The Strongest Card In Every Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond Set

Universes Beyond is a special line of Magic: The Gathering products that feature franchises from outside the world of Magic, such as Fallout, Doctor Who, and Final Fantasy, to name a few. It started with the Walking Dead Secret Lair (which was later grandfathered into the full product line), and became official with the release of Warhammer 40K.

There have been plenty of Universes Beyond sets since this, and they have included some very powerful cards (and in some cases, some of the most powerful cards you can play). Most Universes Beyond sets have an outlier of a power card, if not more.

This list only looks at Universes Beyond sets, not Secret Lairs. So, cards from The Walking Dead or Street Fighter won't appear on it.

Triumph Of Saint Katherine

Warhammer 40,000

Triumph of Saint Katherine is a surprisingly powerful card. Assuming your library doesn't get shuffled after it dies, it'll constantly recur itself from the graveyard and give you the opportunity to cast it at a less expensive level for its miracle cost. This makes Triumph of Saint Katherine very hard to answer short of exiling it. It has great stats and lifelink, especially when cast with miracle.

The card is so powerful that it's often played in Control decks in the Legacy format. It has a mana value of five, which lets it trigger Up the Beanstalk consistently as well. This two-card combo makes for a fantastic draw engine in Legacy, which a Control deck needs to answer all the big threats of that format.

The One Ring

The Lord Of The Rings: Tales Of Middle-earth

There were plenty of powerful cards in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. It was the first 'proper' set with a Limited format as opposed to a collection of Commander decks. Cards like Orcish Bowmasters and Delighted Halfling are fantastic, but no other card can quite touch the power of The One Ring. As soon as The One Ring gets played, it creates a state of despair, knowing you'll have to climb an uphill battle for the rest of the game.

The One Ring was so good that it had to be banned from Modern and put on the Commander Game Changers list. A way to protect yourself for an entire turn and act as a colorless draw engine is just too good. In constructed formats, you can just re-cast another copy to get rid of it if it gets too many counters, and in Commander, your life total starts so high that it hardly ever matters.

Everybody Lives!

Doctor Who

While the Doctor Who cards were certainly flavorful (as with most Universes Beyond sets), it was actually a fairly low-powered set. As such, you'll likely only run into Doctor Who cards in the Commander format (with the exception of reprints of staples); no card is strong enough to make a splash in Legacy and certainly not Vintage. There aren't many standout cards from Doctor Who, but Everybody Lives! is certainly the best of the cards found in its four Commander decks.

Everybody Lives! makes it so nobody can win or lose the game, and short of untargeted exile, no creatures can be removed either. Players can't be targeted, so it essentially makes a turn become passive. It's a great counter to any card that might win the game, and can help you win the game against something like a Thassa's Oracle combo since that user won't have a card to draw when their turn comes back around.

Pre-War Formalwear

Fallout

Fallout is another Universes Beyond set that consists of four Commander decks. The set contains plenty of powerful cards for the Commander format, but very few were able to break the Commander barrier into constructed formats. The one exception is Pre-War Formalwear, which became a staple in Death and Taxes decks in Legacy as a way to reanimate your best creatures.

Although the scope of what Pre-War Formalwear can reanimate is on the lower end, there are so many powerful creatures with a mana value of three or less that you'll always have a target for it. Not only does Pre-War Formalwear bring back a useful utility creature, but it also gives them a solid stat boost and vigilance to make them a threatening attacker and blocker.

Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine

Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed was a miniature set released directly into the Modern format, though it affected Commander much more than the format it was designed for. Overall, Assassin's Creed was a weaker set, but it did have a few standout cards like Brotherhood Regalia. The most powerful card from Assassin's Creed is Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine, which sees niche Modern and Legacy play, often as a one-of in Show and Tell decks in Legacy or as graveyard hate in Modern.

Yggdrasil, Rebirth Engine is a fantastic way to recycle your best creatures and get around high casting costs by directly putting the creatures onto the battlefield. It does require the creature to be exiled specifically with Yggdrasil, but it's easy to manipulate the top of your library so that it exiles your best creatures with its tap ability.

Vivi Ornitier

Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy had plenty of powerful cards across the main set and Commander decks, but the clear title of most powerful card from Final Fantasy has to go to Vivi Ornitier. As soon as it was released, it dominated Standard with many calling for its ban. Even outside of Standard, Vivi Ornitier is great in Commander as well, both in the 99 and as a commander itself with cEDH playability. If your deck is focused on casting noncreature spells, Vivi Ornitier can only make it better.

Vivi Ornitier does so much for so little. Just casting noncreature spells gives you mana you can create for free, all while pinging your opponents for every noncreature spell. Vivi Ornitier's effect is so good, and can be copied onto other creatures (something Izzet Cauldron decks do in Standard), so they too can provide mana to make for explosive turns where you can play your entire hand and draw a bunch of cards.

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