MTG Star Trek Set: New Mechanics & Cards Revealed

Ever wondered what it'd be like to command the Enterprise or face the Kobayashi Maru in a game of Magic? Well, you're about to find out. Wizards of the Coast just dropped a massive reveal for the upcoming Star Trek Universes Beyond set, and it's packed with new mechanics, iconic characters, and some seriously cool cards. The set is scheduled to launch in November, closing out a year that already gave us ninja turtles, superheroes, and hobbits.

Let's start with the mechanics. There are seven new ones in total, plus a returning favorite from 2024's Edge of Eternities. First up is Beam Me Up, which lets you cast certain spells from your graveyard by returning a creature you control to its owner's hand and paying an additional cost. The example card, Open Communications, normally costs one blue mana, but you can recast it from the graveyard for two generic and one blue by bouncing a creature. Then there's Face A Dilemma, which triggers whenever you choose a mode on a modal spell. Cards like Seven of Nine reward you for making those choices—she lets you draw a card whenever you have to pick a mode. And speak of modal spells, the new enchantment Kobayashi Maru Scenario forces you to choose one of four effects each turn, but you can't repeat a choice. If you can't remove it after four turns, you're done for.

The Federation mechanic cares about the number of creature types among creatures you control that aren't Borg. Captain Jonathan Archer, for example, can tap and pay one green mana to give another creature +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of distinct creature types you control. Since Archer is a Human Officer and creates a Dog token, that's at least +3/+3 right away. Starfleet Academy is a land that taps for five generic mana and adds one mana of any color for each creature type you control—perfect for a wide board of varied tokens. Strange New Worlds, on the other hand, rewards you for having lands with different names. Deep Space Scan lets you draw a card for each differently named land you control, and Captain Pike, Fullness of Time, gets bigger based on the number of unique lands you have. If you love stuffing your Commander deck with non-basic lands, Pike could be a massive threat late in the game.

For the villainous types, there's Assimilate. This mechanic lets you take a creature from a certain zone and put it onto your battlefield as a Borg artifact creature. Borg Cube exiles a creature when it enters, and then when it attacks for the first time, you can add that exiled creature to your board as a Borg. Subsequent attacks let you repeat the process. Borg Cube also showcases the returning Spacecraft and Station mechanic from Edge of Eternities. Iconic ships like the D-7 Battle Cruiser let you tap creatures to add charge counters equal to their power. Once enough counters are added, the Spacecraft becomes an artifact creature with extra abilities—the D-7, for instance, creates a 2/1 Klingon Warrior token at the beginning of combat once it has three charge counters, and becomes a 3/3 flyer with eight or more.

The final two mechanics are exclusive to Commander decks. Battlefront grants bonuses based on how many opponents you attack during combat. Worf, Defiant Commander, the face of the Klingon Fury precon, lets you exile cards from the top of your library equal to the number of opponents you attacked, and you can play them until your next turn. Just note that abilities like myriad, which create tokens already attacking, don't count toward Battlefront. The other Commander-only mechanic is Seek Out, which gives a bonus whenever you draw your second card in a turn. Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary, for example, gives a +1/+1 counter to a creature and two charge counters to a Spacecraft every time you draw your second card.

Finally, the set will feature themed treatments, including seven Headliner Signature cards signed by the people depicted on the artwork. That's a lot to digest, but it's clear Star Trek is going where no Universes Beyond set has gone before. Will you be picking up any of these cards when the set launches in November? Let us know what you think!