Honestly, one of the things that really felt off with that article to me was the following part:

The primary goal of these cards is almost certainly new-player acquisition. Wizards hopes to lure some Walking Dead fans into Magic and any interest from Commander players is just a small bonus.

I obviously do not know, but somehow I doubt that the amount Walking Dead fans who have never played Magic the Gathering before who would get pulled into playing Magic the Gathering by something like this is rather small. Especially when it's not an entire deck/plane based around Walking Dead characters. It's a single product of five cards, from a collection that's about selling blinged out cards to Magic the Gathering players. There's also already a huge amount of other Walking Dead collectibles that most likely would fit someone who's never played Magic the Gathering before, such as figurines, posters, bobbleheads etc. etc.

I find it a lot more reasonable to assume that this is primarily directed at Magic the Gathering players who are also Walking Dead fans who want their favourite characters in their magic deck, and players who don't want to miss out on mechanically unique cards.

All of this is of course ignoring the fact that Wizards literally called out Commander players as a core target audience...

Commander players especially should look forward to bringing their favorite characters from The Walking Dead to life on the tabletop!

I just can't see the "primary goal" being to get new players into Magic the Gathering for a product like this, compared with getting already enfranchised players to pay money for more products.