Set News

It’s a massive week for Universes Beyond! Spoiler season for The Hobbit is in full swing, bringing us absolute bombs like The Great Goblin for Rakdos combos and Bothersome Noisemaker to spam goblin tokens. We also got a major leak with Fateful Discovery, an absurdly strong artifact enabler that is already turning heads. Over in the sci-fi multiverse, previews for Marvel Super Heroes and Star Trek are dropping, giving us our first looks at Iron Man, Bleeding Edge and the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Galaxy-Class.

Looking ahead to 2027, MagicCon Amsterdam gave us a massive roadmap for in-universe sets: we’re heading back to Zhalfir, getting a bizarre mashup with Kamigawa: Titanbreach, and diving into the multiverse with Reality Fracture. Also, a quick shoutout to Mark Rosewater for explaining why the daily spoiler drip-feed is actually a deliberate design choice to let set mechanics breathe!

Commander Corner

Typal players are eating good lately. EDHREC has a deep dive on building Citizens with Bess, Soul Nourisher, a breakdown of why Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver is a new stapled equipment, and a look at the best dual-tribal commanders currently available. If you're looking for cEDH insights, you might want to think twice before slotting the new white interaction piece Bilbo's Gambit into your competitive lists.

For the more casual pods, players are sharing their favorite and wildest Rule Zero conversations. And if you're holding your breath for a WUBRG Dinosaur commander to unite your Pantlaza deck with your blue and black dinos, MaRo has some bad news: R&D is actively trending away from printing so many five-color commanders.

Competitive Scene

If you're grinding the Standard lanes, there's a new "Toughness Matters" deck making waves that looks ridiculously hard to deal with, loading up on Doran and high-toughness blockers. Meanwhile, for those who love a janky challenge, there's a new "Against the Odds" deck tech aiming to win by making it literally impossible to lose the game.

Limited & Draft

With Magic's product release schedule multiplying, it can be tough to know what to buy. DraftSim put together a helpful guide breaking down exactly when you should be cracking Play Boosters versus Jumpstart Boosters. For the enfranchised vets out there, a great Reddit thread is making the rounds discussing why we all keep gravitating back to MTG after trying out endless other TCGs on the market.

Finance & Market

Looking to upgrade your older decks? The Wise Mothman just got a fresh Commander Makeover highlighting new tech from recent sets. DraftSim also dropped some massive rankings this week, detailing the 53 best lifegain cards in Magic, the best Orzhov enchantments for your Rampage of the Valkyries builds, and a complete tier list of all 12 Ravenous cards.

Design & Lore

Blogatog was buzzing with design insights today. Mark Rosewater confirmed that Doug Beyer (who led Bloomburrow) is heading up vision design for the highly anticipated Zhalfir set, while MaRo himself is leading design for Nauctis. Rosewater also playfully confirmed the existence of a "Schrödinger’s Mechanic" in a design file, and brainstormed with players on how to design a "Schrödinger’s Plant Dragon" whose color identity is randomly decided upon casting. Finally, for the Un-set fans, MaRo revealed he once seriously inquired about printing literal bubble gum on cards!