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B&R Speculation Heats Up, Witherbloom Breaks Out, and the Color Pie Debate Rages On

· 16 sources

Set News

  • The Rumor Mill: B&R Monday is Coming. With the next Ban and Restricted announcement slated for May 18th, speculation is heating up. Draftsim breaks down the likelihood of changes across Standard, Pioneer, and Modern—will we see shakeups or the status quo?
  • Garfield Drops Secret Lair Spoilers. Wizards has announced a collaboration featuring everyone's favorite lasagna-loving cat. EDHREC details the three upcoming drops in the "Cats Are The Best" Superdrop, including the mechanically unique "As Intended" drop.

Commander Corner

  • Pest Typal Gets a Leader. Blech, Loafing Pest is here to lead the swarm. EDHREC dives into the new support from the latest set to help you build the ultimate insectoid infestation.
  • Witherbloom Breaks Out. Witherbloom, the Balancer has quickly amassed over 9,000 decks, making it the break-out commander of Secrets of Strixhaven. Draftsim highlights how this synergy has caused the obscure sorcery Wurmcalling to spike in price.
  • Precon Remastered: Prossh. The original Jund big boy gets a modern upgrade. EDHREC takes the "Power Hungry" precon apart and puts it back together with some new spicy includes for the sacrifice archetype.
  • Winota: Fire and Ice. EDHREC analyzes the shifting popularity of Winota, Joiner of Forces, looking at which cards are rising and falling in her lists based on the latest data.

Competitive Scene

  • Gates Over Pauper. Looking for a control strategy that grinds? MTGGoldfish explores the Gates archetype in Pauper, proving that slow and steady often wins the race.
  • Dimir Dominates Legacy. Dimir Tempo is positioning itself as a major contender in the Legacy meta. MTGGoldfish takes a deep dive into the deck's performance and why it might be the deck to beat this weekend.

Finance & Market

  • Strixhaven Precons Drive Prices. The market is currently being shaped by the new Secrets of Strixhaven precons. MTGStocks reports that the new Commanders are extremely popular, keeping prices high on key staples.
  • Weekly Spikes. The market saw a bit of a calm before the storm this week. Draftsim tracks the winners and losers, including the surprising spike in Wurmcalling.
  • Superdrop Value. Is the Cats Are The Best Secret Lair Superdrop worth the price tag? MTGStocks breaks down the expected value of the three drops to see if it's a buy or a skip.

Design & Lore

  • The Commander Design Debate. Should R&D design specifically for Commander, or let the format be organic? Mark Rosewater tackled this topic on Blogatog, arguing that while he believes some charm is lost, the format benefits from focused design spaces like multiplayer-centric cards (such as Adeline).
  • Color Pie Corrections. MaRo clarified that a Green creature with Flash and Deathtouch is considered a color pie break because it functions as unconditional removal, confirming that classics like Ambush Viper are mistakes in the modern game.
  • Edge of Eternities Retrospective. It seems Edge of Eternities is considered a modern classic by many players. Rosewater attributed the set's success to strong design and great flavor, suggesting it ranks among his favorite works.

Sources

Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
I’m a lapsed player who ultimately stopped because there was nowhere to easily play, and also because of financial reasons; however, if my time playing had gone differently, I might not have stopped. From Scars of Mirrodin through at least Battle for Zendikar, I was at most pre-releases, often multiple for each set. I understand that randomness is part of sealed, but it was extremely frustrating that time and time again, some player would be all “I got everything I needed to build the undefeated deck”, and I never got to be that player. One time even, I fetched the boxes for myself and my friend… and I handed them the box with four white rares, a foil white planeswalker, and enough support to make a white deck of those rares playable… so my friend went undefeated. I decided that the money spent on pre-releases would be better spent on buying specific cards I wanted for decks… which meant playing Friday Night Magic. That was fun! Moving made it harder to access places where I could play Magic, though, and it wasn’t worth spending hundreds of dollars on travel… so I lapsed. Still keep up with things, because I can make characters play Magic, even if I can’t.
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
As of 3 months ago FORMERLY lapsed player reporting in. I used to write in to Blogatog a lot, congratulations on getting Mood Swings released! I stopped playing because of Universes Beyond and feeling like I was being priced out of the game as a relatively low income individual. I started playing again because an old friend opened up a card shop locally and Magic is all anybody ever wants to play at the shop (though I have gotten friends to try other games and some have been hits). My opinion of Magic being one of the greatest games ever made and one of my personal Top 10s in all of gaming never changed, I just felt like soooooooo much of the game “just not for me” in recent times. And I still feel that way, especially when half the major releases this year are Universes Beyond, but seeing some of my good friends be super happy with Universes Beyond definitely softened my opinion on it in certain specific ways. I’m happy they are happy. I still personally hate the UB stuff that doesn’t “feel Magic-y” and I refuse to put any UB cards in my decks though. We will see if you print X-Men cards that are cool enough that I break this self-imposed rule though :)
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
“Fetch lands.” All fetches including Fabled Passage and Prismatic Vista, or just the pay 1 search for a land type cycle?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
Would you color Buffy the Vampire Slayer Naya?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
Is Black allowed to lower its own life total for no immediate payoff, a la One with Nothing?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
How often should secret lairs have mechanically unique cards?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
How come there is no Richard Garfield reference in the Garfield superdrop secret lair?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
What feedback did Richard Garfield give you about mood swings?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
if/when more pangolins?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
I know you can’t look at custom Magic cards, but are you allowed to look at custom Mood Swings cards?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
For the asker who said Wizards shouldn’t be designing for certain formats: they should listed to DTW #1292 “Designing For A Format”. That episode helped me understand the value.
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
Why are flash green death touchers color pie breaks? Also which card is that?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
Is Ambush Viper a color pie break?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
Watched the YouTube vid with you and Ari playing mood swings. It’s unclear to me when you score. You guys seemed to score immediately but then you’d said it’s time to score at the end of the round. It was more “check who won” than “score” but then sometimes Ari would score and then you’d do something to affect the board and then he’d reduce his score which makes no sense. Also does scoring add on from the prior round totals or are we adding total board value from zero each time? Please clarify scoring.
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
I request a podcast on “knowing when to stop”, specifically in reference to solving a problem. how do you decide, when wracking your brain about a problem, when it’s simply unsolvable/not worth continuing to beat your head against a wall looking for a solution?
Markrosewater · 2026-05-16
RE: Flash + Deathtouch on a green creature “We haven’t made this card for these reasons.” You made ambush viper cry :(
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