Per usual, Rosewater offered up his annual thoughts on recent Magic: The Gathering releases (see "The One Ring Card Was Polarizing for Fans "). This year's review mostly stuck to addressing issues with the use of tropes in Magic sets and how well fans received each set from the 2024-2025 cycle, but there was one surprise at the end of the article. The last point Rosewater makes about the lessons learned from the recent Final Fantasy set reads as follows: 

There are ongoing complaints about Universes Beyond sets.

As this is the only randomized Universes Beyond product I'm talking about today (I sadly didn't have space to discuss Magic: The Gathering - Assassin's Creed), I'm using this section to go over much of the feedback about Universes Beyond in general.

There are still players that don't like that we're doing Universes Beyond, although that sentiment continually shrinks over time. For example Magic: The Gathering - FINAL FANTASY is already the best-selling Magic set of all time and it just came out. Some players don't mind Universes Beyond sets in general, but they feel at home in Magic's fantasy setting. Some players are unhappy that we're including Universes Beyond sets in Standard. Some are unhappy that Universes Beyond booster packs cost more on average than Magic Multiverse booster packs.

Rosewater's first set of comments address the state of Magic's original IP fantasy setting, and fans' reaction to Universes Beyond IPs entering the realm of Magic. There are older Magic fans that are tolerating the inclusion of Universe Beyond IPs into Magic because it brings in new players, but on some level, feel like the original fantasy setting has been compromised a bit by adding the non-Magic characters to it. Hopefully, WotC can find a way to strike a better balance between the Universes Beyond IPs and the original fantasy setting in the future. 

Rosewater's latter comments also hint at an underlying problem, which had been occurring for some time now, between the Magic: The Gathering players and hardcore TCG collectors. The collectors have been rapidly out-stripping supply of popular Universes Beyond sets over the last few years (despite increased prices) because they are fans of the IP attached or flippers looking for a fast profit (not necessarily Magic fans). Unfortunately, this type of secondary market action indirectly makes it more difficult and expensive for the player base, who are looking to use the cards as game pieces (but can't find them or buy them at a reasonable price). 

This problem had been brought to the forefront with the Standard-legal Final Fantasy set. Collector and Play boosters were in short supply because of the outrageous demand from both collectors and players. This caused Standard players to go through real efforts to find multiple copies of certain mythic rares because some of the product released was kept sealed by collectors and flippers as prices of Collectors Boosters rose close to $1200 a box (see "June 2025"). WotC will definitely need to do something to address this issue, whether it is through reprinting certain cards or just not including Universes Beyond sets in the Standard rotation.