Wizards of the Coast issued a memorable Banned and Restricted Announcement this week – especially for players of the Modern format, which has received a slew of high-profile changes. This announcement was scheduled as part of Wizards’ regular monthly cadence, but few outside the Play Design team would have anticipated it being so significant. A total of five cards were …
The marquee release of Marvel Super Heroes is fast approaching, but there’s one aspect in particular that has me hyped more than any other: the attached Jumpstart set! I’ve been a huge fan of Jumpstart since the first set in 2020, always buying at least a couple of booster boxes with each release. But why am I so enamored with …
One of the best things about Magic is how many ways there are to play. If I find I’m not enjoying a particular format anymore, or I just want a break after grinding the same thing for ages, there’s always another I could switch to. Just by picking up a different deckbox, I can be playing a totally different style …
MagicCon: Las Vegas was hotly anticipated as one of the biggest dates on the Magic calendar. Our Card Kingdom team joined thousands of other planeswalkers at the Las Vegas Convention Center last weekend – and we’re glad to confirm that it lived up to the hype! Naturally the top attraction was the Mana Stage, where Wizards employees were making headlines …
One interesting thing about competitive Magic compared to seasonal sports competition is that not all event weeks are created equal. There are peaks and troughs to the schedule – and this last fortnight has been quite an intense peak! The release of Secrets of Strixhaven has added a ton of significant cards to the Constructed card pool, opening up new …
Secrets of Strixhaven is a uniquely challenging Draft set to wrap your head around. Unique, that is… unless you played the original Strixhaven! Much like its predecessor this new set has a heavy emphasis on instants and sorceries, and their interplay with the students and professors of Strixhaven’s five colleges. As a Draft format this provides some really memorable archetypes …
Secrets of Strixhaven is showing us parts of Arcavios that lie beyond the bounds of Strixhaven School, but this is still a set primarily themed around mage academia. The mechanic which really anchors that theme is “prepare” – a new ability which, appropriately, lets creatures learn to cast their own instants and sorceries! On the surface it may look like …
Secrets of Strixhaven is an intriguing prospect for Commander players, especially the preconstructed decks. Secrets of Strixhaven is our second visit to the academic plane of Arcavios, which trains young spellcasters from across the multiverse. It’s the fastest Magic has ever returned to a new plane, with the original Strixhaven: School of Mages debuting just five years ago. Like Secrets, …
Secrets of Strixhaven is an intriguing prospect for Commander players, especially the preconstructed decks. This second visit to Arcavios is the fastest Magic has ever returned to a new plane, with the original Strixhaven: School of Mages debuting just five years ago. Like Secrets, that set got its own accompanying release of Commander precons, which were also themed around the …
Commander has a serious problem when it comes to balancing its strongest tier of cards. As a casual format built on the promise of fun, self-expression and inclusiveness, simply banning cards for being successful is a poor fit. That kind of logic would have seen Sol Ring banned decades ago – after all, it’s been included in nearly every Commander …
