Beckett's MTG release calendar through 2027 is a useful map. Here's the annotated version

Beckett's MTG release calendar is a useful map. Here's where they're wrong

Beckett's early-2026 MTG release-date master list is the single most-shared TCG calendar floating around right now, and credit where it is due: the dates are mostly accurate, the SKU names are mostly correct, and the lineup through Q4 2026 is the cleanest summary anyone has published. But Beckett is a price-guide publisher, not an MTG insider. The list reads like a Wizards press kit in a spreadsheet. It does not tell you which sets are going to scalp, which preorders are mispriced, or which 'rumored' windows are actually wishful thinking from the secondary market.

I am going to walk through the calendar set by set, give you the actual current Amazon and TCGplayer preorder pricing where it exists, and tell you which dates I trust. The headline: Lorwyn Eclipsed is real and shipping on time, TMNT is going to be a repeat of the original 2024 disaster, Strixhaven is the preorder pick of the year, Edge of Eternities is the standard set everyone forgot, Final Fantasy 2's August window is wishful, and Avatar TLA is going to be the November 2026 trap.

If you read one thing from this article, read the Edge of Eternities section. It is the most underrated set on the 2026 calendar.

Spider-Man (September 2025) is the retrospective lesson

Marvel's Spider-Man dropped September 26, 2025. Beckett lists it correctly. What the calendar does not tell you is that the Spider-Man Collector Booster Box was the cleanest Universes Beyond preorder economic outcome of the post-LotR era. Preorder MSRP was $279.99 on Amazon, the box is currently sitting around $245 to $260 sealed in May 2026, and the Miles Morales serialized chase pulled in the high four figures within forty-eight hours of release. Wizards did not undersupply it the way they did TMNT.

The retrospective lesson, and the reason this matters for the rest of the calendar: Wizards seems to have figured out the Universes Beyond print run problem. Spider-Man was abundant. Final Fantasy got a November Chocobo Bundle restock to fix August's sellout. The pattern, going into 2026, is that Wizards is printing more of the high-demand UB sets, and that is going to take some of the air out of the speculative scalper market. If you are buying a Spider-Man Collector Booster Box now, you are buying it to crack, not to flip.

Lorwyn Eclipsed (January 2026) is the in-universe set you should already own

Lorwyn Eclipsed shipped January 23, 2026. It is the in-universe return-to-Lorwyn set, faerie-and-elf themed, and it is the first non-UB Standard-legal set since Bloomburrow's afterglow. Play Booster Boxes preordered at $144.99 on Amazon and are now sitting around $129 to $139 sealed at four months out. The Bundle preordered at $54.99 and is also tracking below MSRP, which is the cleanest signal that supply is healthy.

The reason Lorwyn Eclipsed has been undervalued in the early secondary market is that it is competing with TMNT's March hype and Strixhaven's April hype for shelf space and player attention. That is exactly why now is the right time to buy in. The set has multiple Standard staples already showing up in tournament lists, including a faerie-tribal lord that is currently a $14 single, and the borderless Oona reprint at $42. If you missed the original 2008 Lorwyn block, this is the cleanest way to get current-frame versions of those iconic creatures. Preorder while the boxes are still under MSRP.

I'm buying a Play Booster box at preorder prices. $129 is the going rate on Amazon, which is below the $144.99 MSRP I preordered at, and that almost never happens for a Standard set in its first year.

TMNT (March 2026) is the repeat of the 2024 disaster you should expect

TMNT releases March 13, 2026. Wizards is printing more this time, allegedly. I do not believe them. The original 2024 TMNT Universes Beyond drop was the worst-managed UB launch of the entire crossover era. The Kevin Eastman Headliner cards traded at 8x MSRP. Collector Booster Boxes were 3x MSRP for six months. The 2026 TMNT release is a different SKU lineup, but the demand profile is going to be similar, and Wizards' track record on TMNT specifically is bad.

The Turtle Power Commander Deck preorder is sitting at $54.99 on Amazon, which is the safe play for non-collectors. The Collector Booster Box preorder is $349.99, which is up from the standard $279.99 Collector Booster Box price for the rest of the 2026 lineup, and that premium tells you everything you need to know about how Wizards is pricing TMNT demand. If you want a TMNT Collector Box, preorder now. Do not wait until release week. The 2024 disaster was driven entirely by people who waited.

The skip on TMNT is paying eBay prices in April or May 2026. If the box is above $400 sealed by then, walk away.

Secrets of Strixhaven (April 2026) is the preorder pick of the year

Strixhaven returns April 17, 2026. This is my preorder pick of the year, and it is not close. The original 2021 Strixhaven set was beloved, the school-of-mages flavor identity is unique in MTG's design history, and the 2026 return adds the Codex Bundle, a $79.99 themed Bundle that includes exclusive school-themed promos and a hardcover-style spell tome packaging treatment. The Play Booster Box is preordering at $144.99 on Amazon, in line with Lorwyn Eclipsed.

