On September 8th, 2025 June 12, 2026 the full set for Marvel’s ̶S̶p̶i̶d̶e̶r̶-̶M̶a̶n̶ Superheroes was fully spoiled. Well, technically the full set was spoiled on Friday, September 5th June 15, 2026 including the cards from Jumpstart and all the Commander Decks, but today we got the Through the Omenpaths cards, which my original prediction said that Phelddagrif would appear in the Arena only version of the set.
Turns out Phelddagrif did not appear in either the main set or the arena only set three or four supplemental products being released alongside the standard legal set. Something went Spectacularly, Amazingly, Superior-ly, Ultimately, Sensationally wrong!
What was it?
What Went Wrong
They didn’t reference “One More Day”, or any of the other classic̶ S̶p̶i̶d̶e̶r̶-̶M̶a̶n̶ Marvel stories like “Spider-Man: Reign”, “Sins Past”, “Sins Remembered”, “Fathers and Sins” and “Sinner’s Delight”. Chances are they couldn’t print Phelddagrif because the set was so small and tiny. As micro set two sets and four commander decks with over 700 unique cards, that was all the room they had for cards. Phelddagrif was going to appear on card 199 727, most likely, but because they only had 198 726 cards, they couldn’t print the Phelddagrif card, so they sent it to the same warehouse where they kept Coldsnap and all those Legend’s Booster Boxes. So tune in next time where I’ll tell you how Phelddagrif appears for certain in—
*Record Scratch Sound Effect*
Reader, dear, beloved, reader. I’m sorry, but Phelddagrif will not be appearing in any of the Marvel presents Magic: the Gathering sets in the near future. Wizards of the Coast took that dog behind the shed and shot it six or seven times to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Through the Omenpaths is gone forever and surely never to return.
Missing Poster for OM1
Through the Omepaths (08/25/2025 – 05/19/2026) was not greatly appreciated while they were with us. Announced as an Arena only digital version of the Spider-Man set, the role OM1 played in Magic’s ecosystem was surrounded by a vague haze of confusion. The players were never sure why the set existed, why players of paper Magic (well, only standard and arena really) had to know two names for each card in the Spider-Man set, or what led to these circumstances. Many players theorized what happened: a digital rights dispute; Disney didn’t want competition for their Digital CCG Marvel Snap. Although, to this humble obituary writer, it seems as likely that the arrow of IP-dispute could have gone the opposite direction: perhaps OM1 was a challenge to other brands that they would not offer free digital marketing. A battle-cry that the team has the juice to reskin an entire set and brand it Magic. While unlikely, it’s another theory adding to the mire of questions surrounding Through the Omenpaths.
So as we commemorate OM1‘s…departure…we’re left standing in the crater it left behind asking “What was Through the Omenpaths?” Was it the reductio ad absurdum of looking at Rick, Steadfast Leader and Greymond, Avacyn’s Stalwart and saying We could do an entire set like this? What was originally table-scraps meant for Vorthos with the Universes Within versions of Universes Beyond characters turned into an all-you-can-eat buffet?
Or was it a challenge? Where most Universes Within variants took place on Innistrad (it seemed, with the Street Fighter Secret Lair taking place on Zendikar…I think?) Through the Omenpaths offered little Innistrad lore compared to cards on New Capenna, Kylem, and The Edge.
What Through the Omenpaths was was an opportunity, not only for Wizards but for the fans. The way fans reacted to OM1, between beleaguered sighs and hand wringing over Universes Beyond impacting Arena and Standard play, there was excitement. There was a rallying around Fleem, either because he looked kind of silly or as some strange protest against Loot? And there was the OM1 Flavoring Project, a fan effort to add flavor text to the OM1 cards. Collaboration, creativity, community was knit through reaction with OM1.
Not to put on my rose-tinted contact lenses when waxing and waning poetic about a digital only Magic set. It wasn’t all happy frolicking. Even getting more Magic “flavor” there was the gnashing of teeth of the group of people who play both paper standard and Arena (I’m told that this group of people are quite a bit bigger than the Vorthos community). This meant that these competitive grinders, the group of players who support the illusion that they prop up the Magic economy, had to learn that Superior Spider-Man‘s secret identity was Kavaero, Mind-Bitten.
While there weren’t many cards that made a splash in standard, with Kavaero/Superior Spider-Man being the extent of cards that one needed to remember, and the only other card from SPM that made a splash in standard, Multiversal Passage, had the same name for its OM1 version, the onus of the work of remembering these cards should not be forgotten. I’m sure many people who were totally going to take down the pro-tour got got by forgetting that Super Spider-Man was also Kavaero.
Again, it would be reductive to say that Through the Omenpaths was an elaborate memory game on the level of Simon Says. It was also a refreshing to visit and see the Magic setting, even getting some cards that helped expand the recently visited settings of Bloomburrow and The Edge.
