Set News — spoilers, previews, announcements, bans, upcoming releases

• The Marvel Super Heroes spoiler season is in full swing! We got our first look at the Grixis Villains commander precon led by Doctor Doom, as well as the full decklist for the Fantastic Four preconstructed deck. (mtggoldfish, mtggoldfish)
• Community spoilers are also hitting the front pages, showcasing heavy hitters like Abomination, World Ravager, Puppet Master, String Puller, and an army-building enchantment aptly named Endless Ranks of HYDRA. (reddit, reddit, reddit)
• Missing the X-Men in the current Marvel set? A new article investigates the absence of Marvel's merry mutants and theorizes how their omission could be foreshadowing future Universes Beyond expansions. (draftsim)

Commander Corner — EDH highlights, new commanders, precon reviews, cEDH updates

• Jocasta, Automaton Avenger is making waves as a new colorless aggro tool that easily slots into multiple archetypes. Expect to see this robotic hero leading the charge in combat-focused pods soon. (draftsim)
• If you're looking to freeze out the competition, EDHREC has a fresh deck tech for The Winter Soldier, Icy Assassin. At a mere two mana, this legendary creature is poised to be a highly resilient and powerful tempo commander. (edhrec)
• For the combo players out there, Draftsim ranked the best Entomb effects in Magic, while EDHREC breaks down the most potent Eldrazi combos to help you annihilate your playgroup. (draftsim, edhrec)

Competitive Scene — tournament results, meta shifts, tier list changes, deck techs

• SaffronOlive is at it again with an "Against the Odds" special, attempting to prove the viability of a Five-Color Ark of Hunger combo deck in the current Standard metagame. (mtggoldfish)
• Over in Legacy, Joe Dyer breaks down how the format is heating up this June, analyzing the latest tier shifts and staple performance as the summer meta begins to take shape. (mtggoldfish)

Limited & Draft — draft guides, set reviews, pick tips, cube updates

• Mark Rosewater offered some interesting insight into the Limited environment of Mood Swings, noting that while the lack of mana costs might suggest a five-color goodstuff free-for-all, synergistic color archetypes are heavily encouraged by the set's specific card synergies. (markrosewater)
• Thinking about building an Elves vs. Dwarves cube? MaRo reminded players that while Dwarves are getting more support (especially with The Hobbit UB set on the horizon), Elves still vastly outnumber them in the overall card pool. (markrosewater)

Finance & Market — price spikes, reprint news, buy/sell targets, Reserved List updates

• Head designers recently spoke on the proliferation of functional reprints in Commander. Instead of simply reprinting a card like Seal Away, they prefer creating new, flavorful versions like Super Villain Lockup to keep the game feeling fresh. (markrosewater)
• Wondering why we need so many different Iron Man cards? MaRo explained that the main set only features two (one for Limited, one for Constructed), while the rest are spread across commander precons to give players varied build-around options. (markrosewater)

Design & Lore — Rosewater insights, story beats, worldbuilding, flavor deep dives

• Rosewater addressed the design of Mood Swings, revealing he once designed a "Lust" card for the game, and that the expansion wasn't actually built using a traditional design skeleton. (markrosewater, markrosewater)
• When it comes to Universes Beyond, every design team includes Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for the IP, but many of the designers are simply MTG experts focused on translating the flavor into mechanically sound gameplay. (markrosewater)
• The creature type "Doctor" has been showing up a lot more lately, which Mark acknowledges makes the original Doctor Who cards feel a bit less mechanically unique, but is a necessary evolution for the game's broader design space. (markrosewater)