What makes Strixhaven the preorder pick is the chase rate structure. The set features serialized professor cards, one for each of the five colleges, with print runs in the low hundreds each. Those are going to be lottery-ticket pulls in the $1,500 to $3,000 range based on how comparable serialized chases have performed in the past two years. The standard Bundle is $54.99, which gets you nine Play Boosters and the standard Bundle promo. The Codex Bundle at $79.99 is the collector pick.

I am preordering both a Play Booster Box and a Codex Bundle. That is the only set on the 2026 calendar where I am buying multiples.

Edge of Eternities is the standard set everyone forgot about

Edge of Eternities releases September 11, 2026. It is the in-universe sci-fi-themed Standard set that Wizards announced back in early 2024 as the spiritual successor to the 1998 Starhunter prototype that never shipped. The calendar buries it between Final Fantasy 2's rumored August window and Avatar TLA in November, and almost nobody is talking about it. That is exactly why it is going to be a sleeper hit.

Edge of Eternities has spaceships, planet-cards as a new card type, and a 'system' supertype mechanic that lets you build entire star systems on the battlefield. The flavor identity is unique enough that it is going to draw in lapsed Magic players who bounced off Universes Beyond fatigue, and the in-universe nature of the set means it does not have a licensed-IP scalp-tax baked into the preorder pricing. Expect a Play Booster Box around $144.99 and a Bundle around $54.99 when preorders open in June 2026.

The reason this is the standard set everyone forgot is Wizards' own marketing. They are pouring all the air out of the room on Final Fantasy 2 and Avatar. Edge of Eternities is going to launch into a quiet news cycle, which historically means the print run is right and the secondary market stays sane. Buy at MSRP, hold for a year, and watch it appreciate.

Final Fantasy 2 (August 2026 rumored) and Avatar TLA (November 2026): the math doesn't quite work

The rumored Final Fantasy 2 August 2026 window is on Beckett's calendar with no asterisk, which is generous. Wizards has not officially announced a Final Fantasy follow-up. The rumor traces to a single distributor sell-sheet that leaked in February 2026, and the SKU list on that sheet looked like a placeholder. August is also a tight window: Final Fantasy 1 shipped in June 2025, fourteen months earlier, which would make FF2 the fastest-turnaround UB sequel in MTG history. The math does not quite work. I would put FF2 at October or November 2026 at the earliest, with January 2027 being just as likely.

Avatar: The Last Airbender on November 13, 2026, on the other hand, is real and on track. It is also going to be the November 2026 trap. Avatar has a younger, more passionate, and more first-time-MTG-buyer fanbase than almost any other UB property. Wizards is going to dramatically undersupply it relative to demand, intentionally or not. The Aang serialized chase is going to break records. If you want a Collector Booster Box of Avatar at MSRP, preorder it the day preorders open, which I expect to be late August 2026. By October, the box will be 2x MSRP on every secondary market. Do not wait.

Star Trek in 2027 is the last UB cycle of the 'crossover boom' era

Star Trek is slated for early 2027. The exact date is not on Beckett's list, just 'Q1 2027,' and that is consistent with the trade chatter I have heard from distributors. What matters about Star Trek is what it represents: the last announced Universes Beyond release of the post-LotR crossover boom era. After Star Trek, Wizards has not formally announced any further UB sets, and the internal direction at WotC, based on the 2025 strategy day, is to dial UB back to two sets per year by 2028.

If that is right, the 2025-to-2027 window is the peak UB era, and Star Trek is the closing bracket. That has implications for collector value. Sets at the bookends of an era tend to appreciate. The original 2023 Doctor Who set, which opened the Commander-precon UB run, has more than doubled in price since release. Star Trek is positioned to be the closing-bracket equivalent. Preorder a Collector Booster Box, leave it sealed, and check back in 2028.

What I'd preorder from this calendar right now

Here is the May 2026 preorder priority list based on the full Beckett calendar. Tier one, preorder now: Secrets of Strixhaven Play Booster Box and Codex Bundle, both at MSRP from Amazon. The Codex Bundle is the smartest collector SKU on the entire 2026 calendar.

Tier two, preorder when available: Avatar: The Last Airbender Collector Booster Box the day it goes live in late August 2026, Edge of Eternities Bundle and Play Booster Box when preorders open in June, and the Star Trek Collector Booster Box whenever the early-2027 preorder window opens. Tier three, do not preorder, buy on release week: Lorwyn Eclipsed (already shipping below MSRP, so just buy in store), TMNT Turtle Power Commander Deck (low-risk casual play). Tier four, skip until you see the box: rumored Final Fantasy 2, because the August window is not real.

Related coverage

If you want the deep dive on Final Fantasy's premium ancillaries that are still moving in May 2026, see my breakdown of the FF Chocobo Bundle and Scene Boxes, which covers the August 2025 sellout, the November Chocobo restock, and which Scene Boxes are still worth MSRP. For Spider-Man's Collector Booster pull-rate breakdown and the Miles Morales serialized chase math, my September 2025 launch coverage is the reference.

On TMNT specifically, the post-mortem of the original 2024 release explains exactly why the 2026 reprint is going to be a repeat scalp-fest, and what the Turtle Power Commander Deck is actually worth at MSRP versus the secondary market.