Although most cards don’t do much to move a current story in these settings forward, or even to really start new ones. Drix Interception is really another in a series of counterspells depicting the Drix. And, while the art for Strength of Will is some of the best art in the game and it’s a real shame it was relegated to online only, it’s not like the card was telling us anything new about Bloomburrow; animals using magic is basically the conceit of the plane. And, beyond Fleem, I don’t think we’ll be getting any story updates on the discoveries made by the Pinnacle Research Team or the adventures of the masked bloomburrow denizen on Secret Identity. These cards do more than progress a story up the slope of Freytag’s Triangle, they were enriching the atmosphere of Magic’s narrative and adding to the possibilities of its setting.
Maybe Omenpaths was all of these things and more. Maybe Omenpaths was none of these things. The real question is: was OM1 the path forward that would bring Phelddagrif back to Magic again?
Reader, I’d love to tell you how Through the Omenpaths being brushed off the stage and replaced with Magic functioning as it normally does means that we will not see Phelddagrif again. That this was an avenue to see our old favorite characters, what they were up to. That OM2 was where Chandler and Joven were going to show up as reskins of The Whizzler and Squirrel Girl. When we lookg through OM1 we did not get a lot of returning characters. While we got art from the March of the Machine story with (that one Chandra card) and some other outliers, the story of OM1 felt more self-contained to that set, new characters taking on the mantle of Spider-Man and The Green Goblin. To tell the story of these symbiotic Spider-Magic relationships, to showing Magic’s Symbiotes, and to setting up spiders as a metaphysical force in Magic’s multiverse.
This was not Phelddagrif’s story, and the hypothetical OM2 was not going to be either. Marvel’s Superheroes is a set full of heroes and villains, over 300 unique legends introduced across the many products this expansion offers, most of them share that type, and many of them are humans. It feels unlikely that Phelddagrif would have snuck in between Iron Man Iron Man Iron Man and Iron Man (plus his three other versions).
Do I think that the Through the Omenpath’s version of Magic’s Marvel’s Superheroe’s would have included Phelddagrif? Do lovers hold hands and sigh at sunsets? Certain as sun beams. Would OM2 have been as beautifully baffling as OM1? I wish we could have found out.
Wing and a Prayer
Well, that’s it for Through the Omenpaths. Kaput! Still, that has no bearing on how Phelddagrif is always imminent in the next set! And we got a big hint that Phelddagrif is coming with Marvel Superheroes: nestled between some feathers!
I’ve always wondered is what inspired the wings on Planeshift’s Questing Phelddagrif. The black color from the tips of the wings stopping halfway through the feather, and then returning towards the quill on the bend and shoulder of the wing is similar to the color on some condor wings like the Andean Condor (Memory Gifted readers will remember my post on Seedtime and the confusion over the relationship between hippos and condors!)
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Yet, we don’t really have these condors in Magic, except for the Skyshroud Condor, the art for which I will show now and you, reader, who will not fall for my trap because you’ve also watched all 10 or 12 Saw movies and know the choice is yours. You will not think that the Skyshroud Condor‘s wings look at lot like Phelddagrif’s wings, even as you look at it below and observe the black wing tips, the white middle, and the return to an inky black shoulder and coverts. You will not think that this defeats everything that I’m about to say about Questing Phelddagrif’s connection to Marvel’s Superheroes.
Because you’ll notice that the images of the Andean Condor I’ve shown you and the image of the Skyshroud Condor have all been from the dorsal view! And we are observing Questing Phelddagrif’s wings from the underside ventral view! And maybe there are images of the Andean Condor with white feathers from a ventral view, but we’ve got 0% of a clue what the ventral view of Skyshroud Condor’s wings look like!
Now, reader, turn your attention to Birds of Paradise from the Wakanda Forever Commander Deck! Behold, a perspective that indeed does positively give us a ventral AND dorsal view of the wings:
This is a stunning discovery, almost the same colored wings of one printing of Questing Phelddagrif! All that’s missing is the black on the coverts and bend of the wing. Maybe it got lost in the move to a universe beyond? Could this bird actually be…Phelddagrif?
Oh cunning, cunning reader! Your wit outstands and outpaces my own, for you saw through both my first ruse and my second ruse! You are no meek bird of paradise, which is actually a plant as well as a bird probably why it taps for green, or a scavenging condor (who has beef with hippos for some reason). You have the eyes of an eagle, or maybe a hawk, and you recognized right away what made this printing of Birds of Paradise so special. No more tricks, no more ruses! Reveal what was once hidden! Use your sharp senses and…look! Down in the corner, at the watering hole!
Those pachyderms are missing trunks and horns, and look like they have awfully wide mouths. There’s only one animal that could be.
Hippos.
It seemed like we weren’t going to get any hippos in Magic this year, but Birds of Paradise came in clutch. With the similar wing patterns, and the hippos in the art, the art could be a hint that Phelddagrif was meant to be in the Black Panther precon, but was cut at the last minute for some reason (probably a bad one). Maybe Phelddagrif was meant to be in Through the O2enpaths, and this is our hint towards what we lost.
Or maybe it’s all a coincidence! Who knows!
Next article I’m going to complain a lot! Happy Summer!
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