{"id":68815,"date":"2026-07-15T09:58:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T01:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=68815"},"modified":"2026-07-15T09:58:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T01:58:59","slug":"why-are-there-so-many-benedict-cumberbatch-cards-in-magic-the-gathering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=68815","title":{"rendered":"Why Are There So Many Benedict Cumberbatch Cards In Magic: The Gathering?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With MagicCon Amsterdam right around the corner, Wizards of the Coast has begun spoiler season for their next crossover set in Magic: The Gathering: Star Trek. While the legendary science-fiction franchise may seem like an odd fit for a trading card game that\u2019s ultimately about wizards flinging spells at each other, space (aka the final frontier) is no stranger to the game. Just last year Magic went to space with the excellent Edge of Eternities set, and the gameplay design was so good it ended up being my favorite set of the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What\u2019s odd about Star Trek spoiler season though is a particular card that\u2019s being printed on its bonus sheet. As revealed earlier today, the set features a reprint of Sheoldred, The Apocalypse reskinned as Kahn from the 2013 film Star Trek Into Darkness. One of the main selling points of Magic\u2019s Star Trek set is that Wizards of the Coast has obtained the rights to use the likeness of every actor they depict on the card, which means that Sheoldred&#8211;instead of being a female phyrexian nightmare being&#8211;is now just\u2026 Benedict Cumberbatch?<\/p>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1819583\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"1024\" width=\"733\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_5862.jpg?w=733\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1819583\" \/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Outside of being a bit bummed that a reprint for a $80+ card is being sullied with art from a J.J. Abrams film, it got me thinking. There\u2019s<strong> <\/strong><em>a lot<\/em><strong> <\/strong>of Benedict Cumberbatch in Magic: The Gathering this year for some reason. Not the actor himself, per se, but characters he\u2019s depicted on screen. For example, the Marvel Super Heroes set just released a Doctor Strange card that has art very clearly influenced by his on screen depiction played by Cumberbatch.<\/p>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1819584\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"1024\" width=\"733\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_5863.jpg?w=733\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1819584\" \/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weird that it happened not once but twice, but what if I told you it\u2019s actually happening <em>three<\/em><strong> <\/strong>times? Following Star Trek, the next MTG crossover set is based on The Hobbit, and while a return to Middle-Earth is always welcome, it allows yet another character that Cumberbatch has portrayed to be depicted in Magic: The Gathering. The card this time is Smaug the Magnificent, and  it actually features a chase printing that is the headliner card of the entire Hobbit set.<\/p>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-context=\"{ &quot;core&quot;: { &quot;image&quot;: { &quot;initialized&quot;: true } } }\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1819585\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"1024\" width=\"733\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/img_5864.jpg?w=733\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1819585\" \/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Theoretically, this means that if you build a Mardu (red, white, and black for non-players) deck, you can have every Benedict Cumberbatch card be playable in your gameplan if you so desire. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What other universes can Magic: The Gathering depict to add even more Benedict Cumberbatch? Is this secretly their way of testing the water for casting him in the announced Magic: The Gathering streaming adaptation? Who knows really. I just know that I\u2019m tired.<\/p>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/why-are-there-so-many-benedict-cumberbatch-cards-in-magic-the-gathering\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With MagicCon Amsterdam right around the corner, Wizards of the Coast has begun spoiler season for their next crossover set in Magic: The Gathering: Star&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[15501,77,15502,4851,3835],"class_list":["post-68815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-benedict","tag-cards","tag-cumberbatch","tag-gathering","tag-magic","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}