Magic: The Gathering’s ‘Through the Omenpaths’ takes the ‘Man’ out of ‘Spider-Man’

“Through the Omenpaths,” releasing Tuesday, may be the weirdest “Magic: The Gathering” product yet.

It’s not a far-out (and ultimately, failed) idea like reusable stickers that modify cards. It’s not an ill-fated video game that attempted to compete with action role-playing juggernauts like “Diablo.” It’s not, blessedly, an echo of the unpopular “Epilogue Boosters” from “March of the Machine: The Aftermath,” which only came with five cards, a third of the size of a typical booster pack.

“Through the Omenpaths” stands out because of its unlikely origin; It only exists because of a licensing snafu. Surprise announced earlier this year, the set’s a purely digital fabrication created to mirror a “Spider-Man” product that’s only available through physical cards. Wizards of the Coast hasn’t quite explained the hitch in the Marvel partnership, though I suspect it couldn’t break the “Marvel Snap” monopoly on the intellectual property. In order to bring these card designs to their popular “Arena” app, the “Magic” maestros had to scrub all references to Marvel characters, resulting in an eclectic set improbably teeming with spiders.

I had hoped that the worldbuilders at Wizards would take the opportunity to build a bespoke, arachnophilic plane. Likely rushed for time, they instead scattered their spiders, heroes and villains throughout the game’s vast multiverse. The skyscrapers of New Capenna already resemble Spider-Man’s New York City, and thus host many of the set’s cards. Ravnica, another urban setting, gets nearly as much representation — as do newer worlds like Theros, Ixalan, Eldraine, Bloomburrow, Thunder Junction and Duskmourn, to name a few!

In its indiscriminate variety, “Through the Omenpaths” feels like a bizarrely spider-iffic Core set. Like “Foundations,” its cards are approachable enough to entice newcomers. But while its mechanics might be easy to grasp, its scattered art direction gave me less to hold onto. It even forgoes the usual italicized “flavor text” that helps bring characters to life.

I’ll admit that my early drafts during the streamer event for “Through the Omenpaths” left me cold. The set’s actually quite small, with 188 cards. For comparison, the last main set, Edge of Eternities, featured 276 draft cards! That stunted size leads to much more repetition and blunts the set’s replay value.

To compensate, Wizards designed a new format for both “Omenpaths” and its “Spider-Man” parallel — the “Pick-Two Draft.” Instead of the usual eight players, this draft only requires four people. Instead of picking one card at a time, players in this format take two cards and pass them on. It’s quicker, of course, but also makes it easier to read signals and determine which strategies to pursue. Once I found my rhythm, I started to come around to the format. Like a spider itself, it really punches above its weight class.

There’s little wasted space in “Through the Omenpaths.” The set only really supports five of the ten “Magic” color pairs, making it simple to see which archetypes are open in a four-person pod. It also abounds with hybrid-mana cards that are playable in two different colors. That’s not to say that the set’s entirely linear: some mythic legendaries push you to play three colors, and the set’s mechanics encourage experimentation.

Enweb, or Web-slinging, as it’s called in the “Spider-Man” set, pushes you to tap your creatures to attack or crew Vehicles and then lets you replay them for profit. Connive, already good on its own, also enables Mayhem, a simpler variant of the Madness mechanic that rewards you for discarding your own cards. My favorite draft decks employed Blue, Black and Red removal spells and villainous creatures to drain my opponents of their resources, and finally, their lives.

Don’t neglect the strength of giant, common monsters either. Ozor, Chronicler of Collapse can get massive if you fill up your graveyard (don’t overlook the humble Phantasmal Vision as an evasive way to do so). Chizak, Apex Arachnosaur is so huge that it usually dominates the battlefield, especially when combined with combat tricks or a certain busted enchantment. All in all, the set offers plenty to tickle both the power-gamer and the combo-player in me.

While “Through the Omenpaths” will likely go down as a quirky footnote to the “Spider-Man” set it’s derived from, I’m glad it exists. Its art direction is messy, its worldbuilding is haphazard, and its replay value is limited — but at least it’s unique. If Wizards ever fails to secure another digital license, I’ll be among the first to celebrate whatever stop-gap steps in to fill the void.