After a year that featured alternate realities, ninja turtles, superheroes, and hobbits, the final Magic: The Gathering expansion of 2026 is going where no Universes Beyond set has gone before, as Star Trek is scheduled to launch in November.
Today, Wizards of the Coast revealed the mechanics players can expect in the set, along with dozens of new cards from both the main set and the preconstructed Commander decks. We also got a glimpse at some of the set’s special treatments, including the seven cards that will come signed by the people depicted on the artwork.
Here’s everything revealed during today’s Magic: The Gathering Star Trek debut.
The mechanics of MTG Star Trek
Seven new mechanics–two of them found only in the Commander cards–highlight the set, along with a eighth mechanic returning from 2024’s Edge of Eternities.
First is Beam Me Up, which allows you to cast certain spells from your graveyard by returning a creature you control to its owner’s hand and paying a separate cost. The example card provided is Open Communications, which normally costs a single blue mana, but you can cast it again from your graveyard by returning a creature to its owner’s hand and paying two generic and one blue mana.
Next is Face A Dilemma, which adds an additional wrinkle to a mechanic Magic fans are very familiar with. Basically, any time you have to choose a mode in a spell, you are “facing a dilemma,” and there are cards in Star Trek that will give extra benefits simply because you made a choice. Seven of Nine, for example, lets you draw a card any time you have to make a choice on a modal spell.
Star Trek also introduces new modal spells, like the enchantment Kobayashi Maru Scenario. Every turn after casting this card, you must choose one of the four effects listed on the card, and you can’t choose the same one twice–which means if you can’t remove the enchantment after four turns, it’s game over.
The next mechanic is Federation, which cares about the number of creature types among creatures you control that aren’t the Borg (which makes sense, because the Federation and the Borg are like oil and water).
With Captain Jonathan Archer, by paying one green mana and tapping Archer, you can give another creature +X/+X until end of turn. As Archer is a Human Officer, and he creates a Dog token, that’s at minimum +3/+3 on the first activation.
Starfleet Academy, meanwhile, allows you to pay five generic mana, tap it, and choose a color to add one mana of that color for every creature type among creatures you control. If you have a wide board of varied tokens, that could be a massive mana source.
Strange New Worlds is the next new mechanic, which cares about the lands you control. The more lands with different names you have on the board, the more effective these cards will be.
Deep Space Scan, for example, will let you draw a card for each differently named land on your side of the table. If you’re playing a three-color deck, and you have an Island, a Mountain, and a Forest on the board, that’s three cards coming to your hand.
Captain Pike, Fullness of Time, meanwhile, has his power and toughness determined by the number of differently named lands you control. If you’re the type of person who likes to play different non-basic lands in your Commander deck, casting Captain Pike late in the game could result in a massive creature on the spot.
So far, we’ve focused on the good guy mechanics, now here’s one for the baddies. Assimilate allows you to take any creature from a certain zone and add it to your battlefield, though it will become a Borg artifact creature instead of its other types.
Borg Cube lets you exile any creature on the board when it enters, and then when it attacks for the first time, you can add that exiled creature to your board as a Borg. Then, for every subsequent attack, you can repeat the process.
Borg Cube also shows off the major returning mechanic, Edge of Eternities’ Spacecraft and Station mechanic. Multiple iconic spaceships from Star Trek’s history appear on cards in the set, and they all have the Station mechanic, which allows a player to tap a creature in order to add charge counters to the Spacecraft equal to that creature’s power. Once enough charge counters are added, the Spacecraft becomes an artifact creature and gains extra abilities.
For example, when three charge counters are added to D-7 Battle Cruiser, it will create a 2/1 Klingon Warrior creature token at the beginning of combat on your turn. When eight or more counters are added to it, it becomes a 3/3 flying creature.
The final two mechanics are exclusive to the Commander format, and only found on cards in the preconstructed commander decks. The first is Battlefront, which grants additional perks based on how many opponents you attack during a combat phase.
Worf, Defiant Commander is the face card of the Klingon Fury precon deck, and his Battlefront ability lets you exile a number of cards from the top of your library equal to the number of opponents you attacked. Until your next turn, you can play those cards as if they were in your hand.
Now, this ability only cares about players you actively attack. Abilities like myriad, which add tokens to the board already attacking, will not count toward a Battlefront ability, so choose wisely.
Seek Out is the other Commander-only mechanic, and it gives an added perk whenever you draw your second card in a turn, even if the permanent with the ability wasn’t on the field when you drew your first card. Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary is the example card, as he gives a +1/+1 counter to a creature and two charge counters to a Spacecraft every time you draw your second card in a turn.
Booster Fun treatments
The Star Trek set will feature many themed treatments across its suite of products, and all of those were shown off during the stream as well.
First up are the seven Headliner Signature cards, which feature seven prominent faces from across Star Trek’s history. Each of these cards will come with the authentic signature of the actor who portrayed the character; which means you could pull a Levar Burton, Patrick Stewart, Kate Mulgrew, or William Shatner autograph out of a Collector Booster pack, among others.
First up are the seven Headliner Signature cards, which feature seven prominent faces from across Star Trek’s history. Each of these cards will come with the authentic signature of the actor who portrayed the character; which means you could pull a Levar Burton, Patrick Stewart, Kate Mulgrew, or William Shatner autograph out of a Collector Booster pack, among others.
Next is the LCARS Showcase treatment, designed to look like an entry from the U.S.S. Enterprise’s Library Computer Access and Retrieval System, or LCARS. Q, Stacking The Deck, Resistance Is Futile, and Seven of Nine, Unassimilated were among the cards shown off in the LCARS frame.
Next is the LCARS Showcase treatment, designed to look like an entry from the U.S.S. Enterprise’s Library Computer Access and Retrieval System, or LCARS. Q, Stacking The Deck, Resistance Is Futile, and Seven of Nine, Unassimilated were among the cards shown off in the LCARS frame.
The Classic Enterprise frame is next up, with frames designed to invoke the classic posters from Star Trek’s distant past. Captain James T. Kirk, Nyota Uhura, Communications, and Mr. Spock, Science Officer are among the familiar faces featured in these frames.
The Classic Enterprise frame is next up, with frames designed to invoke the classic posters from Star Trek’s distant past. Captain James T. Kirk, Nyota Uhura, Communications, and Mr. Spock, Science Officer are among the familiar faces featured in these frames.
The warrior race of the cosmos will also receive its own special treatment with the Klingon Showcase frames. Each Klingon Showcase card can also appear written in Klingon, so it may be time to brush up on the iconic language.
The warrior race of the cosmos will also receive its own special treatment with the Klingon Showcase frames. Each Klingon Showcase card can also appear written in Klingon, so it may be time to brush up on the iconic language.
The limited Beam Me Up Bundle will feature the Spacecraft of the Star Trek set in special Schematic framing. Each bundle will include two of a possible eight Schematic frame cards.
The limited Beam Me Up Bundle will feature the Spacecraft of the Star Trek set in special Schematic framing. Each bundle will include two of a possible eight Schematic frame cards.
Finally, the Stardates bonus sheet will feature powerful cards from Magic’s past re-imagined within the lens of the Star Trek universe. Four Stardates cards were revealed during the livestream, including the following:
- General Picard, Earth Warlord as Kenrith, The Returned King
- Leonard McCoy, Country Doctor as Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
- Spock, Mirror Malefactor as Prosper, Tome-Bound
- Academy on the Bay as Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
Magic: The Gathering’s Star Trek expansion launches November 13 in local game stores and big-box retailers. Prerelease events at local game stores are set to begin one week prior, on November 6.
