up. If you wanted to stick more faithful to the game, you could have him only bring back artifacts, like his iconic shovel, rather than creatures. After all, that sounds a touch more Specter Knight.
Celeste is a ridiculously difficult platformer game that follows Madeline as she ventures up Mt. Celeste. Plagued by her evil reflection, there are more threats on the mountain than just snow and spikes, leading to an emotional allegory that has made Madeline something of a transgender icon in gaming.
As a commander, Madeline would fit nicely as a ramp deck, playing with lands and building up your boardstate as you scale the mountain. If you wanted, you could also incorporate her reflection, Badeline, by making a token copy an opponent controls, but confers some sort of downside to controlling, like all their lands entering tapped.
Sans has become a meme, with his inclusion in games like Smash Bros. Ultimate often being seen as the peak of so-called ‘crossover culture’. Despite that, Sans is a fantastic character with an incredibly memorable boss fight, and as the most recognisable face of Undertale, he definitely deserves a Magic card.
Sans is very slow to anger, and so his commander should also have a similarly slow start. But when he finally comes online - maybe after a certain amount of creatures have died - he should go ham, giving him ways of quickly dealing with opponents. The closest comparison I can think of would be a card like Henrika Domnathi, which transforms into a 3/4 flier that can quickly close out games thanks to her activated ability.
As the investigation freak tasked with solving the Crime to End All Crimes on Island Sequence 24, it’s up to Lady Love Dies to explore the island, interview its rather unique residents, and piece together the murder of the vaporwave-styled island’s council.
Clue tokens are the obvious mechanic for Lady Love Dies. However, I think we should also see the return of suspecting from Karlov Manor to go with it. Allow Lady Love Dies to do what she does best; crack the case, point some fingers, and dish out justice once the evidence is all in place.
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Hollow Knight is one of the few indie games that could likely carry a whole set on its own. Hollownest is a world bursting with history and mystery, which would make it the ideal world to explore in an MTG set. The Knight is, of course, the insect husk protagonist of Hollow Knight, so naturally deserves a card to match its power.
Insect kindred would be a big theme of any Hollow Knight card, but building on the soulslike elements of the game would be good too. We don’t have many commanders that return themselves to the battlefield when they die, with it mostly being relegated to cards like Kaya’s Ghostform. A commander built around such cards would call back to dashing back to your remains after being killed pretty well, and also enables plenty of death trigger shenanigans, too.
Before characters like Isaac and Sans, the face of indie gaming was easily Cave Story’s Quote. A robot soldier abandoned in a cave floating high in the sky, it’s his job to rescue the Mimiga, a race of rabbit-people, from exploitation by the malicious Doctor.
Running and gunning is just part of Quote’s skillset. To show off the way his guns develop in strength the more enemies you kill, he could use the level up mechanic, getting stronger and dishing out more fdamage the more more mana you dump into him. I want an entire Cave Story Secret Lair with the likes of Balrog, Misery, King, and Curly Brace, but if it’s just one, it’s got to be our main boy Quote.
