MtG’s New Star Trek Cards Make Even The Weirdest Parts Of The Franchise Look Amazing
Can't argue with how cool this looks.
Without a doubt, Benedict Cumberbatch is one of the greatest actors of our time. From Sherlock Holmes to Doctor Strange, the world would be infinitely more boring without Cumberbatch playing big roles, but, arguably, the only time he was truly miscast was in one of the biggest sequels of the previous decade. In Star Trek Into Darkness, Cumberbatch’s secret identity as a rebooted version of Khan was never any Star Trek fan’s favorite reveal. Though Cumberbatch was fine in the role, it was hard to imagine a character who was canonically Indian and first played by Mexican film legend Ricardo Montalban to suddenly be a British, white dude. Some IDW Trek comics did a few canonical backflips to explain why Khan looked like this, but in short, Cumberbatch’s Khan has never been anyone’s 100 percent favorite Trek villain.
And yet, with the impending release of the Magic: The Gathering/Star Trek cards, one piece of makes the Cumberbatch Khan look kinda awesome. Can cool art redeem questionable plot choices? Maybe!
MtG’s Star Trek Cards Will Explore Every Era, Even the Kelvin Universe Khaaaaan!
The new Mariner card as well as the Cumberbatch Khan.
With its upcoming November release of Star Trek cards, Magic: The Gathering will have cards that connect to every single timeline and era of Star Trek, including the reboot Kelvin movies. And that even includes cool art, in this case, from Nicky Barkla, that makes the Cumberbatch Khan look amazing. This specific card is a reimagining of a classic MtG card known as “Sheoldred,” which indicates that some of the Trek cards will be reverse-compatible with other MtG decks. (That said, there’s a lot of new game mechanics in these expanded Star Trek sets.)
The Khan card is just the tip of the Crystalline Entity iceberg, though. Although there will obviously be cards for classic favorites like Kirk, Spock, Picard, Janeway, and Sisko, more recent series, including Lower Decks, will also be included. Case in point, a great card for Becket Mariner, with art from Lucas Durham, which focuses on the live-action Strange New Worlds likeness of Tawny Newsome, but shows her swinging a bat'leth as she did in animated form. This is the true greatness of these kinds of sets, which, like with the Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings cards from previous years, are really cool when they depict things we’ve never quite seen, but feel correct to the fictional canon anyway.
Magic: The Gathering/Star Trek Release Date and Card Details
Great new art on cards for Captain Kirk and “A Piece of the Action.”
The Magic: The Gathering/Star Trek set will start to be released on November 13, 2026. And, there are a lot of special cards and different sets you can pre-order now. Like other “Universes Beyond” MtG sets, many of the cards are rendered in the traditional style of the older cards, meaning the art is new and generally a painting in a kind of fantasy style.
For our money, these are the best ones. The new art for the various Trek cards, done in the traditional MtG style, are the ones that looks the coolest and seem the most collectible. A few standouts include a red version of Captain Kirk, a blue instant card called “Highly Illogical,” featuring art inspired by the TOS episode “A Piece of the Action,” as well as another version of the same card with art from “Shore Leave.”
Dr. Crusher and Captain Janeway, as LCARS-styled cards.
There’s also a ton of variant cards, including cards styled to look like LCARS, the famous TNG-era computer interface. In addition, there’s another variant that is called “Classic Enterprise,” which has a more TOS 1960s vibe, scene cards, and signed “Headliner Cards,” which feature signatures from Trek actors like William Shatner and Kate Mulgrew.
There are several different sets you can pre-order right now, including:
- Star Trek Play Booster box
- Collector Boosters
- Commander Decks, which includes four options: Federation Fleet, Landing Party, Klingon Fury, and We Are the Borg.
- Various Bundles
- Scene Boxes (including Enterprise-Q and Divergent Timeline)
- A Beginner’s Box
You can check out the full details on the MtG site right here.
