Quick Hits

• Emrakul is back. MTGGoldfish's Sept 9–10 spoiler roundup confirms the return of Emrakul, Gideon, and a pile of familiar faces from the Reality Fracture debut stream — which also showed off the new empower Jace mechanic and five elder sphinxes.
• Empower Jace is already comboing. DraftSim breaks down a Jace's Machinations line with a Rulebending Reality Fracture instant that enables an absurd tutor-and-cast engine — and the mechanic is driving renewed interest in a forgotten planeswalker artifact.
• The Reality Fracture story finale is a hit. Readers are calling the two final episodes — with Jace and Tam — some of the best MTG fiction ever written; Maro notes author Alison Luhrs no longer works at Wizards.
• Modern's Energy era may be over. Quiet Speculation's August metagame update reports Energy has lost its grip after a dramatic month — though the author suspects the shift may be more about player taste than raw power, and may not hold.
• RIP, DCI. A Blogatoga ask confirms the DCI "hasn't existed for many years" — a tidy bit of closure for the LGS veterans still holding rating cards.

Set News

Reality Fracture's spoiler season is in full swing, and MTGGoldfish has the full Sept 9–10 haul: a new Emrakul, the return of Gideon, and "a lot of pairs" alongside the elder sphinxes revealed on the debut stream.

The debut-day pacing drew some criticism — one player told Maro that filling day one with "overcosted card + empower Jace" filler felt like a wimpy opener. Maro's response: they led with the mechanic they were most excited about, and he thinks you'll like it once you shuffle up with it. He also confirmed the preview calendar is an elaborate, heavily-planned operation — so the pacing was deliberate.

Spoilers are already paying combo dividends: DraftSim details how Jace's Machinations plus a Rulebending instant from the set enables a nasty tutor-and-cast combo, and flags a weird empower Jace interaction with an underplayed Jace card. Meanwhile, r/magicTCG is speculating about a Dack Fayden card now that Jace is apparently reshaping the multiverse.

For a refresher on how we got here, EDHREC's Road to Reality Fracture walks through the sets leading into it.

Commander Corner

• EDHREC gives Nekusar, the Mindrazer a Commander Makeover — windmill-slam those wheels, just don't be surprised when the table turns on you.
• Also from EDHREC: a Wolf typal build around Chief of the Wilds, a Boros Dáin of the Ancient Halls dwarf-equipment deck for The Hobbit fans, and a guide to building Modern's Cosmogoyf in the 99-card format after Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes.
• A rules question tailor-made for the degenerates: can you empower Jace a token copy of a Jace planeswalker? The asker's setup — Extravagant Replication targeting Jace, the Mind Sculptor in an Oops-All-Jace list — is exactly the kind of nonsense empower Jace was destined for.
• Maro high-fived the uncommon legends in Reality Fracture as genuinely buildable commanders — good news for budget brewers.
• Skunk fans, take heart: Maro has faith we'll see more skunks, with odor-counter queen Olinda the Oblivious coming in the upcoming Commander set.

Competitive Scene

• Modern: Quiet Speculation's August metagame update chronicles Energy losing its dominant grip after a dramatic month — but author David cautions it's largely a question of taste, and the throne may not stay vacant long.
• Legacy: Joe Dyer asks whether Tron is back — and whether it ever really left.
• Pauper: Dyer also covers the Zeta Set downshifts and what they mean for the format.

Finance & Market

• MTGStocks checks in on the Power Nine and dual lands — required reading for anyone holding Reserved List cardboard — plus a ranking of the 15 most valuable mono-red Secret Lair drops.
• The Reality Fracture effect is real: DraftSim reports renewed interest in Ichormoon Gauntlet off the back of the empower Jace reveal. If you're still holding copies from The Brothers' War, keep an eye on this one.
• EDHREC's Fire and Ice series looks at which cards are running hot and cold for Inalla, Archmage Ritualist.
• For the truly price-insensitive: DraftSim ranks the 10 most expensive basic lands in the game.

Design & Lore

The Reality Fracture story finale is drawing rare, near-universal praise. Readers are tearing up, calling it the best MTG fiction they've ever read despite lingering sore spots over the March of the Machine ending and Universes Beyond, and praising the trans allegory in Tam's arc. Maro is passing the love along to writer Alison Luhrs — with the bittersweet caveat that she's since departed Wizards.

Elsewhere in design news: battles are deciduous, not evergreen — expect them in sets that want them, not every set. And for echoverse fans, Maro confirms a bunch of alternate-take characters were designed but never made it to print — start your "what could have been" threads now.