During the recent Weekly Magic: The Gathering live stream, we got a surprisingly extended look at the upcoming Star Trek set due for release this November.
As part of this sneak peek, the headliner cards for the set have been revealed, and it’s confirmed that the first-ever signed cards are coming to Magic: The Gathering.
There are seven signed surge foil cards in total, but the two revealed so far are William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway.
First-Ever Signed Cards To Arrive In Magic: The Gathering
It’s a surprising reveal, but the addition of signed cards to Magic: The Gathering is something that players shouldn’t get too used to. Given that the Star Trek set is a direct celebration of a property that includes a ton of iconic characters played by real-world actors, all of which are translating over to the game, it was the right time to try this style of card, because the next opportunity may be a very long way away.
It’s been confirmed that there will be seven signed surge foil cards in this set, but not all of them will necessarily be of Captains. It was highlighted, however, that the remaining cards would be hugely popular characters from anywhere within the Star Trek universe.
A small tangent suggests these cards were being signed as early as 2025, and that they can only use characters whose actor was alive to physically sign the card; no printed signatures are being used. This rules out characters like Leonard Nimoy’s Spock.
Another useful tidbit for any guesses is that all versions of characters from the JJ Abrams film series are being kept exclusive to the bonus sheet, so this may mean that no versions of those characters will appear in the signed lineup.
Given that these are genuine signed cards, there can only be so many of each, and it was confirmed during the live stream that there is “just north of 200” copies of each card. There doesn’t appear to be any sign that these cards will be serialized, but they will still be extremely limited, similar to how availability was handled with The Mind Stone in Marvel Super Heroes.
Place Your Guesses: Who’s Next?
There is an overwhelming number of characters and actors who could appear on the remaining five cards between now and the launch of the Star Trek set.
Given the importance of the two characters revealed so far, I would like to think that there is at least one more Captain card coming, and it will be Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
From there, it gets a little harder to predict, but my guesses include Brent Spiner’s Data, Armin Shimerman’s Quark, Michael Dorn as Klingon Worf, and Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine.
No timeline has been given for these reveals, but it’s expected that the remaining cards will be unveiled during the set’s preview window in late October to early November.
If you’re hoping to get your hands on one of these cards, they can only be pulled from Collector Booster packs, and if recent availability is anything to go by, this product will sell out long before the set is even released, so be sure to get pre-orders in as soon as possible. On the flip side, you can wait to see what the cards cost when buying individually, but this could end up being hundreds of dollars, if not north of $1,000.
- Franchise
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Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
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August 5, 1993
- Designer(s)
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Richard Garfield
